A Core Value, Not a Marketing Tactic:

Unlike some tech giants who monetize user data, Apple positions privacy as a core value, baked into the design and architecture of its products and services. This philosophy is evident in several key features:

• End-to-end encryption: Messages, photos, and other sensitive data on Apple devices are encrypted by default, making them unreadable even to the company itself. This ensures only authorized users can access the information.
• App Tracking Transparency: This feature empowers users to choose which apps can track their activity across other apps and websites, significantly reducing the amount of data collected by third parties.
• Privacy Labels: The App Store displays clear labels outlining how apps collect and use user data, allowing informed decisions before downloading.
• On-device processing: Whenever possible, Apple processes data directly on user devices, minimizing the amount of information stored in the cloud and reducing the risk of data breaches.

Responding to New Threats:

Apple recognizes the dynamic nature of cyber threats and continuously enhances its security measures. Recent examples include:

• Advanced Data Protection for iCloud: This optional feature utilizes end-to-end encryption for even more sensitive data categories like photos and backups, offering an additional layer of protection.
• iMessage Contact Key Verification: This feature verifies the identity of contacts before delivering messages, making it harder for attackers to intercept communications.
• Security Keys: Users can now leverage physical security keys for two-factor authentication, adding an extra barrier against unauthorized access.

Transparency and Control:

Apple prioritizes user control over personal information. Features like App Tracking Transparency and detailed privacy settings empower users to make informed choices about their data. Additionally, the company publishes yearly transparency reports outlining data collection practices and government requests for user information.

Challenges and the Road Ahead:

While Apple’s commitment to privacy is commendable, challenges remain. Critics argue that some features limit app functionality and hinder targeted advertising, potentially impacting user experience. Balancing privacy with functionality will be an ongoing struggle. Additionally, emerging threats like deepfakes and zero-day exploits necessitate continuous adaptation and innovation in security measures.

Conclusion:

Apple’s dedication to data privacy and security sets a high bar for the tech industry. By prioritizing user control, implementing robust encryption, and adapting to evolving threats, Apple offers its customers a valuable layer of protection in an increasingly data-driven world. However, the journey towards absolute privacy is ongoing, and Apple, alongside other industry players, must continuously innovate and collaborate to address new challenges and maintain user trust in the digital age.

One of the big changes in iOS 17 for CarPlay users is the addition of SharePlay support for Apple Music. This feature allows anyone in the car to control and contribute to what’s playing via Apple Music, rather than just one person.

SharePlay in CarPlay didn’t seem to work properly in iOS 17 beta 1, but I took it for another test drive with beta two this week. My takeaway? This is going to be a very, very fun feature.

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The post Hands-on: CarPlay in iOS 17 adds SharePlay for Apple Music listening parties, even for long-distance friends appeared first on 9to5Mac.

Communication Safety first launched in the U.S. with iOS 15.2 in December 2021, and has since expanded to Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, and the U.K. With the software updates coming later this year, Apple is making the feature available globally.

Communication Safety is designed to warn children when receiving or sending photos that contain nudity in the Messages app. Apple is expanding the feature on iOS 17, iPadOS 17, and macOS Sonoma to cover video content, and it will also work for AirDrop content, FaceTime video messages, and Contact Posters in the Phone app.

When the feature is enabled, photos and videos containing nudity are automatically blurred in supported apps, and the child will be warned about viewing sensitive content. The warning also provides children with ways to get help. Apple is making a new API available that will allow developers to support Communication Safety in their App Store apps.

Apple says Communication Safety uses on-device processing to detect photos and videos containing nudity, ensuring that Apple and third parties cannot access the content, and that end-to-end encryption is preserved in the Messages app.

iOS 17, iPadOS 17, and macOS Sonoma will be released later this year. The updates are currently available in beta for users with an Apple developer account.

This article, "iOS 17 Expands Communication Safety Worldwide, Turned On by Default" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Slowly, everyone is agreeing that the Vision Pro is a TV, but I’m struggling to believe that it will actually replace the TV sets in your home.

Apple’s Vision Pro is a TV. It’s not even out yet, but that feels well established at this point. While it can play games and do VR experiences and mimic AR through terrific feats of engineering, the use case with the most traction so far is you can strap it on your face and effectively have a 100-plus-inch 4K HDR TV set without the need to find wall space in your house.

But while it’s clear Apple has crafted a gorgeous content consumption device that should have incredible displays that could potentially replicate the quality of a high-end television like the LG C2 OLED or the Samsung QN90B, let’s be serious. This thing ain’t replacing the TV anytime soon.

