Last month in the UK, a bill that could significantly change how Apple is able to encrypt user data on iOS was introduced. Called the Investigatory Powers Bill, it has the potential to require Apple to hold a key to encrypted smartphones and services such as iMessage and FaceTime. While Apple didn’t comment on the bill at the time, it has now, as expected, spoken out against it in a written submission to the UK House of Parliament.

In the submission, Apple argued that the bill would hurt law-abiding citizens in an effort to simply attempt to combat the few “bad actors” who attempt to carry out attacks. The company went on to explain that many think it is possible to create a system that keeps all user data secure, while only allowing data to be accessed when a proper warrant is served. The issue with this thinking, Apple says, is that the government does not know in advance who would be a target of investigation (via Independent.ie).

This written submission echoes Tim Cook’s comments yesterday on 60 Minutes in which he said there is no reason for there to be backdoor access to consumer data. Cook believes that if there is backdoor access, it is inevitable that someone with negative intentions will gain access.

The bill has been supported by UK Prime Minister David Cameron. Should the bill become a law, Apple would be forced to stop encrypting iPhones, iMessage, and FaceTime beyond its access. Apple’s full letter to the UK House of Parliament can be read below:

“The bill threatens to hurt law-abiding citizens in its effort to combat the few bad actors who have a variety of ways to carry out their attacks. The creation of backdoors and intercept capabilities would weaken the protections built into Apple products and endanger all our customers. A key left under the doormat would not just be there for the good guys. The bad guys would find it too.

Some have asserted that, given the expertise of technology companies, they should be able to construct a system that keeps the data of nearly all users secure but still allows the data of very few users to be read covertly when a proper warrant is served,” said Apple’s submission to the UK parliamentary committee. But the Government does not know in advance which individuals will become targets of investigation, so the encryption system necessarily would need to be compromised for everyone.

The best minds in the world cannot rewrite the laws of mathematics. Any process that weakens the mathematical models that protect user data will by extension weaken the protection. And recent history is littered with cases of attackers successfully implementing exploits that nearly all experts either remained unaware of or viewed as merely theoretical.

The bill would attempt to force non-UK companies to take actions that violate the laws of their home countries. This would immobilise substantial portions of the tech sector and spark serious international conflicts. It would also likely be the catalyst for other countries to enact similar laws, paralysing multinational corporations under the weight of what could be dozens or hundreds of contradictory country-specific laws.

Those businesses affected will have to cope with a set of overlapping foreign and domestic laws. When these laws inevitably conflict, the businesses will be left having to arbitrate between them, knowing that in doing so they might risk sanctions. That is an unreasonable position to be placed in.

If the UK asserts jurisdiction over Irish or American businesses, other states will too. We know that the IP bill process is being watched closely by other countries. For the consumer in, say, Germany, this might represent hacking of their data by an Irish business on behalf of the UK state under a bulk warrant – activity which the provider is not even allowed to confirm or deny. Maintaining trust in such circumstances will be extremely difficult.”

Filed under: AAPL Company Tagged: Apple, Encryption, Investigatory Powers Bill, iOS

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Content from shows on popular networks including HGTV, Food Network, and Travel Channel are now available with apps launching in the App Store for the new Apple TV.

The apps offer much the experience offer in their iPhone and iPad counterparts, and require users to sign-in using a cable TV account. Like the iOS apps for HGTV, Travel Channel, and Food Network, users can sign in with accounts from  AT&T U-verse. Bright House Networks, Cox, Comcast XFINITY, DIRECTV, DISH, Google Fiber, Optimum, Time Warner Cable, Verizon FiOS, and a long list of others.

In each of the apps, users will find the usual selection of on-demand episodes and clips from popular shows on each of the networks, as well as access to a Live TV stream of what’s airing on the channels.

You can download the HGTV, Travel Channel and Food Network apps on the new Apple TV now.

Filed under: Apps Tagged: App Store, Apple TV, Apple TV 4, Apps, download, Food Network, HGTV, Travel Channel

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Thanks to Nest and other “smart home” accessory developers, wirelessly controlled appliances and security accessories are rapidly becoming mainstream. Garage and home doors have gone wireless, adding Bluetooth locks and remote controls, so it’s no surprise that the same features are beginning to appear in portable locks, as well. Since the ability to unlock doors without carrying old-fashioned keys is undeniably convenient, the only question is whether wireless locks are worthy of the premium prices they carry.

