Report: Apple To Unveil "Smart Home" System 174
An anonymous reader writes "According to a report Apple will be unveiling a new smart home system at the upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference. The system will allow users to control security systems, appliances and lighting with their iPhones. A "select number" of device makers will be certified to offer products that work with Apple's upcoming system, according to the report, which didn't name any of the manufacturers."
Re:I will NEVER understand the appeal of this syst (Score:4, Interesting)
I have been making a shitload of money doing it for a decade... except I use the real stuff from Crestron and AMX. Real lighting control, real automation.. To the tun of $20,000- $80,000 per home for the real stuff that does not break or fail all the time.
Home automation has been a reality for a very long time, you just had to spend money on it. And yes my clients have been able to control it all from the internet for 10+ years It's not hard at all to make a secure encrypted tunnel from their phone to the house. So they can look at cameras, control lights, see who is home ,lock or unlock doors, see door status, open or close the garage doors, even control the AV system from a distance (that was one of the more wierd requests from a customer)
Re:no thank you apple (Score:5, Interesting)
1. If the existing standard doesn't suit them for whatever reason, their implementation will be a variant of that standard and their only concern will be interoperability will first party and (to a slightly lesser extent) officially-blessed third party stuff. They won't reinvent the wheel just for kicks; but if they decide that their needs are somewhat different, their implementation will be as well, and it's just too bad if that's an issue. (It's not unlike the degree to which Microsoft 'based' Active Directory and Domains on, LDAP and Kerberos.)
2. Crypto: Unlike the old days, when you could only be proprietary by keeping your obfuscated binary protocol or your weirdo connector one step ahead of the reverse engineers, now you can have it all in the open and still nearly useless unless it's signed and blessed. Apple's "Facetime", for instance, is based on a lovely, standards-tastic, collection of standards; but important parts of setting up a connection involve mutual certificate verification between an Apple server and an Apple device, so that's effectively irrelevant to 3rd parties.
Re:no thank you apple (Score:1, Interesting)
PNG: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Network_Graphics#PNG_Working_Group A bunch of dudes working on an image format, no companies were specifically involved in the creation of such image. PNG is supported on Windows and Android. No idea why you listed it here...
AIFF: Based off of Electronic Arts' IFF format on the Amiga. There's only one company that really uses it - the one who made it. Wiki page doesn't mention if it's open or not.
MP4 / AAC: Requires licensing / payment for playback (codecs). (You listing this separately means you truly don't understand what AAC is, or is trying to make it look better)
BMP: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMP_file_format Made by MS under the Open Source License (OSP). Supported by OS/2 and Windows.
WAV: Created by MS and IBM http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/formats/fdd/fdd000001.shtml No licensing required
WMA/WMV: Requires licensing / payment for playback.
Microsoft seems better in your list.