INTEGRATION WITH YOUR APPLE KIT

We’ve seen the light! Philips and Nanoleaf demonstrate the potential of HomeKit and Siri

The smart bulbs from Philips and Nanoleaf are the only ones that currently support Apple’s HomeKit technology in iOS. HomeKit is still a work in progress, but one of its key features is the ability to control your devices using Siri voice commands.

If you’re at home and your iPhone or iPad is on the same Wi-Fi network as your smart lighting, you can ask Siri to “Turn off the lounge lights”, or say to your iPhone 6s without even touching it: “Hey Siri, dim the bedroom to 50%”. It’s a particular kind of geeky cool when you get it to work for the first time.

You can even use Siri commands on your iPhone when you’re away from home – although a third- or fourth-generation Apple TV is needed. When your iPhone and Apple TV are both signed in to your iCloud account, you can use Siri to control your lights using a mobile internet connection or a Wi-Fi hotspot. The Osram and LIFX lights also provide remote control over the internet in their apps, but not with Siri because they don’t yet work

with HomeKit.

Giving voice commands to HomeKit accessories over the internet requires an iCloud account and at least a third-generation Apple TV.