Yale's new smart safes come in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi versions. Photo: Yale Home
Worried about keeping your valuables safe? Venerable lock maker Yale said Tuesday it has two new smart safes for you: Yale Smart Safe and Yale Smart Safe with Wi-Fi.
And you can control the new safes using the Home app via HomeKit. Or, in the case of the Wi-Fi-enabled safe, with the Siri voice assistant.
Thank your stars if you did not upgrade the Home app's architecture in iOS 16.2. Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
With iOS 16.2, iPadOS 16.2, and macOS Ventura 13.1, Apple introduced a new architecture for the Home app. Following issues reported by early adopters, the company has pulled the upgrade option altogether.
The new Home app architecture promises improved performance and reliability. It was an opt-in upgrade, with users getting the option when they opened the Home app after installing iOS 16.2.
Try out these 10 new iOS 16.2 features on your iPhone ASAP.
Image: Cult of Mac
iOS 16.2, which Apple released Tuesday, brings many new features that make it a must-have update for all iPhone owners. From security advancements and productivity boosters to cosmetic tweaks and other fun stuff, it’s positively loaded with upgrades.
Here are the top new iOS 16.2 features you should try right now. (Note: Many of these features also appear in iPadOS 16.2, which Apple also released today.)
The Eve Motion sensor is one of the devices to receive the new firmware update with Matter support. Photo: Eve Systems
A number of devices across Eve Systems’ product lineup are receiving support for the home automation networking standard Matter with a new, optional firmware update, the company said Monday.
Matter support — which lets devices from different makers work together over the same network — will come to Thread-enabled devices in the company’s Eve Door and Window, Eve Motion and Eve Energy lineups.
There was so much info to plow through at WWDC22, no wonder Apple software chief Craig Federighi was running like the wind. Image: Cult of Mac
This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: iOS 16 … iPadOS 16 … macOS Ventura … watchOS 9…. We’re racing as fast as we can through all Apple’s WWDC22 keynote revelations, but we’re gonna need a longer show. It’s our WWDC22 recap!
Also on The CultCast:
How about that super-skinny new MacBook Air?
And the blazing-fast new M2 chip that powers it?
Next-gen CarPlay looks like a total cockpit takeover.
What happened to Apple’s AR/VR headset?!?
Listen to this week’s episode of The CultCast in the Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!) Or watch the video livestream, embedded below.
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Apple discussed its overhauled Home app and HomeKit at WWDC22. Photo: Apple
Apple rebuilt its Home app from the ground up for iOS 16, ensuring it will make managing HomeKit a breeze and support the upcoming Matter home-automation standard.
But for those who’ve been using an iPad as a hub for HomeKit, the house party’s over as of iOS 16’s release.
Apple's team of software wizards unleashed a torrent of welcome surprises in the WWDC22 keynote. Photo: Apple
Credit to Apple: The company managed to sneak some real surprises past the leakers and tipsters. Several reveals during Monday’s Worldwide Developers Conference keynote came as a shock to everyone. There’s a new MacBook no one was expecting, a way to use an iPhone as a Mac webcam, a huge revamp to CarPlay and more.
Also surprising were some things that didn’t show show up during the live-streamed event.
Here’s everything unexpected that managed to sneak into the WWDC22 keynote.
The Home app has been rebuilt from the ground up, Apple said at WWDC22. Photo: Apple
Among the many new products and features Apple showcased at WWDC22 came news of a revamped Home app for the HomeKit smart-home platform.
Arriving with iOS 16 later this year, the app is rebuilt from the ground up. Apple said it will be more efficient and reliable, especially for homes with many accessories. And it will support the new Matter smart-home technology standard.
You can tell Siri to turn a HomeKit accessory off in a few minutes and it’ll happen. Here’s what you do. Photo: Cult of Mac
You know you can turn on a HomeKit accessory by talking to Siri, but are you aware you can order devices to turn on or off at some point in the future just as easily?
Here’s how to set impromptu schedules for your HomeKit accessories with Siri commands — and why you might want to.
A newly discovered HomeKit bug can render unsuspecting iPhone and iPad users with a completely unresponsive device. All it takes is for a smart home gadget to be given a super-long name.
Once the bug affects an iOS or iPadOS device, the gadget will continually freeze and restart itself. The only way to fix it is to factory reset the iPhone or iPad — and avoid logging into your iCloud account.
