HomeKit Weekly

After my experience installing the OneLink Safe and Sound, I decided to expand my OneLink setup by replacing another smoke detector with OneLink’s Smoke Detector and Carbon Monoxide detector.

My family has never used overhead lights unless we have company over. We prefer natural light and lamps. A few years ago, I swapped out all of our bulbs to LED light bulbs, and I invested in HomeKit compatible outlet switches as a way to control them from the Home app, HomePod with Siri, and HomeKit automations. As part of my outdoor lighting project I did earlier this year, I invested in a Philips Hue Hub with the Hue outdoor floodlights. After a few months of using them, I decided that I was ready to begin converting my switched outlets to Hue bulbs.

As someone who loves technology, it’s easy to get excited about new things. I love to tinker with the latest gadgets, but I know for those who aren’t into this stuff, that seems like a nightmare. My wife doesn’t get excited about new technology, though. As long as it makes her life easier, she’s content. She wants it to work. Right after Christmas of 2019, I purchased the 3rd generation August Smart Lock Pro. Since then we’ve absolutely loved every aspect of it. A few weeks ago, I decided to upgrade to the 4th generation August Wi-Fi Smart Lock. Read on to hear more about August Wi-Fi Smart Lock, and why it’s worth upgrading to the latest generation.

Aqara is a manufacturer that’s pretty new on my radar in terms of smart home support, so I was excited to get to use their devices and see how they work with HomeKit. This week, I want to take a look at the Aqara Smart Home Start Kit and the Aqara Water Sensor to see how easy the setup is, how to connect it to HomeKit, and how it works day-to-day.

After years of not much news around HomeKit cameras, it seems like we’re getting new cameras regularly now, and it’s great to see the products begin to finally mature. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been testing the new eufy Security 2K Indoor Cam Pan and Tilt camera. I also have been testing the eufy Security 2K Indoor Cam and recommend you check out Chance Miller’s review of the product as well to decide which one is best for you.
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Because my entire home is filled with HomeKit products, I often forget that some people are getting started with HomeKit and other smart home platforms, so I wanted to take some time this week to explain some basics of how to get started with HomeKit and what products should be your first purchases. Read on to learn more about HomeKit, and what items should be your first purchases in your Homekit starter kit.
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I’ve written about my eufyCam setup in the past when considering HomeKit Secure Video. I have multiple outdoor cameras, the wired Eufy doorbell, and I am testing various indoor eufy cameras for an upcoming review. As you can see, I am all in on Eufy as my camera manufacturer. They are low cost, reliable, and work well with HomeKit. For my smart home needs, that is all I am looking for in a camera. I recently picked up a eufyCam 2 Pro to compare the quality to my existing cameras and expand my outdoor coverage.
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When you think of HomeKit enabled products, most people think of light switches, cameras, and door locks. Have you ever considered what an air purifier with HomeKit would look like in your home? I hadn’t until I tried the VOCOlinc PureFlow Air Purifier, but it’s confirmed my thinking that I want everything in my house to controlled with HomeKit.
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Door sensors are a central part of any security system. I’ve written about my experience with abode in the past, and I use its door sensors for my primary Homekit triggers with automations as well as security alerts for entry. Since abode is monitored, I know that if a door is opened while I am gone, I’ll get an alert. But what do you get if you only want a door sensor for HomeKit automations or want an unmonitored alarm for entry? The VOCOlinc door sensor will fit your needs nicely if that is what you’re looking for.
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I have been eyeing the OneLink Safe and Sound for a few months now, and I decided to pull the trigger a few weeks ago and see what it’s like in day to day use. My house is seven years old, so I’ll be looking to replace all of the smoke detectors in the next few years, so if I wanted to go for a smart home route, I wanted to have time to spread out the purchases.
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HomeKit excels as a platform because it allows you to tie together multiple products from different manufacturers across your home. This reality will enable you to use a motion sensor on one side of your house to trigger a light from a different manufacturer somewhere else in your home. My biggest complaint about HomeKit is that I have a string of third-party manufacturer’s apps on iPhone that are solely used for firmware updates. What should Apple do to fix this?
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When “HomeKit buttons” came out a few years ago, I initially laughed them off. My thought was if I wanted to press a physical button to turn on my lights, I’d use the regular light switch. That thought was before I aggressively expanded my HomeKit use cases. Like with anything related to smart homes, it’s not about tying an individual action to an automation, but rather tying devices together. While I love using Siri via HomePod to activate scenes, after thinking through our routines, I realized a physical button might make sense in our daily lives. Is the Eve Button a useful device for a HomeKit home? Let’s dig into what it can do.
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When I open the AmpliFi app on my iPhone, I see 50 devices. The majority of them are HomeKit enabled devices, and I’ve recently become obsessed with a product line that needs HomeKit compatibility. It’s led me to think about what I’d like to see added to Apple’s supported categories for HomeKit in the future. Would you buy a HomeKit vacuum?
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After I reviewed the eufyCam 2 and Netatmo cameras, I got several emails asking why I am so passionate about HomeKit Secure Video when it has had a somewhat of a buggy/slow rollout. Rather than respond to each person individually, I thought it would be better to write about why HomeKit Secure Video matters, and why I think it’s a fundamental part of the HomeKit experience. Before you invest in a home camera platform, you need to consider long term security.
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When 2020 started, I didn’t have a single camera in my HomeKit setup, but as the year as gone on, I’ve been picking up cameras left and right. After deploying multiple eufyCameras around the exterior of my house, I turned my attention to covering parts of the interior of my house. While HomeKit Secure Video is essential for outside of the house, it’s required for the inside of my house. It’s one thing for a company to have views on the outside of my house, but only I want to be able to see what’s going on inside my house. End to end encryption is required for any indoor cameras that I use in my house. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been testing out the Netatmo Indoor Camera with HomeKit Secure Video.
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A few months ago, I wrote about the VOCOlinc power adaptor. It’s my favorite low-cost HomeKit outlet adapter. I recently needed a surge protector with each individual to be able to be a HomeKit switch. I again turned to the VOCO branded of products with their HomeKit surge protector.
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In my time watching the HomeKit market, the most strange thing about it is how few HomeKit enabled doorbells there are on the market. It seems like every few months a new doorbell with HomeKit support is announced that never seems to be released. We also continually see products that claim HomeKit support is coming, but the software update never arrives. Where are all the HomeKit doorbells, and is it worth waiting on before making a purchase? This week, I want to look at the Eufy doorbell.

