HomeKit Weekly

Meross has become one of the top Homekit manufacturers due to its expanding product portfolio and affordable price points. I’ve got a number of their previous products in my house including its smart strip, table lamp, outdoor plug, and dual smart plug. This week, I am looking at the new HomeKit compatible Meross LED light strips.

There is no shortage of smart outlet adaptors for HomeKit. In the past, I reviewed products from VOCOlinc, Eve (with Thread), Meross, Wemo, and more. The one thing they are all missing is support for dimmable bulbs. If you need that feature, keep reading to learn more about the Legrand Smart Switch.

HomeKit Secure Routers have had an interesting lifespan. The technology was first introduced at WWDC in 2019, but it was another year before any manufacturers started rolling out support. Even into 2021, there are still just a handful of Wi-Fi solutions that support HomeKit Secure Routers. One of the most recent additions is eero Pro 6 and eero 6. I recently decided I was ready to implement HomeKit Secure Router, so I purchased the Pro edition and went to work upgrading my network.

It’s summertime, so many people are sprucing up the outdoor parts of their homes with new flowers and mulch, but it’s also a great time of year to take on some new HomeKit projects to streamline aspects of your house, including adding some extra security.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been testing the Aqara M2 hub, and it’s a worthy addition to HomeKit. I’ve been using the original Aqara hub in my home for the better part of a year. I’ve done a complete reversal on my opinion on the use of hubs between devices and HomeKit. In my early days of using HomeKit, I preferred devices that worked on Wi-Fi or Bluetooth without using a hub. In practice, I’ve found that the devices attached to hubs are the most reliable in my HomeKit setup.

E-ink technology is typically found in Kindle devices, but it’s one of the critical features of the Qingping Bluetooth digital thermometer.

Smart outlets are one of the simplest ways to start your smart home journey, and I’ve tried almost all of the ones that support HomeKit. With its new Thread support, the Eve Energy will become my go-to recommendation until other products add Thread supports.

While it’s entering the humid months here in the southern United States, I am always on the lookout for new HomeKit devices to simplify my life. In the dryer months, my family uses humidifiers to keep our rooms from drying out at night. I recently acquired the VOCOlinc MistFlow smart humidifier for my HomeKit setup. Let’s dive into all it can do.

In the process of building a new house, I’ve been putting a lot of thought into what I want to do camera-wise. I’ve even considered putting in Nest cameras outdoors (bridging to HomeKit via Starling Home Hub) and then HomeKit cameras indoors. As part of that process, I’ve been purchasing every HomeKit camera on the market, so this week, I am looking at the Ecobee SmartCamera as a potential option to build around.

Before I became an adult, I rarely worried much about the weather. Now, I somewhat obsess over what’s happening and what will happen. After tornados ran through my town in 2020 (yes, a tornado during a pandemic), I especially watch the weather much closer in the spring. Dark Sky has been my weather app of choice with occasional use of Carrot Weather. Both apps are fantastic, but I am taking my weather monitoring to new levels by adding the Netatmo Weather Station into my HomeKit environment.

VOCOlinc is one of the best manufacturers of HomeKit products, and I’ve grown to appreciate their hardware quality and software quality. For the last few weeks, I’ve been testing the VOCOlinc T Guard Smart Lock to see how it works with HomeKit.

There’s been a lot of discussion about Apple’s decision to discontinue the original HomePod and its relation to what the future of Apple’s Home strategy will become. I highly recommend that you read Zac Hall’s piece on this topic. This week, I want to look at the positive aspects of where Apple is at with its Home strategy. After filling my house with HomePod minis, I’ve now discovered how essential having a voice-driven Home assistant in every room is for your home. Read on to learn why, despite having a lower-quality music speaker, the HomePod mini and HomeKit are the perfect match for each other.

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, my wife and I purchased some land that I am starting to think through what some of the HomeKit setup I will end up having as I’ll install everything during construction instead of having to retrofit it. One of the things I am thinking through is cameras. There are several ways I could go. Part of me thinks I should stick with the eufyCam setup I have now, but then part of me wants to look at something hardwired to power like the Logi Circle View. To better prepare my decision-making, I am attempting to test all of the HomeKit cameras on the market to see what I want to include in our new house. This week, I am taking a look at the Eve Cam.

When someone asks me why now is a great time to get into home automation and build out a smart home, I tell them that we’re finally at a place where you can build off of a platform instead of having to buy everything from a single vendor. A product from one company can create triggers to turn on products from other companies. For people in the Apple ecosystem, as long as you see the HomeKit logo, you know that you’ll be able to control it from the Home app and from Siri using your iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, or HomePod. This week, I want to look at the Eve motion sensor to show you why having motion sensors in all of your rooms is a key part of automating your smart home environment.

HomeKit Secure Video, in my opinion, is one of the prime examples of what makes Apple great and terrible at the same time. HomeKit Secure Video is the most secure way to record footage inside and outside your home, but it can also be one of the most frustrating Apple technologies at the same time. This week, I want to discuss how Apple can continue expanding HomeKit Secure Video to solve its problems while making it a better service at the same time. Let’s dive into what Apple can include in HomeKit Secure Video 2.0.

Spring will be here soon, which means it’s officially time to start thinking about the summer of iOS 15 and macOS 12 betas after WWDC. From my vantage point, HomeKit is at a real crossroads for Apple. It’s a platform that I have invested thousands of dollars in. Still, it’s time to take it to the next level with expanded product categories, increased automation with Machine Learning, and increased stability – particularly with HomeKit Secure Video. Here are some things I want to see in HomeKit with iOS 15.

A few weeks ago, my wife and I put a contract on a plot of land, so we’re looking to build a new house within the next year. Of course, HomeKit will be a significant part of it. I plan to rethink everything about my HomeKit environment for this new house and start from scratch from a software standpoint. Are you building a new home? Follow along with me to gain tips and tricks on creating the HomeKit environment during the home building process. Some of the products will be installed by the builder, but I will install others after moving into the home.

HomeKit Smart plugs are one of the easiest ways to get started with smart home technology as they are usually low cost, easy to install, and work great with the lamps you already have in your home. A recent addition to my smart home environment is the Meross dual smart plug with HomeKit compatibility.

A few years ago, I told a few friends that I wasn’t planning to add security cameras to my house. After Apple announced HomeKit Secure Video (HKSV), my mind began to change. I have never been comfortable with security cameras that use third-party cameras, and my initial belief was repeatedly reinforced. Recently, BuzzFeed reported on an ADT employee accessing cameras inside customers’ homes. I want a video system where that’s not technically possible. With HKSV, we have that system. I now have too many cameras to use HomeKit Secure Video for all of them. It’s time for Apple to add a 10-camera HomeKit Secure Video option to the Apple One Premier bundle.

One of the very first smart home products I purchased for my home was one of Belkin’s Wemo switches. Back before Apple had developed HomeKit, I was already envisioning a smart home. Up until now, there’s only been a single option for an outdoor HomeKit adapter, but late last year, Belkin released a new outdoor Wemo outlet that’s compatible with HomeKit.

Recently, I did a roundup of the best outdoor HomeKit cameras. I’ve personally been using the Eufy camera system for over a year as I love the picture quality, and I love how easy they are to install. What if you want all the benefits of the Eufy camera system without needing to worry about power? Eufy now has a solution for you with a new Eufy Solar Panel option for continuous charging of your Eufy cameras.