Apple Reveals Home Automation Plans for New Construction
Today you purchase and install HomeKit home automation devices in existing homes, but Apple wants to go beyond retrofits by building the technology into new homes. “We want to bring home automation to the mainstream,” Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of product marketing, told Bloomberg. “The best place to start is at the beginning, when a house is just being created.” According to a survey by real-estate firm Trulia, twice as many people prefer a newly built house to a pre-owned property, so perhaps the boost that home automation needs is to become standard in new construction.
After last week's DDOS attacks that used home automation IoT units, perhaps Apple should re-think this "HomeKit" idea.
I think the real thing to focus on is that Apple should make sure that HomeKit is as secure as possible (and I believe they're doing a good job on that front, though Josh knows more), since that could be a big selling point against cheaper devices that are easily compromised.
I trust HomeKit, because Apple is good with security, and two-factor authentication is required to access HomeKit devices outside your home.
However, the bigger problem is that many HomeKit-compatible devices work with a number of other protocols, which may not be as secure as HomeKit. I should do some probing of my home network to see if anything is obviously vulnerable.
Would be a good thing if 'new-builds' had a 5volt/12volt DC power line built-in, in addition to the usual AC line and with relevant hardware to incorporate use of solar power & back-up from the AC system. This would mean elimination of a lot of the charger kits......and be more efficient.