Some people would claim it’s not supposed to. That it will instead be a supplement, similar to the 3D TV that returned to the scene in 2010 and disappeared a few years later because the majority of people don’t actually care that much about basketballs and arrows popping off the screen and into their vision. Like the 3D TV, the Vision Pro even requires you to wear special glasses and has limited usability for those with vision issues. But also like the 3D TV, it will face massive content challenges. Part of the reason the 3D TV failed was because not nearly enough studios, TV channels, and sport organizations adopted it.

Apple showed off plenty of exhilarating sports examples in its carefully controlled demo, but given we can only get very select NBA games in 4K and only on DirecTV, I’m not really confident courtside 3D is just around the river bend.

So let’s focus on it just being a 2D content consumption device because it will take quite a few years for Hollywood and the sports world to catch up — even if this thing is a runaway hit and sells millions in months.

Instead of a TV in every room, you could put on the Vision Pro and have the content follow you in a little corner of your vision while you cook meals, do laundry, or shitpost online. But the Vision Pro starts at $3,499. That’s the same price as approximately six 32-inch Samsung The Frame TVs. The quality of the Vision Pro will likely be superior to the 32-inch Samsung TV, but one can be enjoyed by anyone in the home and blends in on the wall like art. The other is a pound of face computer your neck and shoulders must carry from room to room and isolates you from everyone around you.

That isolation has given people pause. Others can’t enjoy the Vision Pro’s content alongside you unless they have their own Vision Pro. We have plenty of examples of other gadgets that have similarly isolated people. From the Game Boy to the phone you might be reading this piece on, there are a lot of devices that are intended to be operated and enjoyed solo. Notably, TVs are not one of them. Televisions are typically communal devices. You like to call out the heinous antics on Netflix’s The Ultimatum to the person sitting on the couch next to you or laugh at the creepy CGI in the latest live-action adaptation of a Disney film. On the Vision Pro, that isn’t happening until you both have your own and also the Vision Pro streaming apps support watch parties. Given how long it’s taken streaming services to support watch parties on the web or set-top boxes, you’ll forgive me if I don’t see this happening at launch for most services.

But the thing really holding the Vision Pro back from replacing TVs isn’t price or weight or the inherent loneliness of using a face computer. It’s that the Vision Pro won’t support all the same media a TV can. Instead, it’s the walled garden of a phone.

To play the PS5, you wouldn’t be able to hardwire it in; instead, you’d need to use Remote Play, hope your local area network is robust enough, and pray there’s no heavy pixelation as the stream from your PS5 is heavily compressed to travel along Wi-Fi and into your headset with minimum lag. I currently occasionally play my PS5 on my Steam Deck and on my iPhone, and while it can be a good-enough experience, it is in no way as crisp or clean as when I play it on my TV. Because the Vision Pro lacks HDMI ports, I’d be stuck with the same experience there, only on a virtual 105-inch TV. That doesn’t sound great!

The same holds true for the Xbox and other cloud gaming services. Apple, notoriously, isn’t a fan of allowing cloud gaming on its iOS platform, and to get it working, web apps have to be employed. Why on earth would I want to play a lower-resolution web app version of the upcoming Starfield on a virtual 105-inch TV when I could whip the headset off, give my neck a break, and play on a TV, sans web app and severe compression?

As a gadget nerd, I know why. Because new and novel forms of content consumption are fun. I’m okay with using junky Android E Ink tablets to read books or $3,500 VR headsets to watch movies because I will happily suffer all the issues and weirdness and tradeoffs for the experience of something new and different.

Most people (present company excluded) aren’t. People want things that are easy, and they want things that are fast, and they want things that are affordable. A $3,500 VR headset that’s arguably as good as a $1,500 OLED TV is going to be a hard sale for the vast majority of people, and even when the price eventually comes down or the nearly as good but significantly cheaper Apple Vision is inevitably released, this thing still won’t be replacing the TV in the majority of homes.

]]> https://www.latest-apple-news.com/2023/06/14/three-wwdc-software-announcements-that-hint-at-new-apple-home-gear/ Wed, 14 Jun 2023 10:30:00 +0000 http://www.latest-apple-news.com/?guid=af09b363491e4e60869ac180da34386d Macworld

Hardware was by no means in short supply at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference. Not only did Apple launch three new Macs but there was also that little matter of a revolutionary spatial computer. But just as the company uses its annual gathering to show off what software features are coming down the road for its platforms, it turns out that it’s also the ideal occasion for Apple prognosticators to read between the lines and see what additional hardware devices might lie just beyond the horizon.

