Incipio today announced the debut of its first HomeKit-enabled products, the CommandKit Wireless Smart Outlet and the Wireless Smart Light Bulb Adapter, both of which connect to other HomeKit-enabled products over Wi-Fi and work with Siri through the accompanying CommandKit app.
The CommandKit Wireless Smart Outlet, like other similar smart outlets on the market, turns any electronic device into a smart device, allowing it to be turned on or off with voice commands or through the app. The Smart Outlet also includes energy monitoring capabilities, so it can let you know how much energy a device is using.
Similarly, the CommandKit Light Bulb Adapter turns any light bulb it's used with into a smart light bulb that can be turned on and off. If used with a bulb that can be dimmed, the dimming feature can be used with Siri and in the iOS app. Both products can be incorporated into HomeKit scenes, rooms, and more through the app, which is also compatible with other HomeKit products.
"The smart home promises to be the new standard for living and Apple HomeKit is leading the way with guiding principles such as simple set up and configuration, a secure foundation, and the convenience of voice control with Siri," said Andy Fathollahi, Chief Executive. "Today, Incipio is proud to offer two user-friendly, cost effective home automation products that give customers the ability to control devices in their home simply and securely using their iPhone, iPad, iPod touch or Apple Watch and Siri."
Both the CommandKit Wireless Light Bulb Adapter and the Wireless Smart Outlet are available from the Incipio website for $39.99.
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http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/tv/ask-toh/video/0,,20984549,00.html
Spoiler: I am part of the "everyone else" group. Totally unnecessary.
One must remember that they have to make up R&D, marketing, production, and also Apple licensing costs. Those things aren't cheap.
If $40 is too much to be able to remotely manage your house, that's fine. But crying about the price on MR is a silly waste of time.
Also, I don't really see the point of buying an adapter for $40 when you can get a dimming, zigbee bulb for $15-$20 (Hue, GE, and Cree have white dimming bulbs in that range.)
[doublepost=1457459237][/doublepost]I ordered a couple -- have been wanting to try out HomeKit. Likely will be returning them though as after the fact I'm thinking it'll extend the lightbulb in the lamps I want them for above the lampshade's top. Hard to tell for sure, but looks like the bulb adapter adds a lot of height to the socket -- hopefully I'll be proved wrong... ;-)
And right now the only benefit homekit brings is Siri integration. That is hardly worth the cost and vendor lock-in when you have better voice control through something like the Amazon Echo (Which can work with SmartThings, Wink, Hue, LiFX, etc.)
Apple has the resources to wipe out the home automation market as it exists right now, but at the moment they are just testing the waters with overpriced hardware with no actual benefits compared to the competition.
That is possible too. It kind of looks like the purpose of this is to use with incandescent bulbs (And I guess CFL, but I have no idea why you would want CFL over LED. Incandescent I can understand for the nostalgic types.)