Apple Is Getting Ready To Take On Google and Amazon In a Battle For The Living Room (qz.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Siri may soon be making the jump from your pocket to your end table. Apple has been working on a standalone product to control internet-of-things devices for a while, but a new report from Bloomberg suggests that the company has moved the project from a research phase to prototyping. It would theoretically be pitted against other smart-home devices, including Amazon's sleeper hit, the Echo, and Google's forthcoming Home Hub. According to the report, Apple's device would be controlled using its Siri voice assistant technology. It would be able to perform the same functions that it can complete now on iPhones, Macs, and other Apple products, such as being able to tell you when the San Francisco Giants are next playing, or possibly send a poorly transcribed text message. The device would also be able to control other internet-connected devices in the home, such as lights, door locks, and web-enabled appliances, as Google and Amazon's products can. It would also have the same ability to play music through built-in speakers.

Comments

Two comments

[Anonymous Coward]

1.) There is no "Internet of Things", it's an invention by marketing engineers for a few niche products that nobody needs. Tea kettles without Internet will always be cheaper than those with Internet connection, hence the "internet of things" bubble will burst.

2.) Anybody who voluntarily puts an Orwellian televisor device into his home that transmits everything he says to Google or Amazon or Apple, is mentally retarded and should relieve the world off his presence.

Thank you for your attention!

Re:Two comments

[0100010001010011]

It's coming. Just like self driving cars.

I scoffed at the whole thing too since I did it a decade ago. A SheevaPlug (long before Pi came out) and a $70 relay board shipped from Austrailia and I had Text, Web and E-mail control of my HVAC system. It was a boring 1.0 but it worked for 2 years.

I put it all off and went about my life and started to get back into it and they've improved a lot in 8 years and in another 8 it'll be ubiquitous. 80% of the lights we use every day are on Z-wave. As are locks. HVAC looks to be a RS485 (It's finally made it to residential) and Alexa. We bought the Echo as a 'eh we'll try it out' and it's become a centerpiece to parts of our house. It's convenient and is actually a timesaver. If your hands are covered in chicken from cooking you can set a timer, turn off the lights, and turn to NPR. There's a Jeopardy app that is pretty terrible but a decent beta of what it is capable of.

Yeah, I know you're listening NSA. You can go fuck yourselves on here too. It's not like it's hard to get out of her range. And if the NSA could decipher twice what she could they'd still know nothing.

That said she still has *a lot* of bugs. We'd pay in a heartbeat to upgrade to something that could understand better. But I don't want it for the house, I want it for the office and the shop. "Alex^H^H^H^H Jarvis, order new oil filters". Jarvis what is the volume of the object I'm holding? Jarvis where are the kids. Jarvis start the oven....

If you're a privacy nut there will be a FOSS version that is N-1.5 versions older than what Amazon, Google or Apple are offering. They're already out there. The only thing that's not self hosted right now is Alexa. A Wand board in the basement is running the house. The house has a home page where I can check all the locks, doors kill the lights and check security cameras. Something that would have taken 45 minutes to do before bed I can pull up and check. 45 minutes saved to do *other* things.

And yes, old tea kettles are fine, if you have the exact same rigid schedule. With Alexa and some Arduino you could say "Earl Grey, Hot" and have it ready in a few minutes. Or just start when you are on your way to the office so it's ready.

The entire kitchen is due for an overhaul. Every appliance there has pretty much a hysteresis bang bang controller, it's off or on. It's inefficient and has poor temp control. Could you imagine if your car's cruise control controller was as bad as your oven temp? Everything from opening the door to how stuff cooks is a first order thermo transfer function any sophomore ME could do better. Between the microwave, oven, toaster and/or toaster oven you should be able to make a highly controlled easy bake style oven that would cover the needs of 80% of american kitchens.

And the point isn't that it saves YOU the 0.1$ a week. It's that it saves 300,000,000M people 0.1$. Tiny savings add up when you scale. Semi manufacturers will fight over 0.1MPG savings per truck when talking to Walmart and other fleet operators.

And if you want to live in the woods and rub two sticks together you can still do that. Amish were left be. No one is going to steal your tea kettle. I can still find VCRs on sale in the store, you'll find your tea kettle too.

who buys this stuff?

[nimbius]

Among slashdotters, how many of you have bought any of this landfill fodder? and how long before failure to properly participate in the "internet of things" and "voice assistant" markets along with facebook and twitter isnt considered simply unorthodox, but criminally suspicious?

Re:who buys this stuff?

[LynnwoodRooster]

I have a house full of Z Wave stuff (SmartThings), SONOS speakers, Samsung smart TVs, and a few Alexas to integrate it. It's nice to have it all integrated, and as I go on with my day the house responds and takes care of itself. Watering the garden, turning on and off lights and heating, playing the media I want, even recognizing when I ride up on my motorcycle and automatically opening the garage door and turning on some lights for me (if it's after dark), with no need to fumble for a remote.

Echo

[SeaFox]

... including Amazon's sleeper hit, the Echo...

The Echo is a hit? Citation, please.

Re:You heard it here first

[Austerity Empowers]

By your command.