Support has however lagged behind Amazon's Echo speakers, which have looser encryption and certification standards for developers.
", that, until now, were easier for developers and makers to work with than the HomeKit platform due to Apple's tighter administrative controls and high licensing fees." @sergioz @rayz2016@ireland@williamh@macapfel@jsh56@robbm ;
This is a really great announcement, especially combined with CoreML/Metal2!
HomeKit ecosystem of available products lacking in this part of the world compared to the US. I also dislike how Phillips have (as far as the average consumer is concerned) currently a near monopoly on the HomeKit lightning market with so-called “starter kits” consisting of three bulbs and an unwanted customer lock-in hub for €200. WTF!? I can get three regular LED bulbs for €15. So sick of these companies ripping us off. I got to believe this is largely due to Apple making the HomeKit development process so completely onerous. Hopefully, for the consumer’s sake some of these new policies help to democratize the HomeKit lighting market.
The bulbs are zwave. The unwanted hub is required to convert ethernet to zwave so the bulbs can be on the network. The hub also has the secure chip that handles the encryption homekit requires. If you want to do away with the hub, you can put bluetooth in each bulb and then use a bluetooth to wifi hub (darn hubs again), or put wifi in each bulb and put the security chip in each bulb, which makes every bulb cost more.
The bulbs are zwave, not plain LED. You can get cheaper zwave bulbs, but still need a way for ethernet and wifi devices to talk to them. Philips use the hub for every home automation system they work with, not just HomeKit. This isn't on Apple, it's on Philips. Lifx don't use a hub at all - but they're expensive because each one has wifi built in.
Comments
This is a really great announcement, especially combined with CoreML/Metal2!
The bulbs are zwave, not plain LED. You can get cheaper zwave bulbs, but still need a way for ethernet and wifi devices to talk to them. Philips use the hub for every home automation system they work with, not just HomeKit. This isn't on Apple, it's on Philips. Lifx don't use a hub at all - but they're expensive because each one has wifi built in.
But it will be available soon, only a matter of time.