![]() ![]() Manual control works without a hub, but if you want to schedule events, set up user permissions to for specific hardware, and remotely control HomeKit devices, you’ll need one. The IoT devices identified as the biggest problem are typically one-off hardware that aren’t part of any ecosystem, and are typically sold inexpensively (and often under many different brand names) by low-end manufacturers. You may have read some of the coverage in late 2016 about IoT botnets, which are smart devices that have had their software and capabilities hijacked, usually undetectably by their owners, and which are then used to launch distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against targets for financial or political reasons. As IDG News Service correspondent Stephen Lawson wrote after the 2017 CES, however, it will likely be one to three years before the industry begins to coalesce around a few standards that provide better interoperability. The recently formed Open Connectivity Foundation comes out of a merger of groups backed separately by chipmaker Qualcomm and CPU giant Intel. Smart home products aren’t cheap, but they’re often amenable to user installation and are nowhere as expensive as the previous generation of automated goods.Īnd a coalescing of approaches has started to happen, which will decrease incompatibility and reduce your need to buy in to one system. ![]() These would have been largely expensive and custom installations. Nor would most people consider being able to unlock their front door remotely an important feature, or having remote-controlled blinds. Lighting is the main example: few people wired-in intelligent lighting controls in homes prior to the development of network-connected light switches and bulbs. The smart home promise is to bring intelligence to “dumb” gear for reasons of convenience, energy efficiency, safety, and even fun. (If you used or use X10 controllers, which date to the 1970s, you may have experienced much more primitive versions of this, as X10 relied on home electrical wiring as its primary backbone, even after adding wireless bridges.) Michael Brownīehmor’s connected coffeemaker is like many smart appliances: You can control it with your smartphone via your Wi-Fi network, but it can’t be integrated into a broader smart-home ecosystem. Some of these have been semi-intelligent in the past, with programming options or quirky remote access via smartphone or native apps, or only accessible through low-power, short-range networking when you’re within close proximity. Having very little computational intelligence of its own, these devices rely on internet-connected servers for cues or control.Ī range of existing home devices can be made smart: thermostats, alarm systems, refrigerators, washing machines, coffeemakers, and much more. Some smart home gear is also connected to the cloud. Smart home devices are a subset of the internet of Things (IoT): network-connected equipment that can be used over a local network and accessed remotely via the internet. In case you’re not tuned in to the purpose of smart home devices, controls, and ecosystems, here’s a brief primer and where Apple’s HomeKit fits into things. This snapshot of the market will certainly change, but the lack of product announcements at CES means the likelihood is low through much of 2017 for established companies and well-funded newer firms to add significant HomeKit options. And third parties are making HomeKit-enabled hardware, but not enough and in enough variety that if you’re looking to equip your home with a single system, you have enough choices. While HomeKit is built into iOS and the fourth-generation Apple TV, which can act as a hub of sorts, macOS doesn’t include it. ![]() In that context, however, HomeKit still remains behind. ![]()
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