The reason we did that? HomeKit-compatible ones were literally twice the price. Depending on how many lights you have in your home, and how they are configured, it will generally work out cheaper to replace dumb switches with smart ones than to replace dumb bulbs with smart ones. In the USA, there are quite a few brands to choose from now — but always check HomeKit compatibility for the specific switches. Smart bulbs can do more than smart switches. For example, smart bulbs may allow you to select their color temperature, switching between bright white lighting when concentrating on something and a softer, yellower light when relaxing.
However, the biggest benefit you get from opting for smart bulbs rather than smart switches is the option of color. Attitudes to color bulbs vary. Some people are dismissive, seeing them as gimmicks that belong in nightclubs rather than homes. But many of us have come to love them. For example, we often set the living-room floor lamps to blue or purple to provide enough light to see by without spoiling the view from the windows with bright reflections.
Hands on: Controlling your smart home with HomeKit on macOS Mojave
The Philips Hue starter kit I recommended earlier gets you color bulbs, so you can then see how you get on with them and whether the added cost of color is worth it to you. These are long multi-color LED strips designed to provide mood lighting. You can use them for under-cabinet lighting in a kitchen, for example, setting them to white when you are cooking and a color when you just want accent lighting.
Other common uses are for TV consoles, desks and bookshelves. We even use them as wardrobe lights as a single strip provides both overhead and side lighting. If you have floor or table lamps, another way to convert them to smart devices is to use a smart plug socket.
About the Author
Leave the lamp switched on, and then control the socket instead. Elgato Eve Energy is the market leader here, and the app also monitors energy usage and costs into the bargain.
If you have a central heating system, a smart thermostat can be a great buy. Presence-detection means that when the system sees there is nobody home, it automatically turns down the heating to save money.
Nest , Tado and Ecobee are three big names here. Walking up to your front door with your hands full and having the door automatically unlock when you approach it is undeniably convenient.
Turn your old Mac into a home-automation system
Smart locks work by detecting your iPhone or Apple Watch via Bluetooth. They also allow you to do things like allow timed access to specific individuals. For example, if your cleaner visits weekly on a Friday afternoon, the lock can be set to allow them in only between 1pm and 2pm on Fridays. And if a friend is coming to stay and gets there before you do, you can grant them one-off access via a temporary code. However, you do need to think about security. Even with HomeKit, which is designed to offer a very high level of security, there can be vulnerabilities — like the one we reported to Apple.
You may consider smart locks to be one step too far. The same applies to smart cameras. XTension has been automating the homes of Macintosh users since ! XTension provides more connections to more devices and protocols than any other comparable piece of software. Want to use an inexpensive X10 motion sensor to trigger ZWave lights?
Turn your old Mac into a home-automation system | Macworld
Are you a Maker who wants to experiment with Arduino based sensors or interested in the mySensors. XTension lets you tie all these different things together in one place. There are so many home automation and monitoring devices out there!
- CE Pro Summit.
- maxthon for mac os x.
- How to Do It.
- 8 channel dvr security system mac.
- Macintosh Home Automation With XTension.
Many have iPhone control programs, others have web based control or online engines to build simple logic. XTension provides a standardized interface to all the different devices that we support. Whenever possible it makes local connections to the devices you are controlling rather than going up to the cloud and back down again. This means faster and more reliable control without the latency of going up to the internet and coming back down for each command. XTension has best of breed web based remote control systems with separate setups for desktop browsers and mobile devices.
While basic functionality for unit control is built in, the pages are fully customizable by you with many control types to choose from so that you can build the best interface for your systems just the way you want it. Build the interface by dragging and dropping controls in the Views inside the app and then deploy these interfaces to both the desktop web app or the mobile platform.
XTension supports industry standard SSL web connections over these interfaces for safety and security. A full list of changes and additions is always available on the current release page. It's easy to build controls for your lights over there from over here. XTension can do this and so much more. Simple or complex scripts can be attached to any action or change in your list of units. The response can be simple, when motion is detected on the porch turn on the porch lights for half an hour , or complex, when motion is detected on the porch and it's dark out, turn on the lights for 30 minutes, if we're not home then take a picture from the camera in the driveway and send it via email to my iPhone email account and turn on the kitchen light for 10 minutes to make it look like someone is at home by supporting the Apple Script language your scripts can be as simple or complex as you like.
Start with the basics and add on and never be limited to the actions we happen to think of and stick into a popup menu of capabilities. You need not fear AppleScript! The simple actions are as simple with any other app and the impossible or impractical with menu driven action systems just require a little more thought.
If you're new to XTension please start at the Getting Started page, otherwise use the index or the search field to find what you're looking for. User Tools Log In.
Site Tools Search. You are here: Sidebar XTension Version 9.