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HomeKit

developer.apple.com

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71–80 of 146 posts

Re: HomeKit

#71

Post by prawn »

zmmmmm wrote: post #34

Dear Apple, please for the love of god and the good of everyone, get together with Google and iron out a common protocol for this stuff. Don't make this one of your competitive technologies designed to fragment the world into Apple and not-Apple. Home automation is just dying to take off and there's a pile of gold for everyone if you just show a tiny bit of cooperation to get it started ... And you can all still sue…

Wonder if we'll see futures houses advertised for sale as being Apple, Google or whatever other brand supported properties. Not too keen on that concept.

Re: HomeKit

#72

Post by bsilvereagle »

logn wrote: post #53
tmuir wrote: post #27

Does anyone have any shred of information about this at all? Since when do placeholder pages completely devoid of any details whatsoever make it to the top of HN?

On that page, there are links to both the API reference and a beta SDK.

To get to the relevant hardware information you have to have an Apple Dev account, unfortunately.

Re: HomeKit

#73

Post by pingswept »

wwweston wrote: post #51
general_failure wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a very myopic view. Technology needs to advance in all fronts. Once these things are integrated as part of your daily life you wont notice them anymore and will take them for granted. These things will actually end up conserving energy in great amounts.

> This is a very myopic view. Technology needs to advance in all fronts Citation, please. Or at least a clarification of what you mean by "advance." If you like, here's an example from writer Wendell Berry: "To make myself as plain as I can, I should give my standards for technological innovation in my own work. They are as follows: 1. The new tool should be cheaper than the one it replaces. 2. It should be at least…

It appears that you're being downvoted, but I've found Wendell Berry to be one of the most insightful writers about the weaknesses of technological advances, despite the fact that he doesn't use a computer. Reading his essays would be worth the time of a lot of young programmers, if only to learn why old people scowl at their newfangled gizmos.

"But what could someone who never uses a computer know about computers!?!" They could know what is lost when you use a computer, and, in general, you can't get that perspective from the Hacker News crowd (or nearly anyone under 30 or so). I don't agree with everything he writes (especially not the religious stuff), but he's very wise, I think.

If intrigued, one might try "The Unsettling of America" (1977), "What Are People For?" (1990) or "Sex, Economy, Freedom, and Community" (1993).

Re: HomeKit

#74

Post by prawn »

untog wrote: post #25

Shrug. Maybe I'm stuck in the past, but am I the only one not really excited for this kind of thing? Turning lights, air conditioning on and off isn't exactly a huge problem in my life.

No, it won't be a huge deal initially, but incremental changes will come with time and investment in the field.

Blinds that automatically open/shut based on time of day and internal/external temperatures to prevent against heat loss during winter. I'd be keen on that as it's not something my wife ever considers. At the front of the house, we have six windows in two rooms, all with separate blind controls. What I'd give to automate the process of opening those in the morning and closing them at night...

Microwaves that switch off standby (ultimately uses more power than actually cooking something) once it learns which hours you tend to use it. Garden lighting systems, irrigation systems that can check the weather via your phone and adjust schedules if it's going to rain, etc.

Re: HomeKit

#75

Post by skeletonjelly »

avar wrote: post #68
zmmmmm wrote: post #34

Dear Apple, please for the love of god and the good of everyone, get together with Google and iron out a common protocol for this stuff. Don't make this one of your competitive technologies designed to fragment the world into Apple and not-Apple. Home automation is just dying to take off and there's a pile of gold for everyone if you just show a tiny bit of cooperation to get it started ... And you can all still sue…

Just like mp3 players and touchscreen smartphones never took off due to Apple maintaining a walled garden around the iPod and the iPhone? If they come up with a compelling product there will be competitors and standardization.

The MP3 codec already existed, and touchscreens have nothing to do with a "common protocol", unless you count being a human with a capacitance as a protocol.

Re: HomeKit

#76

Post by pandaPower »

untog wrote: post #25

Shrug. Maybe I'm stuck in the past, but am I the only one not really excited for this kind of thing? Turning lights, air conditioning on and off isn't exactly a huge problem in my life.

I think that there is a real opportunity for accessibility options here. For some people verbal access to changing the air conditioning or lights or whatever might make a huge difference and the more people use it for convenience the more the price will drop for everyone.

edit: comma removal

Re: HomeKit

#77

Post by nkohari »

wwweston wrote: post #51
general_failure wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a very myopic view. Technology needs to advance in all fronts. Once these things are integrated as part of your daily life you wont notice them anymore and will take them for granted. These things will actually end up conserving energy in great amounts.

> This is a very myopic view. Technology needs to advance in all fronts Citation, please. Or at least a clarification of what you mean by "advance." If you like, here's an example from writer Wendell Berry: "To make myself as plain as I can, I should give my standards for technological innovation in my own work. They are as follows: 1. The new tool should be cheaper than the one it replaces. 2. It should be at least…

> Citation, please.

Opinions don't require citation.

Your list of requirements for technological innovation is somewhat suspect considering you're discussing it via a tremendously expensive international network of computers, which is mostly powered by coal-generated electricity, who you likely paid a multinational telecommunications company to access.

Re: HomeKit

#78

Post by Frozenlock »

zmmmmm wrote: post #34

Dear Apple, please for the love of god and the good of everyone, get together with Google and iron out a common protocol for this stuff. Don't make this one of your competitive technologies designed to fragment the world into Apple and not-Apple. Home automation is just dying to take off and there's a pile of gold for everyone if you just show a tiny bit of cooperation to get it started ... And you can all still sue…

There's already a common protocol... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7836739

Re: HomeKit

#79

Post by wting »

aroch wrote: post #60
krschultz wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I absolutely doubt that Apple will. Look at AirPlay. Look at AirDrop. Look at iMessage and Facetime. Even their original content formats were not all that portable. Some of those are for technical/licensing reasons, but many are not.

Or at Google...Hangouts, their AIO messaging framework, is not either

If you feel compelled to mention Google Hangouts, you should note that Google abandoned XMPP federation after 8 years (2005 - 2013) since other companies built walled gardens and leeched users instead.

http://www.zdnet.com/google-moves-away-from-the-xmpp-open-me...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Talk

Re: HomeKit

#80

Post by wting »

prawn wrote: post #71
zmmmmm wrote: post #34

Dear Apple, please for the love of god and the good of everyone, get together with Google and iron out a common protocol for this stuff. Don't make this one of your competitive technologies designed to fragment the world into Apple and not-Apple. Home automation is just dying to take off and there's a pile of gold for everyone if you just show a tiny bit of cooperation to get it started ... And you can all still sue…

Wonder if we'll see futures houses advertised for sale as being Apple, Google or whatever other brand supported properties. Not too keen on that concept.

That's happening in the auto industry. Many cars feature Apple integration while Google is leveraging Android:

http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/6/5279116/google-open-automot...

https://www.apple.com/ipod/car-integration/#mercedes

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