Apple today announced a major update to its tvOS operating system for Apple TV 4. New features include expanded Siri capabilities, single sign-on for Apple TV, dark mode, HomeKit suport, redesigned Apple Music, app badging and many more.

New Siri features and functionality

• Topic search for movies: the ability to ask Siri for a movie by topic or theme (e.g. “Show movies about baseball”)
• YouTube search: users can ask Siri to search YouTube (coming later this month)
• Live tune-in: ask Siri to go directly to a live channel inside a supported app, such as “Watch CBS News” or “Watch ESPN.”
• Manage HomeKit accessories: Apple TV gives users control of HomeKit-enabled accessories. It also allows users to control HomeKit accessories when they are away from home or use it for home automation with the Home app on their iOS device.

Single sign-on for pay-TV apps

Customers in the US will have a simplified way of enjoying pay-TV video channels by using single sign-on. Starting this fall, users only have to sign in once on Apple TV to get immediate access to their favorite video channels that are included as part of their pay-TV subscription.

Once a user is signed into one network app, any other app on Apple TV from participating pay-TV providers will automatically log the user into all other supported apps requiring authentication.

Single sign-on will be available on both Apple TV and iOS.

New tvOS APIs and tools available for developers include:

• ReplayKit to enable developers to record and live broadcast from their apps;
• PhotoKit to allow third-party app access to photos and videos in iCloud Photo Library and iCloud Shared Stream;
• HomeKit to create apps to control HomeKit devices from Apple TV;
• App badging on the Home screen, to make it easier for users to know something new for them is available inside an app; and,
• Game Center enhancements and support for up to four game controllers at a time.

Additional features and updates

• iOS users can download the new Apple TV Remote app with touch navigation, Siri and game play support.
• Apple Music has an all-new design. The Library, For You, Browse and Radio tabs have been completely redesigned, and a Search tab has been added “to make finding music even easier.”
• Photos for Apple TV now supports the new Memories feature.
• Users can now select a dark background for Apple TV.
• Universal apps will now automatically download on Apple TV and show up on the Home screen when an app has been added to a user’s iOS device.
• When a keyboard appears on Apple TV, one will also appear on nearby iOS devices that are logged into the same iCloud account, making entering text more convenient.

The new tvOS will be available this fall as a free software update for Apple TV.

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August Home, the smart-home accessory maker, has just started shipping the 2nd generation smart lock, featuring HomeKit support. The August Smart Lock HomeKit enabled is available at Amazon and from August’s online store for $229.

With the August Smart Lock you can lock and unlock your door, create virtual keys for guests, and keep track of who comes and goes (24/7 activity log), all from your smartphone. The Smart Lock auto-locks behind you and automatically unlocks as you approach.

The HomeKit-enabled Smart Lock includes the ability to use Siri to lock or unlock doors and check the status of doors using voice commands such as “Siri, lock my door,” or “Siri, is my door locked?” on an iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Apple Watch and 4th generation Apple TV.

HomeKit is Apple’s developer kit to enable communication between home appliances and iOS devices. Apple TV (3rd and 4th generation) lets you remotely control your accessories with Siri commands when you’re away from home.

Also read: IoT for everyone: Apple HomeKit vs. Google Brillo

The August Smart Lock 2nd generation has a modified industrial design with a magnetic faceplate, new micro-patterns and a slim, chrome indicator at the top of the device so users can visually see if the door is locked or unlocked.

The new Smart Lock is also compatible with third-party HomeKit apps including Insteon+, Lutron and iDevices that can be set up to turn on or off lights and appliances as the door is locked or unlocked.

In addition to the Smart Lock, August sells the Smart Keypad ($79) and Doorbell Cam ($199) that create “the complete Smart Home Access System.”

August HomeKit Enabled Smart Lock is available at Amazon.com.

