Any joy for the rumored home hub?

Is anyone else’s getting excited for the rumored Apple Home Hub, whether it’s announced next week or later in the year?

I’ve been looking into some sort of dashboard and control panel for a while now, but it looks like it needs to be dyi. Apple is good at making things just work. Echo show is fairly useless plus has ads and collects personal data, but Apple has been selling on privacy. Most other products have been too simple or restricted or locked in but apple has been big on matter-thread, apple has fairly mature software. Most importantly I can expose a lot of controls from Home Assistant over HomeKit. Apple home hub could finally be the one.

View original on lemmy.world

Comments3

Sumocat

lemmy.world

I really don’t understand the appeal. I have all my home controls on my iPad and iPhone as widgets, shortcuts, and/or automations, and my main controls are available in widgets on Home Screen, Today View, and Control Center. I have no shortage of HomeKit controls.

AA5B reply

lemmy.world

While I agree that would never be my primary control - actually voice is. In reality I press the physical button or ask Alexa to, using a digital device is third most common. But I still want a dashboard

My thermostat senses my approach and lights up with a detailed dashboard: why can’t the rest of the house?

where’s my equivalent of the calendar on the fridge so I can see my upcoming schedule?
where’s my conveniently placed doorbell viewer? By the time I unlock my phone, start up doorbell cam app, and click into that cam, they’ve been waiting too long. Not that I greet my mail delivery person but she shouldn’t already be crossing the yard on her way out before I see who’s at the door
where’s my graph of energy consumption without clicking? Temp and humidity? Air quality?
where can I glance to see overall house status before going to bed? Why do I still need to manually check doors and windows, turn from lights?

Sumocat reply

lemmy.world

It’s counterintuitive, but I am too deep in the Apple ecosystem to need a standalone home controller. I have a dashboard I carry to any room I’m in, a backup in my pocket, and voice controller on my wrist that can cover all those examples (minus the door cam I don’t have), and I can use them all when I’m not at home. Turning off my lights is the last thing I do from my iPad when I go to sleep, and my iPad is the first thing I touch when it wakes me in the morning.