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Apple halts HomeKit upgrade, Ring swatting, and more smart home news

HomeKit Insider

On this week's episode of the Homekit Insider Podcast, your hosts discuss Apple's decision to pull the new HomeKit upgrade, talk about some Ring swatting issues, and more.

In the last episode of the year, we go into more detail surrounding Apple's HomeKit architecture upgrade. This was supposed to make our homes faster, but an issue sharing homes has caused Apple to temporarily pull the upgrade option while it readies a fix.

With the holidays, no telling when a fix will be implemented and those who did the upgrade are stuck in their current state.

We also share a story of some criminals that had gotten access to many users' Ring doorbell cameras by guessing their passwords before calling emergency services on them. As the police would respond, they'd film the ongoing raid and stream it online via social media.

Issues like this don't typically happen with HomeKit doorbells as they are by default protected by two-factor authentication and are much harder to gain access to.

We round out the show discussing the EVVR in-wall relay, Govee's LED light strip, and Amazon's plans for Matter on Echo speakers.

HomeKit Insider is taking a brief break. There will be no January 2 episode, and we will be back on January 9.

Those interested in sponsoring the show can reach out to us at: [email protected]

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