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Apple has removed Google’s Nest thermostat from its online and retail stores as the world’s first Apple HomeKit-compatible smart thermostat ecobee3 goes on sale. Searching for Nest on Apple’s online store now reveals HomeKit-enabled devices, ecobee3 being one of them.

Designed for homes with more than one room, the Wi-Fi connected ecobee3 thermostat measures temperature and occupancy in multiple locations, so it knows which rooms are occupied to deliver the right temperature in the right places. And it knows whether someone’s home to help you save energy and money when you’re away.

It intuitively understands when to turn on your heating or cooling equipment based on your home’s unique energy profile and the weather outside

Toronto-based ecobee promises that ecobee3 customers save an average of 23% on their heating and cooling costs.

ecobee3 features a 3.5″ full-color LCD touchscreen, 320 x 480 pixel display with intuitive iconography and controls.

It comes with 1 free remote sensor that measures temperature and occupancy. You can have up to 32 sensors. The more you add, the smarter your Ecobee3 becomes.

In addition, you can monitor and control your ecobee3 thermostat anytime and from anywhere, using your smartphone, tablet or computer.

Get ecobee3 from Amazon for $249.

HomeKit is Apple’s developer kit to enable communication between home appliances and iOS devices. Apple TV is said to be the center of Apple’s smart home, especially while using remote commands via Siri.

Check out other HomeKit-enabled devices.

Learn more on Apple TV’s role in the HomeKit ecosystem: 

• Here is how Apple TV will work with HomeKit devices
• Apple now accepting HomeKit product plans from smart home device makers
• New beta turns Apple TV into the master of HomeKit
• IoT for everyone: Apple HomeKit vs. Google Brillo

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Some people enjoy learning about communication protocols like Bluetooth Mesh and Z-Wave and Zigbee and Insteon and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Low-Energy and Thread.

Most people, however, didn’t finish that sentence. They cursed the author (that’s me) and bounced to the next paragraph (this one), hoping to find a sentence without so much Latinate gibberish and hyphenated brand names. Most people don’t have time to waste. And that’s why other people invented automated home technologies, like internet-connected security cameras and soil-sensing dishwashers.

Introducing Google Brillo & Apple HomeKit

And Brillo. Brillo is spelled and pronounced the same way as the soap-impregnated scouring pad we all know and love, but it’s owned by Google. Brillo is a home automation platform for the Internet of Things.

Wait. The Internet of what? The Internet of Things (IoT) is a catchphrase describing a semi-autonomous machine-to-machine data communications network. It doesn’t exist in any empirical way, just in a philosophical sense. “Home automation,” says Mike Elgan of ComputerWorld, “is the domestic, consumer wing of the IoT.”

But Brillo is not the only home automation platform in the market. In fact, it’s late to the game. In summer 2014, at the Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple introduced HomeKit, its proprietary home automation platform. Will Google usurp what Apple started?

Product Aims & Goals

Brillo could be one of two things. It could be Google’s next nefarious step toward world domination. Or, it could be the belated fruition of Android@Home, Google’s home automation platform announced in 2011 and promptly eaten by the dog.

In techno-speak, Brillo is a “scrubbed down” (pardon the pun) version of the Android operating system designed to run on low-power devices with RAM as low as 32 megabytes. It synchronizes devices using a new cross-platform schema called Weave. Support is built-in for Android and, yes, iOS products.

HomeKit, meanwhile, keeps it all in the family. It’s only compatible with Apple-certified third-party devices like the Insteon Hub and Belkin WeMo sensors. Here’s how it works: Every network, device and function has a name (e.g. Home – Radio – Maximize Volume). Homeowners can create “groups” or “scenes” in which devices pair up. In “Theater Scene,” for instance, the lights would dim, the television activate, and the oven set to “pizza preheat.”

Compatible Products

Brillo is compatible with …

…

We’ll get back to you once Brillo is released to developers in Q3 2015. For now, Google promises that upcoming Nest thermostats and smoke alarms will use Weave. Google will likely push Brillo onto OEM hardware manufacturers, possibly for free.

