Too lazy to get up and close the drapes? Then you need Ikea’s new HomeKit-enabled blinds, Kadrilj and Fyrtur. These new powered blinds have already launched in Germany, and can be integrated with your home hub, your Alexa, or your Google Assistant.
Ikea spells curtains for your dumb drapes
The new blinds run from €99 to €159, depending on size, and can be controlled either from a dedicated remote, or by hooking it up to your home-automation service of choice. And if you don’t want Google or Amazon to use your drape-dropping data to sell stuff, then that choice should be Apple’s HomeKit.
Other than that, these are regular old powered blinds. You might like the idea of one fewer chore, but you’ll just be replacing it with another one — these are battery powered, so you’ll still have to charge your blinds. And of course the battery will die at the most embarrassing moment. When you and your partner want to lower the blinds for some mid-afternoon nookie, for example.
The Fyrtur is a regular blind, and the Kadrilj is designed to still let light in, but block reflections on screens. Both integrate with the Trådfri range extender. The blinds require a dedicated app, but can be hooked up to your HomeKit if you buy the Ikea’s compatible extender.
Bonus content
Our WordPress is telling me that this post is too short, so I’ll take the opportunity to rant against home automation. The obvious argument against it is security, with cheap Wi-Fi-enabled devices opening up your network to hackers. But HomeKit presumably prevents such trouble, which leaves me with the fact that iPhone-controlled lights, plugs, and blinds are worse than the manual items they replace.
Take this HomeKit light switch, or example. It puts a switch on the wall, perhaps next to the door, which lets you switch your Wi-Fi lights on and off without having to dig through apps, or wake up Siri the idiot. Sound familiar? That’s because it is familiar, apart from the need to connect it to a network, and to recharge it.
Remote control is fine, but “smart” home devices are anything but. They glitch out just as much as any other computer- based gadget. And that’s my 300 words. Good night.
