Home Assistant has a new foundation and a goal to become a consumer brand
Comments
nicolaslem
techcode
Home Assistant is practically already there.
While installing it initially might be technical, these days they also sell things with it preinstalled.
After tuning on HA for the first time, it just recognized our heating system (Plugwise, it's also zigbee but custom/closed), Christmas Tree lights, Smart Reader of our Electricity & Gas (as in district "propane"), Foscam and Reolink cameras and doorbell ...etc.
All those things just asked for username/password set for that service/device and everything just worked.
And actually controlling of things like TV (well Chromecast part of it that's built into) just work without authentication.
And while Zigbee Coordinators required some flashing of firmware updates. From there on it was very similar to any other smart device system.
addicted
No one is excited about a new Apple TV.
At least there’s a few geeks like me who’d be excited about a new Home Assistant update.
But literally no one cares about Apple TV, a product so uninteresting that Apple couldn’t even give it a unique name.
nerdjon
> a product so uninteresting that Apple couldn’t even give it a unique name.
Because `iPhone` was a super unique name...
I would argue that people are not excited about Apple TV because it does its job. There isn't a major need for new features but if they find a good feature to add to it, it can cause excitement.
The OP is right though, the Apple TV being able to be a hub (which also means it processes Secure Video and how you access your HomeKit devices from outside your home) is a nice features that shouldn't be discounted. It is a Hub that is already in many people's homes and could be a gateway product.
I guarantee you that if Apple announces a new Apple TV with some fantastic new feature, more people will be excited and buy it than there are that follow HA updates.
nicolaslem
Right but the point I am making is that Apple put a hub in tens of million homes without having to convince anyone to get a hub.
LordKeren
I’m excited about a new Apple TV
wil421
I have 5+ Apple TVs in 2 houses and have converted many family members over to Apple TVs. Not excited about buy a new Apple TV but the past features (4k) were reasons I’ve upgraded.
LeafItAlone
On one of my TVs, I have: a Roku, a Fire TV stick, a Chromecast, and an Apple TV.
The Apple TV is my favorite. It’s also the one that gets used the least. Because it’s one of the older models that has the glass remote and we drop the remotes all the time so it’s only used when I’m the only one watching and I generally control it from my iPhone (only iPhone in house). And it’s so much more expensive than the others. One Apple TV costs more than the others I have, combined.
eternityforest
It seems to be mostly polished.
I don't like how it's generally advised to use an SSD, I think Pi software should be SD optimized.
A lot of third party stuff uses some cloud API that breaks constantly, not much anyone but the manufacturer can do about that.
I think their internal APIs are a bit excessive. They have different entity types for everything as opposed to basic data types with compostable metadata.
That also lends itself well to constant tweaks and breaking changes...
I don't see why a garage door needs to be any different from a light switch. One might need an extra flag to require confirmation prompts, the icons are different, but... It's just a thing that can be in two different states.
It seems like a huge amount of the code just deals with different data types.
But then, I've never made a serious attempt to use HA, I just use YoLink's native platform plus my own system for CCTV.
tetris11
Does this mean they plan to go public once they have consumer traction, close their source like Fritz! did, and ultimately find ways to squeeze their consumer base once they stop innovating...?
chrismatheson
My Guess is they will push hard into the hardware side with more of a "Managed service" offering as well. A Proposition of the benefits of this open source ultra compatible ecosystem without the drawback of running your own server and backups etc etc.
I know I run HA at home and its generally good, but ive not benefitted from historical data b/c I re-build it from scratch semi regularly and cant be bothered to handle backups properly :)
Phreaker00
According to their press release: ""We've done this to create a bulwark against surveillance capitalism, the risk of buyout, and open-source projects becoming abandonware," the Open Home Foundation states in a press release. "To an extent, this protection extends even against our future selves—so that smart home users can continue to benefit for years, if not decades. No matter what comes."
As we've seen with 'OpenAI' there's never a guarantee, but I applaud this step.
delfinom
You mean ClosedAI, stop saying their name wrong.
carlhjerpe
I feel like it'd end up like Jellyfin vs Emby, it's an open project and source is available
klysm
Uh oh :( this does not bode well for users of home assistant
throwaway11460
Why? I find it awesome.
I have been running HA for four years. I wish them luck but it's hard for me to imagine they will succeed at going beyond the tinkerer demographics and becoming a consumer brand. A few reasons:
- It has improved a lot over the years but it is still not polished enough for end users who want the thing to just work. Every integration works in a different way. The recommended way of managing z-wave devices changed three times since I started using it.
- Similar hubs already exist commercially and all of them failed to reach a wide audience. The Apple approach of bundling the hub with the Apple TV is a great move in my opinion, consumers are excited to get the latest shinning Apple product, none of them would care about a home hub.