But Apple has the headstart. The first HomeKit-compatible products hit the shelves the first week of June 2015. Products currently or soon-to-be available include the iHome iSP5 SmartPlug, Lutron Caseta Wireless Lighting and the Elgato Eve Door and Window Sensor. Additionally, many home security tools – whether they’re professionally-installed devices from ADT, or part of a DIY system like Home Depot’s Wink or Lowe’s Iris – have the potential to link with Apple’s connected framework. Many of these devices were first released in Europe, where Apple enjoys greater market penetration.

Hub Requirements

Google is avoiding any central app or hub for Brillo or Weave, since both labor behind the scenes (Nest has remained silent on the issue). However, using the Weave API, developers can craft their own apps for third-party devices that run Weave and that may or may not run on Brillo. Eventually, Google wants to release voice command functionality for Brillo.

Reports heavily suggest that Apple intends to make the Apple TV a hub for HomeKit. After signing into their Apple TV using their Apple Sign-On ID, homeowners can use Siri voice commands to lock doors, control lights, activate coffee pots, or set daily schedules for such devices. Of course, most HomeKit devices will be controlled through an iOS smartphone app as well.

Both Google Brillo and Apple HomeKit are means to an end: a home where machines talk, where coffee makers brew quantities according to foot traffic and radios choose music stations based on the nearest smartphone. All they need is language.

Read more on Apple TV’s role in HomeKit and device compatibility.

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Over the past couple of years, Apple has been slowly adding content, via ‘channels’, to the Apple TV platform. These channels are nothing more than a link on a homepage pointing to a third-party’s streaming web service, allowing Apple to quickly add and remove content providers via an update to their server-side HTML. As Apple has been expanding their content, they have simultaneously been conspicuously silent on the device at their annual developers convention, and this year was no different.

Among a list of changes to iOS, OS X, and watchOS announced in San Francisco, not a word was said about rumored updates to the hardware Apple TV platform, and only a single mention of the device’s capabilities as a HomeKit controller was made.

Yet, reading between the lines, there were many announcements that show the potential of what an updated device and Apple TV service would look like.

• Search API and Siri- One of the biggest challenges with the current way Apple has been deploying ‘channels’ on the Apple TV has been searching content. Today, there is no way to search across the channels for available shows, yet the new API released for iOS provides access to this data. Combined with the new, more natural capabilities within Siri, this would be the most logical place for a TV interface to succeed where others have failed. Use natural language to search content maintained by each channel and content provider, and the biggest challenges facing video content usability are conquered.
• Metal & Games APIs – Apple continues to advance the capabilities and performance of their game APIs. Today’s updates allow game developers to create better games faster than ever, and with the Apple TV sharing similar hardware to the iPhone/iPad, it would seem to be a trivial effort to allow developers to write games that execute natively on the platform.

So this is obviously all conjecture at this point, but without any substantive narrative from Apple in years, we’re going to be left guessing for at least a while longer.

Also read: Apple Music coming to Apple TV this fall

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The first batch of HomeKit enabled smart devices went up for order yesterday. Correspondingly, Apple released a support document to help early users get started with HomeKit. And thanks to the document, we now know more about Apple TV’s role in HomeKit.

Like we reported earlier, an Apple TV will be integral to your smart home setup, if you need to control devices while away from home. Here is what Apple says:

“Control your accessories away from home
If you have an Apple TV (3rd generation or later) with software version 7.0 or later, you can control your HomeKit-enabled accessories when you’re away from home using your iOS device.

Sign in with the same Apple ID on your iOS device and Apple TV, and you’ll be able to use Siri commands to remotely control your accessories.“

You will be able to control your HomeKit-enabled accessories remotely via their apps itself. However, if you need to use Siri to control them while away, then an Apple TV is a must. Once you sign into your Apple TV and the iOS device using the same Apple ID, you can start commanding your digital minions, wherever you are.

