HomeKit

Philips Hue is out with a slew of announcements today, headlined by the launch of its first-ever Philips Hue Secure cameras and a Matter update for its Hue Bridge. There are also new Festavia string lights, updates to the Philips Hue app, and more.

SwitchBot has been on my radar since back in 2020 when I discovered their button pusher that I bridged to HomeKit using HOOBS/Homebridge. They offer some pretty unique smart home products that I’ve enjoyed using over the years. Today, they’re rolling out (pun intended) a brand-new SwitchBot Curtain 3 with Matter support.

We learned at the beginning of August that Philips Hue is planning to launch its first smart home cameras soon. As the release nears, we’ve got a look at the first images of the devices that are expected to start at ~$200.

Matter continues to be the 2023 theme as various smart home manufacturers continue to release supported products. Aqara has long been one of my go-to smart home vendors when you want a low-cost item that supports the latest technology. A prime example of the level of products that Aqara produces is the new U100 door lock that supports Home Key. It’s such a fantastic product at a low cost. Today, they’re delivering the new Aqara T1 Light Strip that has quickly become of my favorite light strip products on the market.

I’ve said multiple times how I think Google’s first-party hardware strategy is something Apple should be copying. While Google doesn’t make everything for the Google smart home ecosystem, they do make some key products like doorbells, thermostats, and cameras. If you’re just getting started with a smart home platform, Google has some easy options to start. Even though I love them, I prefer using HomeKit, so I use the Starling Home Hub in order to make them compatible with HomeKit. I recently picked up the Google Nest smoke detector to see how it works as well. Let’s dive in.

The Matter and Thread standards are supposed to ensure that a huge range of smart home devices can work seamlessly together, mirroring the benefits offered by HomeKit compatibility. But this isn’t the case, say multiple manufacturers.

The main benefit of Thread is that smart home devices can not only talk to each other, but one can pass on commands to another, boosting reliability. There is, however, a problem …

Without a doubt, Home Key is my favorite new HomeKit feature in a couple of years. The ability to lock and unlock your door with a tap of your iPhone or Apple Watch has become second nature to me day to day. Both the Level Lock+ and the Aqara Smart Lock U100 are great options for implementing it in your home, but after months of usage, I’ve realized that it’s missing one single feature: Home Key sharing.

Signify CEO Eric Rondolat has announced that Philips Hue is planning to enter the smart home camera market. The details here are still sparse, and one of the biggest unknowns is whether or not the Philips Hue smart home camera will support integration with HomeKit.

Philips makes some of the absolute best HomeKit products on the market. The Philips Hue Bloom is yet another entry into that lineup. When paired with the Hue hub, you end up with a light that looks great, shines bright, and works perfectly with HomeKit’s Adaptive Lighting.

So, I had set up my kitchen spotlights with a bunch of Hue bulbs. As much as I use the smart capabilities of them, I also wanted to be able to control them with a physical wall switch.

Instead of replacing my existing light switch, I installed a Philips Hue Wall Switch Module. This has some negative reviews online with a reputation for unreliability … but I’m pleased to report it actually works brilliantly.

Leviton is out with a free firmware update that brings Matter to four of its smart home devices which will be welcome for both existing and new users. Included are the Decora Smart Switch, Dimmer, Mini Plug-In Dimmer, and Mini Plug-In Switch. Here are all the details.

The White House has announced a plan intended to improve the security of smart home tech. The government will test everything from smart speakers to Wi-Fi routers, awarding a US Cyber Trust Mark logo to products which pass the tests.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will set the standards to be met, and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will manage the program …

One of the most interesting feature of iOS 17 is StandBy mode, a widget-based landscape display intended primarily for nightstand use.

This has definite, uh, echoes of Amazon’s Echo Show, and it’s being suggested that this is indeed Apple’s first move toward a HomePod with a display …

Is Matter going to be a great thing for smart home users? Yes. Is it going to replace Homebridge as a usable solution? Not anytime soon. I’ve been extremely impressed with the Homebridge platform over the years, and it’s done a lot of good for expanding compatibility for products that either don’t support Matter or ever will in terms of onboarding them into HomeKit. It’s now available on the fast-growing Umbrel home server as well.

Door and window sensors aren’t new to HomeKit. They’re one of the original device types, and depending on the use case, it unlocks some super interesting automations. Today, I am taking a look at Aqara’s brand-new Matter-enabled contact sensor that can be used on windows, doors, blinds, or really anywhere you want to track the opening of something.

I’ve long considered Lutron Caseta the most elegant and user-friendly HomeKit lighting solution. Lutron makes the wall switch smart and works with standard dimmable bulbs; other solutions put the smarts in the bulbs then require remotes on the walls and never turning off the wall switch.

Lutron’s Fan Speed Control is the perfect complement to the existing line of dimmer light switches. Fan Speed Control works with the same Lutron bridge which supports Apple HomeKit smart home control, making the new wall switches the best way to retrofit existing ceiling fans with Home app and Siri control.

Back at CES in January, Nanoleaf announced a range of new smart light devices. Today one of those has arrived with the 4D Screen Mirror Camera and Lightstrip Kit. Aiming to make your entertainment experience more immersive than ever, read on for all the details on Nanoleaf’s latest smart light product.

Continuing with the summer of Matter announcements, TP-Link’s Tapo has just released the industry’s first Matter-enabled smart switches. The Tapo S505 and Tapo S505D are now both available for purchase. Tapo is TP-Link’s smart home brand. TP-Link makes a wide variety of home Wi-Fi routers, business grade networking equipment, and much more.

When the news broke in April that WiZ products were coming to Matter, this was a huge benefit to Apple, the HomeKit ecosystem, and to HomeKit users. In fact, I believe no one is benefiting from the Matter rollout to the smart home world than Apple, as they were the ones often left out of the lower-cost products. Matter is an open smart home standard that is supported by Amazon, Google, and Apple, allowing accessory makers to be compatible with a single standard rather than three separate ones.

In the past few months of using the Level Lock+, my mind has been doing a lot of thinking about the role of hardware in the future of the smart home. Sure, software (even voice) is great for interacting with devices, but there’s something I’ve found magical about Home Key. My smartphone is hardware device that interacts with my hardware lock through software. The software is invisible. It’s been so wonderful just tapping my iPhone on the lock and having it open. It’s also led me to believe that Apple should continue pulling at that string going forward. Of course, all this will apply to the recently released Aqara smart lock with Home Key support.