Top Apple HomeKit Accessories You Can Buy

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey everyone dan with MacRumors and in this video we're gonna take a quick look at some of our favorite accessories or products that take advantage of apple's homekit for those of you who are not familiar with home kit this software framework allows users to set up configure and control compatible smart home devices via voice dictation with Siri or an application like Apple's own home app for example you can say things like set the thermostat to 68 degrees or turn on the lights if you're also unfamiliar with the home app here you can set up and configure all of your home can enabled accessories set up various scenes groups and rooms throughout your house once you have everything in place you can use this app to control your smart home products so now that we have a general understanding of what you can do with home kit here are some of our favorite products that you should check out the first category of products that we're going to start with is smart locks and we have a few different locks that are currently used in my home the August smart lock is one of the first smart locks that I've used and it works really well the August is compatible with a few different popular deadbolt manufacturers and because of this installation is super simple the lock only replaces the deadbolt portion on the inside and the outside remains the same so once you have everything set up you can access all of the custom settings and options within the app like setting up auto lock and unlock and an interesting feature called door sense which can actually let you know when the door itself is open or closed in addition to it being locked or unlocked the Yale assure lock with the im1 Network module is another great smart lock that works really well with home kit compared to the Auguste lock the Yale assure has a much different style this lock will in fact replace the entire deadbolt on both the inside and outside giving you a completely keyless experience the cool thing about this is that it actually gives you a keypad outside to help you lock and unlock your door create pin codes for guests etc the network module on the inside is actually what allows the lock to be used with Siri and apple homekit however if for some reason you're watching this video and you do not use home kit or prefer Google assistant for example you can actually purchase additional modules for Google assisted compatibility there's also the Yale secure app which can give you access to your lock from anywhere in the world as well as other features and settings like auto lock unfortunately unlike the August app there is no auto unlock feature when you arrive home but you can always just ask Siri when it comes to lighting there are loads of options to choose from that work with homekit the most popular being philips hue and lifx both companies have bunch of different lighting accessories for multicolored lights to light strips etc one major difference between Hugh and lifx is how they connect to your Wi-Fi Philips hue connects to your home with the help of the hue hub while life flex Bob's connect to Wi-Fi directly and do not require a hub from here you can set up custom scenes and schedules and can even pair them with other smart home accessories of course using Siri to control those scenes and rooms throughout your house can be very convenient I personally use this feature all of the time when arriving at the studio or at my house and my hands are full and I need to turn the lights on another fantastic lighting option is the Nano leaf Aurora which are LED tiles that are in the background of a lot of these videos these tiles can be arranged in almost any design that you desire and individual tiles can be programmed to a different color the app has a ton of awesome features included and custom scenes can be created and you guessed it you can control all of this by siri and the Hohmann our next category is smart thermostats and our recommendation for this would be the sensi touch Wi-Fi thermostat there are lots of cool features that this thermostat offers like smart alerts from one extreme temperature or humidity changes are detected geofencing for when you leave and return home and flexible scheduling the app is simple in design and it's easy to use but my favorite way to interact with my smart thermostat is of course via Siri honorable mention goes to the ecobee and their lineup of thermostats which also work with home kit I've not personally tested these thermostats but I've heard nothing but good things about them if you have something in your house that's not a smart device or home kit enabled there are actually plenty of accessories out there that will help you turn your everyday product into a smart one for this example we have the I devices switch which is a Wi-Fi smart plug that you can plug anything into and turn it into a home kit enabled device so in my studio it gets really cold and I use this Dyson hot and cool fan sometimes I lose the room and admittedly don't always want to walk across the room to turn it on so I plugged the fan into my I devices switch and now I can say things like hey Siri turn on the fan and boom my fan is now on and ready to use you can use this little guy with anything from your coffee pot straightener regular lightbulbs TV etc sometimes controlling all these devices with Siri or the home app on your phone just isn't easy but luckily there are a lot of accessories out there that are designed to help you out with this so if you have a family member in your home who just wants to turn the lights on using some sort of physical switch or button you can actually pick up something like the logitech pop or the elgato Eve button which is a simple button that can control any of your home kid devices with a simple press in fact with multiple taps on the switch or even a long press you can set these buttons up to perform various tasks throughout your house if you're strictly focusing on lighting Philips hue offers the hue tap which has four customizable buttons that can turn on specific lights rooms or scenes with a simple button press honorable mention here goes to the Apple home pod although Siri is not the best voice assistant compared to Amazon's Alexa or Google assistant it's pretty good at controlling your homekit devices and the home pod has incredible microphone technology that can hear you from well across the room even when loud music is playing a couple of these around the house and there'll be no need to have your phone with you to ask Siri to control your smart home let us know your favorite homekit accessories in the comments down below and if there are any specific devices that you would like us to check out this has been down with MacRumors thanks