Belkin’s smart-home accessories brand, Wemo, is “backing away from Matter and dimming our dreams of a smart home utopia.” That’s according to a report published Wednesday.
At a time when companies are rushing to ready products for the new smart-home networking standard, which is meant to let different brands work together, Wemo’s hesitation is a surprise.
Its products work only with HomeKit. Now it looks like that won’t change anytime soon.
Ikea unveiled its new indoor air-quality monitor Tuesday. With a name that sounds like a Swedish jet fighter — Vindstryka — it’s designed to help you combat pollutants in your home or office. And it will be HomeKit- and Matter-compatible through the Ikea Dirigera hub after the company updates it.
The Swedish home furnishings giant set an April launch date for the monitor but hasn’t added a price tag yet.
Apple has not given up on updating the underlying architecture for its Home app. After initially pulling the upgrade, the company is working on version 2 and could release it soon.
The Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) showcased companies and products using the newly available Matter home-automation standard at a launch event in Amsterdam Thursday.
The group, which includes Apple, Google and many other companies, emphasized the standard’s building momentum and drew a rough road map of what’s to come.
The third-generation of Eve Light Switch adds support for Thread and will be updated with Matter, keeping it on the cutting edge of smarthome tech. The smartswitch continues to support Apple HomeKit.
It can be used as either a single-pole or 3-way switch.
Apple announced a plethora of iOS 16 features at WWDC22. But not all of them made their way into the first public release of the OS in September. Some of them will arrive later this year or even in early 2023.
Check out this list of iOS 16 features that we are still waiting for.
The wait is over for Matter 1.0. The Connectivity Standards Alliance, which includes Apple, Amazon and many more, has introduced the cross-platform home-automation standard after lengthy delays.
It is intended to break through the walled silos of Apple HomeKit, Amazon Alexa and Google Home, allowing accessories from a wide range of companies to communicate. It might finally make smart homes more common … potentially even mainstream.
The recent news that iPads won’t function as Home Hubs with iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 stands corrected. Apple now says they’ll work. But they won’t benefit from any new features in the revamped HomeKit and Home app.
And that’s likely to be a pretty big drawback.
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.
Working to automate your smart home with better security? Aqara recently updated its Motion Sensor for HomeKit, renaming it the Motion Sensor P1 and adding sensitivity modes and longer battery life — up to five years.
