We have now come one step closer to having a smart-home, thanks to Apple. The Cupertino giant today released, called the Ecobee3, a smart thermostat that you can regulate through Siri. The device is available in Apple retail stores in North America, for now.
This new thermostat is the first of its kind which is compatible with Apple’s HomeKit technology, and was a part of series of first Homekit enabled devices announced ahead of WWDC in June.
This essentially means that you can use any of your Apple ‘i’ devices (iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch) to remotely monitor or control the kit. This can either be done using an app on the iDevice, or finally via Siri.
Apple, for a long time, has been working over automated and smart appliances and over the past couple of years, has given the world many smart devices to ponder over. The new thermostat is, quite easily put, a new addition to Apple’s Connected Home initiative.
Why get up to switch off your lights? Why stand on edge to control your food processor, microwave or any other appliance for that matter?
You could just go, ‘Hey Siri! Switch on the nightlights, will ya?’, and Apple’s ever cheerful voice assistant will do it for you (with a little, alright, a lot of help from external devices like the new thermostat).
However, Apple isn’t the only one working at this kind of tech. Amazon’s already out Echo smart speaker also lets you control home appliances by speaking commands to a voice assistant, and Google-owned, Nest makes a smart thermostat and smoke detector.
Ecobee3 is already being sold by Ecobee and it doesn’t always need you to monitor it. It can work independently. The smart device knows when to turn on your heat or air conditioning based on your home’s energy profile and the outside weather. Also, it can sense your presence and switch devices on and off accordingly. That will surely be a lot of saving in your energy bill.
The device costs $249 and with the new features and the Apple Homekit compatibility, it might just worth be spending your hard earned money.
