Posts Tagged → homekit

About that Rumored Apple Command Center

Rumors are percolating about Apple creating a home command center for launch next year. According to Mark Gurman, it’s roughly a six-inch square iPad that you hang on the wall, allowing you to control your HomeKit devices and other helpful home command center-y type work.

I’m interested if they can get it right. This also reminds me of my wish for something like this in the form of an Apple TV app, displaying the date, calendar items, the weather, and the like.

Every year or two, I look for status board-style applications in the vein of the now-abandoned Panic app, and to the extent there are any, they never seem quite good enough. If this were to work, I expect Apple would need to create it. If, however, they’re selling a separate product, I think the likelihood of that status board app for my Apple TV becomes even less likely.

Beyond HomeKit: Will Apple Make a Smart Home Camera?

According to reports, Apple is developing a smart home camera slated for 2026. Such a device would be a natural extension of Apple’s commitment to privacy and artificial intelligence, potentially offering the seamless user experience we’ve come to expect from Cupertino. If given proper support, an Apple camera could be compelling. This potential move raises an interesting question: Why hasn’t Apple been more aggressive in the home automation accessory market? Apple-branded switches, light bulbs, and locks would likely find an enthusiastic audience, particularly given the current fragmented smart home landscape. The answer may lie in Apple’s exacting standards. Perhaps, until now, they haven’t felt they could deliver these products sufficiently better than the competition to justify the work.

But at this point the concerns with smart cameras — fiddly apps and interfaces and massive privacy concerns — point directly at Apple’s wheelhouse.

If this camera rumor indicates a shift in strategy, it’s a welcome one. The current smart home market is crowded with vendors of varying reputations and security standards. An Apple-branded line of smart home products could bring much-needed clarity and confidence to consumers who want to embrace home automation without compromising their privacy.

HomeKit Secure Video Wish List

Bradley Chambers posted a HomeKit Secure Video wish list asking for 2K camera support, continuous recording, and higher camera limits (you are currently limited to five). I agree with all of these points, particularly the last one.

With HomeKit Secure Video, Apple has a solution that lets its users securely store video in the cloud without paying a third-party vendor. More importantly, unlike all of the camera vendors that want to store your video for you, Apple is not a company likely to be bought up by a bigger company, making your video data part of a financial transaction.

I have been using HomeKit Secure Video with my eufy cameras, and it works great. I’d really dig it, however, if Apple let me put more than five cameras into the system.

Additional Considerations for Home Security Cameras

Over the past few years, home security cameras have got better and cheaper. That’s good. Now anyone can set up a home security camera and keep an eye on the front door or the dog. The problem, however, is that all of these cameras are not created equal. There are two issues you need to consider when purchasing a camera that manufacturers don’t often mention: commerce and security.

Commerce

A lot of the camera racket has turned into a razor and blades style business. You get the cameras but then you end up spending around $100/year to have their cloud storage. That may be worth it to you, assuming the vendor knows what they’re doing and they have a good security model. I have trust issues with all of these vendors. How much of a stake do they really have in protecting your privacy? How much effort are they putting into keeping all that video from your house safe?

Security

It’s called a security camera but is it actually secure? This is particularly a concern if you do use the vendor’s cloud storage. Do you want anyone in the world able to look at your front door or your dog? Vendors are slowly coming around on this. Ring just announced that you can add end-to-end encryption to your video on their servers but it is (currently) off by default.

I continue to be happy with my Eufy cameras. They didn’t break the bank. They’re holding up fine and they work with Apple’s HomeKit Secure Video service that gets me encrypted online storage as part of my iCloud account (that I’m already paying for).

The Very Slow Roll Out of HomeKit Secure Video


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A year ago, Apple announced a new HomeKit feature, dubbed Secure Video, where Apple would agree to store your security camera video on its servers for you without an additional fee. I like this idea. Not only do I not want to pay someone to store this data, I also don’t necessarily trust third parties with home camera footage either. Apple’s a big company. They are not going to get acquired and they have a stated interest in protecting user privacy. The whole idea of HomeKit Secure Video makes sense.

I left WWDC last year thinking it wouldn’t be long before I had HomeKit Secure Video working in my home. Well, that was over a year ago, and there has been very little progress. Logitech released a HomeKit update for their nearly $200 Circle 2 camera. I bought one as an experiment and it has never worked satisfactorily. The camera is often unavailable with no explanation of why, and it feels like Logitech dropped the ball on this one. Moreover, the price is prohibitive if you want to put several of them in your home. There are almost no other vendors supporting HomeKit Secure Video.

Things are getting better, though. Eufy, a subsidiary of Anker, recently announced that their home line of Eufy cameras is going to get full HomeKit Secure Video Support (9to5 Mac has all the details). It sounds like they’re going through an approval process right now. I have a few Eufy exterior cameras, and I’m much happier with them than my prior Canary cameras. The Eufy cameras stay connected, have an option for local storage, and seem way more reliable than anything else I’ve ever used. Best of all, their indoor cameras start at $40. There may be hope yet for HomeKit Secure Video, but it sure has taken a long time.