HomeKit

Back in the summer, my family went out of town for a few days. We had a dog sitter come by a few times a day to take our dogs on walks as well as take them to the bathroom. One challenge I had was showing her how to use our smart home. For our Level Lock+, I found it easier just to give her a key because there is no easy way to share a Home Key with someone outside of your iCloud family account. While I can share access to our lights, I find it much easier to use a product like the Onvis Smart Button instead.

After releasing its first indoor HomeKit camera in 2021, smart thermostat leader Ecobee is out today with its first outdoor product – the Smart Doorbell Camera. With a sharp design, HomeKit support, wide-angle view, and unique integrations with its Smart Thermostat Premium, follow along for our full review.

There are two things I want to see in every new smart home product: Matter and Thread. Matter lets me know that I’ll have access to the product regardless of which platform I use in the future. Thread lets me know that it’s going to work extremely well in my home in terms of responsiveness. The new Onvis Smart Plug checks all those boxes, and it’s quickly become one of my favorite smart plugs.

The vast majority of my smart home control comprises asking Siri to activate a scene – or having one automatically triggered by a time or event. For example, when going to bed, a single command switches on low lighting in the bedroom while switching off all other lights in the home.

Most of these scenes are created from scratch, thinking about exactly what I want to happen in particular circumstances – but there’s another approach I’d like to be able to take …

2023 has seen some exciting announcements and releases around HomeKit door locks. With Home Key, Level Lock+, and the Aqara doorbell, it’s been an exciting year. These door locks have been focused around exterior doors, though. The HOLOMARQ Smart Door Knob is a new interior door option for HomeKit that provides some unique use cases.

Seven native Apple Watch apps have been overhauled with watchOS 10, one of which is the Home app. The big update brings the Apple Watch HomeKit experience in-line with iPhone. Follow along for how the new Apple Watch Home app looks and works.

I know some of you aren’t bullish on Matter. Is it perfect? No. Does it need more features to truly become the vendor-neutral smart home specification? Yes. I believe in it, though. I believe in it because every manufacturer wins with Matter. When customers know that your products can work across every platform, like Apple Home, Amazon Alexa, and Google Assistant, they’re more likely to buy your products. I recently picked up the OREiN light bulbs from AiDot to put its Matter certification through the paces to see how easy it is.

Security veteran Yale has launched two new smart locks today, the Assure Lock 2 Touch and Assure Lock 2 Plus. These latest smart locks with sharp designs bring features like fingerprint scanning, Apple home key support, and more alongside HomeKit compatibility.

Inflation is certainly affecting everyone. It’s laughable what some things have increased in price in the past few years. I’ve been testing a HomeKit plug that, thankfully, is somehow the lowest-cost plug I’ve seen on the market. The Sylvania Smart Bluetooth Outlet adaptor is the only plug I’ve seen at this price in all my years of covering smart home technology.

Philips Hue Matter support was first promised by March of this year, before quietly admitting to a delay just a few days ahead of the deadline.

Whatever caused that delay has now been addressed, and Matter integration is now available within the Hue app …

iOS 16 last year introduced a Clean Energy feature, which lets you set your iPhone to charge during times when your local energy grid is using carbon-neutral electricity. In iOS 17, a new Grid Forecast feature takes a first pass at expanding this capability to any device in your home.

Grid Forecast shows up in the Home app, and shows a prediction of when your energy provider will be generating electricity from carbon-neutral sources like solar and wind …

Earlier this year, I had a chance to use the SmartWings shades that were designed to work with HomeKit. I’ve really enjoyed using them, and it truly has made my home feel like something out of the Jetsons. About a month ago, I received another shipment from SmartWings that included a new pair of shades that includes, for the first time in a smart shade product, Matter support.

The best solution for full home smart lighting is out with an even better light switch remote today. Lutron is launching the Pico paddle remote, a paddle style remote to match its traditional style smart wall switch and dimmer.

I’ve been using Umbrel at home for the last year and a half. Previously, I used a Raspberry Pi 4 to power my Umbrel server, but I recently upgraded to the new Umbrel Home, which includes everything prebuilt and ready to go. 2023 has been the year when I’ve really been thinking hard about where my data is, which companies have access to it, and how I can better control my costs. After spending a few weeks with Umbrel Home, I completely recommend it as a streamlined smart home hub for Homebridge while also allowing you to build your own personal cloud.

Ever wish you could AirPlay audio from your iPhone to your amp or powered speakers? Smart home solutions firm Eve is launching a new audio streaming interface that lets you hook up Hi-Fi components to Apple’s Home app and AirPlay 2.

Philips Hue is out with a slew of announcements today, headlined by the launch of its first-ever Philips Hue Secure cameras and a Matter update for its Hue Bridge. There are also new Festavia string lights, updates to the Philips Hue app, and more.

SwitchBot has been on my radar since back in 2020 when I discovered their button pusher that I bridged to HomeKit using HOOBS/Homebridge. They offer some pretty unique smart home products that I’ve enjoyed using over the years. Today, they’re rolling out (pun intended) a brand-new SwitchBot Curtain 3 with Matter support.

We learned at the beginning of August that Philips Hue is planning to launch its first smart home cameras soon. As the release nears, we’ve got a look at the first images of the devices that are expected to start at ~$200.

Matter continues to be the 2023 theme as various smart home manufacturers continue to release supported products. Aqara has long been one of my go-to smart home vendors when you want a low-cost item that supports the latest technology. A prime example of the level of products that Aqara produces is the new U100 door lock that supports Home Key. It’s such a fantastic product at a low cost. Today, they’re delivering the new Aqara T1 Light Strip that has quickly become of my favorite light strip products on the market.

I’ve said multiple times how I think Google’s first-party hardware strategy is something Apple should be copying. While Google doesn’t make everything for the Google smart home ecosystem, they do make some key products like doorbells, thermostats, and cameras. If you’re just getting started with a smart home platform, Google has some easy options to start. Even though I love them, I prefer using HomeKit, so I use the Starling Home Hub in order to make them compatible with HomeKit. I recently picked up the Google Nest smoke detector to see how it works as well. Let’s dive in.

The Matter and Thread standards are supposed to ensure that a huge range of smart home devices can work seamlessly together, mirroring the benefits offered by HomeKit compatibility. But this isn’t the case, say multiple manufacturers.

The main benefit of Thread is that smart home devices can not only talk to each other, but one can pass on commands to another, boosting reliability. There is, however, a problem …