HomeKit

Link

Latest Amazon TVs Will Support AirPlay 2, HomeKit

Charlotte Henry ·

Amazon released its Omni and 4-Series Fire TVs on Wednesday. It also announced that the devices will soon support AirPlay 2 and HomeKit, according to The Verge.

Amazon has already rolled out AirPlay 2 and HomeKit to some of its “Fire TV Edition” TVs from Toshiba and Insignia. Curiously, these features have yet to come to the company’s standalone Fire TV streaming devices — including the just-released Fire TV Stick 4K Max. I’m not sure if that’s an intentional choice, but it’s a bit odd that Amazon is ready to announce support on day one for its brand-new TVs with nothing to share about AirPlay 2 coming to its cheaper devices. (Roku supports AirPlay 2 on both its players and Roku TVs.)

Cool Stuff Found

Nanoleaf Lines Improve Decor Possibilities in Smart Lighting

Jeff Butts ·

Nanoleaf has been offering unique possibilities for blending smart lighting with home decor for years. Its latest product lineup, Nanoleaf Lines, gives you even more ways to light up your space. Each segment is 11 inches long and provides up to 20 lumens of brightness. You can set the lights to more than 16.9 million colors, and each segment has two color zones. This allows you to easily blend your color palette within your design. You can configure your Nanoleaf lines to sync with your music or Mac’s display. Nanoleaf Lines supports Apple HomeKit and also works as a Thread border router, allowing you to extend the reach of your smart home network without additional hubs. The starter kit, retailing for $199.99, comes with 9 light lines, a controller, a power supply, and everything else you need to get started. Expansion packs provide you 3 more light lines for $69.99. The smart lights are available for preorder now, with shipping expected in late November 2021.

Podcast

Remembering The Hokey Pokey — Mac Geek Gab 887

John F. Braun & Dave Hamilton · · Add Comment

How much Cool Stuff Found can your Two Favorite Geeks share? You’re about to find out! Listen as John and Dave share all of your (and their) Cool Stuff Found, PLUS answering a slew of your networking and networking-related questions. Good stuff this week, folks, and it’s all because of you. Press play, listen, and enjoy learning five new things!

Link

Arlo Update Fixes Apple HomeKit Issue

Charlotte Henry ·

Arlo confirmed to AppleInsider that it has fixed a bug that prevented users adding its smart home devices to Apple Homekit. The fix came was included in the latest version of its iOS app – version 3.5.1

That version, which has a release date of August 6, is currently available from the App Store. “Arlo appreciates the patience of our loyal customers, and is excited to share that an iOS app release with a remedy to the HomeKit issue is now available,” the company said. Earlier in August, AppleInsider began receiving reports from users about issues adding new Arlo devices to HomeKit. The problem appeared to affect HomeKit tokens, which caused users to get stuck on the “Requesting HomeKit info” screen when adding devices to the Apple smart home platform.

Podcast

Offsite Backups, Blocking Scammers, Quick Tips, and More – Mac Geek Gab 872

John F. Braun & Dave Hamilton · · Add Comment

As Apple users, we have lots of technology needs which extend beyond that which are made by the fruit company. Listen as your two favorite geeks share their thoughts and answers to your questions about Offsite Backups, Blocking Scammers, DVRing today’s video content, and much more. Press play and learn at least five new things along with Dave and John.

Link

Adding Car to HomeKit for In-App Controls and Automation

Charlotte Henry ·

Self-confessed “home automation enthusiast” Siobhán Ellis integrated an electric car into her Apple HomeKit setup. In a blogpost (spotted by MacRumors) she explained what she did and how she did it.

After I initially wrote this blog post, I wondered if there was a HomeBridge integration into the Jaguar InControl API. InControl enables a number of things, such as remotely seeing if the car is unlocked, how much it’s charged and if it is charging. It also enables pre-conditioning, which is the warming up of the car before you travel somewhere so the batteries work at peak efficiency. As it happens, there is a plugin, called Jlr Incontrol. Installation was easy, although I must say it came up with a few warnings.