Hands on: Apple Watch review

By: Unknown on 6:13 AM

Apple finally attacks the wrist

Our early verdict

"Probably one of the best smartwatches on the market - but still not enough to convince us this is a real category."

For

• Clever interface
• Multiple sizes

Against

• Slightly chunky
• Could be expensive at higher models

Most of us expected the Apple Watch to appear in 2015, but it's made a (semi) surprise launch with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

It sadly won't be seen until next year though, which means this is a deliberate ploy by Apple to make sure you're not buying a Samsung, LG or Moto 360option in the run up to Christmas.

But there's a pretty good reason for most to hang on – this is a very stylish wearable indeed.

Apple's clearly aiming this at the fashion market as much as the person who loves to be an early adopter – given the smartwatch market is still yet to take off, it makes sense to focus further afield in terms of consumer targeting.

It also packs NFC, allowing it to be used as part of the new Apple Pay system - something that's either going to be really helpful or a big turn off to some.

But essentially this is a product that defines a new chapter for Apple. Well, that's if it's any good, of course.

Design

The Apple Watch is coming in six different versions: there's the Apple Watch, the Apple Watch Sport and the Apple Watch Edition. And each of these comes in two sizes, for those that like a larger or smaller device for their wrist.

You can't call it a lady or man's watch, but there will be those that do, and it's opened Apple up to a new market in doing so.

While I expected it to be rounded, the fact is the Apple Watch looks like a small fusion between iPhone 6 and iPod Nano. It's not unattractive, but it is on the chunkier side of things.

It's rounded at the sides, which works in its favour, and the very-slightly curved back makes it feel nice, if a little heavy (depending on the band) on the wrist.

The Edition... edition is a properly heavy device on the wrist. It's one that will look great but feel like you've spent a thousand dollars on it. Actually, given we don't know the price of this 18 carat gold and sapphire watch, that might not be too far off.

The interface is curious, but I really think Apple has done better than most with the way it's approached interacting with a wrist-dwelling device.

The Digital Crown is essentially a scroll wheel that lets you zoom in and out of the interface, so for apps (with a fun new home screen that looks NOTHING like the iPhone's version, more a spherical look at all the apps available on the watch) it's a new way of doing things.

The spherical interface is going to take some getting used to. The demos I saw showed a slightly tricky method of hitting the right area to open the app you want, leading to needing to use the Digital Crown more often than not.

It's got a very smooth action, where I expected it to be a clicking feel (just because that's what you get with a watch). It will be interesting to see if this becomes embedded as a way of using the Watch, but anything that takes away from having to touch the screen will be a good thing.

Tapping the crown inwards sends you back to the home screen, but you can also use the touchscreen on the Watch to to interact with apps.

The button below the Digital Crown serves two functions: one to take you to your contacts, and the other to work as a way into activating the Watch as a payment vehicle.

The contacts app is interesting, as it allows you to send things through to your friends that go beyond the normal messaging paradigm.

That said, the Apple Watch is adept at doing the basic smartwatch things: you can make and receive calls from your wrist (with mic and speaker) and it will scan messages coming in to work out if it can generate an easy response for you to tap.

So if someone asks 'Fish or Chips for dinner?' the Watch will ask you to tap Fish or Chips as a reply. Although if it's really smart, it will offer both as an option.

Beyond that though, you can send some really weird things. For instance, you can draw pictures and send them over (although let's be honest, you're going to be getting lots of pictures of male genitalia from your friends sent to your wrist when you're presenting) or a vibration code that you've predefined with a pal.

Or you can even hit the screen with two fingers to send over a heart rate image, which vibrates on that person's arm. The graphic is kind of intense - but it doesn't explain why Apple has offered this.

The Apple Watch is neither a fitness band, watch or fashion accessory though, despite taking a bit from each of those camps. It's hard to define what it really is, which means that users may struggle to justify the purchase.

