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Report: Apple To Unveil "Smart Home" System
An anonymous reader writes "According to a report Apple will be unveiling a new smart home system at the upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference. The system will allow users to control security systems, appliances and lighting with their iPhones. A "select number" of device makers will be certified to offer products that work with Apple's upcoming system, according to the report, which didn't name any of the manufacturers."
and no thank you google
plenty of options exist that are already very mature products no need for a vendor lock in with constantly changing terms. open solutions exist many commercially available and or inter-operable with commercially available stuff
The road to hell is paved with good intentions and dreams of financial gains. Aren't they betting that such a system (or its components) cannot be hacked?
... We can get a security system but no SD slot on my iPad ... or a larger screen for my phone, or how about a version of OSX that doesn't suck on my MacBook Pro!
guys, FOCUS!
Google retaliates by buying X-10.
News at 23.
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I'd rather trust an open source system, like MisterHouse to automate my house. Google wants to turn my home into a billboard, and although Apple is less ad-prone, I'd still feel more secure setting up something myself.
Honestly I just do NOT see why anyone would ever want to have their own so crazily wired into the internet. What could you possibly ever use it for? I LOVE technology but I can't for the LIFE of me see why this is even remotely appeasing. Yeah, sure there are security applications. But you'll still probably be buying some expensive service to run it. Why in the HELL would you even WANT to wire up your blinder, oven, or washing machine into the friggin' internet? Given the general price tag attached to Apple gear you'll be having to pay a third again higher price for these features.
And hey... how about we talk about SECURITY? We've recent had an example of a hacker getting into a homes network. Using a baby monitor linked to the net to SCREAM at a sleeping baby. The more ways you connect your home to the internet the more likely you're going to leave yourself REALLY exploded to malicious actions.
If this product requires Internet access to work, I'm not buying. Google bought Nest Labs because its thermostat product reports information to its mother ship--that information can be sold.
one appeal is that it makes money for ipv6 vendors.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
I think it would be quite convenient to have a cell notification go off when the oven has reached the right temperature or has finished cooking, or an alert that my stove has been on for over an hour. I wouldn't object to computer control for lights either (press a button to turn off every light when it's time for bed, etc).
None of these features seem particularly valuable to me, but I'd personally more than happily spend a few thousand for a wired house if I was already dropping hundreds of thousands on the house itself.
Of course your opinion is obviously different, but these systems already exist in multiple forms, so there's obviously a target market for them. The existing technology is also very crude and haphazard for the most part, so anyone who comes along and strong-arms the players into a single standard will probably profit handsomely.
Perhaps people are thinking of it as a "baby sitter" monitor not a "baby" monitor.
I have been making a shitload of money doing it for a decade... except I use the real stuff from Crestron and AMX. Real lighting control, real automation.. To the tun of $20,000- $80,000 per home for the real stuff that does not break or fail all the time.
Home automation has been a reality for a very long time, you just had to spend money on it. And yes my clients have been able to control it all from the internet for 10+ years It's not hard at all to make a secure encrypted tunnel from their phone to the house. So they can look at cameras, control lights, see who is home ,lock or unlock doors, see door status, open or close the garage doors, even control the AV system from a distance (that was one of the more wierd requests from a customer)
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
The system will allow users to control security systems
Surely they mean "property owners"? This will not end well.
When I am considering buying a house, I will probably skip any that have this stuff installed. Home automation is fine, but I don't want to have to join a cult to be able to use it with my Android phone and Windows laptop.
Come to think of it, this applies to car manufacturers too. I already own a top of the line cell phone, so I am probably going to just consider the necessity of switching to an iPhone to use your navigation system an extra cost rather than a feature.
Awesome if you are prepared to rip it out and install a new one every 3 years, when Cupertino yells "Change Places!"
