Are you an Apple lover? If so, you will want to hear this news from the tech giant. The first Apple HomeKit is now on sale and available to you. It has been about a year since Apple first announced the HomeKit and now the first of the products are finally becoming available to the public. It was announced in June of last year that Apple would work with home technology developers that included Philips, Honeywell, and Haier. Now the real product will be held in users’ hands.
What sorts of products are in the HomeKits? There are lighting kits from Lutron, and those eager to use the Insteon smart home system can now enjoy a HomeKit-compatible hub. Both of those items became available this week.
In terms of the Lutron collaboration, if you pick up the associated HomeKit, you can now simply use Siri, the iOS-based personal assistant that responds intelligently to your voice, to turn on and off your lights. There is no more of this basic walking over to the light switch to alter your room lighting. There is the convenient new feature of turning off all of your lights in the house with a single command to your iPhone, iPod or iPad at bedtime (or for any other reason). The command to Siri is “turn my lights off.”
Or perhaps you prefer the Insteon 2243-222 Hub Pro instead. Now you can manage and control your Insteon devices from your iPad, iPod or iPhone. Examples of features here include building schedules to automate devices and creating scenes to control several devices at once. Types of devices that are controllable through this new Insteon and Apple HomeKit system include thermostats, outlets, light switches, and plug-in modules.
With the HomeKit release, there is now potential for other companies to build apps using the new technology. For users, if you have Siri then you’re halfway there to using the new HomeKit products to control devices around your house. However, you will also require an Apple TV to be able to make commands when you are away from your residence. There are sure to be more HomeKit-enabled products on the market soon.