I think its greatest chance of success is in the health market, as Apple has made this a decent choice for people looking to get a little bit healthier.

Not just checking steps or heart rate once in a while, the watch will be able to help you be a bit less sedentary as well as noting when you run around and how hard the exertion is.

Of course, it needs an iPhone to work really effectively, but it works very well autonomously too in terms of tracking the above.

This partly explains why Samsung has teamed up with Nike to make the Gear S a running companion – but at least Apple has got its own internal system to allow for it.

As a smartwatch, the Apple Watch is a pretty nifty device too. Its discreet dimensions mean that while it's obvious when it lights up, most of the time most won't know you're wearing a smartwatch.

It's annoying needs to be flicked upwards to turn the screen on – unlike the Android Wear devices which are visible when in standby mode – and I wasn't able to test this function during my limited hands on time.

The Apple Watch will also come with the ability to pay for things with the aptly-named Apple Pay – however, this wasn't available for demo, and therefore I can't work out how the security aspect will be handled.

With the phone you'll need to hold the TouchID element to confirm it's you that's paying, and without that on the Watch it's hard to see how you'll manage it.

If you have to press it on your phone, it kind of makes it redundant as a mechanism on the watch.

Apple has confirmed that you'll need to charge this device every day, which is a bit of a shame - with the lack of GPS I was hoping that it would at least match the competition and only need to be plugged in every 48 hours.

At least the charger is attractive: it's an inductive option that clasps to the back of the Watch through magnets. It looks the business, although it doesn't look cheap to replace if it breaks, unlike a Lightning cable.

Early verdict

The Apple Watch is a device that many will want to own with the iPhone 6, as the stylings match really well, and let's be honest: people like buying wholeheartedly into the Apple ecosystem.

It's annoying we don't know the price or the exact release date then, as it's hard to say how successful the Apple Watch will be as a result. The battery life is a shame, but then again it's not unexpected.

One thing's for sure – now Apple has brought visibility of wearables to the wider market through the Apple Watch, everyone will benefit through higher consumer traction.

Will we see everyone wearing one? Probably not, but then again not everyone owned an iPad or iPhone at the start. This is phase one of a much longer product game – but the Apple Watch One is a quite good start.

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iPhone 6 vs iPhone 6 Plus: The Differences Between The New Apple iPhones

By: Unknown on 5:44 AM

Apple AAPL +3.06%’s much heralded September 9 launch has come and gone and as expected we have two new iPhones: the ‘iPhone 6’ and the ‘iPhone 6 Plus’.Also as expected they come in two new, much larger sizes: 4.7-inches and 5.5-inches. But their differences are far more than skin deep so let’s break them down:

Design – Curves And An Aluminium Unibody

The leaks were on the money. Both new iPhones ditch the hard angles and glass backs of their predecessor, the iPhone 5S, in favour of a more rounded, unibody anodized aluminium chassis available in silver, gold or ‘space gray’. The Apple logo on the back will be in stainless steel.

One area of concern for some is the confirmation of a protruding camera (more later), but on the whole the new chassis promises a significant step forward in durability. There is also a sensible evolution with Apple moving the power button to the side to make it easier to reach (HTC take note).

Size And Weight – Bigger But Not Monstrous 

Once again the leaks were right. I discussed the fact the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 would have virtually identical dimensions to the 5-inch Nexus 5 and that is also true of the weight.

The iPhone 6 measures 5.44 x 2.64 x 0.27 inches (138.1 x 67 x 6.9mm) and weighs 4.55 ounces (129g) – a weight increase that is roughly proportional to its 16% volume increase compared to the iPhone 5S.

A Nexus 5? 5.43 x 2.72 x 0.34 inches (137.9 x 69.2 x 8.6 mm) and 4.55 ounces (129g).

Meanwhile the iPhone 6 Plus clearly has the 5.7-inch Samsung Galaxy Note 4 in its sights. The Plus measures 6.22 x 3.06 x 0.28 inches (158.1 x 77.8 x 7.1mm) and weighs 6.07 ounces (172g).