Best known for Apple device cases, Australian developer Dog & Bone has released Locksmart ($90), billed as a “keyless Bluetooth padlock.” Made from a zinc alloy with a 1.5″ stainless steel shackle, Locksmart is imposingly substantial, holding a Bluetooth 4 LE chip and two-year rechargeable battery inside a weatherproof frame. While it sells for a higher price than a basic weatherproof padlock with a key, or the sort of basic Bluetooth padlock one might use on a school locker, Locksmart is bolstered by a legitimately worthwhile app that enables it to work like $110 fingerprint-scanning padlocks — and arguably much better, since Dog & Bone’s app has several cool features that aren’t found in other padlocks…

From a hardware perspective, Locksmart initially appears to be extremely simple — so simple that you won’t even find an instruction manual in the box. Dog & Bone ships the lock closed, with nothing more than a micro-USB to USB cable and a sheet of paper directing you to download an iOS or Android Locksmart app. There’s no physical key in the box, and no obvious way to open the lock. The back of the box lists Locksmart’s features, but doesn’t provide guidance on popping it open. So if you want to start using the lock, you’ll need the app, which effectively turns your iOS or Android device into the key.

Locksmart’s size and shape make it look highly secure, and it has some distinctive design touches. Four inches tall, 2.5″ wide, and just over 1″ thick, it has red rings on its front and back to serve as bumpers, with a set of six front notches that hint at hidden controls. But there aren’t any controls, at least, not on the front; the bottom front notch turns out to be a narrow status light that flashes red when Locksmart is recharging, stays solid green when fully charged, and flashes green when it’s ready to pair with a wireless device. Local, proximate pairing is required: you cannot open the lock if you’re outside of its Bluetooth wireless range, which is at least 30 feet, perhaps double that.

Dog & Bone says you can expect up to 3,000 “opens” of the lock on a single charge, with the need to recharge only once every two years, though I suspect that real-world battery life will vary based on whether Locksmart is used in extreme weather conditions. My review unit arrived with 28% remaining battery life — enough for at least six months of use — and said that it was fully recharged within less than an hour, though I found Locksmart’s software-based remaining power indicator to be somewhat flaky. To conserve the battery, Locksmart remains off unless you press a tiny power button that’s hidden under a rubber-sealed compartment with the micro-USB recharging port. You needn’t open the compartment to press the button, a welcome accommodation if Locksmart’s being used in bad weather.

Most of Locksmart’s magic is found in Dog & Bone’s app, which is impressively designed and surprisingly functional. After you register for an account — layer one of security — you then pair the specific padlock to your iPhone for access, giving you the first opportunity to actually open it and attach it to something. In light of user complaints I’ve read regarding more basic Bluetooth padlocks, I’ll note that Locksmart’s Bluetooth pairing and locking were 100% flawless during my testing, with no reliability issues whatsoever when locking or unlocking. I was able to unlock Locksmart from two rooms away in a house, and a similar distance outdoors, without any complaint from the app.

One killer feature of the app is the option to choose the type of security you want for Locksmart. You can choose from three different unlocking mechanisms: “tap to unlock,” “Passcode,” or “Touch ID.” Tapping is a simple one-tap mechanism that pops the motorized lock open in a flash, and Passcode lets you use a four-digit code to secure the lock, akin to a simple combination lock. By comparison, Touch ID relies upon your iPhone’s or iPad’s fingerprint sensor to open the lock, making Locksmart similarly capable to $100+ biometric padlocks, albeit with the far more reliable and fast fingerprint scanning of Apple’s Touch ID sensors. Once Passcode or Touch ID is enabled, most of your interactions with the Locksmart app require re-authentication with your code or fingerprint for security, preventing an unauthorized user from downgrading the chosen level of security.

The app enables another frill: optional multi-user access. A Share feature lets you authorize up to 50 users to a single lock, deauthorizing each as you prefer. To add someone, all you need to do is press a plus button, enter the person’s name and mobile phone number, then authorize Locksmart to SMS an app download link with a Shared account authorization code. After downloading the app and setting up the account, your recipient gets immediate lock access — a process that took only 2 minutes in my testing. Each time a shared user accesses the lock, the main user receives a timestamped notification of the shared user’s access, a really nice feature. My only complaint about Shared access is a modest one: you cannot require a shared user to follow a heightened level of security, such as Touch ID or passcode access. All they have to do is “tap to unlock.” There are practical reasons why this makes some sense for fingerprints, but having second-level passcode security wouldn’t be a bad thing.