for watching and I will see you in the next onehey everyone dan with MacRumors and in this video we're gonna take a quick look at some of our favorite accessories or products that take advantage of apple's homekit for those of you who are not familiar with home kit this software framework allows users to set up configure and control compatible smart home devices via voice dictation with Siri or an application like Apple's own home app for example you can say things like set the thermostat to 68 degrees or turn on the lights if you're also unfamiliar with the home app here you can set up and configure all of your home can enabled accessories set up various scenes groups and rooms throughout your house once you have everything in place you can use this app to control your smart home products so now that we have a general understanding of what you can do with home kit here are some of our favorite products that you should check out the first category of products that we're going to start with is smart locks and we have a few different locks that are currently used in my home the August smart lock is one of the first smart locks that I've used and it works really well the August is compatible with a few different popular deadbolt manufacturers and because of this installation is super simple the lock only replaces the deadbolt portion on the inside and the outside remains the same so once you have everything set up you can access all of the custom settings and options within the app like setting up auto lock and unlock and an interesting feature called door sense which can actually let you know when the door itself is open or closed in addition to it being locked or unlocked the Yale assure lock with the im1 Network module is another great smart lock that works really well with home kit compared to the Auguste lock the Yale assure has a much different style this lock will in fact replace the entire deadbolt on both the inside and outside giving you a completely keyless experience the cool thing about this is that it actually gives you a keypad outside to help you lock and unlock your door create pin codes for guests etc the network module on the inside is actually what allows the lock to be used with Siri and apple homekit however if for some reason you're watching this video and you do not use home kit or prefer Google assistant for example you can actually purchase additional modules for Google assisted compatibility there's also the Yale secure app which can give you access to your lock from anywhere in the world as well as other features and settings like auto lock unfortunately unlike the August app there is no auto unlock feature when you arrive home but you can always just ask Siri when it comes to lighting there are loads of options to choose from that work with homekit the most popular being philips hue and lifx both companies have bunch of different lighting accessories for multicolored lights to light strips etc one major difference between Hugh and lifx is how they connect to your Wi-Fi Philips hue connects to your home with the help of the hue hub while life flex Bob's connect to Wi-Fi directly and do not require a hub from here you can set up custom scenes and schedules and can even pair them with other smart home accessories of course using Siri to control those scenes and rooms throughout your house can be very convenient I personally use this feature all of the time when arriving at the studio or at my house and my hands are full and I need to turn the lights on another fantastic lighting option is the Nano leaf Aurora which are LED tiles that are in the background of a lot of these videos these tiles can be arranged in almost any design that you desire and individual tiles can be programmed to a different color the app has a ton of awesome features included and custom scenes can be created and you guessed it you can control all of this by siri and the Hohmann our next category is smart thermostats and our recommendation for this would be the sensi touch Wi-Fi thermostat there are lots of cool features that this thermostat offers like smart alerts from one extreme temperature or humidity changes are detected geofencing for when you leave and return home and flexible scheduling the app is simple in design and it's easy to use but my favorite way to interact with my smart thermostat is of course via Siri honorable mention goes to the ecobee and their lineup of thermostats which also work with home kit I've not personally tested these thermostats but I've heard nothing but good things about them if you have something in your house that's not a smart device or home kit enabled there are actually plenty of accessories out there that will help you turn your everyday product into a smart one for this example we have the I devices switch which is a Wi-Fi smart plug that you can plug anything into and turn it into a home kit enabled device so in my studio it gets really cold and I use this Dyson hot and cool fan sometimes I lose the room and admittedly don't always want to walk across the room to turn it on so I plugged the fan into my I devices switch and now I can say things like hey Siri turn on the fan and boom my fan is now on and ready to use you can use this little guy with anything from your coffee pot straightener regular lightbulbs TV etc sometimes controlling all these devices with Siri or the home app on your phone just isn't easy but luckily there are a lot of accessories out there that are designed to help you out with this so if you have a family member in your home who just wants to turn the lights on using some sort of physical switch or button you can actually pick up something like the logitech pop or the elgato Eve button which is a simple button that can control any of your home kid devices with a simple press in fact with multiple taps on the switch or even a long press you can set these buttons up to perform various tasks throughout your house if you're strictly focusing on lighting Philips hue offers the hue tap which has four customizable buttons that can turn on specific lights rooms or scenes with a simple button press honorable mention here goes to the Apple home pod although Siri is not the best voice assistant compared to Amazon's Alexa or Google assistant it's pretty good at controlling your homekit devices and the home pod has incredible microphone technology that can hear you from well across the room even when loud music is playing a couple of these around the house and there'll be no need to have your phone with you to ask Siri to control your smart home let us know your favorite homekit accessories in the comments down below and if there are any specific devices that you would like us to check out this has been down with MacRumors thanks for watching and I will see you in the next one\n"