For reference the Galaxy Note 4 comes in at 6.04 x 3.09 x 0.33-inches (153.5 x 78.6 x 8.5 mm) and 6.21oz (176g).

Ultimately those with big hands may just get away with using the iPhone 6 one handed but, even though Apple has done well to keep their respective weights down with the move to aluminium, both models will take some getting used to for long term iPhone owners. Below are some tips.

Display – 4.7-inches and 5.5-inches

The size of the display for the new iPhones was never in doubt, but both theirresolution and materials remained in doubt. Now we can clear up both and it is a mixture of good and bad news.

First the good: the iPhone 6 Plus will have a standard 1920 x 1080 pixel native resolution which is significantly higher than the 1704 x 960 pixels that had been widely mooted. Video will be the big winner here with the resolution being Full HD, though it falls behind the recent trend for ’2k’ 2560 x 1440 pixels displays as seen on the Note 4 and LG G3.

On the flip side the iPhone 6 Plus resolution delivers 401 pixels per inch (ppi) – significantly ahead of the 326ppi Apple claims constitutes a ‘Retina Display’ (where the naked eye can no longer distinguish between individual pixels) – so there are unlikely to be many complaints.

iPhone 6 owners on the other hand may feel slightly aggrieved. The 4.7-inch display’s 1334 x 750 pixel count is a step behind the 1080p displays we have become used to seeing on similar sized phones (the original HTC One delivered a 1080p 4.7-inch display in early 2013). As such the iPhone 6 just hits the 326ppi measurement, but it is no improvement on the pixel density Apple has offered since the iPhone 4.

Of course there is more to a display than just pixels and here Apple has done well. Both iPhones have strong contrast ratios (iPhone 6 – 1400:1, iPhone 6 Plus 1300:1) and brightness ratings (500 cd/m2) despite Apple stating that it slimmed down both phone’s display backlights.

Alleged sapphire iPhone 6 display leak – image courtesy of Marques Brownlee

Sapphire Goes Missing

Perhaps the biggest shock of the event was Apple made no mention of either handset having a much touted sapphire display. Instead Apple spoke of “Ion-strengthened glass” and even Apple’s formal specifications don’t mention sapphire by name.

Of course it could still come to pass that sapphire is a core component or layer within the new screen, but having written that evidence supporting sapphire displays was anecdotal it would be a shame to be proved right. Unless Apple offers up more details in the near future it seems only chemical analysis will confirm or disprove it once and for all.

One Handed Use – Apple Makes Concessions 

While not the smallest of phones, the iPhone 6 obviously has an inherent advantage over the larger iPhone 6 Plus, but Apple has a couple of tricks up its sleeve. Most logical is its extension of the swipe-to-go-back gesture seen in Safari to the rest of the UI. Repeating this gesture over and over may become tiresome, but it is a neat solution.

In a more surprising move though Apple has also commandeered the home button double tap command to enable what it is calling ‘Reachability’. This is a fancy term for just moving the whole UI halfway down the screen to make it easier to tap the navigation buttons in the top corners. I warned this would be a problem.

That said one handed use, whether by swipes or Reachability will at least make both handsets technically friendly for one handed use. How practical or enjoyable they prove, only time will tell.

Image courtesy of Apple

Apps – Better Scaling

If size and one handed use are the downsides of a bigger display, the good news is Apple plans to use the extra real estate wisely. Apple demonstrated this with the iPhone 6 Plus which – like an iPad – can display its homescreen in both portrait and landscape modes and apps themselves get a touch of the iPad about them with additional functionality when horizontal.

Apple has already adapted a number of its own apps to take advantage of this and it shouldn’t be long before third party developers get in on the act. Samsung has long worked on additional functionality for its Note phablet and this change sees Apple bring its iPads and iPhones much closer together (curiously Apple didn’t name drop the iPad all night).

