Apple Working With Home Builders to Bolster HomeKit Adoption
Apple is partnering with various building companies to integrate its HomeKit platform directly into homes from the get-go, with the hopes that such ingrained smart home features will convince prospective buyers into sticking with the Apple ecosystem for the long haul. The news comes in a report by Bloomberg, which looked specifically at a four-bedroom stucco house in Alameda, California as one of Apple’s many HomeKit-enabled properties coming to the market.
David Kaiserman, president of the technology division at construction company Lennar Corporation, walked Bloomberg through the potential advantages of buying a smart home from the start, mainly centering around the sometimes frustrating installation of devices like smart blinds and locks. In the home in Alameda, Siri responded to “Good Morning” light requests, while Apple’s new Home app played music from connected speakers, and even ran a bath. All told, $30,000 worth of connected technology was integrated into the house.
The model smart home in Alameda, California
Apple’s vice president of product marketing, Greg Joswiak, said that the company’s goal with these so-called “test beds” of internet-connected smart homes is to eventually introduce complete home automation into a mainstream market, which could otherwise be tricky if users have to go out and buy dozens of separately-sold products. As such, Joswiak concluded that “the best place to start is at the beginning.”
The gamble is that pricey wireless home devices will be an easier sell when bundled into the home itself. Builders market granite countertops and brushed-nickel fixtures at thousands of models homes across the U.S. Why not video doorbells?
“We want to bring home automation to the mainstream,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of product marketing. “The best place to start is at the beginning, when a house is just being created.”
Purchasing a house with smart devices already installed doesn’t appear to come at a discount, however. The $30,000 worth of products inside the Alameda home included devices like Lutron’s automated shading system, which starts at $349, and the Schlage Connect Touchscreen Deadbolt, which retails for $199. As Bloomberg pointed out, “a regular deadbolt fetches $32 at Home Depot — and there’s always hiding a key under the flower pot.”
Apple is said to be working with other builders besides Lennar, including Brookfield Residential Properties Inc., but neither company said when the smart homes would actually go up for sale. Kaiserman mentioned that he hopes working with Apple in the smart home market will produce a “halo effect,” in any neighborhood that the homes sell in, convincing potential buyers that the new home has a “cool” factor that other properties nearby lack.
All the same, some people watching the rise in connected home devices believe “the hype may be getting ahead of the reality,” with examples given centering around products like a wireless onesie for a baby that can turn on lights and play soothing music when the child stirs. Likewise, IDC analyst Jonathan Gaw cited “useless” products like the recently announced smartphone-controlled candle LuDela, which “only hurts the message. It tells people that we have gone too far. There’s too much crap out there, it’s only diluting stuff that’s really cool.”
For people interested in smart home tech, it’s predicted that a total of $24 billion will be spent on home automation in 2016. While it may take a while for its popularity to catch on, research firm Strategy Analytics believes that number will jump to over $40 billion by 2020, potentially with the help of companies like Apple leading the way into whole-home integration of the technology.
Check out the full Bloomberg report here.
Tag: HomeKit
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T-Mobile to Pay $48 Million For Lack of Transparency About Throttling Data-Heavy Users on Unlimited Plans
The FCC today announced it has reached a $48 million settlement with T-Mobile, including a $7.5 million fine and $35.5 million in consumer benefits, following an investigation into whether the carrier adequately disclosed speed and data restrictions for its so-called “unlimited” data plan subscribers.
FCC investigators determined that ads and other disclosures from T-Mobile, and its prepaid brand MetroPCS, failed to adequately inform customers about its policy that de-prioritizes the top 3% of its heaviest data users during times of network contention or congestion, resulting in slower network speeds.
“Consumers should not have to guess whether so-called ‘unlimited’ data plans contain key restrictions, like speed constraints, data caps, and other material limitations,” said FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Travis LeBlanc. “When broadband providers are accurate, honest and upfront in their ads and disclosures, consumers aren’t surprised and they get what they’ve paid for. With today’s settlement, T-Mobile has stepped up to the plate to ensure that its customers have the full information they need to decide whether ‘unlimited’ data plans are right for them.”
As part of the settlement, eligible T-Mobile and MetroPCS subscribers will automatically receive an additional 4GB of 4G LTE data for one month in December and be offered 20% off any single accessory at participating T-Mobile stores with a promo code to be sent via text message in December.