This year, more than most, shed some light on a few places that Apple might be looking to expand its footprint–notably in the home. That’s a market where Apple has staked a few meager claims in the past, but hasn’t really invested in expanding over the past several years. But if this year’s software news is any indication, that may be about to change.

StandBy for launch

It’s not every day that Apple launches a novel interface for its most popular device, but the company managed to slip one in while dishing about iOS 17. The new StandBy mode takes a page from the Apple Watch’s Nightstand feature. When your iPhone is charging and in landscape, it can display information in a large, glanceable format. That could be as simple as a clock, or as complex as a Smart Stack of widgets.

This feature made me sit up in my seat at the keynote, because it sure seems as though this would be the ideal way to present information on a HomePod with a screen. Apple’s competitors in this market, Amazon and Google, have offered their own takes on that kind of device over the past few years, but Apple has stuck steadfastly to the utterly display-less HomePod and HomePod mini, despite recurrent rumors that the company is working on a version with a screen.

Foundry

Adding a display to the HomePod opens up a ton of possibilities, especially with two key features that Apple’s implementing: support for Live Activities, which can offer proactive and timely information (such as viewable timers or sports scores), and—best of all—the ability for Siri to display query results onscreen. To every HomePod owner who’s been repeatedly frustrated by having Apple’s voice assistant report that it sent more information to your iPhone, this seems to finally deliver on the idea of an ambient computing platform that truly lets you go hands-free.

Maintaining Continuity

The last few revisions to the Apple TV have been fairly minor, but with tvOS 17, Apple is also hinting at a potentially bigger move to come. The company’s announcement of Continuity Camera support for its set-top box finally transforms the device into a usable appliance for video calls, by allowing people to use their iPhone or iPad as a camera and microphone.

As someone who has weekly Zoom calls in their living room, this is welcome news. There have been reports over the years that Apple is working on an Apple TV with a camera for just such a purpose, and while I’d welcome such a device, the implementation of this feature has me wondering whether or not there’s a need for it. I’d wager most Apple TV owners already have an iPhone or iPad; the idea that Apple would build a camera and mic directly into an Apple TV seems odd: where would it go? Would that even make sense with where most people put their set-top boxes? It seems even more unlikely that the company would build an external camera and microphone unit for you to place somewhere else.

Then again, this might be an opportunity for Apple to see whether such a device would get any traction in the marketplace. The company will no doubt be able to see how many users take advantage of this feature for both FaceTime and third-party video conferencing options; if it’s a hit, then maybe another hardware device could be in Apple’s future.

Apple

Preparing for DockKit

Speaking of videoconferencing appliances, there was one other interesting tidbit that didn’t garner keynote time but could play a major role in an Apple product for the home: DockKit. This development framework allows apps to work in concert with motorized iPhone docks, enabling them to track the subject of a video around a room. Similar technology has existed in products like Meta’s Portal videoconferencing device.

Apple, of course, doesn’t make a motorized iPhone dock of its own, but whenever it opens opportunities like this to third parties, it’s generally worthwhile to ask whether there’s a first-party reason for the technology. In this case, it’s not hard to imagine a future Apple videoconferencing device that can follow you around the room–a hardware version of the company’s Center Stage feature. (Why go through the trouble of building hardware if Center Stage already exists? For one thing, a motorized dock supports 360 degrees of panning, while Center Stage is limited to whatever direction the device’s camera is facing.)

Now, bear with me as I go out on a limb: maybe these aren’t separate devices, but rather a single new device with a movable camera for videoconferencing and a display for status information. With Siri onboard you have yourself an ambient computing device that can handle a ton of different tasks that users might otherwise have needed to pull out their iPhone or iPad to do. Maybe, at long last, Apple can really justify putting that “home” in “HomePod.”

HomePod, iOS

As connected becomes the default for every household appliance — from TVs and washing machines to ovens and vacuums — we break down exactly what makes a home ‘smart’ and help you decide if it’s the right fit for you.

I find the simplest way to explain the concept of a smart home is that it’s a natural evolution of our homes. A smart home isn’t fundamentally different from a “regular” home — it’s just the improvement of one. In the same way that electricity made our homes better and more functional, so is connectivity improving the way we live in and use our homes.

