Andrew O'Hara
On this episode of the HomeKit Insider Podcast, Sonos launches a pair of new smart products, a new affordable Home Key lock emerges, and Ecobee CEO Greg Fyke joins us to talk about the future of home automation.
In the news this week we saw the launch of the Aqara U50 smart lock. This is a more affordable version of the U100 and lacks the fingerprint reader.
It connects over Zigbee or Bluetooth and works with Matter when paired to a hub. There's an integrated keypad and it supports Apple home key.
Sonos also had news to share. We went hands-on with the new Sonos Ace headphones that can swap audio with its soundbars.
That wasn't the only product though as it quietly rolled out the new Roam 2. There weren't a ton of updates to it but there is still support for AirPlay.
Much of the episode is then dedicated to a one-on-one interview with Ecobee's new CEO Greg Fyke. We go into many topics of conversation including Ecobee's implementation of Matter, future products, and how he believes the smart home is changing.
Links from the HomeKit Insider podcast
- Ugmonk M3 Organizer
- Aqara U50 Smart Lock
- Aqara U50 20% discount code valid until May 31: USCAU50P
- Edifier D32 AirPlay speaker
- Sonos Ace Headphones & Roam 2
- Hands on Sonos Ace
- Roam 2 announced
- Apple TV Storage issue
- Ecobee website
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1 Comment
Oh, good. This story makes me feel even more happy about the purchased I already made. The Aqara U50 Smart Lock shouldn't need a hub and it should work with Thread. I just recently bought the Schlage Encode Plus which has Home Key and Thread support. Unlike Level Lock+ Connect, it works EVERY time. All I have to do is touch my watch or phone to the lock, and it automatically unlocks with zero re-tries. It does have WiFi but I would strongly recommend Apple users to not use WiFi because battery performance will be severely impacted. My understanding is that you will need to replace the batteries every 3 or 4 months using WiFi vs about once a year using Thread. How you avoid using WiFi is by not downloading and setting the lock up with the Schlage App. Just use the Apple Home App instead.