Good settlement with FCC today. @TMobile believes more info is best for customers. #themoreyouknow https://t.co/XFY6dHPfN6
— John Legere (@JohnLegere) October 19, 2016
T-Mobile has agreed to update its fine print disclosures to clearly explain its “Top 3 Percent Policy,” what triggers it, who may be affected by it, and its impacts on data speeds. T-Mobile will also be required to notify individual customers when their data usage approaches the threshold for de-prioritization.
Tags: T-Mobile, FCC
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Apple Files $2M+ Lawsuit Against Counterfeiter, Finds 90% of ‘Genuine’ Accessories on Amazon Are Knockoffs
Apple has filed a lawsuit against Mobile Star LLC, accusing the firm of infringing upon its registered trademarks and copyrights by selling counterfeit 5W USB Power Adapters and Lightning to USB cables on Amazon and Groupon, according to court documents published electronically this week.
Apple said the counterfeit power products pose a significant danger to consumer safety because, among other things, they lack adequate insulation and/or have inadequate spacing between low voltage and high voltage circuits, creating risks of overheating, fire, and electrical shock.
The safety of Apple’s customers is of paramount importance to Apple, and Apple devotes significant resources to ensuring its power products meet industry safety standards and are subjected to rigorous testing for safety and reliability. Apple brings this suit to stop Mobile Star from any further distribution of counterfeit Apple products to the public.
The legal complaint says the products, shipped and sold by Amazon through its Fulfilled by Amazon program, were listed as genuine Apple products, often using the company’s copyrighted marketing images. Apple said Mobile Star’s counterfeit products hurt its sales and damage its reputation.
Apple determined at least a portion of Mobile Star LLC’s chargers and cables were counterfeit upon purchasing them as part of its routine efforts to combat the distribution and sale of knockoff products. It then alerted Amazon, which subsequently removed Mobile Star’s selling privileges.
Takedown notices are standard procedure for Apple, which found that almost 90% of so-called genuine Apple products and accessories it purchased from Amazon over the last nine months were actually counterfeit.
Over the last nine months, Apple, as part of its ongoing brand protection efforts, has purchased well over 100 iPhone devices, Apple power products, and Lightning cables sold as genuine by sellers on Amazon.com and delivered through Amazon’s “Fulfillment by Amazon” program. Apple’s internal examination and testing for these products revealed almost 90% of these products are counterfeit.
Apple went one step further and filed a lawsuit in this case because it said Mobile Star’s distribution of counterfeit Apple products “brazenly continues” and extends beyond Amazon, including Groupon and direct sales. Mobile Star has also allegedly failed to cooperate with Apple upon being contacted.
Mobile Star’s distribution of counterfeit Apple products is ongoing and extends beyond Amazon.com as shown by Apple’s purchase of 10 counterfeit Apple products directly from Groupon in December 2015. […]
In addition, an Apple investigator recently purchased counterfeit Apple EarPods headphones and Lightning cables directly from Mobile Star, showing that Mobile Star is brazenly continuing to sell counterfeit Apple products even after learning that Apple was on to it.
Apple is seeking damages of up to $150,000 for each registered copyright infringed, in addition to damages of up to $2 million per trademark infringed. Apple has demanded a jury trial in the case, titled Apple Inc. v. Mobile Star LLC, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
Tag: lawsuit
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Gboard Update Brings 3D Touch Cursor Tracking and Support for iOS 10 Emojis
An update to Google’s iOS Gboard app today has introduced 3D Touch into the third-party keyboard, letting users move the cursor by hard pressing and sliding their finger around the keyboard to pinpoint the location they want to land. Gboard’s 3D Touch lacks the free-floating cursor of Apple’s stock keyboard, however, and simply moves left and right throughout a message, without the ability to track upwards and downwards.
The version 1.2.0 update has also added support for Apple’s new iOS 10 emojis, as well as the ability for users to search and share their contacts directly from within the keyboard. Anyone who wants to use the feature must first go to the Gboard app, tap “search settings” and activate “Contacts search,” and then they’ll be able to access their iPhone contact list directly within Gboard in Messages.
The app has gained new themes as well, including a collection of new “Landscape” images that users can download and add onto Gboard with the tap of a button. When it launched in May, Google touted Gboard’s advantageous ability to perform Google searches directly within the keyboard of Messages. Apple has made a big deal out of similar abilities in Messages with its new Messages App Store in iOS 10, where users can install smaller-scale apps to find movies, make dinner reservations, and place stickers.