As for existing apps, Apple is keen to stress both iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus owners should not worry. The company said iOS 8 will integrate a ‘desktop class scaler’ which should be a lot smarter than the old ‘zoom’ that hit the iPhone 4 when the Retina Display was introduced or how iPhone apps are still handled on the iPad to this day. Apple didn’t state whether the scaler could also be used to improve the iPad’s display of iPhone apps, but it would seem a logical extension.

Performance – Surprisingly Inseparable 

Typically this is a big one with new iPhones, but Apple made much less noise about it than in previous launches. Like the A7 chip in the iPhone 5S, the A8 within the new iPhone 6es will be 64bit and Apple is claiming 50% and 20% better graphics and CPU performance respectively. This is a long way off the gains Apple has touted in past generational step ups (the iPhone 5S doubled the CPU and GPU performance of the iPhone 5, for example) but gaming should take another leap forward and no-one could accuse the iPhone 5S of feeling slow in the first place.

Interestingly during the event Apple was less focused on raw performance than refinement of performance. What this translated to is greater sustained performance with far less heat build up. Fingers crossed Apple has pulled this off because numerous red hot rivals need to take note.

As for the A8 chip itself Apple stated that it is 13% smaller than the A7 and built using the 20nm fabrication process, but the company made no differentiation between its performance on the iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus. I remain convinced the iPhone 6 Plus will run at a higher clock speed, but if not the iPhone 6 could prove the more powerful phone as it is driving considerably less pixels. Benchmarking will solve this as it is the sort of nitty gritty Apple is never happy to divulge.

In addition to the A8, both phones also get the new M8 motion coprocessor. Like the M7 it is primarily aimed at fitness applications and can now distinguish between running, cycling and elevation. The latter thanks to the well leaked inclusion of a barometer.

Lastly we come to connectivity. I’ll deal with NFC in a dedicated section so aside from that the big news is the integration of 150Mbit capable LTE on both models. Neither gets LTE Advanced (capable of 300Mbit+ though yet to widely roll out) but arguably more useful is both phones’ compatibility with no less than 20 LTE bands. This should make the new iPhones work with 4G services almost anywhere in the world, so your roaming bill can get bigger faster than ever before!

Interestingly both the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will also sport VoLTE (Voice over LTE). Like LTE Advanced this is also something not many networks offer, but Apple said it is working specifically with T-Mobile in the US and EE in the UK to make it happen and it enables far higher quality voice calls. Meanwhile the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will also offer 802.11ac WiFi just like the iPhone 5S.

Image courtesy of Apple

Camera – Same Resolution, But iPhone 6 Plus Comes Out Ahead

Apple has never been one to join the megapixels race and it resisted once again keeping the count on the iPhone 6 and 6S the same eight megapixels as seen on the iPhone 5S, iPhone 5/5C and iPhone 4S.

More surprisingly the sensor itself on both new iPhones  is not improved from the iPhone 5S and it sports the same f/2.2 aperture. On the upside there is an upgraded ‘True Tone’ flash for more realistic flash lighting and new ‘Focus Pixels’ which Apple claims will halve autofocus times and enable faster face and smile detection as well as continuous autofocus in video.

Another benefit – and where the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus differ – is their image stabilisation. Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) has become a mainstay of most premium smartphones (it moves the lens around to minimise camera shake that causes blurred shots) and it comes to the iPhone 6 Plus. Strangely though the iPhone 6 has to do with digital image stabilisation, a cheaper software-based alternative. Apple may have worked miracles here but I expect the iPhone 6 Plus to take the better shots, particularly at night where a steady hand for longer exposure times is crucial.

As for the front facing FaceTime Camera, it is a disappointing tie. Both iPhones’ front cameras take in 81% more light, gain HDR, improved face detection and a burst mode for better selfies (actually name dropped by Apple) though the resolution itself remains a measly 1.2 megapixels. Apple may not be playing the megapixel game, but it could do better here.

