Andrew_OSU

polymnia said:

Does this new dimmer switch fit into a regular US decora wall plate? That has been my main problem with the old one. 

The Lutron Pico remote, which fills the same role in the Lutron Caseta system, is designed specially for a decora plates and I’ve been able to easily add them to existing switch clusters on my wall. 

mike1 said:

Wgkrueger said:

mike1 said:

Cool. One down, one to go.

Please add HK support to the Wire-free model and I will happily replace my Ring.

I thought HomeKit didn’t support wireless cameras. 

All the other Arlo cameras with HomeKit support are wireless.

crowley said:

Is that Google Translate's rendition of Jun's remarks, or did Xiaomi put that up in Engliush?

dewme said:

It'll just take some time for Apple to catch up with HomeKit. They are easily a year or two behind the competition. As far as video doorbells integrating into other ecosystem devices, Amazon and Ring are quite far along on this front. It's very easy to set up an Alexa Routine to announce on all of your Alexa devices when someone rings your doorbell, or simply opens any entryway equipped with a sensor. The ability to specify the audio message to announce, like "The basement rear door is opened" (or closed) makes it very handy for letting you know what's happening in parts of your house you are far away from. Doorbell presses are also conveyed to Alexa devices. Being able to ask Alexa to "Show me the front door" on any video equipped Alexa device (Show 5/8/10, Spot, FireTV) and interact directly with the camera or video doorbell via audio and video is very nice, especially when these video equipped devices like the Show are so inexpensive. 

Ring cameras have a very extensive set of options for setting up detection zones, detection sensitivity, people-only detection, detection schedules, detection snooze, night vision, through-window capability on some cameras, recording snapshot frequency (max once every 30 sec) and duration, attaching snaphots to notifications, device linking, etc. Frankly, the feature set for Ring cameras and the Ring Alarm system ($100/year with unlimited camera uploads with 60 day history, professional monitoring) is amazing. As a bonus, most Alexa devices (including the lowly Dot) also function as glass breakage detectors and smoke/CO alarm listeners when in Away mode. 

This is not a plug for Amazon/Ring, it's simply a reminder that Apple HomeKit has a lot of catching up to do on the functionality side and with broader device support. The performance and security of Z-Wave Plus that Ring uses is excellent as is the responsiveness of Alexa, in general, and its interaction with smart devices like smart plugs and lighting. I swapped my kitchen HomePod with an Echo Studio (moved the HomePod to a different room to serve as a sound bar) and the improvement in response time to my queries going from Siri to Alexa is extremely noticeable, even for Apple Music related queries. Yeah, HomePod sounds better but Siri is, how do I say this, a "little slow." 

So what are the vulnerabilities in the well rounded systems like Amazon-Ring that Apple can exploit? The number one thing that comes to mind is the latency between camera detection (motion or button press) and video availability. With Ring, everything goes up to the cloud first, before being available for viewing on any device. All of my Ring cameras are PoE powered and connected to gigabit Ethernet, but my upload speed is mediocre so there is still a noticeable delay between getting a motion notification or button press and seeing what's there. Download performance is great.

Ring has a performance optimized companion viewer app called Rapid Ring that is definitely faster than their main app, but it still has some latency. The ideal situation for me would be to allow simultaneous live streaming over the same local network for at least one camera while also pumping the video up to the cloud for archival purposes. This feature would be a game changer. Yeah, I can put together my own local camera capture and recording system but integration of all of these smart devices, sensors, cameras, etc., around a cloud based ecosystem brings so many benefits to bear, and also some risks, that I would be hard pressed to give up after having used them so successfully for so long.

I know what I'm going to say next may sound radical to some folks, but I wouldn't say if I hadn't already taken part in such a move that was highly successful. Apple should consider spinning off HomeKit into an independent consortium or association of smart home vendors, of which Apple would remain an executive member of the leadership council. This is akin to what they've done with the Swift programming language. The success of HomeKit is based on its widespread adoption, and Apple isn't really contributing enough organically and uptake by third parties is too slow. Moving HomeKit outside of Apple would provide third parties with more incentive to put more skin in the game because they are helping to steer the ship. Apple, as an executive board member would still provide stewardship over the technology core and ensure that the tenets that are so important to Apple, like security and privacy, are never compromised. And just to be clear, I'm talking about moving HomeKit outside of Apple, physically and legally, not simply having Apple invite third parties to participate in Apple's gig like they do with developers and partners. 

longpath said:

Does the Netatmo unit suffer the same issues and limitations? I realize the Logitech is cheaper; but if the Netatmo doorbell is better able to handle these issues, that might well justify the extra $100 or so.