I’ve lived in a smart home for a decade. Every morning at 5AM, the lights in my living room and kitchen turn on, the pet feeder feeds my border terrier, and my security system disarms. Around sunrise, the shades raise, and the thermostat goes from sleep to home mode as the house prepares for its people to get out of bed. Upstairs, the bedside lamps slowly brighten and adjust their warmth to rouse us with some simulated natural light before the alarms on our smart speakers go off.

I dismiss my alarm by tapping it, and my voice assistant reads my calendar appointments for the day and tells me the weather so I can plan what to wear. As I walk into the bathroom, a motion sensor turns the lights on, and — if it’s after 6AM — the smart speaker starts playing the radio for 15 minutes.

When we leave the house for the morning school run, the door locks behind us, the lights shut off, and the robot vacuum starts its chores. When I arrive home an hour later, the robot returns to its dock and empties itself, the door unlocks as I approach, and the lights turn on.

At 8AM, as I walk upstairs to my home office, the smart thermostat adjusts, and the lights downstairs turn off. In the office, I press a smart button, and the lights switch to daylight mode, the ceiling fan starts whirring, my monitor powers on, an air purifier kicks in, and the smart speaker starts playing music quietly as I begin my workday.

Every action in this morning routine is automated. The lights, locks, thermostat, and other appliances are connected to each other and the internet by wireless protocols that allow these automations to control them. I can also make adjustments at any point via an app on my phone or with a voice command to a smart speaker. All of this is because I live in a smart home.

What is a smart home?

Smart homes contain “smart” versions of common household appliances: light bulbs, light switches, electrical outlets, thermostats, locks, doorbells, vacuums, refrigerators, washers and dryers, and so on. What makes a device smart is its connectivity — either to the internet, to other devices, or often both. As we put chips into more and more devices, we’re creating an Internet of Things. How a device connects varies (more on that in a bit), but broadly the connectivity allows for three things: remote control, communication with other devices, and over-the-air updates.

By being connected, smart devices have a number of benefits over their non-connected counterparts. A smart door lock still locks your door, but now, you can lock and unlock it when you’re not at home. A smart sprinkler system will still water your garden, but now it can avoid overwatering by not running before, during, or after a rainstorm. A smart light switch will still turn the lights on and off when you flip it, but it can also turn them on automatically using a motion sensor and even turn on lamps and lights in different rooms.

Another distinction between smart devices and their standard counterparts is intelligence. With embedded sensors, software-powered artificial intelligence, and machine learning, some smart devices can understand the environment they’re in and react a certain way. A smart shade with a temperature and light sensor can lower when it starts to get warm; a robot vacuum can avoid your pup’s accidental bathroom deposit because its camera knows what dog waste is; a smart doorbell can learn who visits your home and tell you when someone you know — or more importantly, don’t know — is at the door.

Smart devices can talk to each other. A contact sensor on a window can tell a thermostat to shut off when it’s open, an air purifier can tell a fan to start running when air quality is poor, and a motion sensor can tell lights to turn off when no one is in the room. And, as with my morning routine, multiple devices can be grouped into routines that adjust everything in your home automatically.

Finally, and most importantly, smart devices can receive over-the-air updates. This means they can get better (or, in some cases, worse) over time. Unlike a standard thermostat, a smart thermostat can be updated with features and abilities it didn’t have when you bought it. For example, Ecobee’s smart thermostat launched with Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant built-in. After an over-the-air update, it now also works with Apple’s Siri.

But beware, what can be given can also be taken away. A recent example is Google announcing it’s ending support for its smart security system, Nest Secure, leaving users with useless paperweights (although Google will help you recycle the devices). Anything connected to the internet needs regular security updates. And while companies are starting to provide timelines for how long they will support their hardware with software updates, if and when they do, that device may not continue to work as designed as long as its non-smart counterparts. While basic functionality should remain in most cases (although not with the Nest Secure), the fancy features you paid extra for could be gone.

Why would you want a smart home?

Here’s a look at some of the benefits a smart home might offer you:

A safer home: Connected home alarm systems, cameras, locks, and lights can be controlled remotely and monitored from a smartphone or tablet, so you can always know what’s going on in your home wherever you are. Smart lighting can be set on schedules to make it look like someone is home. Smart locks let you give someone access to your home without putting a key under the flowerpot.

