Create a second home as a virtual home. I do that with rooms already (I have, for ex, a “room” that’s the LED lights above several indoor lemon and fig trees I have around the house). Dont give shared access to that “home”.
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TP-Link Launches Matter-Certified Kasa Smart Plug With Energy Monitoring
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It’s a personal choice because I trust me to know what I’m doing and I’m responsible for my own choices… I however have no control over anyone else. There really should be some sort of permissions system available to HomeKit admins.
Won’t this break interactivity with other devices and actions in the “real” home, shortcuts and automations and things like that? And I presume devices can’t be listed in both homes… we really should not have to go through hacky workarounds. “It just works” and all that.
Because most people are willing to trust the people they live with with the power to control any device in the home, both because they live with them and having a glorified light switch on your phone or whatever is usually harmless.
Do understand that your use case is an edge case, and it’s not a priority for Apple or probably anyone else.
Sure, and if you make that very intelligent choice and you don’t trust someone else to do the right thing, then maybe don’t provide them with access to your home in HomeKit.
Oh wow, you’re relying on Shortcuts and automations to save you from a “very expensive problem.” Even more courageous than I first thought.
Look, HomeKit’s nice. I would absolutely never, ever put anything mission- or budget-critical on it.
This is a bad argument, because HomeKit controls a lot more than glorified light switches, and there are plenty of things in your house, smart or otherwise, that not every resident needs to be trusted with. Harsh chemicals? Gun safe? I think you wouldn’t give a child unmitigated access to these things.
There’s no reason anyone should be content with HomeKit being unmoderated. Any other aspect of the iOS ecosystem can be controlled and secured. This shouldn’t be any different. If you disagree, give everyone you live with access to everything in your Wallet app and then we’ll talk.
For any given power output the 2.4ghz by the process of ... physics will have better range and connection strength than 5ghz or 6/6e bands
I am not sure I am right, but I like that devices like this operate on 2.4GHz. It is my understanding that the range is better at that frequency and these things obviously don't need much bandwidth. Also, it frees up the 5GHz channel for devices that benefit from the extra bandwidth and speed.
I mean you’re outlining a set of requirements that requires privilege isolation, then complaining that solutions require privilege isolation? How exactly you expect things to work I’m not sure. I guess you want the ability to lock specific devices to specific users, but that’s actually pretty tough to implement (my father’s voice and mine are simillar enough that Siri will ID him as me using voice commands in the house for ex) and even that would break the kind of stuff you’re talking about. At the end of the day you either have to accept inconvenience or trust your family
You are mostly correct except the setup one with mesh routers the 5 and 2.4 are same network and it does cause issues in some cases
That kind of smart plugs use around 3-5W I don’t have idea how you get the 100W power use
Electricity is not a first-world gimmick -- speaking as someone who grew up in the developing world!
Electricity is a required technology now, especially for medical care. Even in rural areas of the world where there may not be electricity transmission lines, there's dependency on some form of electricity whether battery-operated (e.g., flash light!) or electricity generated by diesel generators, or solar energy captured and transformed into DC battery supply!
I could go on! In rural areas without permanent electricity transmission lines, there can be some reliance on mobile phones to do business or help run everyday lives. Here is just one quick example that I Googled and this article in its description is not unique: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiaho...obile-phones-not-electricity-charge-them.html
Don't be silly (or stupid) and say electricity is generally a first-world gimmick. Goodness!
It depends what MCU the older devices run, Matter (802.15.4) does specify some things that older MCUs (and basebands) can't do.
For ex, I have a bunch of home-grown stuff for my plants run by earlier gen nRF5xxxxx controllers and they physically cannot support it b/c of the baseband - the Matter/Thread specs do things with some multicast and discovery and gateway protocols that older PHYs can't support reliably or within spec.
It is not "Bluetooth only" It uses Matter over Wi-Fi. Yes, I'd prefer Mater over Thread. I am sure some competitor will make a Thread-based smart plug.
If it says "Matter" then it must be either Thread or Wi-Fi. In either case, BT is used only for setup.
Even better would be a Smart plug that is wired into the outlet box and not plugged into the outlet.
As I wrote above, The article's author got it wrong. These plugs use Wi-Fi. BT is for setup.
Matter can run ONLY over Thread or Wi-Fi. There is no such thing as Mater over BT, except for commissioning.
I have the Meross plug and it works well for our air cleaner. It cost something like $12 each. It is matter enabled and I have no software installed to run it, but do have a airpod, which I didn’t use to set up the Meross plug. Too bad most of these aren’t designed for 20 amp plugs that have a high startup load like my espresso machine, which is a bit of a beast.
Maybe some routers but I’ve had zero issues with my google mesh. I guess if you have a mesh setup that doesn’t work right, the fastest solution is just move 30ft away from your router lol.
While true, 2.4 has slightly better range than 5 ghz, in a reasonable domicile this really shouldn’t be an issue for coverage and what is very limited throughput. This isn’t transmitting video or even web pages or images. I would say though, that IN a domicile, things like Microwave ovens which emit as well in the 2.4 ghz range can impact wifi devices on those same frequencies. That happens often. As others have noted, setup over WiFi can be more complicated depending on the app and related third party… google, apple, other Matter certified partners. It’s often difficult to have to turn OFF the 5 ghz connections on a device or router, just to get a 2.4 ghz device properly connected and authenticated.
And if, things reset on the device (say after a firmware update) then it can often have to be done again and could lead to the device being unexpectadly offline.
It’s a lot easier and cheaper to control, say, multiple smart bulbs or appliances or whatever, with a single smart switch, or voice command to an Echo, than to rewire the house. And the configuration can be swapped around in a few minutes, instead of a few weeks of having the house walls torn apart for $10,000. Also for renters, it makes the landlords happier when the tenant isn't rewiring things.
Oh, but the solution is so simple and staring you right in the face. Make a second HomeKit home, and put all your “sensitive” devices on there, and don’t give anyone else access.
Now, if anyone else says “Hey Siri, turn off everything”, it won’t touch any of your partitioned devices.
Older models may, for example, not have enough RAM to run the Matter infrastructure. This is apart from whatever business decisions the company makes.