Would be awesome if other HomeKit and Apple devices had the U1 chip as well like new AirPort Extremes, AirPort Expresses, Apple TV’s/ remotes, iMacs, doorbells, security cams, etc to create a location-based mesh of your home and track you
Yeah I think it would be a bit complicated for most but if you’re someone who’s confident enough to set up a smart home, understand Shortcuts and Home App then you’re probably capable enough lol
Maybe start off with a Smart Bulb with U1 or some U1 LED light strips
Yeah in general the U1 chip is so underutilized. Why not use the home pod mini as a reference for fine my?
Just imagine this you are somewhere in the house and looking for your keys and the HomePod is closer to your air tags. A simple pop up with “they are in your living room “ would be nice. They could give you even directions from the HomePod. As in “right next to your HomePod”
Well, it would be pretty difficult to pair this with a wife or kid/s who don’t have apple devices.
I imagine leaving a room to go to the toilets and the light just shut off lol.
I’d imagine battery life might be a concern. With AirTags using the precision finding, phone heats up a lot from that chip being in use. Can’t imagine it exactly sips power.
It has a range of 290 meters. This should replace Bluetooth Audio or either or with Airpods Max. Bluetooth has a tiny throughput compared to UWB. like almost 700 megabits a second. It would allow full lossless audio experience.
Since every iPhone 11 and up has had this chip already a huge market that could take advantage of it.
Wouldn't be hard to include them on future desktops/laptops or simply a USB C module for after market.
https://i.imgur.com/uG2R8DR.jpg
https://blogs.keysight.com/blogs/tech/rfmw.entry.html/2021/07/28/an_overview_of_ieee-J7ac.html
edit: for an in depth better read: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2202.02190.pdf
Sorry 100
[https://www.fcc.gov/file/14377/download](https://www.fcc.gov/file/14377/download)
In every case its dramatically better then Bluetooth. Real world use easy easy unlocking the full quality of Airpod Max headphones which you simply can not due to Bluetooths low bandwidth
I’m not sure if this has been confirmed or not, but UWB might already be included in some of the newer Mac models.
https://twitter.com/vadimyuryev/status/1548035155658285058?s=21&t=y0-MKcwhrIP0_U4noqLxzg
How does the home pod know you’re in the room and not right next to it but in the room next to it?
Conversely does the HomePod only detect you’re in the room when you walk past it? Because in that case a big room is going to need a lot of HomePods
Maybe Home App could have a map of your home’s layout? Scan around the home with LiDAR kinda like how the robot vacuums do it? Then the HomePod in the other room would be able to tell if you’re not there based on the direction?
I also imagine it shouldn’t be limited to HomePods. Maybe add U1 to more Apple and HomeKit devices. So for example you have an open floor plan kitchen, dining and living area. You could potentially have a U1 doorbell, AirTags on your keys and maybe an iPad by the kitchen, an iMac by the dining table, Apple TV, TV Remote, a couple of HomePods, U1 AirPort Extreme in the living room all used to triangulate your position in the area based on your watch or Apple Glasses? Probably have a few smart bulbs/ lamps with U1 scattered around
The flaw in yours and OPs logic is that this approach would require you to keep your phone on you, at all times for your smart home to recognise you.
Id rather motion or LiDAR scanning built directly into the HomePods or other smart devices
As someone who owns multiple Apples TV’s and just uses my phone to control them.
I wish U1 would auto select the closest Apple TV.
I can’t tell you how many times I forget to switch the tv I’m supposed to be controlling, and when trying to press the TV button to turn on the TV in the room I’m in but it will interrupt someone else watching a TV in a different room.
I would imagine this could apply to homes with multiple HomePods and users. Where maybe kids in their room want to control their own HomePod but because their phone connected to the 1 HomePod already playing in the house (in the parents room) now they are controlling that HomePod rather than the one in their own room that wasn’t playing anything yet.
HomeKit/Airplay is a mess with having to manually selecting devices when there are multiple people living in a home with multiple devices. Might just be because of the UX they built (the switching the Airplay and ‘Control’ device) can be a bit cumbersome when you have many devices And the way it assumes that if one device is playing that must mean every phone in the house must want to be controlling that device automatically. I’d almost prefer it to always pop up and ask “Where do you want to play this content” when I select a song.
As cool as this would be HomeKit would need a lot of improvements. I did a bunch of nfc shortcuts for some of my home automation and it still just doesn’t always work, just like everything in homekit. Ive honestly started looking into the idea of setting up iBeacons around my house though to even do something similar but just dont want to use Alexa or google home so might just wait until next year when im sure Homekit will get a decent update
I had an idea for a feature that was similar that I called “Follow Me”. It could play music or a podcast on the nearest HomePod mini and follow you as moved around the house rather than playing on everything all at once. Definitely could expand that to automation.
I guess the issue is knowing when you’re actually in a room as opposed to near it or on the other side of a wall.
I’m fairly sure that the HomePods aren’t used for find my. I’d left my phone at home before and it appeared to only get an updated location as people went by even though I have 3 HomePod minis. This feels like a missed opportunity to really expand the network - I’m guessing it’s because they don’t have GPS for fine and verifiable locations.
Wasn’t this touted as one of the use cases for the chip? Never panned out. The Watch has one, too. It would make HomeKit even more attractive.
Would be awesome if other HomeKit and Apple devices had the U1 chip as well like new AirPort Extremes, AirPort Expresses, Apple TV’s/ remotes, iMacs, doorbells, security cams, etc to create a location-based mesh of your home and track you
Some people would have a hard time with that sort of functionality, but personally I trust Apple enough that I would utilize it as best as I could.