Apart from that limitation, Locksmart’s physical security is respectable by padlock standards — a step up over basic Bluetooth padlocks, but not Fort Knox level. The shackle is 8mm (0.31″)-thick stainless steel, which is mid-range in both thickness and material for cut resistance, enabling it to withstand common clipping tools but not heavy-duty bolt cutters. Similarly, the body is made from a die-cast Zamak-3 zinc alloy, a strong and heavy-feeling but not-quite-steel material, promising weatherproof operation in -20C to 70C temperatures, rain, hail, snow, or shine. These characteristics are comparable to what you’d find in a good $20 weatherproof lock, minus of course the app-assisted security and multi-user access features.

On the software side, Locksmart uses 128-bit Bluetooth encryption and a 256-bit cloud-generated private key, which means the padlock is far less likely to be successfully hacked than to be accessed by an authorized (but security-compromised) device — in other words, your iOS or Android device is the primary key once you’ve paired Locksmart, and you should keep your device safe, as well as restricting shared access. If you lose your device, Dog & Bone suggests that you immediately log into the Locksmart app with from another device, which will automatically lock out your lost device. Then you should change your account’s password and delete the lock, setting it up again with your new device.

From my perspective, it’s easy to see padlocks as commodities — ‘seen one, seen them all’ — but when you really consider the nuances that make some locks better than others, Locksmart’s appeal becomes more obvious. While Dog & Bone has selected middle-of-the-road physical materials for Locksmart, there’s undeniably some sophisticated functionality enabled by its app, particularly leveraging Touch ID, but also Shared access, which enable this particular padlock to be narrowly keyed to a single person or broadly opened by a collection of trusted users. Viewed as a more expensive alternative to a conventional padlock, Locksmart might be hard to justify, but as a less expensive (and more capable) alternative to a biometric padlock, it’s actually compelling. I’m looking forward to seeing Dog & Bone expand the Locksmart line, as a smaller and thinner-shackled version called Locksmart Mini is expected to be available in the not-too-distant future.

Filed under: Reviews Tagged: Bluetooth, connected lock, Dog & Bone, iOS, lock, Locksmart, Locksmart Padlock, Padlock, Security, Smart lock, Touch ID

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When Apple introduced the new Live Photos feature on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus back in September, Phil Schiller said on stage that Facebook was committed to supporting the new photo format by the end of the year. Facebook has now shared that it will begin letting a small number of users share Live Photos on the social network from today with a general roll out planned next year.

Taking a Live Photo requires either a new iPhone 6s or 6s Plus, but any iPhone or iPad on the latest version of iOS can view the new photo format which features both video and audio before and after the still image was shot. Playing back Live Photos can often give more context to a scene and reveal a moment otherwise not captured. Check out my hands-on experience with Live Photos here.

Earlier this month, Tumblr became the first major social network to turn on Live Photos support through an iOS app update. Facebook is likely more popular among more users, but its gradual approach to Live Photos support means you can’t guarantee your friends and family can either view or share Live Photos for now.

Once the new Live Photos feature reaches every Facebook for iOS user, anyone with Facebook for iPhone or iPad can view the full Live Photo through the app. You’ll notice the circular Live Photos icon on relevant photos when sharing and browsing.

Viewing Live Photos on other platforms including the web isn’t supported by Apple yet, so everyone else will just see the still image without the added context. (You can view Live Photos in Apple’s Photos app on the Mac, but not in Messages or elsewhere.)

While Tumblr and Facebook have adopted Live Photo support quickly after Apple introduced the feature and supported it in third-party apps, Twitter and Facebook-owned Instagram have yet to enable Live Photo sharing.

Let us know below if your Facebook app gets opted in to Live Photos support and how you’ve been using the new camera feature since September.

Photo via Fast Company

Filed under: Apps Tagged: Facebook, iPhone 6s, Live Photos

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Keep up with the best gear and deals on the web by signing up for the 9to5Toys Newsletter. Also, be sure to check us out on: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+ and Safari push notifications.

