Is Apple coming home to stay?

Apple officially announced its smart home event, which will happen on Tuesday. I’ll be there covering it for you!

Jason Snell posted a great overview of where Apple is with its smart home platform and how it got here. I agree that Apple leaving the AirPort Wi-Fi line behind was a real missed opportunity, and I think branding the new smart home display simply as “HomePod” could be perfect. Jason’s conclusion is worth noting here, but his full article is a great read ahead of Tuesday.

“After years of Apple never engaging with the smart home category for very long, this is an opportunity for a reset. What Apple announces on Tuesday will be a good start, but we’ve seen good starts from Apple before. It needs to keep its eye on the category, keep shipping new products, and continually improve its home software. If this is just a short-term lease, it’ll be pointless. Apple needs to get a mortgage and settle into its new home.”

Onvis released a new outdoor smart plug

Onvis has a new outdoor smart plug that works with Matter over Thread and has energy monitoring. Energy monitoring is great for triggering automations when the smart plug starts drawing over a certain amount of power. This way, if you have non-smart products on a schedule or a simple motion sensor trigger, you can use their power-up to trigger other smart lights in your home. This comes just in time for setting up outdoor lights for the holidays.

LG product installation instructions discovered

One of last week's big rumors was that Apple is partnering with LG and Schneider Electric to make smart home accessories designed specifically for Apple Home.

A couple of weeks ago in this newsletter I discussed the growing trend of OS decompilation discoveries. Relatively new code-decompilation leaker PDFU has uncovered all kinds of details in the latest betas about Apple’s second-party home products and iPhone Duo. This includes installation instructions for some of Apple’s rumored second-party products. These installation instructions don’t show the full picture of features for these devices. Does the deadbolt support HomeKey Ultra-Wideband? I also find it interesting that LG and presumably Apple are branding it as a “Deadbolt” and not a smart lock.

PDFU has also uncovered some clever proximity control instructions from Apple’s software. Want to control your thermostat? Just tap your iPhone to pull up the controls. Also, the lack of discoveries on integrations with the rumored smart home display makes me wonder if it will launch later this year.

The Schedule

Last week was a busy week on the channel. I published a Prime Day deal roundup and a video about my experience with the XGIMI AURA 3 Max projector. We also had a live stream on Thursday night.

I hope you have a great rest of your Sunday,

Eric