Smart home ramifications of Apple's Unleashed event on HomeKit Insider

On the latest episode of the HomeKit Insider Podcast, your hosts discuss Apple's announcements from the "Unleashed" event, including Apple Music Voice Plan, HomePod mini colors, new AirPods, and the new MacBook Pro.

Much of the episode was devoted to use breaking down Apple's event announcements, especially those related to the smart home. That includes the new HomePod mini that, despite any new features, now comes in three new colors. Users can buy HomePod mini in orange, blue, and yellow.

Of course we had to talk about the new voice only plan for Apple Music. With the new $4.99 price point you can listen to Apple Music on any device just using Siri. This is helpful as a low-cost option but also great for smart home users.

Finally, we spent a bit of time talking about Apple's new Mac and AirPods hardware.

Outside of the Apple event, we discussed sleep tracking apps again including Pillow, AutoSleep, and Sleep Watch.

The one listener question we got to this week was how you can use the Shortcuts app to tie a Focus mode into a HomeKit scene. That way when you tell Siri goodnight at the end of the day, it will automatically switch your focus to sleep.

Links from the show

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