TODAY’S CAN’T MISS DEALS:

Apple 13-inch MacBook Air 1.6GHz/4GB/128GB (newest version): $800 or $750 w/ .edu (Reg. $999), more

SanDisk Connect Wi-Fi iOS/Android Flash Drive: 32GB $25 (Reg. $40), 64GB $40 (Reg. $60)

Hundreds of iOS/Mac games & apps are on sale for the holidays, these are the best ones you can’t afford to miss

DuckTales: Remastered for iOS goes on sale for the very first time: $1 (Reg. $10)

Grab the entire Infinity Blade Trilogy on iOS for just $1 each ($20 value)

App Store Free App of the Week: Attack the Light RPG goes free ($3 value)

Frogmind drops the new BADLAND 2 for iOS, original down to $3 (Reg. $5)

Hitman Sniper for iOS drops to its lowest price yet: $1 (Reg. up to $5)

Apple Beats Pill+ Bluetooth Speaker with Lightning (Black or White): $138 shipped (40% off)

Shop Apple’s holiday gift guide, save up to $350: great 9to5 deals on every device + accessory

Best Buy offering iPhone 6s for $1 on contract w/ Sprint & Verizon

Apple Watch Sport $100 off at B&H Photo, prices start at $249 with tax only in NY

Best Buy Apple sale: iPad Air 2 $125 off, iPad Air $100 off, iPad mini 4 $100 off, much more!

MORE NEW GEAR FROM TODAY:

Headphones: Philips Over-Ears w/ Lightning Connector $199 (Reg. $240+), SoundPEATS Bluetooth Earbuds $9, more

• iPad mini 3 Wi-Fi: 16GB $250 (Orig. $399), 128GB $425 (Orig. $599)
• 4K UHDTVs: VIZIO 58-inch $719 (Reg. $900), LG 55-inch $698 (Reg. $900)
• Merrell Winter Boots 45% off: Moab Polar Waterproof $61 (Reg. $110), more
• Games/Apps: Rare Replay $20, Mortal Kombat X & Mad Max $30 ea, more
• Media: 4-pack Blu-ray movies for $13, Warner Bros. 50 Film Collection $90
• Gift Cards up to 20% off w/ email delivery: Domino’s, Fandango, Petco
• Canon All-in-One Printer $25, DJI Phantom 2 Quadcopter v2.0 with Kit $489
• TP-LINK Wi-Fi Network Cloud Camera: $20 Prime shipped (Reg. $30)
• Chromecast users can grab a two month free trial of Sling’s Best of Live TV package

MORE DEALS STILL ALIVE:

OtterBox Defender Series iPhone 6 Case for $20 Prime shipped (Orig. $50)

• Logitech Harmony Smart Control Universal Remote w/ Hub: $70 shipped (Reg. $110+)
• Fitbit Charge HR $110 (Reg. $130+), The Microsoft Band 2 $200 (Reg. $250)
• Seagate Backup Plus USB 3.0 5TB Desktop External Hard Drive $115 (Orig. $180)
• Linksys USB 3.0 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter: $14 Prime shipped (Orig. $30)
• Gift Cards w/ Email Delivery: JCPenney $60 for $50, Toys R Us $100 for $90, more
• RAVPower 5-in-1 SD Card Reader, Battery Pack, Wireless Bridge $30 (Reg. $40)
• Aukey Bluetooth Audio: Sport Earbuds from $14 (Reg. $25), more
• LifeProof Nüüd iPad Air Waterproof Case in white $20 shipped (Reg. $48), more
• Bluetooth Speakers: Inateck MercuryBox Aluminum $30, Aukey Rugged $15
• MacPhun Photo Editing apps for Mac 40% off: Intensify & Tonality $10 ea, more
• Google is offering a free $20 Best Buy Gift Card when you use Android Pay

NEW PRODUCTS & MORE:

Hult blends copper and concrete in a stunning modern take on the Bluetooth speaker

Get Canary’s all-in-one home security system + air quality sensor for $179 (Reg. $200)

• Tiny Arcade puts those 80’s gaming cabinets in the palm of your hand
• The FLUXO Smart Lamp lets iOS and Android users paint their walls with light
• YoCam tops GoPro’s tiny action camera in features, but does it matter?
• This limited edition Rolls Royce cocktail kit is a must see for car and James Bond fans alike
• Justin’s Holiday Gift Guide: speakers, Lightning mics, pocket synths & more
• Trevor’s Holiday Gift Guide: The perfect accessories for travel
• Dan’s Holiday Gift Guide: rare Apple collectibles & swag
• Skip the holiday blues with these practical stocking stuffers
• Top 10 holiday movies you can stream right now on Netflix