It is also clear now that you can create groups within the HomeKit setup, like lights, fans, thermostat etc. and also based on rooms and areas, so that commands like “Hey Siri, turn down the heat in the living room” does what is expected.

We earlier believed that only the refreshed version of Apple TV 3 (A1469) would be compatible with the new OS and carry HomeKit, but Apple confirms that any Apple TV 3 running software version 7.0 or above are capable. Any iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch with iOS 8.1 or later will be able to take smart-home commands as well.

Apple mentions the compatible Apple TV as “3rd gen or above” which seems to be a cheeky hint to the Apple TV 4 which is expected to be announced next week.

Apple HomeKit support document is an interesting read. And if you are planning to buy some HomeKit devices, check out the first ones or the Apple’s dedicated sub site.

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Apple TV, as reported earlier, will most probably perform a central role in integrating Apple’s HomeKit “Internet of Things” platform, especially while using remote commands via Siri. Owners of compatible Apple TVs would be happy to learn that they will soon be able to turn their homes smart, thanks to the first wave of smart devices announced yesterday.

It seems that Apple had placed some sort of restriction on companies to withhold their products till June 2, since five companies announced HomeKit devices yesterday simultaneously. This date would be perfect since the new Apple TV 4, its new operating system and new HomeKit features are expected to be announced on Monday, at the WWD 2015.

Here are all the HomeKit accessories that are available now:

1. Caseta Wireless Lighting Starter Kit from Lutron

It includes the Caseta Wireless Smart Bridge, 2 dimmers, 2 remotes and 2 pedestals. The Smart Bridge which could earlier be only controlled via their app, got a refresh to add HomeKit support. Now you can directly use Siri to turn off or dim the Lutron lights, wherever you are.

The kit is available on Amazon for $229.95 or you can get the Smart Bridge only for $119.95

2. Elgato Eve

Eve is a series of devices packed with sensors to monitor the quality of your home environment. Eve Weather checks for the temperature and pressure, while the Eve Door and Windows tells you if they are open or closed. Eve Room is the indoor guy who senses volatile organic compounds to keep track temperature and humidity.

Available on Amazon, starting at $40.

3. ecoBee3 Smart Thermostat

“Ordinary thermostats read the temperature in only one room, but are supposed to deliver comfort in all rooms. ecobee3 remote sensors deliver the right temperature in the rooms that matter most.”

Preorder it now for $229.

4. iHome iSP5 SmartPlug

This is the simplest of all today’s announcements. This is just a smart plug which can toggle on or off based on your needs. So you can connect just about any device to the outlet and remotely control it.

It will be up for preorder from June 15.

5. Insteon Hub

On the more complex side, this one is just a hub for other devices to connect to simplify the process of home automation. You can pair multiple HomeKit devices to it, from various rooms, offices, and houses and control all of them via a single app on your iPhone.

You can order it now for $79.99

Read more on Apple TV’s role in HomeKit and device compatibility.

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Finally, we have some reliable info on the next Apple TV. Reputed blogger John Paczkowski (formerly Re/code and AllThingsD) posted today on BuzzFeed some authoritative details on the specs, new features and release date of the much-awaited Apple TV 4.

According to “sources familiar with the company’s plans”,  Apple “intends to show the device off” at the World Wide Developer Conference, expected to be held in early June.

There is a reason Apple chose the developer’s arena. The new Apple TV will sport a redesigned operating system with support for third party apps and of course, have a separate App Store for them. So Apple wants its developer community to get to work as early as June and populate the App Store by the time Apple TV 4 reaches the hands of users.

Hardware wise, the refreshed Apple TV will reportedly pack an A8 chip or at least a variant of it, making it much more powerful and a huge improvement over the current single-core A5 ones.

New Apple TV will also harbor a better flash drive with much larger capacity than the present 8 GB ones. The set-top box is said to come with a redesigned, tactile remote too.