A more energy-efficient home: Individual devices like a smart thermostat and smart sprinklers can help conserve resources and save money by lowering energy and water use. Smart energy monitoring of appliances can identify patterns of use and offer suggestions for ways to save energy. More recent technologies, such as Samsung’s SmartThings Energy service, use artificial intelligence to proactively adjust energy use based on the data it collects. For example, if it knows you never open your fridge between 11PM and 5AM, it will increase the temperature by one degree overnight.

A more convenient home: The first smart device people buy is often something that solves a specific problem. If you’re always forgetting your key, you can get a smart lock that opens with your phone or fingerprint. If you never know when the mail arrives, a contact sensor on your mailbox can alert your phone or smart speaker. If you can’t reach a window to close the shades, a motorized blind paired with a smart speaker lets you control it with your voice. If you don’t want the doorbell to ring when the baby is sleeping, a smart doorbell lets you turn the chime off.

A more comfortable, fun home: Having lights that turn on and off based on a schedule or your presence is a convenient feature. But smart LED lighting also adds to comfort and fun. Color-changing LED lights can enhance movie time and take dance parties to the next level. Tunable white LEDs can help keep your circadian rhythm on track by automatically adjusting the tone of white light to energize you during the day and help you wind down at night. Smart speakers have made multiroom audio much easier and more affordable than ever before — pair a few sub-$50 smart speakers together around your home, and you can stream your favorite tunes in every room all at once.

A more helpful home: Smart appliances such as robot vacuums, smart fridges, washing machines, and ovens can take care of some chores for you and help you do others better. A smart fridge can keep track of what food you have and prompt you when you’re running low, a smart washer can tell its dryer counterpart which setting to use for the load it just finished, and a smart oven can adjust the cooking time so your turkey doesn’t overcook.

A more accessible home: All of these functions, while helpful, can be game-changers for people with limited mobility. Controlling locks, lights, shades, appliances, and more by voice or with a touchscreen device such as a phone or tablet can allow people with disabilities to have more independence. Smart buttons that can trigger automations and routines offer a simple, accessible interface for children or those with limited cognitive or physical functions, and programming routines in someone’s home so that they happen automatically can make a huge difference in someone’s daily life.

For example, an automation for an older person with limited mobility who lives alone can turn smart lights on in the morning, open the shades, brighten the lights during the day, and then dim them at night while closing the shades. This can mean the difference between sitting in the dark all day or being able to feel more connected with the outside.

Accessibility in the smart home is not just about helping people with more challenges than most. It’s also the smart home’s long play. All of us will get older, and most of us want to stay living in our own homes for as long as possible. Smart technology can help us “age in place.” If we kit out our homes with connected devices today, they can take care of us tomorrow.

How does a smart home work?

At its core, a smart home is built on connectivity. To have a smart home, you need the following:

• An internet connection.
• A Wi-Fi router (if your home is larger than around 800 square feet or you have a lot of connected gadgets, consider a mesh router).
• Smart devices, such as light bulbs, locks, thermostats, speakers, and security cameras.
• A smart home app and / or platform to set up and program the devices.
• A way to control them, such as a smartphone, tablet, or voice-controlled smart speaker.

Smart home devices use wireless protocols for connectivity. There are several in use today, and you can mix and match protocols in your home as long as the smart home platform you choose supports them. There are some proprietary protocols, but most smart home devices use one of these five:

• Z-Wave
• Zigbee
• Wi-Fi (2.4Ghz and 5Ghz)
• Bluetooth LE
• Thread

Some of these protocols require a hub or bridge to work; others just rely on a Wi-Fi router or smartphone. All can work with Matter, a new open standard that provides a common communication standard for devices and is seen as a unifying technology for the smart home. This means that whatever protocol a smart device uses (unless it’s Bluetooth, which is only used for onboarding in Matter), they have the potential to work with Matter. However, whether the device actually will is up to the individual manufacturer.

To use and set up smart devices, you’ll need an app on a smartphone or tablet. Nearly all devices come with their own app, but as you add more devices to your smart home, you’ll likely find you want a single smart home platform to control them through. This also lets you connect devices from different manufacturers together into routines and automations.

There are five major platforms, all of which support Matter. Plus, there are a number of smaller ones that fit more specific needs and more complicated setups. We’ve written deep dives into each of these platforms on The Verge, and they’ll be available later this week:

• Amazon Alexa
• Apple Home
• Google Home
• Samsung SmartThings
• Home Assistant

What are the drawbacks of a smart home?