Filed under: Tips and Tricks Tagged: 9to5Toys, 9to5Toys Lunch Break, Beats Pill+ Bluetooth Speaker, Fitbit, Logitech, MacBook Air, OtterBox, SanDisk Connect

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Astropad, the iOS app that lets you turn your iPad into a professional tablet for Mac, is out today with new enhancements for iPad Pro and Apple Pencil users. The app already supported native resolution on the 12.9″ tablet as well as basic Apple Pencil support, and today’s free update focuses on specific improvements to Pro plus Pencil features to make the most of the new hardware and create a first class experience.

If you’re unfamiliar with Astropad, the iPad app pairs with a Mac version, allowing you to draw and sketch on your tablet display and control what you do in Mac software like Photoshop. The experience is similar to connecting a Wacom tablet to a Mac for creating the digital sketch pad experience, but using the iPad you already own offers benefits like wireless connectivity and Apple Pencil support.

With the latest version of Astropad, it can now recognize Apple Pencil’s tilt feature which the app turns into accurate brush simulations on the Mac. Apple Pencil, of course, supports pressure sensitivity, and Astropad is now using a custom pressure curve to make use of that. The update also adds advanced stroke tuning with Apple Pencil so you only see what you intend to draw and not accidental marks.

Astropad has also cranked up image quality within the app so your projects will appear crisper on the larger iPad Pro display. And the update includes additional fine tuning that reduces latency between the iPad and Mac that machines with dual graphics cards will benefit from the most.

The free update to Astropad is rolling out now on the App Store. New customers can pick up the graphics tablet app for $19.99. The new features require the latest iPad and Mac versions to work. Learn more about Astropad for iPad Pro and Apple Pencil here.

Check out the latest version of Astropad in action below:

Filed under: Apps Tagged: Apple Pencil, astropad, drawing, iPad Pro, Mac, sketching, Wacom

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Apple was careful in highlighting its attention to detail to secrecy in its 60 Minutes segment, but the Apple web forums are currently ablaze with speculation about a potential leak in one of the clips. Behind Bruce Sewell, Apple SVP and General Counsel, is what appears to be a new kind of MacBook. From the image, it looks to be larger than a 12-inch Retina MacBook and with a different screen aspect ratio. This has fueled speculation that this is a pre-release glimpse at an upcoming redesigned MacBook Pro.

It certainly is a compelling theory. The MacBook name is not visible, the edges of the MacBook do not seem as curved as the shipping MacBook or MacBook Pro, and the aspect ratio itself seems different. However, it is hard to believe that Apple would make such a fundamental mistake as to leave secret products in the open for TV cameras to spot them. The idea of Apple intentionally leaking a new laptop also seems farfetched to me, although the whole point of the 60 Minutes spotlight is to hype Apple …

However, the biggest tell that this is just the 12-inch MacBook is the keyboard. It is clearly going edge-to-edge in that image. Unless Apple is planning on making the keyboard substantially larger, with uncomfortably-sized jumbo keycaps, the overall laptop dimensions would have to be almost identical to the current 12-inch MacBook. It could be a variant of the 12-inch MacBook or a pre-production prototype of the shipping model, but it’s most likely nothing actually ‘new’.

For what it’s worth, we’ve asked for Apple to comment and clarify what is going on here. What do you think? Is it a leak of a new Apple product or just a weird camera trick? For the record, at least one 9to5Mac editor with a 12-inch MacBook thinks it does look like something else and not camera trickery.

Here’s the 12-inch MacBook next to the iPad Pro for comparison:

Remember when Apple ‘leaked’ a new iPad — that furore was clear-cut: it was just a MacBook display.

Filed under: Mac Tagged: 60 Minutes, MacBook, macbook leak, new macbook

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The Elgato Avea Flare is an egg-shaped mood light with an iPhone and Watch app available to control the scene and colors displayed. It sits in the corner of a room or garden and discreetly glows. I tested the standalone unit, but you can also buy the Avea Bulb which is the same concept in a different form. The Elgato Eve Room ($78) is an indoor climate detector — it measures air quality, humidity and temperature. This data can then be reviewed through an iPhone app to act upon or using your voice with Siri questions. The Eve sensor (pictures below) is meant to be tucked away and out of sight, on a shelf or wall, silently checking up on your interior air quality.

