Apple Home Weekly is all about how to make your Apple powered home effective, efficient, and fun. Each week you’ll get some thoughts from me, Eric Welander, on what’s going on in smart home tech or home office setups. I’ll also link to interesting stories or videos I found on the web.
More than HomeKit
As I mentioned in Issue 0 of this newsletter, it’s about more than just Apple’s HomeKit platform:
“For years, Apple smart home tech was synonymous with HomeKit, and I have certainly used the term a lot in my own YouTube content. But as the options of tech in and around our homes continues to expand, it's impossible for one app or framework to capture everything about an Apple powered home.
HomeKit might be able to turn on your TV, but it doesn't control how you are watching or hearing the content. HomeKit can set the LED lights behind your home office desk, but what desk are you using and what else is there to help your virtual meeting go well? Underneath all this is the way you connect to the internet in your home. HomeKit does have router control options with supporting hardware, but it's only one piece of the bigger category of home networking. And as you become more advanced with home automation, you might be using something like Homebridge, HOOBS, or Home Assistant as a glue between HomeKit and other tech.
At some point along the line, you've decided to buy into Apple's ecosystem for the tech you use on a regular basis. I want this newsletter and my YouTube channel to focus on exploring how to use Apple's products, combined with other tech, to optimize for your life at home. A lot of that is directly with Apple HomeKit compatible products and clever automations. But the decisions in adjacent parts of your home and technology stack are just as important.”