Apple has finally found someone to support HomeKit

It's been a year since Apple officially launched its internet-of-things smart-home service – an event that we noted at the time was somewhat undermined by the fact that there were virtually no products that worked with it. Twelve months later and two weeks out from its annual conference, Apple has finally snagged its first big …

[Beech Horn]

There are a fair few devices out there already

Currently Tado, Netatmo and Phillips Hue (big names) are out there with products. Ring keeps promising an update, but one is yet to emerge. Until then HomeBridge gets the job done and have linked the TV and CCTV cameras into HomeKit quite nicely.

Yes appreciate it's not really prime time and the lack of decent automation on the Apple TV makes life awkward.

[Anonymous Coward]

We are years away from a REAL "smart home" market

The industry will be decimated at some point when a widespread hack hits popular devices like Alexa or Google Home or WeMo that are or will be in a few million homes, and then it will regroup and decide security actually matters.

So Apple has plenty of time to either get people to come around to their way of thinking, or give up its insistence on a hardware based solution.

[SuccessCase]

Re: We are years away from a REAL "smart home" market

Yes Apple are entirely right to have changed course when they did to insist on a hardware based security solution. This point has already been demonstrated multiple times with botnets occupying a significant proportion of home automation gear out there. Also they seem to be the only Silicon Valley behemoth taking personal data protection seriously. And lastly the value of their customers is far higher than many realize. Way out of proportion to the size of the market share they occupy. To ignore Apple is akin to chopping the high end out of your brand strategy and seeing it suffer accordingly.

[Dan 55]

Doesn't it show that Apple's getting desperate by allowing HomeBridge?

The system will be secure only up to the bridge, after the bridge there's the badlands of Wemo.

[handleoclast]

Fuck you, Apple

Hi Apple. I note your attitude that the rest of us can go fuck ourselves if we do not use your products and buy into your lock-in. Guess what...

[Andy 73]

Smart [stuff]

Like Smart watches, Smart home stuff seems to be falling into the 'solution looking for a problem' category. Home automation has been around for decades, since X10 came out in the 70s - yes, that long ago. The slow uptake is not due to lack of shininess, just the simple fact that we don't live our lives expecting inanimate objects to gain independent thought.

Our ape brains still work around the idea that if we want an object to do something, we do it ourselves; if we're not in the room, we don't expect or need things to 'control' themselves and if we are in the room, we like clearly defined cause and effect. I press the wall switch and the light comes on. The level of complexity involved in getting a smart light to come on massively outweighs the actual end result.

[Disk0]

Bridges are actually not so bad imo

Why /not/ have a separate control device for different categories of systems? As it is, I see separate controllers for Internet access, Wifi provisions, lighting, HVAC, TV, telephony, fire and regular alarms, cctv, door security etc. and it is not the worst way to handle separate tasks.

Network bridges have been around for a long time, and they are generally useful middle-hardware that makes it easier to maintain both sides of the bridge, without having to make sure each side is exactly compatible with the other. So yeah, by all means put different home automation systems behind separate bridge/controller devices. Easier to maintain, easier to secure, less devastating when it fails. Unless of course you like Scala and the associated risk of taking out all infrastructure when a single device goes down.

[clive6]

Anyone remember Microbus??

[bsdnazz]

The importance of the reliability of the home automation system is crucial for us.

We have a couple of Hive controlled light bulbs and a power switch. It usually works but not always. The most irritating time is when one cannot turn the bedroom light off because it's after 11pm on a Sunday night and Hive have decided to do some server maintenance!