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Elgato to launch HomeKit with full iOS 8 integration

• Egon Kilin
• September 2nd, 2014

Elgato will be an exhibitor at IFA Berlin this year, but the company has already announced the introduction of its new HomeKit to the market, with supposed full iOS 8 integration. The HomeKit will be fully compatible with Apple’s HomeKit home automation platform once iOS 8 launches.

Elgato’s HomeKit will feature the Eve product line which comprises of various smart home sensors such as light bulbs, door and window locks, thermometers for air and water temperature monitoring, smoke detectors and smart plugs. With this in mind, Elgato plans to become the competition for Samsung’s Smart Home system that will also launch at IFA in a couple of days.

The Eve brand in the HomeKit features Bluetooth accessories which will monitor almost everything in your house, from smoke, to air, water, humidity, air pressure, energy and water consumption. All the information these sensors gather will be automatically fed into iOS 8’s HomeKit application so that you can monitor everything from your iPhone. HomeKit will also provide users with tips and tricks on how to improve their environment.

Elgato’s Eve HomeKit is among the first to announce full iOS 8 support, with all the devices in its range capable of interacting with homeowners via Siri and other Apple services. Supposedly the system will use a single, secure protocol so that nobody else can access the information the sensors in your home gather or play with the tools you have at hand with HomeKit. Elgato is a third party supporter of Apple’s HomeKit, but rumors say that Apple will be introducing its own line of smart home products in compliance with its own HomeKit application.

The iWatch has been rumored to be one of the devices that will offer full HomeKit integration, so once again we see how Samsung will have to trump the efforts of Apple to create the most effective smart home system – or vice versa.  Seeing that people are more and more interested in automating their home and fully benefiting from the energy saving capabilities of smart appliances, we should expect a lot of innovation in the field from Apple and Samsung alike.

Elgato, on the other hand, has released its own smart light bulb called Avea, with a $50 price tag. This light bulb allows customization of colors, profiles and alarms via an iOS app, without requiring a hub like other smart light bulbs do. It can coordinate multiple bulbs via the iOS app, which brings endless possibilities of ambient lighting.