These two products are from the same manufacturer, but they sit at opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of smart home gear; one has a clear functional purpose and the other is a ‘smart’ whimsical decoration. Both integrate with iOS via an iPhone app and both make cool additions to your life. I’ve been using both for a few weeks; read on for my full review of these smart home devices from Elgato …

Let’s start with the Flare. It’s a 16 color self-standing mood light — hidden inside the egg-shaped casing is a 60 lm LED. It’s not going to be your primary light in a room, it isn’t bright enough for that. It’s meant to add some atmosphere — think of it as a glow casting colored rays over the corner of a room. There’s also an alarm clock mode, so you can have it naturally brighten at 8am every morning to help you get of bed.

You can turn the light on or off using physical buttons in the base but the main control mechanism is the Flare app. Pairing the Flare uses Bluetooth, which worked flawlessly for me but mileage can vary with any Bluetooth device in regard to connection reliability and range. The app features a list of large tappable tiles representing different scenes, such as Burning Wood or . Most of these provide subtle color changes through a couple of hues but there are are some crazy extravagant options for parties, like the high-paced ‘Candyland’ theme which rapidly cycles between every color of the rainbow.

If you don’t fancy one of these ambient mood settings, you can pick a solid color. You can also tweak the vibrance and output brightness across all of these modes. And the Flare app comes with an Apple Watch app, so you can change all of these settings from your wrist. Alas, like many third-party watch apps, this is slow and a bit clunky.

In terms of physical size, the Flare is about half a metre high. It’s egg shaped and all white, so it’s a pretty modern accessory in terms of design. Its appearance fits most modern (and outdoor) home decors, but if you have a traditional style interior, it could stick out like a sore thumb. You can’t put this thing out of sight for ambience — it isn’t big enough to cast any light. The body of the device has to be exposed to the room for it to have any impact. The Flare is wireless, with a plate for inductive charging at night. I just leave my on the charging pad at all times.

The Avea Flare is cool. The big issue with the Flare is the lack of HomeKit support. The Avea range was developed before Apple was ramping HomeKit approvals to manufacturers. This limits the Flare a lot. You are forced into controlling the Flare through their own app, you can’t integrate into automated smart home workflows and you can’t turn it on and off with Siri either. These limitations are frustrating as a person that wanted to be invested into an Apple ecosystem. It feels like a dedication to the old, deprecated technology as the iOS integration for HomeKit devices versus proprietary Bluetooth accessories is unparalleled.

The Flare is really nice as a light, but is lacking compared to its competitors because of this one point. It’s difficult to recommend this in a comparison against Philip Hue smart lights, for example, which offer rich HomeKit integration features.

The Elgato Eve Room is different. It feels modern, predominantly because it does support HomeKit. The Eve Room is a small puck-sized sensor that sits on a tabletop or shelf. It doesn’t make noise, it doesn’t light up. So what is it doing? Passively, every ten minutes, it reads the temperature, humidity and air quality. It stores this information on an internal chip and shares the data with your iPhone through the Elgato Eve app.

The heating system in my flat requires a lot of manual tuning so the graphs provided by the Elgato are extremely useful. I can see if it got too hot overnight, whether I can leave it off during the day to save some energy, etcetera. Previously, I relied on a cheap and cheerful digital thermometer. One immediate benefit of the Eve over what I was using before is the air quality measurement:  my old thermometer had no way of knowing the parts per million ratio of the air. With the Eve, the app shows this data in a graph with color-coded sections to represent the quality scale, from Excellent to Poor.

The advantages of the Eve are clear: you can see more than just the current reading, use a familiar UI with simple touchscreen controls, check this information on your iPhone and coalesce the info with other smart home devices via HomeKit. You can set up triggers to automatically turn on the smart plug connected to your desk fan if the room starts getting too hot. If the Flare supported HomeKit, you could change the color of the room based on the temperature. Still, the interoperability of HomeKit means you can achieve something similar with an Eve coupled with Philips Hue lights.

HomeKit support means that you can also access all the data via Siri. Just ask your phone or watch ‘What’s the temperature in the Living Room’ and it will tell you. The same for humidity … Siri doesn’t seem to support air quality measurements however, because I could never get that phrase to work. You also have to account for the occasional problem where Siri can’t find your device at all — this appears to be systemic issue with all HomeKit accessories and not related to the Eve specifically. For me, Siri fails to find the sensor very infrequently but when it happens, it is annoying especially on the Watch where Siri can be slow. The Eve app never failed to read the data.

