IOT

My IOT Transition From Amazon To Apple

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Even before I bought my Apple HomePod Minis I had been planning to dismantle my Internet of things network based on my Amazon echo plus hub. I decided a year or two earlier to build my iot network using an Amazon base. In the states I had smartthings. The version I had did not work in the UK. I tried to revive my Smarthings network first and then learned it was destined for the landfill. I refuse to use Google as my home hub for previously discussed privacy concerns. At the time my Apple TV 4 could be used as a HomeKit hub. The challenge was there were not that many devices compatible. And many of them were expensive.

Flash forward to the fall of 2020 Apple had come along way. It feels like there are more devices compatible still with Amazon or Google. That’s fine since there is a decent enough variety of devices compatible with Apple HomeKit. Since I had the Apple TV already and I own an iPad I did not need to buy any hub per se. All I needed to do was start buying devices.

I had spent some money on Amazon compatible devices previously. That was annoying that I would have to start over. On the plus side I only bought two smart plugs to turn on the lamp in the living room and in the office. Originally they were bought for when we were on holiday to set timers for the lights. I also bought a Ring doorbell as well as a Ring camera for our back garden. They were compatible with the Amazon set up and we’re not compatible with HomeKit. I was prepared to live with the Ring cameras not working with HomeKit until I found HomeBridge. It is a piece of software that at first ran on a Raspberry Pi I had and later simply on a docker container on a Pi I had. It bridges many devices to work with HomeKit. The integration was pretty slick and it solved my “Ring” problem. I at first augmented my Ring camera’s with Eufy camera’s using apple’s secure HomeKit video. That way I did not have video on Ring’s servers but still used the Doorbell as well a smart doorbell for real time feeds.

I simply replaced the smart plugs. The ones I had originally were also not that smart. For some reason they only worked on an older Wi-Fi technology. There was also no way to change the Wi-Fi name. That meant when I changed my Wi-Fi network name and upgraded I had to maintain an old configuration just for those smart devices. It wasn’t very secure and I was glad to be able to dismantle that.

I started my HomeKit network by purchasing the Phillips hue hub and bulb. I also bought two smart plugs to replace the old plugs I had. Since I started writing this post almost two years ago (yes another post I started and never published) I have grown my HomeKit network significantly more than I had with my Amazon based one.

The Story of Our HomePod Mini’s

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I mentioned in a previous post about Amazon Echo‘s “Comming Full Circle with Amazon Alexa” that the Apple HomePod minis came out at the perfect time for me. Not only did it fill a gap that I voluntarily created by not using Amazon echo anymore. I also had some gift card money and was able to pick up several of the HomePod mini‘s when they came out and not break the bank.

The original intention was to put speakers in every usable room. We put one in the kitchen to replace an echo. We replaced another echo in our master bedroom. I replaced the last echo in the guest room / office with another mini.

We had a charging base for the Amazon tap in the living room and we put two HomePod mini’s there. The intention with the two HomePod minis in the living room was to make them stereo speakers to use with the Apple TV. They sounded fine however we noticed early on that there was a delay between what was spoken and what we saw on the screen. That was really annoying so I reverted back to my Bose speakers that were hardwired into the TV. We still have both HomePod minis in the living room however it’s only for stereo music playing.

I like that I can handoff from my iPhone to a speaker to play music. What I don’t like is it’s not a consistent experience yet. There are times when it takes a really long time to hand off. There are other times when it tries to hand off to my office speaker when I just have my iPhone on my desk near it. Same problem happens on my nightstand at night sometimes.

Another function I like is streaming to multiple devices at the same time. Although that has been a problem in the past when there were a few instances that I couldn’t break the pairing as easily as you would think. It feels like the functionality is improving however it’s not quite fully seamless.

I also like the intercom. The girls like it as well. They’re not yet using it to message us between rooms however they are using the speakers to put music on every once in a while.

As of this writing it’s been over six months since getting the speakers and they may not be functionally on parity with an Amazon echo for us they are working out just fine.

The Story of Coming Full Circle With Amazon Alexa

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I purchased my first Amazon Echo in April 2016. At the time I noted in my personal journal that the threat modelling used to justify the purchase said it was probably okay at the time. I also said and repeated for a while that I know at some point in the future I would need to likely get rid of the device for privacy reasons My friends who were big into security looked at me like I was crazy when I bought it and talked about. Most everyone else at the time had no idea what I was talking about. Those the new of the echo thought it was cool.

When we moved to the UK I purchased an Amazon Tap. The Tap is now discontinued portable speaker with Alexa. We used it around the house before we moved since the other echo was in transit. I packed it in our luggage and when we arrived in England and got our internet we had a music speaker. Even now we mostly use the smart speaker for listening to music and setting timers. Right after we moved simply having a speaker in the empty house was the goal.

Once we were settled in the wired Amazon Echo ended up in our bedroom. The Tap wound up in the kitchen so we could move it around and use it when we needed to. One of the advantages of the tap was that you could disable the always listening mode of Alexa. That way you could turn it on only when you wanted it to do something. It was less convenient but more secure. That was a selling point for me. Then we just got lazy and left it on all the time to unknowingly call out for it and have it not hear us two or three times before it reacted.

When I was debating on building out and an Internet of things network in the house I purchased another Amazon Ech Plus or whatever they called it. It was the version of the Echo that had the ability to become a home hub. That went into the guest room/my office.

Over time I kept reading stories of the privacy concerns people had with the the Echo speakers. I also experienced one or two shall we say oddities with the speakers that made me think it was listening a little more then you realise it should be. I convinced M to use a plain old “dumb” Bluetooth speaker for music in the Kitchen. I was able to get her one for £25. I also purchased myself a portable Bluetooth Speaker so I could listen to my audiobooks. With that new speaker I unplugged the bedroom echo. With M’s Bluetooth Speaker I intended to unplug the Amazon Tap in the kitchen however I didn’t feel that M was comfortable enough with just the Bluetooth speaker to do that.

Around this time Apple did a funny thing. They released the HomePod mini. Based on my current threat model that was my opinion the answer to my technical challenge. We had some gift card money so I purchased a few of the Home Pod Mini’s at John Lewis when they came out. I immediately removed all three of the Echo’s that we had.

The home pod mini is not as feature rich as an Amazon Echo. For what we use it for it has so far been good enough. That’s another story for a different day. The reason I bring it up is it was the final piece to the puzzle that enabled me to throw out the Echo’s and still have a relatively safe alternative.

Technically I did not throw anything out. I gave one of them to my nephew and another to a friend of mine. I think we still have one left to give away or may have given it away already. I cannot recall. We also still have Amazon Fire’s that the girls use. I severely limit what they can do and there is no always on listening. So it’s not like I just stopped using Amazon hardwa. It’s that we don’t use their what has always been a bit spooky audio devices. And now if you’re thinking about it I am not a hypocrite. Apple’s privacy policy and how they use the recordings on the surface seems much more palatable then what Amazon does. That means at least for now I’m happy to leave Apple devices listening in the home and not Amazons.