I'm glad you've been making a shitload of money... I'm glad there are people willing to pay it... I don't see the appeal either.. One friend of mine has such a system.. After the install, he asked the installer for the configuration software so he can change the 'mood' or 'scene' settings in his home and the installer said "well, technically i'm not allowed to do that. I license the software from the manufacturer and am not allowed to let the end-user have it. I can see you're more than capable of dealing with it so do you mind if I throw this old version in your garbage can here?" ... I mean, that was awfully nice of him but seriously? Get fucked. Another acquaintance of mine is one of these filthy rich folks... They had us over at christmas one year but the christmas lights on the trees out front didn't come on early enough so she got the installer on the phone and he made the changes remotely for her for only $150/hr... Don't get me started on the multi-colored light switches that no one else knows how to use except the home-owners. If I ever become so stupid that I can't hit a light switch in whatever room I walk into, I need a bullet to the head.
No thanks.
Maybe what we need is a smart editing system for submissions. It's clear that puny humans aren't up to the job.
What could possibly go wrong. Like there are no issues whatsoever with the large scale systems.
Seriously. A $5.99 Home Depot switch is all you need, and I don't see those going away anytime soon.
Nope. It was an internet enabled baby monitor. http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/se...
I can see lights and heat/cold being attached but if you need a reminder text when your oven has reached temperature then you really shouldn't be cooking.
The problem with these systems is simple. you can't easily combine them into one. If a standard came out that was consistent it would jump forward until that time each system bounces around until you can't get products for it any more 5 years later.
GE used to make a low voltage switching system for homes. the only thing still sold is the control relay's and switches. each of those are very very expensive.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
Because nothing says 'exciting new killer app' like home automation products. Yawn.
Living with a connected home for over a decade now. Lights are nice, just starting on color as well as brightness. Security systems well think that is a major feature. Security camera's, arming and disarming via cell phone proximity, and giving status via the phones tablets, tv's and PC's are all killer features for me. Looking at HVAC controls, and really need something more tied in that just the thermostats as it needs to set boiler set-points at least and preferably control multiple systems. Ceiling fans are very nice, automated curtains actually have a noticeable change in heating/cooling bills. Appliances could be nice but need a lot more sensors, dishwashers need some method of knowing if they have a decent amount of dishes in them for example before it's really useful. I don't live in a place where power pricing is particularly fluid so having appliances shift there consumption is not useful to me.
No sir I dont like it.
... to buy a light bulb, come home and read the small text on the box that says: "works with Apple devices only".
We *must* use open standards here and not let Google, Apple or whoever infiltrate our houses any further. But looking at how easily folks sell their soul to Apple or Google (Android), I'm not holding my breath. Next time you buy a house, you'll have to decide Apple, Google or Microsoft...
So I'll have to rewire my house every couple of years when they change from one proprietary cable standard to another?
iPod: Firewire. Buy lots of firewire connectors.
Newer iPod/iPhone: Dock connector. Toss all of your firewire accessories and move to dock connectors.
Newer iPhones: Lightning connector. Toss all of your dock connector accessories, move to lightning.
Everyone else gets to stick with USB that doesn't carry a $10 premium per cable/device because Apple just invented another proprietary standard.
....apple is designing a new line of technology that only the ultra-rich will actually be able to afford. Big surprise there.
Apple makes over-priced, under-performing garbage, the sooner people realize this, the better.
Not content to ONLY give apple two grand for a computer. Tired of only being able to run on one endless upgrade treadmill which reaps Apple 40% margins?
Well boy do I deal for you! Now you can give a company whose security philosophies is 'Viruses? What!? LOL No ways!' control of your sanctum santorum.
Not only that, but you can use the powerline communications to build a Beowulf cluster of your X-10 devices.
for me is a closed system, with a single, secured point of access.. no access for devices to the "cloud", no gathering of profile/marketing data, no cycles or packets used for anything other than providing a worthwhile synergy between devices in the home.
For not-so-smart people....
Be warned that the oven just reached 220C or whatever is nice, it means you can save energy or fuel.
About standards.. lol, in the 80s they said you would be able to do all that crap with an Apple II, etc. So stock on 5.25" floppies.
namely, Bill Gates' home from the 1990s, which changed music, lighting, temperature, all sorts of things when you moved from room to room. thanks to a smart tag that linked to your preferences.
so how'd Apple get that patent, anyway? another case where examiners have a black hood over their cages after their work shift, so they can't read or hear anything?
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
I had someone trying to break in while I was home and I started yelling iHome, iHome, iHome. And they left.
