Andrew O'Hara
On the new episode of HomeKit Insider, Level Lock has partnered with Rocky Mountain door hardware for new HomeKit-enabled locks, new Logitech firmware coming soon, VOCOlinc is missing in action, and home project updates.
News was light in the world of HomeKit this past week, with the biggest being Level Lock partnering with the premium accessory maker Rocky Mountain Hardware. Level's incredible smart functionality will now be coming to several different door locks in the company's lineup.
We also had several people writing in asking about VOCOlinc. It appears as though the company's website has gone offline, many products are out of stock, and support tickets have gone unanswered. AppleInsider has reached out to the company for comment and thus far we've yet to get a response.
Fortunately, even if VOCOlinc has gone under, HomeKit allows its products to continue to work uninterrupted.
We also got a list of several new enhancements arriving in the new firmware for the Logitech Circle View doorbell cam which may fix ongoing connectivity and overheating issues, though beta testers haven't confirmed this to be the case quite yet.
Sponsored by:
- Hunter Douglas: Get a FREE Style Gets Smarter design guide and learn about their HomeKit window shades at: hunterdouglas.com/homekit
Links from the show
- HomeKit Insider - YouTube Channel
- Level Lock partners with Rocky Mountain Hardware to expand HomeKit lock options
- Rocky Mountain Hardware
- VOCOlinc Website?
- Leviton's second-generation Decora Dimmer review: Wi-Fi connected HomeKit switches
- Leviton Decora Smart Wi-Fi Dimmer - Amazon
- Drone Fail - Stephen's Tweet
Those interested in sponsoring the show can reach out to us at: andrew@appleinsider.com
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William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
5 Comments
Vocolinc actually restocked all of their products on Amazon recently and the Vocolinc store on Amazon is up and running? They had several items showing out of stock with no ETA when they would be back (i.e. lightbulbs, light strips, etc) but now they are all available again. Maybe they are exclusively just using Amazon for their sales and store?
With regard to Stephen's question posed in the podcast about what sort of ethernet to install in his home while it's under construction...
That's not the right question, or at least it's not the right first question. The first question should be what's the best way to make whole house wiring for tech stuff easily accessible in the future? I would've thought that, as testers of new tech gear that is constantly coming out, it would be pretty obvious that no matter how cutting edge the specs are for the wiring you install right now, within ten years (probably five) it will be at best borderline obsolete. As it turns out, building custom cabinetry and wiring for A/V and computer gear is almost always a losing proposition.
So, while the walls are still open, you might want to consider installing conduits made of something like amply-sized PVC piping inside your walls that will make it easy to go into your attic or crawl space or to regularly positioned, aesthetically pleasing access boxes, where you can easily pull all-new wiring throughout the house in a few years. You'll want end-points in every room, and multiple end-points in rooms that are likely to serve as media, office or music rooms for you or a future buyer of the house. The end-point faceplates should also be easily and entirely replaceable, because what is right now an ethernet jack might one day be a data port for an astromech droid. Talk with your contractor and local building inspectors to make sure said conduits won't interfere with insulation, structural integrity or fire safety of the building.
Once you've designed and installed easy-to-access conduits for data/media wiring, then you can start asking which ethernet spec to put inside it that will serve current needs and delay the inevitable replacement of it for as long as possible.
I'm hoping Vocolinc isn't out of business. I have one of their smart air purifiers and while I do have one set of replacement filters, my hope is that I'd be able to continue to use it for many years to come. I'm very allergic to perfume, and that thing is fantastic both because it does a good job, but also because it has an air quality sensor that I can check to quickly figure out if I'm feeling lousy because of air quality or because of something else. (You might think it would be obvious but air quality issues often stop really registering to the brain even while you're stuck in the smell.)