If you’ve gotten this far, you may think: this is awesome — where do I start? But here comes the warning label. There are myriad issues with the smart home, from compatibility to complexity — not to mention privacy and security. Even if those issues don’t concern you, one big problem is that the smart home suffers as soon as you try to scale (unless you spend a lot more money for a professional installation). Individual devices work great, and gadgets from the same manufacturers normally work well together, but as soon as you try to tie multiple devices into more complicated automations and routines — the ones that really add value — problems can arise.

Here’s a look at the biggest drawbacks of today’s smart home.

It’s not all compatible: Not everything works together. The smart lamp you bought may work with Apple Home and your iPhone but not with your son’s Android phone. Your roommate might have two Google Nest smart speakers, but because you have Amazon Echos, no multiroom music in the whole apartment for you. If the smart lock in your new home is Z-Wave, you can’t control it without buying a smart home hub.

These are just a few examples of why compatibility is such a problem. It causes confusion and frustration and leads to the next issue.

It gets complicated: While it’s hard to know which devices to buy that will work with what you have. Once you have chosen your new gadget, setting it up can be tricky. Then you also need to spend time figuring out how to get the most out of its features and how to connect it to your existing devices to set up those automations that make a smart home feel, well, smart.

Both of these issues are exactly what Matter was developed to try and solve. A giant industry collaboration involving Apple, Amazon, Samsung, Google, and many more, Matter has the potential to fix compatibility issues, which will go a long way toward making the smart home easier to set up. But Matter is still very new, and until there is industry-wide adoption, it’s not a solution for today.

It’s costly: Adding smart tech to a light bulb, door lock, or garage door opener makes them more expensive. Additionally, more and more device makers are adding subscription fees to devices to manage the ongoing costs of cloud servers and resources for providing both feature and security updates to their products. While you get more for your money — a garage door you can close from the office versus one that stays open all day because you forgot to shut it — when it comes to choosing to buy a new garage door opener or a retrofit smart controller, is that enough reason to spend more?

It doesn’t always work: From an overreliance on the internet (if your Wi-Fi is down and you can’t control your lights, you are not going to be happy) to weekends spent troubleshooting why your smart speaker no longer understands the command it had no problem with last week, the smart home is often… not smart. When it all works, it’s pretty magical, but when it doesn’t, it’s very frustrating.

It’s scary: Security and privacy concerns in the smart home are very real. Ultimately, a smart home requires trust. Even with advances in machine learning on the edge (where devices don’t have to use the cloud to process data), you are still sharing intimate details of your life with the companies whose devices you bring into your home. Right now, I’d say that’s the biggest reason to consider not adopting the smart home in its current form.

What is the future of the smart home?

Today’s smart home is mainly about remote control and preprogramming devices to help you. You can use voice control to turn lights off when you’re lying in bed so you don’t have to get up. You can schedule a robot vacuum to run every day at 10AM so you don’t have to think about sweeping your floors. But the smart home of tomorrow has the potential to become proactive and do things for us without our prompting — or even, perhaps, without us even knowing.

Here is where artificial intelligence could transform the smart home. We already have hints of it today. A smart leak detector that knows when the dishwasher is overflowing can shut off the water. A smart thermostat that knows when no one is home can adjust the temperature to save energy. Amazon’s Astro home robot can recognize and find people in the home. But many of these experiences are siloed, relying on specific hardware and software. By deploying its predictive capabilities on unifying smart home platforms, AI could be used to collect, analyze, and interpret data from different smart home devices so you don’t have to.

For example, today, you can set up an automation that will unlock your door, turn on your lights, start your sprinklers, shut off your HVAC system, and have your cameras start recording video when a smoke alarm goes off in your house. But the key word is you — all that will only happen if you put in the work to set up the automation. In the future, a smart home could have the intelligence to do all of these things automatically, and — crucially — only if there is an actual fire, not just when you burn the toast.

For this interoperable future to be a reality, however, we need a common connectivity protocol so that all devices can talk to each other and not be limited by only working with certain platforms. This is where Matter becomes key to the future smart home. The other major piece of the puzzle is data collection.

A smart home is only as smart as the information it has. Today, we have to stick motion and contact sensors in our rooms to tell us when things move or open and close, but newer, less intrusive technologies, such as mmWave radar, ultrasound, and Wi-Fi sensing, could provide the context smart devices need to make our homes truly smart rather than just remote controlled devices.

Ultimately, just as our cars have done, our homes will become sophisticated computers, capable of self-diagnosing and even fixing problems while intelligently responding to our needs. It’s a natural evolution. And, even if you don’t like the idea of a “smarter” home, how about a better one?

Photography by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

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