Tim Cook is living the Jetsons lifestyle — minus the jetpack and flying car — thanks to Siri and the growing number of HomeKit devices on the market.
The Apple CEO offered a rare glimpse into his private life Tuesday during Apple’s quarterly financial report, painting a picture of techno-utopian comfort and ease. It was Cook’s most personal world-beating earnings call ever, and it sent a message: Apple is serious about home automation.
“I’m personally using HomeKit accessories in the Home app to integrate iOS into my home routine,” Cook told Wall Street analysts (and anybody else who braved the business-saturated call). “Now, when I say ‘Good Morning’ to Siri, my house lights come on and my coffee starts brewing. When I go to the living room to relax in the evening, I use Siri to adjust the lighting and turn on the fireplace. And when I leave the house, a simple tap of my iPhone turns the lights off, adjusts the thermostat down, and locks the doors. When I return to my house in the evening as I’m near my home, the house prepares itself for my arrival automatically by using a simple geofence.”
Tim Cook makes HomeKit personal
Cook’s personal account of living the HomeKit life stood in stark contrast to all the talk of channel inventory, demonetization and “sequential headwind from foreign exchange” during the rest of the conference call.
Aside from answering basic financial questions, Apple’s earnings calls are carefully designed to deliver an optimistic and forward-looking message to Wall Street (and the rest of the world) about what Cupertino deems important.
That’s good news, because HomeKit has seemed stalled for quite some time. A lack of spotlight time at Apple events and a slow rollout of HomeKit-compatible products — due in large part to Apple’s demand for bulletproof security, according to people in the know — could make a casual observer think Cupertino doesn’t really care much about home automation.
To ease everyone’s mind about the pace, Cook touted the growing number of HomeKit-compatible accessories, including “video cameras, motion detectors, and sensors for doors, windows, and even water leaks.”
And he played the security card hard: “Perhaps even more importantly, we are unmatched when it comes to securing your home with HomeKit-enabled door locks, garage doors, and alarm systems.”
Those kinds of achievements lists are typical on earnings calls. But the fact that Cook’s prepared opening remarks laid out in plain, personal terms the tangible benefits consumers will experience with HomeKit-compatible products is far more important. It’s the kind of thing Steve Jobs used to do so beautifully during keynotes, as he described all the ways some new Apple product would enrich your daily life.
Is Siri ready to battle Alexa?
Cook’s personal appeal means Cupertino isn’t giving up in the battle to own the smart home, in spite of the recent success of Amazon’s Alexa. Amazon’s AI assistant, which works brilliantly with the company’s Echo smart speakers, is quickly gaining mindshare as the go-to voice interface of the future. But Cook’s words yesterday placed Siri squarely in the ring to battle Alexa on the home-automation front.
“We are leading the industry by being the first to integrate home automation into a major platform with iOS 10,” Cook said. “With Siri and a new Home app in iOS 10, everywhere you go, you can easily and securely control all of your home accessories with your iPhone, iPad or your Apple Watch.”
In my experience, invoking Siri from my Apple Watch is nowhere near as useful as barking out an order to Alexa. Even using “Hey Siri” on an iPhone is laggier and less seamless than using Alexa. But Apple is supposedly working hard to make Siri stronger, and might even be working on a smart speaker of its own. And the new Home app in iOS 10 is truly a delight to use, bringing all your HomeKit devices into one beautiful interface for quick and easy control.
After giving us a surprisingly personal peek inside his day-to-day life, which sounds like the sort of sci-fi future we’ve been promised for ages, Cook said nobody needs to wait to enjoy this futuristic world.
“This level of home automation was unimaginable just a few years ago,” he said, “and it’s here today with iOS and HomeKit.”
Tim Cook is living in the future. Maybe it’s time for you to move there, too.
Via: Seeking Alpha
Lewis Wallace is the managing editor of Cult of Mac and author of our weekly newsletter, The Weekender.
He’s a San Francisco-based writer and editor specializing in technology and culture. He loves his iPhone, hates Siri, and appreciates any hardware that combines form and function.
Prior to Cult of Mac, he juggled words and ideas as culture editor at Wired.com, homepage editor at TechTV, news product manager at NBCi, copy editor at PC World, reporter at The (Hayward) Daily Review and editor in chief of EveryBody’s News in Cincinnati.
He earned a bachelor of general studies degree with a journalism certificate from the University of Cincinnati. While in school, he worked as the entertainment editor of The News Record and as editor in chief of Clifton Magazine.
He’s also a bass player, who’s recorded and performed around the United States with Those Darn Accordions, The Electric Boogie Dawgz and The Mad Maggies. When not writing, editing or laying down bass lines, he plays darts and serves on the board of the San Francisco Darts League.
13 responses to “Tim Cook is living in the future (and you can too)”
Unless Timmy likes to skate on a dozen fluorescent tubes on his way out the door, this is definitely not his home.
It’s actually in black and white.
“This is not Tim Cook’s actual home.”
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Did you not read the caption right below the photo? It states that it’s not Tim’s home.
I guess you two didn’t get the joke, which emphasized the fact that it was NOT Tim Cook’s home. Troll somebody else.
It’s actually in black on white.
“This is not Tim Cook’s actual home.”
Using Siri for all of this feels like the same inprisonment I always felt bill gates kids had when they weren’t allowed to use iPhones. I pity him, I’m sure 50% of the times he eventually have to take out his keys or stand up and do the things manually after a dozen of failed attempts.
That’s an assumption on your part. Why don’t you ask Tim how many times he has to pull out his keys or control things manually before making an assumption. Maybe his response is less than 1% of the time, maybe never.
Being able to control your home with a “Siri” is the same as controlling your home using Cortana or Google or Alexa. If it can be done, then some people will do it.
Since he’s the CEO of Apple, he’s going to use the platform of products Apple makes and he’s a testing ground and I’m sure he gets access to products that aren’t released to the market as he might be one that tests new products before they get released. Any technology company CEO would do the same thing. Do you expect him to have nothing but Microsoft products laying around the house?
In terms of Gates allowing his kids to have iPhones is just too embarrassing for him as the founder, CEO, Chairman of the Board, etc. of Microsoft. And he was too embarrassed to admit that Microsoft fell asleep during the smartphone revolution. He probably was trying to prevent his own children from being ridiculed at school for not using products his father’s company make and using a competitor’s product instead. I’m sure that’s embarrassing as hell for Gates.
My remark of tims home and comparison with gates kids home was only meant as a snarky remark on how unimpressed I am with Siri and how certain things have changed over time. But I see that some just can’t accept/understand of a bit of joking on apples behalf – I don’t know or care how tims house work tbh…
I have a similar setup though probably not on the same scale as his home. The only time mine has failed or required something manual is when wifi is down (internet access in general). That’s the real achilles heal. Some IoT devices are smart enough to continue functioning without a network connection (like my Nest thermostats). Geofencing in particular has gotten a lot better in the last few years
Same here. And the true benefit is when the smart home “just works”. In all actuality, I don’t need to use Siri or any commands for that matter. An example is that my lights just turn on when I enter a room and turn off after a defined period of time without occupancy. Most don’t want to see the true facts. Smart homes aren’t “the future” – they’re here now.
SIri is retarded.
I’m a home automation geek but how does he set up automation to the trigger of “Good morning”?