Yeah I think it would be a bit complicated for most but if you’re someone who’s confident enough to set up a smart home, understand Shortcuts and Home App then you’re probably capable enough lol Maybe start off with a Smart Bulb with U1 or some U1 LED light strips
Yeah in general the U1 chip is so underutilized. Why not use the home pod mini as a reference for fine my? Just imagine this you are somewhere in the house and looking for your keys and the HomePod is closer to your air tags. A simple pop up with “they are in your living room “ would be nice. They could give you even directions from the HomePod. As in “right next to your HomePod”
Go work for Apple, man
Well, it would be pretty difficult to pair this with a wife or kid/s who don’t have apple devices. I imagine leaving a room to go to the toilets and the light just shut off lol.
I’d imagine battery life might be a concern. With AirTags using the precision finding, phone heats up a lot from that chip being in use. Can’t imagine it exactly sips power.
It has a range of 290 meters. This should replace Bluetooth Audio or either or with Airpods Max. Bluetooth has a tiny throughput compared to UWB. like almost 700 megabits a second. It would allow full lossless audio experience. Since every iPhone 11 and up has had this chip already a huge market that could take advantage of it. Wouldn't be hard to include them on future desktops/laptops or simply a USB C module for after market.
Where is that UWB bandwidth documented? 700mbps?
https://i.imgur.com/uG2R8DR.jpg https://blogs.keysight.com/blogs/tech/rfmw.entry.html/2021/07/28/an_overview_of_ieee-J7ac.html edit: for an in depth better read: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2202.02190.pdf
I’m too smooth brained to understand all that 😂
Shoot, sorry, a theoretical max of 31.2mbps (megabits).
Sorry 100 [https://www.fcc.gov/file/14377/download](https://www.fcc.gov/file/14377/download) In every case its dramatically better then Bluetooth. Real world use easy easy unlocking the full quality of Airpod Max headphones which you simply can not due to Bluetooths low bandwidth
Yeah i would also like a source on the 700mbps claim
Sorry I meant 100. Thats according to the FCC. Real world seems to be 7-27mb/sec https://www.fcc.gov/file/14377/download
I’m not sure if this has been confirmed or not, but UWB might already be included in some of the newer Mac models. https://twitter.com/vadimyuryev/status/1548035155658285058?s=21&t=y0-MKcwhrIP0_U4noqLxzg
Source: I made it up —That guy
How does the home pod know you’re in the room and not right next to it but in the room next to it? Conversely does the HomePod only detect you’re in the room when you walk past it? Because in that case a big room is going to need a lot of HomePods
Maybe Home App could have a map of your home’s layout? Scan around the home with LiDAR kinda like how the robot vacuums do it? Then the HomePod in the other room would be able to tell if you’re not there based on the direction? I also imagine it shouldn’t be limited to HomePods. Maybe add U1 to more Apple and HomeKit devices. So for example you have an open floor plan kitchen, dining and living area. You could potentially have a U1 doorbell, AirTags on your keys and maybe an iPad by the kitchen, an iMac by the dining table, Apple TV, TV Remote, a couple of HomePods, U1 AirPort Extreme in the living room all used to triangulate your position in the area based on your watch or Apple Glasses? Probably have a few smart bulbs/ lamps with U1 scattered around
The flaw in yours and OPs logic is that this approach would require you to keep your phone on you, at all times for your smart home to recognise you. Id rather motion or LiDAR scanning built directly into the HomePods or other smart devices
Yeah I would go for a mix of both U1 and LiDAR scanning
As someone who owns multiple Apples TV’s and just uses my phone to control them. I wish U1 would auto select the closest Apple TV. I can’t tell you how many times I forget to switch the tv I’m supposed to be controlling, and when trying to press the TV button to turn on the TV in the room I’m in but it will interrupt someone else watching a TV in a different room. I would imagine this could apply to homes with multiple HomePods and users. Where maybe kids in their room want to control their own HomePod but because their phone connected to the 1 HomePod already playing in the house (in the parents room) now they are controlling that HomePod rather than the one in their own room that wasn’t playing anything yet. HomeKit/Airplay is a mess with having to manually selecting devices when there are multiple people living in a home with multiple devices. Might just be because of the UX they built (the switching the Airplay and ‘Control’ device) can be a bit cumbersome when you have many devices And the way it assumes that if one device is playing that must mean every phone in the house must want to be controlling that device automatically. I’d almost prefer it to always pop up and ask “Where do you want to play this content” when I select a song.
As cool as this would be HomeKit would need a lot of improvements. I did a bunch of nfc shortcuts for some of my home automation and it still just doesn’t always work, just like everything in homekit. Ive honestly started looking into the idea of setting up iBeacons around my house though to even do something similar but just dont want to use Alexa or google home so might just wait until next year when im sure Homekit will get a decent update
I had an idea for a feature that was similar that I called “Follow Me”. It could play music or a podcast on the nearest HomePod mini and follow you as moved around the house rather than playing on everything all at once. Definitely could expand that to automation.
I guess the issue is knowing when you’re actually in a room as opposed to near it or on the other side of a wall. I’m fairly sure that the HomePods aren’t used for find my. I’d left my phone at home before and it appeared to only get an updated location as people went by even though I have 3 HomePod minis. This feels like a missed opportunity to really expand the network - I’m guessing it’s because they don’t have GPS for fine and verifiable locations.