Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com.
On this episode let's look at a simple example of using the new Home App in iOS 10.
I'm going to use this lamp to demonstrate how you can control
an electronic device using your iPhone or your iPad.
In order to do that you, of course, need to purchase something.
You've got to have something to communicate with on the other end.
So I bought this inexpensive, little device here.
It just plugs into an outlet and then you plug a device, like a lamp or something, or
a fan, into it.
Then you can turn it on and off.
Inside of this not only does it let power pass through but there is a wireless connector
in there and it's actually set up using Apple's Home Kit standards so it already speaks the
language that your iPhone and iPad will speak.
So it's very easy to set up.
Okay.
So I've plugged in the device and a green light came on.
But I'm going to ignore all the rest of the instructions because as a Home Kit device
this should all work automatically.
The instructions typically are for other types of systems it may also connect to.
So all I've done is plugged it in and waited for it to turn on.
Now I'm going to go to the Home App on my iOS device.
Hit Add Accessory.
Sure enough my iPad here sees it here automatically even though I've told the device nothing about
my network, it doesn't have my iPad password, or anything.
It just automatically sees the device.
That's the magic of the whole Home Kit system.
I'm going to tap it to add it to my network.
It's actually going to ask me the position the sticker, there's a sticker on the instruction
booklet with this code, and I can position it in the camera so it can actually read the
code or you can enter the code manually.
So like if I wanted to try and get the code here, I can position it in the camera and
it may or may not read it or I can just hit it manually.
But here it grabbed it, you can see automatically, and it says pairing.
So now it's telling the device about things.
About my WiFi network, about how to connect to the iPad.
Everything it needs to know.
So everything is configured automatically and I'm ready to go.
Now I can do various things.
For instance I can go in and change the name of it.
So I can change it to office lamp.
I can change its location so it can give it a room that it's in.
So you can have a lamp in your bedroom, lamp in the dining room, etc.
It even shows the Type there included in the favorites.
Hit Done.
You can see now the screen for the Home App now shows me that there's kind of this button
here that I can click just by tapping it and it will actually turn the device on or off.
So let's give this a try now.
I'm going to hit the button and it should turn on the lamp.
There it works!
I can tap it again and turn it off.
So I can go back and forth and control it from anywhere in my house using the iPad.
Now if you've got an iPad you can also do something where you set up a hub.
I'm going to go into Settings and under Home in Settings I can turn on Use this iPad as
a Home Hub.
So instead of using Apple TV as a Home Kit home hub which is how you would normally do
it with your iPhone you can use an iPad as one especially if the iPad is always in the
house.
So then when I set it up as a Hub I can do things now like go into Automation and create
automated tasks.
So I can create in New Automation My Location Changes based probably where my iPhone is
and/or What Time of day occurs.
It can have a certain thing happens like have the lamp turn on, have the lamp turn off.
I imagine if I had a more complex device than simply an on and off switch then instead of
having a button there, there would be a more complex set of controls like maybe thermostat
temperature settings and things like that.
So it depends on what type of device you've got and new devices are coming out all the
time.
I'll actually include a link to the little device I'm using here.
It costs about $30 and it was a good one for me to be able to try this functionality out
without spending a ton of money.
Until next time this is Gary with MacMost.com.