In 2021, I don’t get how products like this don’t offer HomeKit support.
Because HomeKit isn’t Amazon Echo or Google Home, and their original $300 device lacks features found in a respected $29 device. Even their new $99 Pod is still overpriced compared to the Dot, but the reviews aren’t the greatest, so I assume the jury is still out. Being Apple, I’m sure there’s some decent licensing fees too which limit vendor’s interest to include it when it’s which make me question with their very slow adaptation if HomeKit will be around very long, and I’m from the home automation industry. We don’t install any of these 3 systems as they are all considered DIY toys to us, but we’re obviously always reading about the systems. If they haven’t already, Apple really needs to push some dollars fast to vendors to assist them in integrating HomeKit if they want to come close to competing with Amazon and Google.
(also, this is TP-Link, a pretty cheap brand, so…)
Paid $20 for one of these last fall and ran out outdoor Christmas lights for the season. This is a nice deal if you can use two of them. If we didn’t already have one, I’d grab this deal.
Very easy to set up an Alexa “Routine”…
Set them up to turn on about 30 minutes before sunrise using the Alexa automatic “Sunset” trigger. Then off at 1:30am.
On 30 minutes before “Sunrise”. And off 20 minutes after “Sunrise”.
Worked flawlessly the entire season.
Love TP-Link gear. We probably have at least 12 of their products (even an AC-4000 Tri-band wifi router) and they all work great with Alexa.
Limiting the number of Home Automation brands in your home makes managing them easier and means less app overload. For us that means Amazon, TP-Link, Ecobee, and Wyze. All of those devices work reliably with the exception of the Wyze stuff. But it is so cheap I forgive it.
BTW, while Wyze sells a similar two outlet outdoor model for $10 each, that does not include shipping and I haven’t seen Microcenter stocking it.
The Wyze model adds energy monitoring and a photoelectric cell for sensing light.
However, I’ve found the energy monitoring feature in plugs to be a novelty you look at once or twice. And Alexa already had sunset/sunrise triggers. We use a Kill-a-watt device to monitor individual items or our whole-house instantaneous energy monitoring system provided by our utility, DTE.
Finally, I have not found Wyze smart plugs or bulbs to be as reliable as TP-link. They don’t recover after power outages as gracefully. Wyze has overloaded itself with a firehose of new products over the past 18 months. And it is noticeable in their deteriorated reliability and support. (We’ve never even felt the need to contact TP-Link support… which admittedly does have a reputation for being difficult.)
While Apple HomeKit does have the benefit of better security, Apple simply hasn’t woken up and realized they have to bring more partners in and offer solutions at reasonable prices to increase adoption by homeowners.
And their recent effort last fall was a feeble attempt. Cancelling their $300 HomePod this month looked like another admission.
Without HomeKit market share, I don’t blame companies one bit for ignoring it.
(I have nothing against Apple - we use their mobile products.)
HomeKit isn’t Amazon or Google, and that’s a good thing. A company who consistently tells me that my data is mine and they don’t want it. And this isn’t an Android vs iOS debate; it’s the companies themselves.
Comparing the HomePod mini to the Dot is not an apples to apples comparison, considering the differences in sound quality and build.
HomeKit isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Apple isn’t Google who likes to kill off (semi-)successful products because they got bored. HomeKit has been around since iOS 8 - we’re now on 14. It’s not going anywhere.
and I’m from the home automation industry.
You should have led with that. I wouldn’t’ve even typed anything above up; EVERYTHING to you that isn’t Z-Wave or similar is going to be a “toy” to you. The rest of us just want simple. I don’t want to have to configured three obscure plug-ins on an outdated linux distro just to get my lights to dim at 10 PM. HomeKit (and I guess the others - haven’t used them) “just work”.