Coming Soon: Total Smart Home Kit – Powered By ‘Apple House’
Tucked into Apple’s two-hour-long new product presentation at its Worldwide Developers Conference earlier this week was a blink-and-you-missed-it tidbit that hinted largely at where the smart home industry is headed. In fact, three home builders — Brookfield Residential, Lennar and KB Home — are now committed to building homes later this year that come with built-in Apple HomeKit infrastructure.
HomeKit is Apple’s software framework that smart gadget builders use to make their devices iOS-compatible. For customers, the label means the device (say, a smart light bulb) will work seamlessly with the iPhone and Siri.
For homebuilders, though, HomeKit bestows confidence that a set of devices will work within a specific platform. With that knowledge, rather than the owner adding smart home gadgets such as automated locks, cameras, blinds, thermostats and air quality monitors to a home piece by piece, homebuilders can install the devices before you move in and make sure the infrastructure is equipped to handle them.
“The framework is already in place through the product manufacturers, who have included wireless capabilities in their products for years,” David Kaiserman, president of Lennar Ventures, which builds homes in 20 states, told Mashable. “So we’re closely working with a handful of manufacturers — such as Schlage (door locks), Honeywell (security and thermostat) and Lutron (lighting) — who have made the decision to have their products also work with HomeKit. By installing smart products as part of our homes during construction, we are making home automation a reality for many who have been intrigued by it but haven’t been able (or willing) to retrofit on their own.
“As more products launch, like motorized shades or cameras, they can be easily added wirelessly to the system, too.”
On Monday, Apple took a big leap forward with its smart home strategy by announcing a dedicated master app — called Home — that will arrive on iOS 10. The hub will serve as a remote control and make it easier for people to manage all of their smart gadgets in one spot, without needing to open up a specific app for each smart item. This was previously the biggest disadvantage of Apple HomeKit, especially when you compare it to the streamlined experience of the Amazon Echo: Although you could use Siri for many interactions, the user experience was still too siloed in individual apps. Read more > > >
via Mashable | Lead image: Philips
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