PlanetVulkan.com
If you're paying $80k for an automated home I'd be specifying something around "I'll be changing the mood settings thank you"
I'm with you. I'm currently adding an extension to my house and the only tech that is going into it is regular AC electricity with a DC circuit for LED only lighting and appliances. I'm specifically looking for low-tech appliances, without standby, and without clocks, preferably DC where possible to allow the whole extension to be able to be run off battery if required. I work with tech all day, I know enough about that to know that I don't want that high maintenance shit anywhere near my house.
Where I live I don't need security. I leave the front door open when I leave the house, and I never lock my car. I have no need for HVAC because the weather is pretty good most of the year. I do use a small gas heater for a couple of months to take the chill off, but I can still leave the windows open to keep fresh air coming through. I have no need for fans, or curtains, or sensors, or anything technical and I love my house and where I live. I also happen to live in a major city which is consistently ranked in the one of the top places to live/visit globally. I wasn't brought up here, I moved here for these reasons like this. Sometimes technology isn't the solution to everything...
Basically because their usebase is so fucking dumb, that if everything isn't handed them and they aren't told "this is great stuff", they're lost.
I swear. It's the turtlenecks. They're wearing them too tight.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
I've got cows as neighbors but yet still have security it's not a question of where you live but how vigilant about security you are that is a life choice. You could not get me to want to live in any city no matter what the climate, crime rate, or who says it's the best place ever.
Melbourne AU? Been there nice place, needs AC.
No sir I dont like it.
I remember looking at this stuff in the early 2000's. Which must mean it's time for Apple to claim they invented everything and force established players with proven technology out of the industry.
> A "select number" of device makers will be certified to offer products
Yet another silo. This time controllig my window shutters and heating. Thanks, but no thanks. And less of that from Apple (or Google, or Microsoft or whoever is jumping on that bandwagon).
Now, it is mostly toys for me, but I'm using my LIFX bulbs along with a menu-app for my Mac and a home-made app for my Jolla to turn lights on/off, dimm them, or annoy the wife with various colours.
Later, planning on relocating a LIFX bulb into each kid's room, so I can trivially check if they remembered to switch their lights off at night, dim the lights when it is bed-time, and let them go mad with strange colours! (the kids love playing with the bulbs).
Yeah, could do a lot more (oven is interesting idea), but for now this works for me :)
My home uses the aged, but still very functional, X-10 technology. I designed and built my own operating system agnostic controller that communicated using a serial port. I use it with Linux, but it works just as well with MS Windows, and likely anything else you could throw at it. The only way to have real control is to define your own system and build it yourself, perhaps in a consortium with friends. For the less capable, there are "black boxes" you can wire together to do whatever you want.
get off my lawn.
The article is behind a pay/register wall. Please say it so, so I don't lose my time trying to make out what the reason is for the article not to show.-Ignacio Agulló
it can make a *decent* cuppa. (Before you know you need one.)
Obviously Apple is looking for another elitists market to tap into. Its other markets have become so competitive like smart phones, PC, tablets and the demise of paying for content. That Apple needs another high margin area. Google also has seen this market are of personal home automation as a potential gold mine. Having bought Nest for just that reason. It also gives more data on how people live and puts yet another privacy issue into play. Do I need a automated system adjusting my temp, lights and security in my home? I think not.
But, and be honest now ... given what you've spent on the connected home, is a little energy savings ever going to help you recoup your costs?
Or is this one of those things where you've spent $40K on automation, and have just saved $50 on your heating/cooling?
I'm afraid I will pretty much remain someone who sees the connected home as a cool demonstration piece of technology, but not something I'd ever care to spend the money on.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Crestron suck, is slow, is slow to setup, crashes. That is comming from a Crestron vendor that cannot wait for something decent to come along. Crestron is currently the best because they have modules for everything and a decent RAD platform BUT everything is expensive and ALL Crestron installations require extensive amount of troubleshooting unless you do very casual stuff.
You should not have to spend 80,000$ to fucking trigger switches and adjust values over a slow network using an unresponsive interface that lags like shit.
Apple track record is pretty good and I hope their initiative will be more consummer oriented than vendor oriented like the Crestron of this world.