HomeKit Weekly is a series focused on smart home accessories, automation tips and tricks, and everything to do with Apple’s smart home framework.

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One of the things that Amazon has done well with Alexa is cloud-enabled skills that are directly connected to its Echo products. In my smart home setup, we have a couple of Echo Dots in my kid’s rooms they use for ‘story time’ at night. I love my HomePod, but it can’t replace this functionality at this time. Is it time for Apple to build a HomeKit skills section that runs directly off iCloud?
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One of the areas of my HomeKit lighting setup that I ignored for a long time was outdoors. We honestly didn’t have a real need until recently when we got a new puppy. If you’ve ever had a puppy, you know that a lot of time is spent outdoors trying to train the dog to use the bathroom outside. It became clear that we didn’t have enough outdoor lightning when we were taking her out late at night and early in the morning. Like any smart home fanatic would do, I looked at solving this problem without the use of a costly electrician and add HomeKit support in the process. This week, I am going to explain my outdoor HomeKit lighting setup.
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As much as I have been investing in my HomeKit setup over the past few years, HomeKit security cameras are something I hadn’t been able to pull the trigger on. My hesitation is that I didn’t want to be tied to paying monthly fees for each camera, nor did I want a solution that required a cloud service that wasn’t end-to-end encrypted. For my HomeKit cameras, I ended up using the eufyCam 2 thanks to it the option of local recording to a base station, no monthly fees, HomeKit integration, battery-powered and the possibility of using HomeKit Secure Video. Let’s dig into my eufyCam 2 review.
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As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I’ve been a Nest customer for the past seven years. I put it a second-generation Nest when I built my house back in 2013, and I added a second Nest a few years later for our upstairs unit. I’ve been using the Starling Home Hub for the past six weeks to enable HomeKit support on these products, but I recently swapped out my downstairs Nest with the ecobee SmartThermostat. After a few weeks of using it, I am ready to compare them and decide which unit has the best HomeKit integration. ecobee vs. Nest: what’s the best smart thermostat?
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