Before we get to the weekly roundup, the entire SmartApfel team wishes you a Happy New Year. Since we gave both you and us some rest over Christmas and skipped the last roundup, today we summarize the news of the past two weeks.
App update: Aqara integrates new languages
Aqara updated its own app before Christmas and now supports French, Spanish and German for the first time.
The “Space Snapshot” mentioned in the release notes, however, is only intended for the Chinese market and cannot be used anywhere else.
Philips Hue app receives update
The Philips Hue app has received an update. Included are three new lighting scenes that will bathe your lamps in Christmas light.
In addition, the “Natural Light” scene offers a much more flexible alternative to Apple’s “Adaptive Lighting”.
Matter certification for Eve MotionBlinds
In addition to the Eve Door & Window, the Eve Energy(AU/EU/UK/US) and the Eve Motion, the Eve MotionBlinds also received Matter certification this week.
With this, nothing stands in the way of the intelligent roller blinds receiving a Matter update. It is not yet known when Eve Systems will offer a firmware update.
New Matter version released
The Connectivity Standards Alliance has published the first update for the new smarthome standard after just under two and a half months.
Version 1.0.0.1 contains numerous bug fixes. You can find the list of fixed bugs in the release notes.
Aqara and Sonos work together
Aqara has surprisingly announced that Sonos speakers can now be integrated into the Aqara app.
This allows for many new possibilities, including controlling the speakers in automations. Although this was also possible before via HomeKit, Aqara offers significantly more triggers and thus possibilities via its own app.
No more architecture upgrade possible
If you have not yet performed the HomeKit architecture upgrade released with iOS 16.2, you should not be able to do so by now.
Due to numerous problems from users, Apple has withdrawn the upgrade for now and is likely working diligently on a solution in the background.
Apple publishes help document for Home upgrade
If you are one of those who can no longer access Home or accept an invitation after the Home upgrade, Apple now has a corresponding help document available.
In it, the company describes step-by-step what exactly needs to be done. Due to problems, Apple had since withdrawn the Home upgrade released with iOS 16.2.
Aqara postpones Matter update
Aqara made it clear early on that it wanted to support the new smarthome standard Matter. A corresponding firmware update for the Aqara Hub M2 was originally announced for December 2022.
The manufacturer could not meet this deadline and decided to optimize a few things before releasing the update to all users.
HomePass public beta supports Matter codes
Just like HomeKit devices, Matter devices cannot be set up without the appropriate code. This makes it all the more important that the codes are well stored.
HomePass has been released in a new version as a public beta, in which Matter codes can also be secured for the first time.
Apple adds HomeKit issues to list of major issues
We waited a long time for the HomeKit architecture upgrade announced at WWDC 2022, only for Apple to pull it back a short time later. This was due to numerous issues.
Apple has now put the issues on a list where only widespread and serious issues end up. Mostly, these are hardware issues and rather rarely software issues. The list is shared with in-store staff and support hotlines, as well as with authorized service partners.
Remootio: Garage door control supports HomeKit
The garage door controller Remootio has surprisingly received a HomeKit update. This is pointed out in the release notes of the manufacturer’s own app in version 5.0.
According to this, the Remootio 3 devices support Apple’s Smarthome platform from now on.
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