Belkin SoundForm Connect AirPlay 2 Adapter:

• https://geni.us/SoundForm (Amazon affiliate link)

The post Belkin Soundform Connect with Apple AirPlay 2 appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

With AirPlay 2-enabled speakers, users can ask Siri via their iPhone to play their favorite music or podcasts throughout the house, ask what’s playing in each room, control the volume, and more. The adapter enables the speakers to be compatible with HomeKit, making it easy to assign them to different rooms and create scenes and automations in the Home app.

This new Belkin product is the latest in a series of product launches from Belkin as the company dives deeper into the audio space. Off the heels of its critically acclaimed Soundform Elite, a robust speaker in partnership with Devialet and its first foray into wireless sound with its Soundform True Wireless Earbuds, Belkin also recently announced the Soundform Freedom True Wireless Earbuds, one of the first third-party accessories to work with Apple’s Find My Network.

Additional Features

• Connect to any existing powered speaker/receiver using optical or 3.5mm input (widespread compatibility)
• Compact and portable for minimal space requirement

The Soundform Connect is available for purchase on Belkin.com with availability in select retailers coming soon and is competitively priced at US$99.99.

The post Belkin Release SoundForm Connect Airplay 2 Connector appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

For now, users will have to make do with regular Bluetooth 5.0 for connectivity, which still requires either a direct connection to your phone or any Apple ‘Home Hub’, like an Apple TV or a HomePod/Mini. Because of Bluetooth connectivity in the first instance, and Thread support further down the road, this means that the Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant aren’t supported, which essentially makes the Wemo Stage a HomeKit exclusive, at least until such time the aforementioned platforms add Thread support.

You can order the Wemo Stage Scene Controller directly from the Belkin website, for $49.99, with free shipping.

Big thanks to Bing Feng Yeh, for his accurate prediction of Thread support for his device!

The post Wemo Wireless Switch Now Available, Thread Support Due Later appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

THREAD COMPATIBILITY

The Wemo Stage Scene Controller has three dedicated buttons and is designed to work with HomeKit directly, without the need for any form of bridge, although it does require a Home Hub in order to function. This is due to the fact that it uses Bluetooth 5.0, as devices that use Bluetooth for HomeKit, tend to need a home hub in order to be connected to your HomeKit home when your phone isn’t near enough to make a direct connection.

The interesting thing is, it would appear from research from our resident Bluetooth expert – Bing Feng Yeh – that the Bluetooth chip used in the device is actually capable of using Thread, the exciting new wireless protocol that is also used in the new HomePod Mini. that chip is the following;

• NXP BLE IC: K32W061 ( Bluetooth 5.0, Zigbee 3.0, Thread networks)

Now before we all get too excited, Belkin hasn’t made any announcements regarding this device using Thread, and may not use it, as strange as that may sound. However, the device Is capable of thread based on the chip used. In fact, the chip can also use Zigbee, although that’s unlikely to be used, as Belkin don’t use Zigbee, and don’t have a Zigbee hub, let alone one that’s compatible with HomeKit so that compatibility would appear to be a side product.

As it stands, we’ll have to wait and see what Belkin have planned, and what the price will turn out to be, but if the possibility of Thread is on the cards, this could well be an exciting new product.

The post Delayed Wemo Switch Due Soon – With Thread? appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

The device, listed in the filing as the ‘Belkin Soundform Connect‘ has a 3.5mm audio out port, for use with standard analogue hardware, as well as an Optical Audio output for the cleanest digital output possible. It would also appear to use a USB-C port for power (good!).

As it would be an AirPlay 2 device, it will also gain HomeKit support as standard, much like the HomePod, HomePod Mini, or even the 2nd gen Airport Express, which also has a digital out. Of course, the Airport Express has long since been out of production, so this new product will be a welcome addition to the growing list of devices that support AirPlay 2, whilst also adding ‘smarts’ to older HiFi equipment.

It also shows, from looking at the PDF diagram, that the Soundform Connect will come with a built-in NFC Chip, to add the device without even needing to scan the number or a QR code. NFC chips for HomeKit devices aren’t too common, although you can find them on some Nanoleaf devices, including the new Nanoleaf light Strip, along with a few other products from other companies.

One cheaper option already available, although only in China, is the updated Terncy Home Center ‘Braun’, which is in the first instance, a Zigbee 3.0 hub for the company’s growing lineup of Zigbee accessories, but also includes an analogue output that is also AirPlay 2 certified. This would be a cheaper option than the Belkin, which, if the rumours are correct, appears to be gearing up to be selling for around US$120, or €96.

The post Belkin AirPlay 2 Device Discovered in FCC Filing appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

If you’ve read my previous reviews, you’ll be aware that I put a lot of stock into presentation (the packaging basically), and on this count I would say that WeMo have delivered admirably. As with many of the current manufacturers of smart devices, the container that the smart plug came in was super sturdy, being made of a thick recycled (?) cardboard, enclosed in a green and white outer sleeve. Green seems to be the colour of choice these days, with iHome and Vocolinc both also opting for this colour scheme. Whether this is an effort to imbue their products with some form of ‘eco-friendliness’ I’m not sure, but it certainly works on an aesthetic level.

Once you’ve taken off the outer sleeve, you can really see that WeMo have gone the extra mile, with a lovely design on the inside of the carton – something you’d only see once you had already purchased the product, so this isn’t just to entice you, it’s to encourage and excite you into taking WeMo seriously, in that they think about the smaller details.

After you’ve open the box fully to reveal the smart plug itself, you can see that it’s housed nicely within the centre of the box, giving it little chance to move around and potentially get damaged. There’s an included manual to help with quick setup along with any problems you might have with the plug, in the form of a list of troubleshooting tips.

