While Google’s Nest and Amazon’s Alexa Smart Home can assist the control of many devices, Apple Home, which utilises a HomePod or an iPad as a hub, is an alternative to these technologies, it may be far more sophisticated. It’s possible that Apple’s software is falling behind the competition. With a few little tweaks and improvements, the company’s hardware may stand out above its rivals. This was proved lately by a clever software engineer named Bastian Andelefski.
A big, powerful smart speaker called the HomePod was released by Apple in 2017, and it was a lot better than the other smart speakers at the time. It was sold for $350, which was more than Amazon and Google had expected it to cost.
It was only in 2020 that Apple’s HomePod mini did come out with a cheaper smart speaker that had a built-in U1 chip as well as the ability to connect to more devices. If you want to send and receive ultra-wideband (UWB) signals, Apple’s U1 chip can do that. UWB signals go through walls effectively than Bluetooth and can tell where you are more accurate than most of the other wireless signals in your home, like Wi-Fi.
Many Apple patents say that UWB can be used for a lot of different things, but not many have been used except for finding Airtags. U1 chips are also featured in the iPhone 11, 12, 13, and Apple Watch Series 6 and 7, amongst other devices.
Instead of having to wait for Apple, Bastian Andelefski showed off a smart home prototype in a video on YouTube. With an iPhone, Andelefski was able to control a lot of smart bulbs quickly.
In light of this, Amazon, Google, and Apple’s major smart home systems are severely insufficient and should be replaced with a more user-friendly design. When you use intelligent controls, you don’t have to scroll through lists or remember the names of things.
Apple presently has a significant advantage in the smart home market because of Andelefski’s demonstration of how easy it should be to utilise the technology. U1 chips have been installed in millions of iPhones over the past three years, so any iPhone built in that time period would be able to select a smart home device by pointing at it. The Apple Watches that have been introduced over the last 2 years can also do this. More if the use of “Precision Finding” to locate an AirTag within about an inch is fantastic, smart home applications are arguably even more useful in this situation.
Because the iPhone can detect orientation and connect with the gadget, it knows which controls to bring up for quick access. For instance, smart lights could have on, off, dimming, and colour options, while a smart thermostat would have temperature controls on the screen that show how to set the temperature. It is possible to open, close, or angle smart blinds to let in or block sunlight by pointing at them.
Property investment company, RWinvest, recognises that the use of smart home devices is growing quickly, as developers look for ways to bring living spaces up to date and increase energy efficiency. However, in order to do this, the user interface is the most important thing that needs to improve. As Andelefski explains in the video’s conclusion, launching this product without the support of a huge firm is pointless, and Apple Home is the system that could bring this to market rapidly, but other smart home device manufacturers could also incorporate this.
