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Posts tagged with "home automation"

Nest, Philips Hue, and Libratone Zipp Product Announcements

The market for smart home devices continues to heat up with new products and updates being released almost every day. Of note today are a trio of announcements:

Koogeek HomeKit-Enabled Smart Plug and Light Socket Review

Koogeek may not be a name brand that jumps to mind when you think about home automation, but the company has built a substantial lineup of HomeKit-enabled devices. I’ve had a Koogeek smart plug for about a year and recently received a Koogeek lightbulb socket for review. I’m fairly new to home automation and have found both products to be a good way to dip your toe into home automation despite some limitations.

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Logitech Adds HomeKit Support to Its POP Smart Button

Logitech announced today that it is adding HomeKit support to its POP Smart Button, which debuted last year. The second generation POP button connects to your home WiFi, supports up to three customizable gestures, and acts as a sort of macro to trigger other HomeKit devices. For example, you could put a POP button in your bedroom that when pressed in the morning would change the temperature of your HomeKit thermostat and turn on your lights. You could add another POP button to turn off the lights and lock your doors when you leave home. The POP button also works with some non-HomeKit devices like Sonos music systems and Logitech’s Harmony Hub home entertainment control device.

The adoption of HomeKit support by Logitech greatly expands the utility of POP buttons and may be a sign of the growing popularity of HomeKit devices. With the increasing number of HomeKit-enabled products, the POP button should make it even more convenient to trigger HomeKit’s scene functionality.

Logitech says that the POP Smart Button will be available soon exclusively at Apple Stores and on Apple.com and later this year from other retailers. The base POP Smart Button Kit will retail for $59.95 and includes one button and a bridge to connect it to your home WiFi. Additional Pop buttons will be available for $39.95 each.

Apple and Homebuilders Work to Spread HomeKit Adoption→

Apple has begun working with large US-based home builders, like Lennar and KB Home, to incorporate HomeKit-enabled systems into newly-constructed homes. HomeKit was introduced with iOS 8. Makers of home automation equipment were initially slow to adopt HomeKit, but it has begun to gain momentum in recent months.

With device manufacturers embracing HomeKit in greater numbers, Bloomberg reports that Apple has turned to large homebuilders to help get those devices into homes. One drag on home automation adoption is cost. As Bloomberg points out, a touchscreen deadbolt lock costs $200 compared to $32 for a traditional lock. Another issue is incorporating smart devices into older homes that were not designed with them in mind. To address both problems, Apple is focusing on new homes:

’We want to bring home automation to the mainstream,’ said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of product marketing. ‘The best place to start is at the beginning, when a house is just being created.’

By focusing on new construction, the cost of smart devices can be rolled into a homeowner’s mortgage at the time of purchase, making the cost easier to rationalize. New construction also has the advantage that it is easier to design devices into a home when it is built than to retro-fit existing homes.

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