Do you really trust Apple with security? Blackberry plans on entering this market and I quite frankly trust them more.
http://it.slashdot.org/story/14/05/27/1241220/australian-iphone-and-ipad-users-waylaid-by-ransomware
I use Philip's Hue the same way. I also get texts when doors are left open, I get texts when the dryer or washer is done, I can remotely lock doors, I can remotely shut my garage door, I can set my security alarm, check the video cam, turn on any lights, turn off any lights (including the outdoor floods), turn on and off tvs...I can make it appear as if someone is home and I'm on vacation if I really wanted.
First, whoever programmed those two systems were amateurs. All of my systems have either a tablet or PC interface that allow them to adjust timers and presets.
And yes, it is ILLEGAL for me to give the customer the software for programming and compiling. This is 100% normal for this industry. Does micrisoft give you Visual Studio with your computer? if you want it, you can buy it like the rest of us. It's a tool, do you demand a full toolbox of snap-on tools from the dealer when you buy your car?
Lastly, poor people cant comprehend paying someone to do something for them. $150 an hour is dirt cheap for the rich guy that would need to spend 16 hours learning the programming setup for his house to make a change to a lighting system. Do you really think they even care about a paltry $150? that's the price of lunch.
Also the mutli color light switches tell me that it's also another amateur install of a Vantage lighting system with "lite touch" keypads, the worst product ever sold from that company. Your friends were suckered by a "best buy" level sales person to sell them a half assed system programmed by someone that has no idea how to design user interfaces let alone any kind of automation. And sadly this happens a lot. a full 50% of my business is completely rewriting the software for these people homes and businesses.
Na I'm a DIY sort my spend was well under 100 bucks for the curtains would guess well under 2k total (video security probably half of that). Mind you I've got 50 ish feet of south facing windows with just 2 curtains between them, it would be a vastly different price if I was trying to do blinds in every window. My build was not really motivated by heating/cooling savings the automation itself and a bit of nerd cred was more important.
No sir I dont like it.
If you begin by stating you will never understand something, then there's really not much point in trying to learn about it is there? You've already set yourself a very high bias.
I agree that home automation doesn't really have much return for its risk today but do you really feel home automation is a pointless area to explore? Do you still wash all your clothes by hand and line dry them? Do you not use a microwave? Do you not use an automatic dish washer? Do you not use a thermostat? Those all came out of this sort of push.
My house comes pre-configured with these things, called light switches.
And, that is a perfectly valid reason to do pretty much anything. :-P
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
One thing is for sure, Apple cannot afford to promote a system which is hackable. They just cannot have Chinese hackers turning on and off home appliances. The thought gives me the willynillies. Apple's solution would have to involve encryption, and they would probably keep the signing keys to themselves. I agree with other posters that there are a number of currently viable options, complete with third party hardware options. On the basis of Apple's behavior in the last ten years, I would have trouble depending on them. It could be that any hardware they would provide would have the Apple-Tax, and a three year lifetime before planned obsolescence took it's toll.
And yes, it is ILLEGAL for me to give the customer the software for programming and compiling. This is 100% normal for this industry.
So it is illegal to give the software to control/program the system?
As for 100% normal for the industry that doesn't mean much either. It use to be 100% normal for many Industries to do a lot of things. As time and technology progressed things changed. Cars use to have a proprietary code system, now they use OBD. One had serious vendor lock-in, the other doesn't.
Your example about Microsoft and the compiler is wrong on two fronts:
1) I can grab a copy of MS Visual studio express for home use if I wanted it, completely negating your point.
2) You are talking about the software which interfaces with the home automation system. The only reason it is not provided is to guarantee repeat business and force a "support contract".
This is just like in the good old days when only GM could service GM cars thanks the the proprietary codes/equipment designed to remove competition. This didn't last long before others started to complain.
Walking into a room to have it open the curtains if a bunch of logic is met is fun, tied together with logic for the lighting to come on/change dimming levels/change color is even more fun. Looking at integrating better with the home theater bits, closing curtains and dimming lights is nice for a movie overkill for the GF listening to an episode of murder she wrote. Also looking at something like boblight toned down for the whole room.
No sir I dont like it.
And just like the iMessage fiasco, when you decide to ditch your iPhone and switch to Android, your security system won't be able to be turned off and when you call Apple they'll tell you the solution is to buy another iPhone.