Gboard can be downloaded from the iOS App Store for free. [Direct Link]
Tags: Google, Gboard
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Apple Seeds Fifth macOS Sierra 10.12.1 Beta to Developers and Public Beta Testers
Apple today seeded the fifth beta of an upcoming macOS Sierra update to developers and public beta testers, just over one week after seeding the fourth beta and a month after releasing the new macOS Sierra operating system to the public.
macOS Sierra 10.12.1 beta 5 can be downloaded from the Apple Developer Center or through the Software update mechanism in the Mac App Store for those who already have an earlier 10.12.1 beta installed.
macOS Sierra 10.12.1 appears to focus on bug fixes and under-the-hood performance improvements to address issues that have been found since the operating system’s release, and it’s also likely adding features designed for next-generation MacBook Pro models set to be released later this year.
Few outward-facing changes were discovered in the first four betas, but it 10.12.1 does include Photos support for the new iPhone 7 Plus Portrait feature introduced with iOS 10.1. New features discovered in the fifth 10.12.1 beta will be listed below.
macOS Sierra is a significant update that brings features like Siri support, a new storage optimization option, cross device copy paste, auto unlocking with the Apple Watch, and more. For full details on macOS Sierra, make sure to check out our roundup.
Related Roundup: macOS Sierra
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How to optimize your Spotify Discover Weekly – CNET
Save the albums you love to your library.
Screenshot/Xiomara Blanco
One of the best things about using Spotify is the Discover Weekly playlist — a custom playlist that’s tailor-made to your music taste. Available to all Spotify users (you have to use it for at least two weeks before one generates), Discover Weekly playlists (found under the Browse tab) are based on similar users’ music taste, as well as your listening history and listening habits.
The weekly 2-hour roundup of recommendations is so popular that Spotify recently launched similar playlists: Release Radar, a weekly that exclusively shares new music you might like, and Daily Mix, one (or more) daily playlists full of music Spotify knows you love.
Other streaming music services offer personalized music recommendations, too, but I think Spotify’s advanced algorithms are pretty great — and I’m not the only one who thinks it’s a killer differentiating feature. Here are three tips to ensure that you get the best Discover Weekly playlist possible.
Save music to your library and make playlists
The easiest way to make sure Spotify knows what you like is to add it to your library. If you don’t already do this, you should make it a habit. What you add to your library influences what recommendations you’ll see in the future. See the little plus sign next to a song? That saves it to your library. Want to add an entire album to your library? Simply click the save button underneath the title. Now that’s not so bad, is it?
And though there’s nothing wrong with listening to the playlists your friends send you, Spotify learns a lot from the playlists you yourself assemble. If you like to listen to a different variety of music, your playlists help Spotify recognize what you like to pair together. Does your energetic running playlist pay equal mind to Metallica and Lady Gaga? Knowing the nuances and intricacies of your music taste helps Spotify understand what you like to listen to, even if it’s not as easy as one genre per playlist.
The Discover Weekly playlist is one of my favorite Spotify features.
Screenshot/Xiomara Blanco
Do some discovering for yourself
If you show curiosity about a particular artists that was on your Discover Weekly playlist, that tells Spotify that it’s doing something right. Checking out the artist’s profiles and browsing through their biography or discography on the app signals that Spotify found something you’re interested in. The more digging you do, the more Spotify will take note.
Don’t share your account (or get a family plan)
Since Spotify doesn’t allow you to listen to music in different locations at the same time using one account, it’s doubtful that you’re sharing a Spotify account. However, if you are, your chances of a fine tuned Discover Weekly playlist are getting muddled.
Spotify’s algorithms are smart enough to disregard an unusual trend in your listening habits (for when you inexplicably can’t stop listening to the new Bruno Mars song), but if you’re consistently sharing your account with other people, their taste will influence what Spotify puts on your Discover playlist. An alternative is to opt for a Spotify Premium family plan instead.
Why you might want to disable iOS 10’s lock screen widgets – CNET
With lock-screen widgets, I can call home, text my wife, glance at my calendar, check a score, Shazam a song and perform many more helpful actions all without unlocking my iPhone. These widgets are incredibly convenient and my favorite thing about iOS 10.
This added convenience, however, sometimes comes at the expense of security. Because I can access the Launcher widget, for example, without unlocking my phone, it means that anyone who might pick up my iPhone can call the contacts I added to Launcher. It also means that someone can view my calendar or my to-do list and access my recent Dropbox files.
If this situation makes you feel uneasy, then you can decrease the convenience and increase the security of your iOS 10 device by disabling lock-screen widgets.
Enlarge Image
Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET
Go to Settings > Touch ID & Passcode, enter your passcode and then tap to turn off the toggle switch for Today view under the header Allow access when locked. The Today view is Apple’s term for the lock-screen widgets; you’ll know they’re gone when you see only one dot and the camera icon at the bottom of the lock screen instead of two dots and the camera icon.
