One connected lock does not a smart home make. If you want to get serious with home automation, start with a smart home platform. When you first get started with home automation, you’ll quickly find that your smart gadgets do even more when they work together. Yes, it’s great that your smart lights can turn on automatically at sunset and your smart lock will lock itself, but what’s even better is saying “Good night” to a voice assistant and having the shades lower, the lights turn off, the door locks lock, and the alarm system arm. For this, you need a smart home platform. As a smart home reviewer, I am often asked which is the best platform to use.…

Apple at WWDC this week announced a new TipKit framework that will allow developers to offer tips in their apps on iOS 17, iPadOS 17, macOS Sonoma, watchOS 10, and tvOS 17. These tips can help to surface hidden features, highlight brand new features, show a faster method of accomplishing a task, and more. Tips may appear next to a button or other user interface element in an app at timely moments, providing contextual information about features. Of course, apps can already offer their own tips and helpful information, but Apple is now providing a native solution with a consistent design. Apple has a WWDC session with more details for developers interested in TipKit, but there is no documentation available…

Apple at WWDC this week announced a new TipKit framework that will allow developers to offer tips in their third-party apps on iOS 17, iPadOS 17, macOS Sonoma, watchOS 10, and tvOS 17. These tips can help to surface hidden features, highlight brand new features, show a faster method of accomplishing a task, and more. Tips may appear next to a button or other user interface element in an app at timely moments, providing contextual information about features. Apple has a WWDC session with more details for developers interested in TipKit, but there is no documentation yet. iOS 17, iPadOS 17, macOS Sonoma, watchOS 10, and tvOS 17 will be released to the public later this year, and more apps…

Image: Apple Apple has a new development framework that can be used to turn your iPhone into an autonomous pet-tracking camera. According to documentation on Apple’s website, developers can use pet-tracking features with motorized phone stands to capture and follow your pet around your house while you’re not home. As noted by Apple, developers can achieve this using a new framework called DockKit, which can create “photo and video experiences” while an iPhone is mounted on a motorized stand. From there, devs can then use something called the Animal Body Pose API (application programming interface), which is capable of identifying and tracking animals with your phone’s camera. It’s able to identify a pet’s pose, too, including if your pet is…

Stratechery‘s Ben Thompson has used an Apple Vision Pro in a controlled demo and found the experience extraordinary, tweeting “It’s far better than I expected, and I had high expectations.” 19″ align=”alignnone” width=”660″] Apple Vision Pro features an ultra-high-resolution display system that packs 23 million pixels across two displays — more than a 4K TV for each eye — and the brand-new R1 chip, for a virtually lag-free, real-time view of the world.[/caption] Ben Thompson for Stratechery: The high expectations came from the fact that not only was this product being built by Apple, the undisputed best hardware maker in the world, but also because I am, unlike many, relatively optimistic about VR. What surprised me is that Apple exceeded…

Stratechery‘s Ben Thompson has used an Apple Vision Pro in a controlled demo and found the experience extraordinary, tweeting “It’s far better than I expected, and I had high expectations.” Apple Vision Pro features an ultra-high-resolution display system that packs 23 million pixels across two displays — more than a 4K TV for each eye — and the brand-new R1 chip, for a virtually lag-free, real-time view of the world. Ben Thompson for Stratechery: The high expectations came from the fact that not only was this product being built by Apple, the undisputed best hardware maker in the world, but also because I am, unlike many, relatively optimistic about VR. What surprised me is that Apple exceeded my expectations on…