Ok, that’s enough about the ‘Hipster’ packaging. Onto the device itself.

At the end of the day, of all the categories of smart devices, smart plugs offer the most choice, and while some can do small things that others can’t do (like monitor electricity usage for example), they all basically do the same job of turning a ‘dumb’ device on or off, giving said device some level of automation. This device is no different to any of those in that basic respect. It’s fairly slim, or wide, depending on how you look at it, but being this slim it does offer the advantage of not taking up more than one wall socket, which in turn means that it can be stacked with another WeMo smart plug quite comfortably.

The design of the plug itself is quite unassuming, which would lend itself to blending into a typical, mainly white kitchen. Simple branding aside, the only other thing on the front is a rather convenient on/off switch, with a small LED that lights up in white, when there’s power going to the plug. Going back briefly to its dimensions, while it’s not quite as slim as the iHome iSPX6, it comes close, although it is slightly taller. it does beat out the iDevices Switch in the ‘skinny’ department, but once again it is wider/taller, so it really is down to the individual as to what works for them.

Onto the setup: As this device isn’t a ‘straight-out-the-box’ HomeKit product, with no HomeKit code provided – or even needed – the procedure was a little bit more involved; not necessarily complicated, but a little long-winded nonetheless. First off, you need to download the WeMo app to get things started. Once the app is downloaded and running, you simply plug the device into an outlet and let the app guide you through the process of initially setting it up to work with the WeMo app. Interestingly, even though the setup process for getting it to integrate with HomeKit comes later, the first thing you’re asked on opening the WeMo app is access to your ‘Home Data’, meaning your current Apple Home data. Once you’ve okayed this, you choose which device you want to set up, you’re then presented with a few tips as to setup process itself. This involves connecting your iPhone or iPad to the wi-fi signal of the plug itself in order to exchange you home wi-fi network settings. Once all that’s ‘in the bag’, the app will attempt to connect to the device itself, which in my case took a little bit of time.

It eventually spots the plug and asks you to name the device (if you so wish – I stuck with ‘Wemo Mini’). You’ll then be prompted to provide an email address to complete the process before it proceeds to finally connect directly to your home network. After that is complete, you then get to choose whether you’d like it to send you notifications.

As I already mentioned, this was a lengthy, if straightforward process, but once you’re at this point, you’ll see the smart plug show up as a device that can now be programmed or controlled within the WeMo app. Chances are that there will be at least one, if not two firmware updates awaiting you. One of these will be for the plug itself, which is reassuring to know that kinks are spotted and ironed out by way of these updates. The other is to enable the plug to work with HomeKit, which is the whole reason this is being reviewed of course! Once you’ve updated the firmware, you’ll finally get to the section that allows for HomeKit connectivity. You’re given options for connecting the plug to IFTTT, Nest, Alexa and finally, the Apple Home App. Google isn’t on this list for some reason, but you can connect to Google assistant via the Google Home app.

We’re on the home straight now, so it’s just connecting the plug to the Home app, which in most respects appears in the same way it would if you were adding a standard HomeKit compatible device, minus the part where you have to scan a code.

From here on in, like with a standard install, it’s simply a case of choosing which room the plug resides in, whether it appears as a Light, Powerpoint or Fan, and whether you wish to add it to your favourites. It will then appear in your standard Home app, along with any 3rd party apps you may use.

I’ve only been using it for about 24 hours, and so far I’ve found it to be as responsive as all my other plugs, with no real sign of extra lag from touching the tile in the app, to the corresponding on or off. The device itself emits a small ‘click’ when it’s turned on or off (which may be good for some and terrible for others), and the LED above the physical switch turns white or turns off respectively.

As previously stated, it does work with other platforms, and while it isn’t compatible with Wink, unlike the aforementioned iHome smart plug, it does have IFTTT, which may actually be of more use.

After setting the device up, I unplugged it from mains power briefly, to see if it would reconnect without any issues, and it did reconnect after about a minute or so. However, I did a second test, where I left it disconnected overnight, and on this occasion it took a full uninstall and reinstallation to get it back to where I had it, which in fact took two attempts, with the first take managing to somehow render the physical button unresponsive. A second full reset solved the issue and once I’d gone through the lengthy installation process again, it was all good.

In my final assessment, it’s great to see how devices are going to work with the new Software Authentication process, and I’m hoping that when other manufacturers do get on board, the set up isn’t as long as this one was, even though I can see that most steps seemed to be necessary. However, there are a ton of choices for smart plugs out there, and while this device is a little cheaper than many of them, you do find some good deals occasionally, which essentially boils this down to just another smart plug.

Pros

• slim, so easy to stack with another of these if needed
• relatively cheap
• good support from a reputable company

Cons

• long-winded set up process
• not great at remembering settings if left unplugged

Still, I’d recommend it for those on a budget who also don’t want to obscure two wall outlets with one plug.

The post Belkin Wemo Mini Smart Plug (review) appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

“With this app release Wemo now supports Apple HomeKit for Wemo Mini Smart Plugs with no Bridge required! Download the app release, and keep an eye out for an important firmware update that will enable Apple HomeKit support on Wemo mini devices”

So from this, it can be read that although the app is an update in and of itself, the update that is needed for some of their smart plugs is actually in the form of a firmware update that may or may not be issued yet, although one user on Facebook has already confirmed that hisWemo Mini Smart Plug is indeed working without a bridge. This could also indicate that Wemo devices are taking advantage of the recent software authentication route that Apple has issued, allowing companies to do away with the need for a specific MFi chip.

The biggest takeaway from this is that Wemo are even making their bridge unnecessary, at least for the Mini Smart Plugs it would seem.

More info as we get it.

The post Wemo Mini Smart Plugs Now Support HomeKit Without a Bridge appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.