Mike Wuerthele
In a video posted to YouTube, Apple's forthcoming HomeKit Secure Video technology has been exposed, and shows what the software's artificial intelligence will flag for the user.
While it isn't yet clear when the already announced HomeKit Secure Video feature will arrive in iOS 13, it is apparently already fairly far along in testing. A video has been uploaded to YouTube, said to be captured from an iPad in an Apple Store.
The selected video clips captured includes the coming and going of a car twice, a dog fetching a ball in the driveway, and a delivery.
HomeKit Hero notes that the video does not disclose what camera is being used for the demonstration captured by the user.
Apple featured Netatmo's logo prominently on stage at its annual WWDC alongside Eufy and Logitech as launch partners for HomeKit Secure Video. The new feature will allow HomeKit security cameras to locally encrypt video and then store it in Apple's own iCloud servers where it is out of reach of prying eyes.
Netatmo has revealed that the upcoming Smart Video Doorbell will support HomeKit Secure Video at its launch later this year and both the Smart Indoor Camera and Smart Outdoor Camera will support the feature as a free automatic firmware update soon after.
Users have been clamoring for this feature for some time. Currently, they must rely on third-party servers to store their video which are not necessarily as secure — or private — as Apple's own.
Apple will store up to ten days of recordings inside of iCloud for one camera if subscribed to the 200GB iCloud Storage Plan and will store up to ten days of recordings for five cameras if on the 2TB iCloud Storage Plan. HomeKit Secure Video recordings will not count against your storage capacity. The 2TB plan runs users $9.99 a month which is favorable compared to third-party storage plans and iCloud also has far more features to back it up outside of video storage.
Also announced at WWDC 2019 is support for HomeKit routers which will first be supported by Linksys and Eero.
Charles Martin
Christine McKee
Oliver Haslam
8 Comments
This is good! The more Apple makes it possible to avoid third party hubs and servers and the more secure HomeKit and home automation will be -- as well as available to me, because I refuse to use either. For HomeKit it's either all (Apple) or nothing.
Apple's packaging of this Secure Video feature sucks big time.
If you pay attention you will note that the maximum number of cameras it supports is a measly five. There is no option or way to support more than this. I personally already have six compatible cameras made up of four out door and two indoor and plan to order a seventh soon - a doorbell.
Remember cameras could be outdoor, indoor or doorbell. Furthermore HomeKit has supposedly been designed to support multiple houses so imagine how many cameras someone with just two houses might end up with.
Let's say one could arguably live with the iCloud storage costs - it is still impossible to do more than five cameras. Ring as a comparison also have two levels but their top level supports unlimited cameras. If you buy two iCloud storage account then you can't see or use all the cameras because they will then be on two different HomeKit accounts.
I therefore can't even subscribe to this even if I wanted to.
Sadly this feature seems to have been designed by a bean counter looking to extract the maximum revenue and they have completely overlooked its usability.
Apple shldv just bought Nest instead of Google as a catalyst into the smart home hardware dept.
Gave up on Apple and Netatmo for the home security gig. Installed a SimpliSafe alarm system and a network of Blink cameras.