The Apple TV 4 will also bear an intuitive user-interface and voice navigation feature like the Amazon Fire TV, thanks to Siri integration.

And as we heard before, the new Apple TV will also be instrumental in remotely controlling your HomeKit smart devices via Siri.

Paczkowski reports:

Sources say Apple’s new Apple TV is a significant overhaul of the device, one intended to undergird Apple’s vision of what the TV viewing experience should be […]

If I’m understanding the company’s strategy correctly, the new Apple TV isn’t just a play for a stake of the streaming TV market, but for the mythical digital living room. Think TV, music, apps and a little bit of home automation as well.

Reading along the other recent rumors, the video content available on the Apple TV 4 will be more appreciable to cord cutters too, as it will come with Apple’s own streaming service and the HBO NOW service.

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There is no doubt Apple will release a new Apple TV model sooner or later, the only question is when. According to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, the Apple TV 4 could be launched this fall:

With WWDC just four months away (likely June 2015), we believe talk about an update to Apple TV (not a television) could pick up over the next few months. Despite our belief in an actual television being unrealized so far, we continue to believe that TV is an area of focus for Apple and the most likely area for innovation now that the Apple Watch has been announced. We believe the most likely path to a TV would be an update to the Apple TV hardware and software that potentially integrates content, gaming, and HomeKit in the fall of 2015 and a television at least a year later. As we move toward the Apple Watch launch in April, we believe investors will be looking for the next big new product for Apple, which we believe will be focused around the TV.

Gene Munster is known for his predictions on Apple’s television set. Well, failed predictions, to be exact. But reading together with other rumors we’ve been hearing about the new Apple TV, we can be sure of one thing – the Apple TV 4 is real and is coming out for sure.

Also read:

• New beta turns Apple TV into the master of HomeKit

• Forbes: Apple TV will be the center of Apple’s smart home

• After Apple Watch, the next big thing is Apple TV

• Apple Watch and AirPlay: what Apple’s smartwatch means to Apple TV users

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CES 2015 was overwhelmed by the smart home concept, with many manufacturers announcing their own home automation systems, while others showing off their Apple HomeKit enabled devices. And thanks to anonymous disclosures by the company spokespersons, we now probably know the exact role of Apple TV in HomeKit.

Apple TV will act as the middle man for transmitting remote Siri commands to your HomeKit devices. For instance, if you’re on a vacation, you can just bring up Siri on iPhone and ask it to Sprinkle the garden. Back at home, your Apple TV will relay that command to your smart sprinkler and your lawn will be watered.

So, while commands like “Siri, turn off the lights in the living room” will always work while connected to your home Wi-Fi network, they won’t from the airport unless you have an Apple TV. But that’s it — you can still switch off the lights with an app, no Apple TV required. This behavior has been confirmed by a source close to HomeKit’s development as well as two launch partners who wish to remain anonymous.

As per the CES representatives, this seems to be the only role of Apple TV in HomeKit. Unlike what we thought earlier, an Apple TV won’t be the centerpiece in the connected home.

Also we now know that only Apple TV 3rd generation with firmware 7.0 and above will support HomeKit. The spokespersons confirmed our earlier reports that the Apple TV 7.0.1 update brought the necessary tools for this.

HomeKit was announced in the WWDC conference last year, and is Apple’s way to control home appliances and devices right from your iPhone.

We earlier heard rumors that HomeKit is nearing completion and that we’d see a slew of smart devices soon. But according to CES booths, this might not be the case.

Many of the HomeKit devices showed considerable bugs and a lot of them weren’t MFi certified either. Also, none of the manufacturers could point to an exact launch date for their devices, all of which point to a delay in HomeKit release.

However, it is still unclear if future generations of Apple TV will play a more significant role in HomeKit. We’re expecting the next Apple TV and HomeKit to be launched together and from what we gather from CES 2105, it might take a bit longer.

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