Siri Control of HomeKit Devices While On the Go Requires Apple TV as Hub

[kennyab]

So you double tap the switch by your door? And as I said above, I was referring to not getting off a sofa to turn a light on etc, if your in bed then you have a bedside light, or you usually have some source of light like a TV remote etc. So it makes sense in that aspect, you sound like a real geek haha, making scripts etc. Did you make the scripts for your heating too? was it difficult?

For a single light, sure it's overkill. But the fun part is building lighting schemes. Take watching a movie, for example. I've got multiple lamps and the overhead lights in my living room, and the lights in the adjoining dining room. But total darkness isn't the ideal for watching, you want some dim light, such as a couple of sconces. Instead of having to walk around to multiple light switches and lamps to turn on and off, it'd be nice to press one button (or give a command to Siri) to take care of it all at one time. Is it necessary? No. But I like the convenience.

I also entertain quite a bit, and there are certain lights that go on and off when I do. Again, I can around the house and do it manually, but when I'm already taking care of setting up food and drinks, getting the BBQ or fire pit going, what have you, I'd like to have one button I can press to take care of toggling all of the appropriate inside and outside lights at once.

And I'm very much forward to getting an electronic lock. The killer feature there, for me, is the ability to give out and revoke electronic keys to people and be notified when they go in and out. Say you've got a housekeeper, you can give him the electronic key. If you have a falling out, you revoke it with a button, and you don't have to worry about rekeying the locks. And all of the ones I've seen work with standard keys in case the power goes out.

These things may not appeal to you, fair enough, but is it so surprising to you that people on a tech forum find value in new technology?

 

[mdelvecchio]

Support Amazon Prime / Instant Video. Apple, stop crippling ATV.

probably not likely since amazon prime is a direct competitor to itunes. would mcdonald's serve a Big Mac?

as it is, i just airplay it from my idevice to the apple tv.

 

[JeffyTheQuik]

probably not likely since amazon prime is a direct competitor to itunes. would mcdonald's serve a Big Mac?

as it is, i just airplay it from my idevice to the apple tv.

They do, every time I go to one.

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For a single light, sure it's overkill. But the fun part is building lighting schemes. Take watching a movie, for example. I've got multiple lamps and the overhead lights in my living room, and the lights in the adjoining dining room. But total darkness isn't the ideal for watching, you want some dim light, such as a couple of sconces. Instead of having to walk around to multiple light switches and lamps to turn on and off, it'd be nice to press one button (or give a command to Siri) to take care of it all at one time. Is it necessary? No. But I like the convenience.

I also entertain quite a bit, and there are certain lights that go on and off when I do. Again, I can around the house and do it manually, but when I'm already taking care of setting up food and drinks, getting the BBQ or fire pit going, what have you, I'd like to have one button I can press to take care of toggling all of the appropriate inside and outside lights at once.

And I'm very much forward to getting an electronic lock. The killer feature there, for me, is the ability to give out and revoke electronic keys to people and be notified when they go in and out. Say you've got a housekeeper, you can give him the electronic key. If you have a falling out, you revoke it with a button, and you don't have to worry about rekeying the locks. And all of the ones I've seen work with standard keys in case the power goes out.

These things may not appeal to you, fair enough, but is it so surprising to you that people on a tech forum find value in new technology?

One other thing a dog can't do is go to the Internet (or a home weather station), see how much rain has fallen in my neighborhood, and adjust the sprinkler timing to water the yard to how much it needs.

One other thing that was fun with Homeseer was to make scripts that simulated a "person being home," by turning on lights in a sequence at night (bedroom, wait 8 +/-2 seconds, hall light, wait 4 +/-2 seconds, bathroom, wait 60-90 seconds, and turn them off in reverse order), and have them trigger at random times throughout the night.

 

[chrimux]

Its not worth it, the language is too small and irrelevant.

Its not worth it, Siri isn't very good in understanding languages other than English.

 

[DaveTheRave]

would mcdonald's serve a Big Mac?

Would Apple allow you to buy an Amazon Kindle book using the app on an iPad?

 

[puter]

Smart lighting is utterly pointless and a perfect example of sheer laziness, nothing else really.
It's just an excuse to not get of your ass and flip a switch.

Smart heating and security and media is where it's worth while and we already have systems for that in place, although I would never trust Siri to lock my house! We are inactive enough in our lives already, to further reduce the small amount of activity we do is daft IMO. Perhaps the obese will be the new dominant human form?

Will be? Where have you been?

 

[byke]

Its not worth it, Siri isn't very good in understanding languages other than English.

Exactly.

And if you look at a country like Sweden where over 20% are not born there.
89% speak English (as a second language).
And consist of less than 10 million people.

It makes no sense to introduce Siri in Swedish.
Given the demographics it would make much more sense to release a derivative in English (Swedish Edition) that compensated to the common mistakes when Swedes speak English.

English is fast becoming a de facto form of communication in Sweden.
And while laws have ben put in place to try and preserve Swedish, it is clear that this evolution is inevitable.

So for example, "learning is funny" could be decoded to "school is enjoyable".
Or "Can you borrow me" could be translated to "Is it possible for you to lend me _____"

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

It is in dire need of an update, of the following, at the very least:

1. HDMI 2.0 to handle 4K resolution at 60 frames per second.
2. Gigabit ethernet.
3. New processor which will have a GPU that can handle 4K video.
4. PNG image support.

Since the Apple TV does not get updated often, I can see Apple waiting until the A9 processor is available before updating it.

HDCP 2.2 and dual-antenna (866Mbps) 802.11ac would also be likely and important improvements.

This is going to be an upgrade, however, that is going to make us think, how did we deal with the 3rd Generation AppleTV for so long.