Disabling access to your widgets from the lock screen doesn’t kill them altogether. You can still access them from an unlocked iOS 10 device by swiping right on your home screen.
For more, learn how to navigate the iPhone’s new lock screen and check out our complete guide to iOS 10.
Wink Hub 2 review – CNET
The Good The companion app is the $99/£80/AU$130 Wink Hub 2’s strongest asset — the layout is logical and step-by-step tutorials make it relatively easy to pair (most) devices.
The Bad I received a steady stream of error messages when trying to create automation rules and never managed to run one successfully. Occasionally latency issues slowed things down and Lutron devices are still laughably difficult to connect to Wink.
The Bottom Line The Wink Hub 2 is fine, but it’s hard to recommend over platforms like Amazon Alexa and Apple HomeKit that reduce challenging behind-the-scenes integrations to simple voice commands.
Wink’s Hub 2 gave me major deja vu. Not only does this slab of white plastic look very similar to the startup’s first-generation Wink Hub, it also works roughly the same.
That means you’ll run into occasional in-app glitches, latency issues and connectivity woes. And, priced at $99/£80/AU$130, this smart home gizmo also costs $20 more than the original version.
Yes, Wink has made some improvements over generation one. Hub 2 has more memory, supports Bluetooth, comes with an Ethernet port and works with dual-band Wi-Fi. But that isn’t enough to recommend it over the interactive voice-control platforms that have emerged since from Amazon and Apple.
Wink takes another stab at the smart-home…
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A utilitarian hunk o’ plastic
No one has found a truly engaging aesthetic for a smart-home hub and the white plastic Wink Hub 2 is no exception. While this model feels heavier and more durable than its predecessor, it isn’t much of a design improvement. The two iterations have roughly the same measurements and they’re, well, seriously boring-looking.
Instead, the most significant updates are hidden inside the hub itself. There you’ll find 512 MB worth of memory (up from 64 MB), an Ethernet port for connecting the hub directly to your router and support for both 2.4 and 5GHz Wi-Fi, as well as Bluetooth-enabled devices.
Here’s a list of the automation languages Wink’s Hub 2 works with:
- Bluetooth LE
- Kidde
- Clear Connect
- Z-Wave
- ZigBee
Note: You can still buy the first-generation Wink Hub for $69/£55/AU$90 while supplies last.
Hubs, hubs and more hubs:
- Faster, slimmer and safer: Wink rolls out the Wink Hub 2
- Harness your smart home with Wink’s low-cost hub
- Lowe’s Iris focuses on the future, loses sight of the present
- Insteon’s HomeKit Hub shows potential, but needs work
- Streamline your connected home with SmartThings 2.0
View all of your Wink-connected devices from the app’s home screen and select “Add a Product” to pair more.
Screenshot by CNET
Testing out Wink’s new hub
All of those improvements are a step in the right direction, but I didn’t notice any distinct differences between testing the first- and second-generation Wink Hubs.
The good news is that it’s still (mostly) easy to pair devices. I connected a Nest Learning Thermostat, a Nest Cam Indoor, a Lutron Serena window shade and a Lutron Pico remote. I also connected to our Chamberlain MyQ Garage door opener account, but that product isn’t currently installed at the CNET Smart Home so I couldn’t actually control it.
Netgear Mobile Router MR1100 Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET
It may not look like much, but it’s got it where it counts.
Aloysius Low/CNET
You’ll soon be able to download movies in a matter of seconds thanks to the palm-sized Netgear Mobile Router MR1100.
The portable pocket router taps into gigabit-capable LTE networks and can download up to 1 gigabyte of data per second. But there’s a big catch — it’s only available from Australian carrier Telstra, which announced last year that it can reach speeds of 1Gbps.
The router features a battery life of 24 hours of continuous use, an impressive claim for sure. The MR1100 charges through a USB Type-C connector, and features a LAN port as well. The downloads are sped along by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X16 LTE modem.
The speed sounds amazingly fast — as fast as if you were to hook up your PC to the router using a LAN cable. But bear in mind this will likely blow your data cap without you noticing. Though of course that depends on your data plan and the size of the files that you download.
You may well be tempted, but don’t start planning your move Down Under just yet. A Telstra spokesperson told CNET that the carrier is unlikely to offer unlimited data plans on its upcoming superfast service. There’s no word on capped data plans for now either. Furthermore, the network isn’t quite ready — the router and service will likely launch in a few months, perhaps over Christmas or another upcoming holiday period.