Aqara's new air quality monitor works with HomeKit and other smart home systems. Photo: Aqara
Smart home accessory maker Aqara’s new gadget for HomeKit lets you monitor air quality in your house. As pollution rises from wildfires and other causes — depending on where you live — you may find it handy to glance at the Aqara TVOC Air Quality Monitor to know whether you need to do something about the air you breathe.
The safe and easy way to share HomeKit control. Image: Apple/Cult of Mac
If you’re going away this summer and leaving your home in the hands of someone else, you might want to give them control of your HomeKit devices. And it’s really easy to do that inside the Home app.
Here’s how to invite anyone with an iPhone, iPad or Mac to control your smart home gadgets as a guest.
HomePaper lets you quickly give the boring Home app a fresh coat of paint. Image: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac
New app HomePaper for HomeKit lets you quickly customize the look of Apple’s notoriously bland-looking Home app — with zero hassles.
With the app, you simply select a photo from your iPhone or iPad camera or take a new one. Then you can quickly adjust the color(s) and make your own customized wallpaper for the Home app. There’s no fussing around with a complicated image editor or painstaking resizing required.
Here’s how to use HomePaper, which runs on iPhone and iPad, to give your Home app the remodel it deserves.
Bring an unresponsive HomePod back to life. Image: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac
Many of the glitches and frustrations you might encounter with HomePod and HomePod mini can usually be fixed with a simple factory reset. It’s easy to do and doesn’t take long, but Apple doesn’t make it immediately obvious how a reset is performed. So we’ll show you what you need to do.
Intercom is on its way. Here's all you need to know. Image: Apple/Cult of Mac
Apple’s new Intercom feature lets you use HomePods to send short audio messages to almost anyone with an Apple device. While Apple showcased Intercom when unveiling the upcoming HomePod mini smart speaker, the feature also works with the regular HomePod as well as iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and more.
If you a HomePod, and you’ve updated it (and your other Apple devices) with the latest software, you can use Intercom to communicate with your family or housemates in new ways.
A perplexing HomePod setup bug leaves some people exasperated. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
An apparent bug has left some HomePod owners unable to get their new Apple smart speakers up and running. Complaints about a mysterious “Setup Failed -6722” error message surfaced soon after HomePod launched last Friday.
Don't let everybody else's bad taste ruin your music recommendations. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Instead of recognizing the voices of various users and serving up their personal tunes, HomePod is tied to one person’s Apple Music library. That leads to an unfortunate side effect: Whenever anyone in your home tells your HomePod to play a track, that song is added to your listening history.
That means your teenagers’ ironic Ramones session, or your spouse’s un-ironic David Hasselhoff listen-a-thon, will pollute your listening history — and affect your future recommendations. Here’s how to stop that from happening.
The exploding Note 7 didn't hurt Samsung's status. Photo: Jim Merithew / Cult of Mac
The gap between Apple and Samsung is narrower than it has ever been, according to J.D. Power’s 2017 smartphone satisfaction rankings that have the iPhone-maker in the lead by just one point.
Apple took the number one spot with a total score of 840. Meanwhile Samsung somehow crept up to the second spot with 839 points, even though it had a disastrous last half of 2016 with the exploding Note 7 fiasco.
2016 wasn't all missed deadlines and mysterious battery problems for Apple. Image: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Apple pissed off a lot of people in 2016. In hindsight, some of Cupertino’s moves look clumsy, and others seem truly clueless, but Tim Cook and Co. also made some brilliant moves during this turbulent year.
Let’s go to our happy place and relive the smartest moves made by Apple in 2016.
HomeKit is now getting packaged into new homes. Photo: KB Home
Apple’s HomeKit platform is set to power an entire community currently under construction in San Jose.
Real estate development firm KB Home revealed today that its new community, Promenade at Communications Hill, will be the first ever in the US to have HomeKit technology built-in, providing a seamless experience from the foundation up.
Apple Watch feels all-new thanks to watchOS 3. Photo: Apple
Apple Watch owners just got a big update today in the form of watchOS 3 that completely changes the way you use Apple’s wearable.
The huge new update comes after months of beta testing by developers and public testers, adding new features like a Breathe app, the ability to unlock your Mac, a new Dock for apps, faster performance and more.
What new features will wow you the most in iOS 10? Photo:
With a host of new features, many of which go more than just skin deep, iOS 10 will bring loads of new functionality to iPhones and iPads.
We got the developer beta up and running to get a look at all the new iOS 10 features in action, and caught it all on video to share with you. Get a glimpse of the iPhone’s future in our iOS hands-on video.