HomeKit Weekly

If you’re starting from zero on a smart home, it can look daunting and expensive as you consider upgrading all of the rooms in your house. I’ve found that starting with a few smart outlet adaptors is the best (and most economical way) to start, as you can upgrade your lamps and a few dumb appliances for under $50. This week, I am looking at the TP-Link Tapo P125 4-pack of HomeKit enabled outlet adaptors.

Presence sensors are very useful tools for smart homes. They allow you to trigger scenes and automate without needing a device in hand or pre-plan for automatic automation timing. Today, Aqara is releasing its new FP1E presence sensor. Read on to learn more.

Smart plugs are the gateway drug for HomeKit. They’re low-cost and easy to install, and you can get many benefits from them. There are dozens upon dozens of options on where to start, though. The meross MSS315 smart plug delivers almost everything you’d want in a smart plug: Matter support, low cost, and small in size. The only thing it’s missing is Thread support and 5Ghz Wi-Fi.

Air purifiers are one of my favorite HomeKit accessories. Even though I live in an area with pretty decent air quality, I keep them running around our home to clean up the air for my family. I recently picked up the new Smartmi E1, the best-looking HomeKit air purifier on the market.

Summer is in full swing here in the United States, but my traveling is over for the summer. I spent the week before Memorial Day in Lisbon, Portugal, the week after Memorial Day near the Gulf of Mexico, and a few days in early June in Las Vegas for CriblCon. Having a HomeKit Home hub gives me remote access to all my favorite HomeKit accessories for monitoring energy, tricking would-be burglars by changing my lights, and much more. Here are some of my favorite HomeKit accessories for the summer.

Apple’s home key continues to slowly make its way into more smart home locks. Aqara, fresh off the release of the U50 smart lock, has just released the Aqara U200 with advanced security features, Matter support, Thread support, and integration with Apple home key.

Even as an Apple user, I can appreciate some of the work Google has done with its Nest lineup. I use the Google Nest doorbell and the Google Nest Cam with Floodlight in my house, and I am very happy with them. I use the Starling Home Hub. The latest Starling firmware brings support for something that unlocks a new use case for folks who like Google’s hardware but not the cloud service.

Permanent outdoor lighting can absolutely transition a bland space into an exciting one. Govee recently released its new Smart Outdoor Wall Light which offers 1500 lumens of brightness, plenty of color options, and HomeKit support over Matter. Read on to learn more about Govee’s Smart Outdoor Wall Light.

When looking to automate your home, a lot of the hype revolves around motion sensors and other devices, but I believe HomeKit door sensors are still some of the best devices to add to your Home app-backed home. I love the Onvis smart door and window sensor, as the device supports Thread technology for a robust smart home.

Temperature tracking has long been one of my favorite aspects of HomeKit. Understanding how the temperature can vary in different parts of my house helped me decide where to use stand-alone fans and adjust our HVAC schedule. Meross recently released a new solar-powered temperature sensor that pairs nicely with HomeKit.

I’ve been using Abode as my security system for over four years at this point. Even when I built a new house in 2022, I decided to choose Abode once again despite being able to pick from anything. It strikes a really nice balance between ease of use, strong technology, and reliability. The products are affordable, and the monitoring plan works great. Because the company has a UL-certified monitoring station. Abode recently released a new Abode Lock & Keypad smart lock, and I’ve had a little time to integrate it into the Abode ecosystem to see how it works.

A few weeks ago, Aqara was in the news with the release of its new P2 motion sensor. I am a big fan of motion sensors for smart homes as they allow for some pretty rad automations based on who’s in a certain room and when. They’re generally low-cost enough that you can put them in multiple rooms without breaking the budget. Let’s dive into the new motion sensor and see how it works.

HomeKit smart plugs are one of the most useful smart home products you can buy. Everyone can find a use for them. They work with anything that has a 110-volt plug that auto turns on, and they’re really affordable. They’ve been around for years as well, so the hardware has become incredibly reliable as well. Linkind’s new Matter-enabled smart plug that comes in a 2-pack is an incredible value for those looking to automate multiple rooms in their home.

Automating your shades is one of the easiest ways to feel like you’re living in the future, as the Jetsons predicted. If you already have existing shades, you might want to look at the RYSE SmartShade, which lets you convert existing shades to HomeKit-compatible ones with minimal installation.

Air purifiers are fantastic products to have in your home to ensure that your air is clean, and having them in HomeKit makes them even better. There are several HomeKit-enabled air purifiers on the market today, but WELOVE (part of the AiDot family) has just released the first Matter enabled Air Purifier so you can add it to the smart home platform of your choice.

I love Aqara’s products, and if you love HomeKit, it’s a vendor you’ll want to follow. They make incredibly easy-to-use and reliable smart home products at prices that won’t empty your bank account. They’ve released a new motion and light sensor called the Aqara Motion and Light Sensor P2.

It’s that magical time of year when the sun is shining, the grass is growing, and flowers bloom. It’s almost time for near-perfect weather. Spring generally brings plenty of showers as well. It won’t be long until it’s the dog days of summer where it’s 95 degrees, full sun, and not a raindrop in sight, though. I’ve generally opposed professionally installed irrigation systems because of the maintenance, though. I’ve long enjoyed the Eve Aqua, a way to deploy a maintenance-free and HomeKit-enabled sprinkler system quickly.

Aqara makes some really fantastic smart home (that are usually HomeKit compatible) accessories at really incredible prices. Last year, they launched the Aqara Smart Lock U100 with Home Key support. They’ve long supported HomeKit and, more recently, Matter. This week, Aqara introduced a new HomeKit/Matter-compatible Smart Ceiling Light.

There are countless options for HomeKit native bulbs that you can buy to transform how your smart home operates completely. The problem for many people is that when you’re looking to change your entire home from traditional bulbs to HomeKit bulbs, it can get pricey in a hurry. Options like Philips Hue are fantastic, but they’re more costly. What if there was an option for a low cost bulb that worked great with HomeKit? That’s what I’ve found in the SYLVANIA SMART+ Bluetooth Soft White A19 LED Bulb. It’s HomeKit compatible at a price that isn’t that much higher than normal LED bulbs.

I’ve been a big proponent of HomeKit cameras built into flood lights as they eliminate the need to get an additional wire or rely on batteries. Sometimes, you want to put a camera somewhere that isn’t easy to wire. HomeKit battery cameras have come a long way in terms of reliability, though. I recently picked up the eufyCam 2C 2 Cam Kit to augment a few areas outside my home that I wanted coverage of but didn’t want to fool with running wires.

I recently took a fresh look at Eve’s indoor HomeKit camera, and it inspired me to get my trusty Logitech Circle View camera and see how it continues to stack up against the competition. Circle View offers a straightforward, motion-triggered home security camera solution, avoiding constant video recording. It boasts a robust, weather-resistant design with an IP64 rating.