There’s no word yet on when this will be available in other countries.
Key features
- Gigabit LTE speeds
- 24 hour battery life
- Type-C and LAN ports
- Available soon in Australia
Fabriq Alexa-Enabled Smart Speaker Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET
It’s been over a year since Amazon offered up its voice-activated virtual assistant “Alexa” to third-party developers. With just a few lines of code, any gadget that features a microphone, speakers, and an internet connection can be an Alexa gadget.
Enter Fabriq, the maker of a new, small-sized smart speaker with Alexa functionality built right in. At just $50 (£40/AU$65), it’s the same price as the Editors’ Choice-winning Amazon Echo Dot, but it comes with a few additional advantages. For starters, it’s a more powerful speaker than the Dot, and it features a built-in battery, too, letting you unplug the the thing and take it with you for up to 5 hours on a charge. You can also sync multiple speakers together over Wi-Fi for simultaneous playback — the Echo Dot can’t do anything like that.
It’s not a slam dunk, though. Unlike the Echo and the Echo Dot, the Fabriq speaker isn’t an always-listening device. That means you’ll need to press a button in order to activate Alexa. You also can’t connect it with an existing audio setup like you can with the Echo Dot. And, as far as Bluetooth speakers go, the sound quality is pretty average.
Still as an Echo-alternative, there’s an awful lot to like here. With almost all of Alexa’s smarts — everything from music and news to third-party skills, smart home control, and yes, terrible jokes — Fabriq offers plenty of tech appeal in an attractive little package. If you’re intrigued by Echo, but want something a little more portable, it’s definitely worth a look.
Design and features
Fabriq is about the size of a baseball, and it comes in your choice of three designs: “Earl Grey,” “Jack Plaid,” and “Splat.” All three make for a good-looking little speaker, and each gets complemented by a ring of LEDs around the base capable of flashing out a rainbow pattern in sync with whatever song you’re streaming.
Those LEDs will also light up when you press the microphone button to talk to Alexa, Amazon’s cloud-connected virtual assistant. She’s just as smart here as she is in Amazon’s own smart speakers, with features that include:
- Streaming music on demand from Amazon Prime Music, Spotify, Pandora or Amazon Music Unlimited
- Playing podcasts from iHeartRadio and TuneIn
- Reading off news, sports, weather and traffic updates
- Looking up facts and calculating figures
- Setting timers and recurring alarms
- Controlling Alexa-compatible smart-home devices
In addition to those core capabilities, Fabriq also has access to Alexa’s growing library of third party “skills.” Essentially the apps of Alexa, these extras can add all sorts of tricks to Alexa’s toolkit, everything from hailing an Uber and ordering a pizza to playing interactive voice games and running advanced smart home controls. None of them cost anything, and you can enable each one simply by asking Alexa to do it.
Sound quality
So the smarts are sound, but how about the speaker? To my ear, it packs a more powerful punch than the Echo Dot, but falls somewhere short of the Amazon Tap. In other words, it’ll fill a small to medium-sized room with plenty of sound, but it isn’t loud enough to play DJ at a noisy party — though, in fairness, I can’t imagine expecting much more from a $50 Bluetooth speaker.
Then again, the sound quality could stand to be a bit sharper. At loud volumes, things get just a touch “fuzzy,” with some slight clipping whenever the speaker tries to punch above its weight. The sound quality wasn’t bad by any stretch, but I’d hesitate to classify it much higher than “average.”
Chris Monroe/CNET
Outlook
As of writing this, Fabriq doesn’t show up in the Alexa app as a supported device, which means I wasn’t able to use that app to tweak any of the speaker’s Alexa-specific settings. That kept me from doing things like customizing what news sources it pulled from for flash briefings, viewing my voice input history, and selecting a default music streaming service.
I suspect that this will change by the time Fabriq officially launches on October 30, and I’ve asked Fabriq’s team to confirm as much. When I hear back, I’ll update this piece accordingly.
Shortcomings aside, Fabriq proved to be a capable Alexa gadget. It did a nice job understanding my voice commands, and though it sometimes needed to think a second or two longer than the Echo Dot before pulling up a song I had requested, I came away satisfied with the user-friendly smarts. At just $50, it shows a lot of promise.
I’ll be spending some more time with Fabriq, and keeping an eye out for any updates as it gets closer to launch. I’m also hoping to get my hands on a second speaker so I can test out synchronized playback. That’ll be a nice feather in Fabriq’s cap if it works as promised, since neither the Amazon Echo nor Amazon Echo Dot currently offer anything like it.
AIVAnet 