I only have one Eve sensor setup in the living room, but the system supports buying more and tracking data independently for every room of your house. Bigger houses may benefit from multiple sensors, but I think one sensor is just fine. The variation of temperature in your home will be relatively small. And you can always pick up the Eve and move it to a different room if you want to track another climate for a while.

I honestly didn’t expect to like it as much as I did. The Eve Room is a really nifty little gadget, appropriate as a holiday gift or any time of the year really. There is certainly a big novelty factor to the product, but it’s also genuinely useful. The iPhone app lets you see a lot more info than you normally can with wall-mounted thermometers and with a far prettier user interface. The inclusion of HomeKit lets you take the Elgato Eve to the next level, making it a core part of the smart home.

You can buy the Elgato Eve for $78 and I wholeheartedly recommend that you do. For the Avea Flare moonlight, as outlined above, the lack of HomeKit is frustrating but it’s still a nice mood light with iPhone and Watch app and still worth picking up if you can find a deal. Perhaps wait for the next generation Avea Flare which will undoubtedly include HomeKit support. You can also buy Avea Bulbs, but again why would you when you can get the superior Philips Hue equipment?

Check out my HomeKit gift guide for more product recommendations for your smart home.

Filed under: Apple Watch, HomeKit, iOS, iOS Devices, Tech Industry Tagged: bulbs, Elgato Eve, lights, review, sensor, smart home

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We’ve seen quite a few professional movies and videos shot on iPhones over the years, and the latest example is the music video for Robot Koch’s Dark Waves. Shot and directed by Sven Dreesbach, it borrows heavily from his concept short Willow Creek.

As with most such footage, I’m sure it was shot with a $650 iPhone hooked up to about $50k’s worth of cinematic mounts, lenses and – in this case – underwater casings, but it is still a vote of confidence in the quality of the camera and sensor.

"Dark Waves"
Shot on #iPhone6s youtu.be/AsnI5Z46Qms

—
Philip Schiller (@pschiller) December 21, 2015

CBS’s Charlie Rose got a detailed look at the iPhone’s camera tech with Apple’s senior director of camera hardware Graham Townsend.

Apple has long promoted the quality of its cameras, with a major ‘Shot on iPhone 6‘ ad campaign prior to the launch of the iPhone 6s. I compared the iPhone 6 and 6s cameras as part of my iPhone 6s diary.

Filed under: iOS Devices Tagged: Graham Townsend, iPhone, iPhone 6s, movie, Music video, Phil Schiller, Shot on iPhone 6s, Sven Dreesbach

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Following Apple’s decision to almost halve the price of the iPhone 5s in India, the Times of India states that the company has followed this by a more modest price-cut for the iPhone 6s/Plus. The move was reportedly made in response to a sales slump.

Apple cut prices of its latest iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus […] just two months after their launch in India to boost flagging sales in what is historically its most crucial quarter as demand for the flagship devices nosedived from a Diwali high […]

The average difference in prices of all iPhone 6s and 6s Plus devices between launch time and now is about 15 per cent …

The report states that Apple was hoping for its best ever quarter after a strong start to sales in October, but there was a sharper-than-expected drop the following month.

Apple imported almost 320,000 of the latest iPhones in October in India, the world’s fastest-growing smartphone market, sparking hopes of its best ever quarter. Shipments have slumped since then and the latest data suggests that imports of the new models fell 62 per cent to 120,000 in November.

While India is a far smaller market for Apple than China, it is an important one as the world’s fastest-growing smartphone market. Locals have had to pay high prices for iPhones as the country applies high import taxes to foreign products. Samsung has overcome this by opening local factories, and it’s believed Apple may follow suit.

Foxconn plans to build 10-12 factories in India by 2020, and although it’s not known whether production would include iPhones, Tim Cook discussed the possibility of local manufacturing with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September.

Lack of local manufacturing also prevents Apple opening its own retail stores in India, though discussions have been held between Apple and the Indian government about the possibility of relaxing these laws.

Photo: Tech2

Filed under: AAPL Company, iOS Devices Tagged: Apple Inc, India, iPhone, iPhone 6s, iphone 6s plus

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