Apple plots HOME INVASION at WWDC Apple is rumoured to have its eye on the smart home market, allowing folks and hackers alike to control lighting, heating and so on in houses and apartments. And it has at least one patent on the indoor tech. Crucially, though, today's smart-home rumour has finally aroused some excitement – and lots of stories – ahead of …
...how toggling a few lights and/or changing your thermostat setting from your smartphone (or from afar) constitutes having a smart house. Sorry, but no amount of "if the garage door is opened turn on all the lights in the house" will qualify as such in my book. You'd need an actual, working AI to do anything really useful, and I don't see that forthcoming...
So, you'll have to keep buying iOS devices forever, otherwise your heating won't work anymore and the front door won't open. Or what happens in five or six years when that old iPhone you had to keep around to run the lights with finally dies?
Yes, I can see how the idea of giving a single corporation control of every important system in one's home would appeal. To people who don't think things through.
( I would make the same comment with Google or Microsoft brand-names replacing those of Apple: the principal objection is in the three words "a single corporation" )
I kept seeing articles about home automation and thinking "why? What exactly is the point?" Asking Google "Why should I automate my home" got me a load of crap about showing off to your friends by switching your thermostat on from the pub - sorry, my friends don't impress quite that easily.
But leaving the house one morning and absently thumbing the car key fob did suggest one seriously bloody useful application - the central locking house.
Not from somebody with Apple's track record on "all proprietary all the time" though.
Controlling heating is about the only really useful thing I can think of. But not so "impress" people but because if you finish work at different times regularly or when you're on your way home from somewhere, it's nice to be able to remotely turn on the heating so it's warm when you get in.
I made my own device using an Arduino for that purpose.
Most other things like controlling lights etc... don't seem to be of much (any?) benefit to me other than the geek factor.
I'm just waiting till the first (of no doubt many) security breaches is reported in one of these systems with "cloud" based control. Or even just ones connected to wifi or some other proprietary wireless protocol. Soon it wont be people trying to get your ebay password, it'll be people opening your front door and nicking your TV or disabling your house alarm.
There's plenty of reasons to have your lights controlled. If I get home after dark I have an event soon as I unlock the door my entrance way lights come on so I can see where I'm going. I close the door wait 2 minutes my door auto locks behind me. When I leave if the entrance way lights are on as soon as I lock the door it turns off the lights in the entrance way. I have an event that runs when I go to bed it turns out the lights around the house in case we forgot any and double checks all the locks on the doors and makes sure they've been secured and adjusts the thermostat to a comfortable temp for sleeping.
I'm using a Mi Casa Verde nice little open multi-protocol automation controller.
I can't wait for Aplle to claim they invented Home Automation...
It is cheaper put simply put occupancy sensors on your entry way lights. You don't want to do that with lights in other places because they'll turn off if you stop moving, but most people don't stand around in their entryway for 5-15 minutes without moving making it a perfect application for occupancy sensors.
There's simply no reason to have a "smart" home just for something like this. What happens if you don't bring your phone when you go somewhere - you'll come home to a dark house.
Anyway, people have somehow been getting along for decades having to flip a light switch when they enter their house. I could have put this in my house, but I didn't see the point. I know friends who had a bunch of high tech features added to their home because their builder talking them into it with FUD about how not making the home smart would hurt its resale value, and they regret the decision. Once they get over the "look, I can see if the kitchen light is on from work" cool factor, they don't use it for much of anything.
I'd love to see what Google will do with the data they'd collect from a Google smart house. If you spend a lot of time in the living room, they'll show you ads for couches. If you spend a lot of time in the bedroom they'll show you ads for mattresses. And adult toys if you watch a lot of porn on your Google TV in your bedroom :)
I kept seeing articles about home automation and thinking "why? What exactly is the point?" Asking Google "Why should I automate my home" got me a load of crap about showing off to your friends by switching your thermostat on from the pub - sorry, my friends don't impress quite that easily.
But that is Apple's chief value proposition - not that their stuff is better, but that other people think their crap is cool. That's why Apple products are so popular with insecure teenagers.
OpenRemote (.com).
Works for me - Android & iOS clients - and speaks to almost anything that accepts a TCP/UDP connection. Has event driven scripting too. Granted it's not going to be simple for the man on the street, but I had mine talking to Philips Hue, LightWaveRF, GlobalCache IP2IR and an Onkyo A/V receiver, with a nice custom tablet interface in a week. All different standards/interfaces, one controller. Sorted.
Chuck in Tasker and Autovoice, and it's voice controlled too....
Come one, do even fan boys want to pay £30 for a new set of 3 pin Apple plugs !
And hey, look at the number of homes that would be burnt down by using chinese 3 pin Apple plug copies to save from being ripped off.
Well, my home won't be getting the locked in Apple dumb down treatment!
INTEGRATION. (No not THAT kind)
There are too many home automation protocols for any Apple product to bear. They will simply have to make them all over again to make a closed, proporietary system. Then you can pay twice for the convenience.
Instead, perhaps an enterprising person could integrate the various protocols together under one nice open ANDROID platform. I find this more cost effective and realistic. Adding BACnet (Building Automation & Control Network) would be icing on the cake because that would apply to all the existing professional building automation systems too and make the effort wothwhile.
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