HomeKit

The launch of the Matter smart home standard has hit a few speed bumps along, and it’s just been dealt another blow. As reported by The Verge, Belkin’s Wemo smart home brand has made the decision to “pause development of Matter smart home devices.”

I’ve tried a number of smart locks over the years. I’ve typically always landed on the August Wi-Fi Smart Lock as my go-to recommendation because it was easy to install, didn’t require you to use a new key, and also let the outside deadbolt remain the same to fit in with the exterior of your home. I recently installed the Level Lock+ with Home Key support – keep reading to learn if it’s the best smart lock on the market.

Philips Hue bulbs are one of the easiest ways to give your existing light fixtures smart home capabilities, including through Apple’s HomeKit platform. The problem with Philips Hue switches is that whenever a wall light switch is flipped off, the smart lights become unresponsive. The Lutron Aurora dimmer is a simple yet ingenious way to solve this problem.

Homebridge is an open-source platform that allows you to control and automate your home using Apple’s HomeKit technology, even if the devices don’t support it natively. While it can be run on countless devices for free, there are times when you want a plug-and-play solution that’s low-powered and can be tucked out of the way. This problem is exactly what the IONEXX XOME Homebridge for HomeKit aims to solve.

Earlier this month, we learned more about the upcoming Sonos premium speakers that the company is close to launching. Now the Era 300 and 100 have been fully leaked. Here’s an early look at both new speakers with official images, specs, pricing details, and more.

One of the hardest things to balance when it comes to technology in the home is striking the happy medium between stylish and functional. Shades are a perfect example of that. Every technology person wants the latest bells and whistles, while someone who cares about design wants something that looks like it contains no technology. I recently installed a couple of the HomeKit-compatible SmartWings shades, and it’s quickly become one of my favorite smart home products. In this week’s HomeKit Weekly, we will be taking a closer look at the SmartWing HomeKit shade, diving into its features, benefits, and why they are designer-approved.

When iOS 16 was announced, Apple mentioned that it would introduce a new architecture for the Home app to enhance the experience of using HomeKit accessories. The feature was officially released with iOS 16.2, but Apple quickly pulled it from the system after multiple reports that the new architecture was causing compatibility issues with smart home accessories. Now this architecture is back with iOS 16.4.

Apple today released HomePod OS 16.3.2 for HomePod, HomePod mini, and HomePod (second-generation) devices. The update addresses a pesky bug introduced with 16.3 that made controlling a HomeKit smart home a particularly frustrating affair…

As I was building my new house, I found myself struggling with the decision of which doorbell to go with. I have always been a fan of the privacy and security offered by HomeKit Secure Video, but I was also looking for a doorbell with 24/7 recording. I found myself torn between my love for the privacy of HomeKit and the need for 24/7 recording. After much research, I ended up on Google’s Nest Doorbell. It offered the 24/7 recording feature I was looking for, but I was hesitant about the lack of end-to-end encryption. But ultimately, I decided to go with the Nest doorbell because it’s not a camera inside my home, and the benefits of the 24/7 recording feature outweighed the concern about the encryption.

Keeping a unified smart home – where any smart phone or home assistant can be used to control any smart home device you have – can be a bit of challenge. Previously, many iPhone users have used Homebridge to connect otherwise unsupported devices to Apple’s Home app. But the Matter standard could make that unnecessary, as Matter compatible devices will be compatible with Amazon, Google, and Apple’s smart home ecosystems. That begs the question: Will Matter make Homebridge obsolete?

VOCOlinc, a highly underrated HomeKit manufacturer, released a new addition to its portfolio in 2022 that I am excited to review: a smart LED floor lamp. This lamp is not just any ordinary floor lamp, it comes with HomeKit integration, making it a powerful tool for enhancing your smart home setup. In this post, I’ll take a closer look at the design and features of the VOCOlinc Smart LED Floor Lamp, how to add it to HomeKit, and potential use cases.

LG has announced a dramatic expansion of TVs that offer support for the Apple TV app, AirPlay, HomeKit, and Apple Music. While these features have been available on LG’s own webOS TVs for a while, today’s announcement expands them to third-party TVs that run the company’s webOS Hub software.

When Apple updated the HomePod mini to 16.3, they added the ability to access the long-hidden humidity and temperature sensors concealed within the speakers. The sensors unlock a number of possibilities within HomeKit, including some great smart home automations you can set up to make your home a bit more comfortable.

TP-Link is one of those brands that when you run across one of their product lines, you know you can count on it. I’ve used their switches in my home for as long as I can remember, and it’s as rock solid as you’d imagine. They’ve quietly been building out the Kasa product line, and in my experience, they’ve followed the same dependability as the networking hardware. The brand-new Kasa EP40A brings robust HomeKit control to outdoor outlets, giving you more control over how you use your outdoor lights and appliances than ever before.

Smart outlet adaptors, like the Wemo Smart Plug with Thread, are a great smart home device for newcomers looking to bing some basic home automation to into their lives. Wemo is Belkin’s smart home brand, and they’re actually the very first smart home product I bought nearly ten years ago. Version 4 builds upon previous versions, but brings a HomeKit only focus to the device. Smart outlet adaptors are great devices to have in every room in your home, and here’s three reasons why:

Philips Hue smart home accessories are about to get more expensive in some countries around the world. The company has confirmed that a selection of Philips Hue products will see an average 10% price increase outside of the United States starting in February as a result of currency fluctuations.

A web developer has created a Siri GPT-3 mashup that is intended to demonstrate the potential for a truly smart voice assistant.

The AI system was able to make sense of conversational speech – including some in which the required action was implied rather than directly stated …

Are you tired of fumbling with keys every time you want to enter your home? Do you worry about the security of traditional locks, especially when you’re away from home? If so, it might be time to consider a HomeKit door lock. HomeKit door locks are smart locks that can be controlled and monitored through your iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple Watch. With HomeKit, you can unlock your door with the tap of a button, or even just by using your voice. You can also set up automation rules to unlock your door at certain times of day, or when certain events occur, such as your arrival home.

Update: Reddit user BigPoppa1 has found a simple fix:

Rename a device via Home app in iPhone or iPad. It should force a refresh back to HomePod.

It was just yesterday I wrote about one annoying HomePod error message, and it’s now clear that this isn’t the only one to be bugging HomePod owners this week. Many users are reporting that Siri is responding to all HomeKit commands with: “It looks like you haven’t set up any HomeKit accessories” …

I felt a real sense of deja-vu recently, when I told one of my HomePods to run a scene and Siri responded with “You’ll need to continue on your personal device.” This is a message many of us will remember from 2020 … and 2021 … and 2022. Welcome to the new year – same as the old year.

But more than just an annoyance, this is, to me, an encapsulation of the biggest problem with smart home tech in general, and HomeKit in particular …

One of the promises of Matter is to create an open ecosystem of smart home products that you can use with your preferred platform, meaning products won’t have to be designed for HomeKit, but rather all Matter-compatible products will work with HomeKit. The SwitchBot Hub 2 is designed to work with Matter and will enable other products in the SwitchBot ecosystem to integrate with HomeKit. The first product to be released with this capability will be the SwitchBot Curtain. Read on to learn more about SwitchBot’s HomeKit integration.