 

[pixpixpix]

Hmmm... "Siri, do the dishes"

 

[apolloa]

Three responses! Cool

Lot of Home Automation's usefulness has to do with when you're NOT home. You accidentally leave the lights on, garage door open, thermostat running, front door unlocked, you currently can't do anything about it without going back home and probably don't even know. With smart devices you can verify OTA you left the lights on and shut them off. Close the garage door, bolt the front door, etc.

Your mom needs to feed the dog when you're on vacation, use your phone to unlock the front door for 5 minutes. On top of that, chain smart devices together via programming and now you can do all sorts of cool stuff. Use the same devices to alert you if something happens at your home that shouldn't. You're not home and a door opens? Send an alert to your phone and trigger a Drop Cam to start snapping photos of the front door and text them to you.

Why would you leave the garage door open? Does anyone keep cars in them anymore? And if you leave your front door unlocked then their is no helping you, And as for photos or videos, yeah that doesn't work as pointed out by this:

No point filming someone robbing you, prevention is much better.

I already have cats, so dogs are not an option in any form here.

There are other reasons to turn on lights at night other than a noise. Having used this many many times, its quite useful.

Keys still work in the locks, so that option always exists if all else fails. Having been using this for almost a year, I find it very useful and dependable. It also offers some other choices than can also come in handy.

But if your sat in a chair, do you get up to turn the light on or reach for your phone? And glad to know you have keys as a backup.

my dog can't hear jack and some don't care. so my sonos barks at anyone that comes to the door (G) but nothing ins foolproof we don;'t have a lot of problems so my setup works well. now I know if the mailman or UPS drops off a package.

How do you know what a dog cares about? I'm sure your dog can hear things you can't but I guess the fella doesn't really react? Your post has some mis typing in it, looks like my tablet auto spell checked it haha! But I get what you mean, I think a good alarm system is the next best thing to a dog but it depends if anyone will hear it also.

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For a single light, sure it's overkill. But the fun part is building lighting schemes. Take watching a movie, for example. I've got multiple lamps and the overhead lights in my living room, and the lights in the adjoining dining room. But total darkness isn't the ideal for watching, you want some dim light, such as a couple of sconces. Instead of having to walk around to multiple light switches and lamps to turn on and off, it'd be nice to press one button (or give a command to Siri) to take care of it all at one time. Is it necessary? No. But I like the convenience.

I also entertain quite a bit, and there are certain lights that go on and off when I do. Again, I can around the house and do it manually, but when I'm already taking care of setting up food and drinks, getting the BBQ or fire pit going, what have you, I'd like to have one button I can press to take care of toggling all of the appropriate inside and outside lights at once.

And I'm very much forward to getting an electronic lock. The killer feature there, for me, is the ability to give out and revoke electronic keys to people and be notified when they go in and out. Say you've got a housekeeper, you can give him the electronic key. If you have a falling out, you revoke it with a button, and you don't have to worry about rekeying the locks. And all of the ones I've seen work with standard keys in case the power goes out.

These things may not appeal to you, fair enough, but is it so surprising to you that people on a tech forum find value in new technology?

I'm not surprised by people finding value in new technology, just making a point, you are the only one who made a valid point for electronic keys as you can revoke someone access, cinema systems is a big one, as that makes sense to control all the lights dimming, and as I said heating makes sense, and possibly cookers if you're running late, remote recording is also useful if you forget to set your satellite box to record something and it's not on catch up. So some smart home ideas make sense to me, just some don't.

 

[steve knight]

Three responses! Cool



How do you know what a dog cares about? I'm sure your dog can hear things you can't but I guess the fella doesn't really react? Your post has some mis typing in it, looks like my tablet auto spell checked it haha! But I get what you mean, I think a good alarm system is the next best thing to a dog but it depends if anyone will hear it also.

-

our dog never seemed to bark at anyone except us when we come home. our daughter would come home while we were in bed the dog would not stir. but take her on a walk and she would try to attack everything.
so you never know about dogs.
I am just getting into home automation for the fun of it. it is fairly cheap to play with. but I just can't see apple doing much with it. they may have simple control but once you get into it simple really limits it.

 

[Liquorpuki]

Why would you leave the garage door open? Does anyone keep cars in them anymore? And if you leave your front door unlocked then their is no helping you, And as for photos or videos, yeah that doesn't work as pointed out by this:

No point filming someone robbing you, prevention is much better.

Because people aren't perfect and do stuff accidentally.

You and me are both on the way to the airport to catch flights for 3 week vacations. Both of us were rushed and have no clue if we left our garage doors open. Your choice is either gamble that you did or bust a U-turn and go home to check and risk missing your flight. Me, I just check on my phone in 20 seconds and if I did, remotely trigger a relay to close it.

And sorry but a dog is not prevention. It's the same as a camera system, a deterrent. Only difference is, if I'm away from home, I know if someone's ignoring the deterrent. You have no clue someone's broken in until you get home.

Same with that carjacking video. I know the exact moment someone's in my garage and can call the cops, give them the plate and model # before that 3 mins is up. You have no clue your car is missing til you get home.

 

[tuckerjj]

Doesn't add up

I'm not buying this rumor.

The WWDC developer video for home kit explicitly stated that home kit devices could be securly controlled via Siri both in and out of the house, and made no mention of a "home kit hub" being required.

Also home kit devices connect to the Internet (and yes, sometimes via their own hubs like with hue, which is a different matter - hue bulbs talk over zigbee not wifi so a zigbee hub is required and the Apple TV cannot be used instead) to talk to your iOS devices, so why should a "home kit hub" be required in the middle? What does it add?

Yup, not required http://m.iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=49756