No thanks.
Wrong. It's Control4, apparently. Regardless, I can see you're one of these know-it-alls that comes in and tears apart everything someone else has done and puts in his/her own religion... "It's ILLEGAL! OH NOES!" ... If your 'solution' requires the customer call you in order to change the controls in their home, then you're just the same level of asshole...
I'd like to know when my washing machine or dryer was done without having to check it.
It would be useful to know when my doors / garage door were open. I know this part can be done with existing products.
This is more than 45 years overdue. Apple was in position to dominate this market two generations*before* you start.
The Mac IIfx had slave processors that were essentially a 6502 with a bunch of other stuff on the chip that could handle the AppleTalk network.
AppleTalk could be run over the second pair of the home phone wiring.
All they needed to do was sell the $10 chip to go into anything that someone would want to control in the home . . .
At the time, Apple would have gone broke selling a $100,000 Rolls Royce they built for $1k by insisting on building the garage to go with it . . .
hawk
Well I think there's a significant difference here between rather mundane conventional devices and trying to needlessly tie everything into the internet. What benefit is there to having, say, a washing machine that connects to the internet? Or a refrigerator? Or a microwave? Lighting could have a utility as related to the security system. But controlling your HVAC system through the internet?
This is not to say I'm saying that no one should have these things. I'm very libertarian about most things. So people should be able to spend their money on any kind of fluff that the wish. I simply can't understand why anyone would want such a set up. Hell, if nothing else this system is probably going to cost thousands of dollars to implement into a home. Money that could probably be better spent buying high quality appliances that aren't tired into an Apple system.
Well I think there's a significant difference here between rather mundane conventional devices and trying to needlessly tie everything into the internet. What benefit is there to having, say, a washing machine that connects to the internet? Or a refrigerator? Or a microwave? Lighting could have a utility as related to the security system. But controlling your HVAC system through the internet?
This is not to say I'm saying that no one should have these things. I'm very libertarian about most things. So people should be able to spend their money on any kind of fluff that the wish. I simply can't understand why anyone would want such a set up. Hell, if nothing else this system is probably going to cost thousands of dollars to implement into a home. Money that could probably be better spent buying high quality appliances that aren't tired into an Apple system.
I too do not know where this all might lead, but that's the beauty of innovation: sometimes unexpected advancements happen. I can see having a refrigerator one could query the contents of remotely could be useful at times. The cost (in terms of risk, privacy and cost) probably outweighs the benefit today but the steps today lead to the steps tomorrow and so forth. Not wanting to participate in these steps makes a lot of sense--I don't either--but not seeing the appeal is blind to advancements we haven't conceived yet.
Better than Melbourne. Too cold in winter there, and too hot in summer...
Exactly - home automation is in the complex/expensive/professional specialty market. Apple has the potential to take it to the easy/cheap/consumer market. Kinda like what they have done dozens of times over the decades - with laser printers, image editing, fonts, iMovie, iDVD and SuperDrives (a Mac with a SuperDrive cost 1/5th the cost of an industrial DVD burner at the time), iPOD, multitouch, mobile apps, etc., where they get it right as a complete end-to-end system that's consumer friendly and get traction where earlier players didn't. So it may not do everything the Crestron stuff does (their stuff is awesomely powerful) but it would presumably be nice and easy, not require a professional to do the install/configuration, etc., thus creating a consumer level home automation market that's (in unit volume) orders of magnitude larger than the current market.
But who knows, perhaps people will enter the home automation market, outgrow Apple's version, and become new high-end customers for you?
Enable 3D printed prosthetics!
If it's "cloud based" then it's already a failure. home automation needs reliability, and the "cloud" does not deliver that.
the NEST thermostat, Phillips HUE are two great examples of this, they REQUIRE the cloud for all their features and my customers will not accept that. it had better work 24/7 so they do not use the cloud at all for their automation systems.
Yes it would be easier for me to just pull weather from yahoo.com but we install a $350 rs232 capable weather station so they have true local weather with 99.9% reliability.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Apple kicked off its 2014 Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco today with a slew of new product announcements and updates, most of which will be available in the fall to the general public.