Hiya!
And good morning to all! Up early this morning and heading off to the beach today 🏖️; so looking forward to that! Here are some interesting snippets of smart home news I came across earlier in the week, enjoy:
Google and Apple Smart Homes
Looks like co-operation between the big smart home behemoths is yielding some benefits for end-users. It was literally unthinkable six months ago that Google Nest products would support the Apple smart home standard – HomeKit. Google has got a PR headstart on its rivals with the announcement in a blog post of things to come. According to the article, the entire line of current Google Nest smart speakers and displays will interoperate with the likes of Ring and Apple HomeKit. So good news, if you have bought into the Nest ecosystem and some your family are iPhone users!
HomeKit Enabled Eero Devices
Eero, a popular smart home mesh company (founded in 2014 and bought by Amazon) is adopting HomeKit. Which, is another bizarre one, since its parent company Amazon owns the Ring arch-rival of Apple in the race to own the Smart Home. The new enhancement is great news for HomeKit smart homes. And reading between the lines the real benefit of this feature update is the ability to leverage HomeKit security and privacy features. Check out the official announcement here.
This Weeks Blog Post
Apple is one of the major companies that provide home automation solutions to homeowners. While you might think that all automation companies provide the same solutions to users, Apple Homekit is a bit different.
Nowadays, most people view Apple as the future of home automation because it provides a unique vision to homeowners. This is a more enhanced and exclusive vision than what Amazon, Google, and other automation giants offer.
>> Read the complete article on the blog
This Week’s Words of Wisdom 😊
IKEA and AirPlay 2
A big fan of IKEA and kitted out many of our rental properties with their furniture, but not really delved into their smart home stuff yet!
So their product lines include some cool automation stuff with bulbs etc… But they also play in the higher-end products such as smart blinds and smart speakers. According to Apple Insider, the company is continuing to innovate in the smart home space and is planning some new product releases. Their smart speaker line is called ‘Symfonisk’ and they are crafting a new speaker using a picture frame form factor. No more to report on this one at the moment, but watch the IKEA smart home space in the coming period of time.
Latest Hue App
Finally, Hue has released a new iteration of their smart lighting app. Built from scratch, the new app boasts some really cool features:
- Quicker access to controls
- Improved room controls
- Inter bridge control for power users
Check out the official app features page here.
Weekly Smart Home Voice Command! 🎤
Turn off thermostat
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– Gerard