HomeKit

One of the most interesting feature of iOS 17 is StandBy mode, a widget-based landscape display intended primarily for nightstand use.

This has definite, uh, echoes of Amazon’s Echo Show, and it’s being suggested that this is indeed Apple’s first move toward a HomePod with a display …

Is Matter going to be a great thing for smart home users? Yes. Is it going to replace Homebridge as a usable solution? Not anytime soon. I’ve been extremely impressed with the Homebridge platform over the years, and it’s done a lot of good for expanding compatibility for products that either don’t support Matter or ever will in terms of onboarding them into HomeKit. It’s now available on the fast-growing Umbrel home server as well.

Door and window sensors aren’t new to HomeKit. They’re one of the original device types, and depending on the use case, it unlocks some super interesting automations. Today, I am taking a look at Aqara’s brand-new Matter-enabled contact sensor that can be used on windows, doors, blinds, or really anywhere you want to track the opening of something.

I’ve long considered Lutron Caseta the most elegant and user-friendly HomeKit lighting solution. Lutron makes the wall switch smart and works with standard dimmable bulbs; other solutions put the smarts in the bulbs then require remotes on the walls and never turning off the wall switch.

Lutron’s Fan Speed Control is the perfect complement to the existing line of dimmer light switches. Fan Speed Control works with the same Lutron bridge which supports Apple HomeKit smart home control, making the new wall switches the best way to retrofit existing ceiling fans with Home app and Siri control.

Back at CES in January, Nanoleaf announced a range of new smart light devices. Today one of those has arrived with the 4D Screen Mirror Camera and Lightstrip Kit. Aiming to make your entertainment experience more immersive than ever, read on for all the details on Nanoleaf’s latest smart light product.

Continuing with the summer of Matter announcements, TP-Link’s Tapo has just released the industry’s first Matter-enabled smart switches. The Tapo S505 and Tapo S505D are now both available for purchase. Tapo is TP-Link’s smart home brand. TP-Link makes a wide variety of home Wi-Fi routers, business grade networking equipment, and much more.

When the news broke in April that WiZ products were coming to Matter, this was a huge benefit to Apple, the HomeKit ecosystem, and to HomeKit users. In fact, I believe no one is benefiting from the Matter rollout to the smart home world than Apple, as they were the ones often left out of the lower-cost products. Matter is an open smart home standard that is supported by Amazon, Google, and Apple, allowing accessory makers to be compatible with a single standard rather than three separate ones.

In the past few months of using the Level Lock+, my mind has been doing a lot of thinking about the role of hardware in the future of the smart home. Sure, software (even voice) is great for interacting with devices, but there’s something I’ve found magical about Home Key. My smartphone is hardware device that interacts with my hardware lock through software. The software is invisible. It’s been so wonderful just tapping my iPhone on the lock and having it open. It’s also led me to believe that Apple should continue pulling at that string going forward. Of course, all this will apply to the recently released Aqara smart lock with Home Key support.

Smart home company Eve Systems – one of the leaders in HomeKit-compatible and now Matter-compatible devices – has been bought by the automation and electrification giant ABB.

Eve will, with immediate effect, become part of the Building and Home Automation Solutions division of ABB. The two parties naturally hope the partnership will be good news, but some will be watching events with some degree of nervousness …

After using the Level Lock+ with Home Key support for a few months, I can honestly say that Home Key is now table stakes for all smart locks. It’s no longer enough to just support HomeKit. HomeKit is a software layer for door locks. Home Key support is a game changer in terms of day-to-day functionality. There are no apps to open or Bluetooth connections to wait on. With Home Key, it’s tap and go. I’ve spent the last week with the Aqara Door Lock U100 with Home Key support, so let’s dive into how it works, my thoughts on it compared to Level Lock+, and the installation process.

When you strip away home automation to its essence, it’s about taking something you normally would buy manually and automating it. That might be turning lights on based on motion, time of day, etc. It might be able automatically raising or lowering blinds based on smart blinds based on when the sun sets. It’s about streamlining how you interact with your home. There’s no more mundane task that should be integrated into HomeKit than smart vacuums, and it’s time for Apple to support it as a HomeKit device. Read on to learn about a few smart vacuums I’ve been testing this year, and how I’d love to take the experience further with HomeKit.

Matter is the new solution to all our smart home compatibility problems, right? That’s what we’ve been told, and that’s what we want to happen, right? Open stands on everything related to technology are preferable, but sometimes, new standards take years to mature. That’s what we’re seeing with Matter. We’re even seeing brands like Wemo back away from Matter support as well. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been testing a product called Homey Bridge, and it’s one of the most interesting smart home concepts I’ve tried in some time.

Popular home security kit maker Abode is out with a new offering today, the “Adobe Security Kit.” It arrives as the most affordable option from the company to protect your home. However, one of the compromises to hit the entry-level price was forgoing HomeKit support – which comes with the mid-tier and flagship Iota All-In-One Kit, Smart Security Kit, and Standalone Smart Hub.

As I mentioned a few weeks ago when looking at the Onvis Thread-Enabled door sensor, HomeKit door and window sensors are some of the most underrated devices that most people aren’t thinking about. There are so many use cases that HomeKit door sensors unlock, that they might even be more versatile than HomeKit motion sensors. This week, I am looking at the Meross MS200 door and window sensor.

Eve, the popular HomeKit vendor, has unveiled two long-awaited products: the new Eve Shutter Switch and the next generation of Eve Flare with Thread support, a portable, HomeKit-compatible LED lamp. The Eve Shutter Switch is only available in select European markets, while the Eve Flare is available in the US as well.

Since early 2020, I’ve used abode as my primary security system. I’ve discussed it a number of times in past editions of HomeKit Weekly, but I continue to get emails asking if I am still using it, etc. I wanted to take an opportunity to update my review, discuss how I am using it in my new house, and where I’d like it to go in the future.

Smart home company Netatmo is out with a handy new device today that makes a wide variety of air conditioners and heat pumps intelligent with HomeKit connectivity and more. The Smart AC Controller installs in just 10 minutes and allows you to control your air conditioner with Siri, the Home app on iPhone along with Alexa and Google Home support at an affordable price.

Half a year after its debut, the Level Lock+ continues to stand out amongst the competition for its unique, minimalistic design, and ease of installation. Level Home’s smart lock is also one of just a handful of smart locks that support Apple Home Key – a feature introduced with iOS 15 that allows for NFC control via an Apple Watch or iPhone.

Is this Level Lock+ the best smart lock for users knee-deep in the Apple ecosystem? Watch my hands-on video review for the details.

One of the biggest challenges with a smart home is knowing…when you’ve gone too far with your gear purchases and your home is so heavily tied to a smart home platform that without access to Wi-Fi, your home is fundamentally useless. For this week’s edition of HomeKit Weekly, I want to explain how I’ve tackled this problem and how to know when too much HomeKit is just too much.