Tech News
Welcome to the home of tomorrow – a brief look at Apple’s HomeKit.
It might sound like something from a sci-fi novel but the things that Apple’s HomeKit nothing short of astounding! With not much effort there’s now a way that us everyday folk are able to get voice activated lights, doors that automatically unlock as you draw near and even an instant solution to the age old question “did I leave the hair straighteners on?”.
HomeKit is a way of controlling everyday appliances from something as simple, and convenient, as one of the iOS devices that you own. You can turn your electronics on, off, schedule unique commands or set a series of requirements for the devices to function. All of this can be activated from any iPad, iPhone, Apple Watch or Apple TV and each device can even make use of Siri to issue commands with your voice too!
As an example of how one might use this automation, if you have HomeKit enabled lighting (such as our Philip’s Hue range) as well as turning the lights on or off, you can also set rules and scenarios such as “turn on everyday when it becomes dark” or “dim when I leave the room”. You may ask “how does a lightbulb know that I’ve arrived home?”. In this case the answer is simply through the data kept on your phone – data, such as location services, are securely transmitted to the devices and, unlike other smart home devices, security is key with HomeKit. The fact that all data about you is encrypted and sent securely through your devices alone mean that there’s no middle man for information about you – not even Apple know where you are or what you’re using the devices for!
As well as the information from your phone you can alternately opt for extra accessories such as motion, lock, temperature or weather sensors in order to have the electronics react to the environment around them. You can tell the heating to come on if the temperature falls below a certain degree or turn on a humidifier should the weather call for it!
The usage of HomeKit devices isn’t limited to inside the home either. Another optional way of using HomeKit is to check on your home when you’re not there through a hub, which can either be an iOS device that is left at home or an Apple TV. Wherever you are in the world as long as you have an internet connection you can check on the devices without physically being home. You can quickly see whether you’ve locked the door or whether a certain device has been left on (you could even then turn it off if so!). This enables you to have an amazing level of peace of mind. You no longer have to worry unnecessarily if anything has been left on or open as you can check the status of your home with a moments notice!
Each year there are more and more HomeKit devices being released and, here at TechBenefits, we’re keeping our finger on the pulse. We’re making sure that we can bring you even more ingenious ways for HomeKit to revolutionise your life! Keep an eye on our site to see what new kit we have in store and save on the latest products as soon we get ahold of them!
