I use both Philips Hue and Belkin WeMo products to automate the lighting in my house. I have to use two separate apps to control the products, so I was happy to hear about Apple’s HomeKit, which promised to be a single, centralized solution to control all your home automation products. Well, happy until I realized that Belkin’s WeMo products have never shown up on the HomeKit-compatible list.
At CES 2015, Incipio announced a line home automation products they’ve developed for use in the Apple HomeKit environment. They will have a Incipio DIRECT Wireless Smart Outlet, Light Bulb Adapter, and Power Strip with integrated Smart Outlet. The Wireless Smart Outlet, seen in the above image, could directly replace my WeMo Switches. The Incipio devices feature:
- Integration with Siri voice commands, allowing hands-free control of home appliances and devices
- Wireless creation and configuration of home, rooms, and zones, to control power to devices at home or on-the-go
- Complimentary Incipio DIRECT Wireless Smart App allows users to create customized action sets and scenes such as “Lights Out” for a unique home automation experience
- Proximity awareness enables users to power specific devices and rooms, on or off
The Incipio DIRECT Wireless Smart Outlet and DIRECT Wireless Smart Light Bulb Adapter both have a MSRP of $24.99; the DIRECT Wireless Smart Power Strip has a MSRP of $59.99. The DIRECT App is compatible with the entire Apple HomeKit Ecosystem and available for free download on the Apple App Store. Learn more about the Incipio DIRECT Wireless home automation products at Incipio.
Gadgeteer Comment Policy - Please read before commenting
Just so you know, you can control Philips hue bulbs and Belkin WeMo sockets & light switches all with one touch using Lightbow. Obviously, HomeKit is the future, and those hardware vendors that support it will earn the widest app ecosystem, but until then, check out http://ow.ly/E2qmc
(Philips promises to support HomeKit “soon”, and Lightbow will as well, as soon as there is real hardware out there to test on and Apple approves general-purpose HomeKit apps)