Video is also a tie. Both iPhones offer 1080p video recording at 30fps and 60fps (frames per second) as well as 120-240fps in slo-mo. A lack of 4k video recording is more of a shame for the spec sheet than in reality, but you can betSamsung, LG and Motorola (who have all released 4k capable smartphones) will use its absence from both iPhone 6es to attack Apple from now on.

Memory – Finally 128GB

At long last Apple has made the step up to 128GB and with solid state memory prices having crashed in recent years hopefully it will see rivals follow suit.

Of course Apple’s philosophy of shunning expandable microSD storage makes the capacity boost particularly pertinent, though the company’s decision to still offer a 16GB edition as its baseline rather than increasing it to 32GB (a capacity which has been ditched altogether) is a shame.

Battery Life – iPhone 6 Plus Scores Big

With battery leaks hinting that the iPhone 6 may offer little improvement over the iPhone 5S, it was welcome news to find improvements have been made. Audio, video and WiFi browsing increase 10% to 50, 11 and 11 hours respectively while 3G browsing increases 20% to 10 hours. These are fairly subtle improvements, but 3G talk time gets a 40% bump to 14 hours even if standby time remains the same at 10 days. LTE-based browsing unfortunately doesn’t improve staying at 10 hours.

By contrast (and as we have seen from other phablets) the 6 Plus uses its extra size well to push iPhone battery life to a whole new level. The big winners are audio (doubling to 80 hours), video (a 40% boost to 14 hours) 3G talk time (from 10 to 24 hours), 3G browsing (8 to 12 hours) and standby (up to 16 days). Arguably the most pertinent ratings – WiFi browsing and LTE browsing – only increase 20 per cent to 12 hours, but it remains the biggest generational leap in iPhone history.

Image courtesy of Apple

NFC And Apple Pay – The iPhone 6 And 6 Plus Ace Card

I won’t go into great detail on iOS 8 here as that is an article in itself, but where the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus stand out from their forebears is in iOS 8’s debut in the world of mobile payments.

Dubbed ‘Apple Pay’ it combines the Touch ID, Passbook and – in the case of the new iPhone 6es – NFC to bring a truly digital wallet and touch payments to the company’s handsets for the first time. Furthermore adding NFC to both the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus should help the wider payment industry as Apple’s rivals have been waiting for Apple to adopt the standard for years.

The good news is Apple is aboard in fine style. Apple Pay launches with the backing of American Express, MasterCard and Visa along with Citibank, Bank of America, Capital One, Well Fargo and Chase giving it access to 80% of the US market.

There are 22,000 retailers at launch as well such as Whole Foods, Staples, Starbucks, Subway, Macy’s, Bloomingdales, Groupon and McDonalds (including drive throughs!) and third party apps can offer the ability to use Apple Pay to process external payments. For example, OpenTable restaurant bookings.

As you might have spotted these partners indicate Apple will launch Pay first in the US and we await news of its wider international plans. That said with chip and pin and touch payments increasingly common in the rest of the world, and in the UK in particular, it should be an accessible market when Apple does expand.

In short: should Apple Pay take off it could well prove one of the biggest drivers of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus sales.

Price And Availability – No ‘Budget’ Option

So what will all this cost you? The good news is if you’re a fan of smaller handsets the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C have just got much cheaper ($99 and free respectively on two year contracts) so get them while you can. The bad news: the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus do not replace those two handset’s original price points.

On a two year contract it will cost $199 upfront for a 16GB iPhone 6, $299 for 64GB and $399 for 128GB. Meanwhile the iPhone 6 Plus adds $100 onto these prices coming in at $299 for 16GB, $399 for 64GB and $499 for 128GB, again on a two year contract. Contract-free pricing has yet to be announced.

As for availability, you won’t have to wait long. The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will launch in the US on September 19 with pre-orders starting on September 12.  Apple says it will release the new phones in a remarkable 115 countries before the end of 2014.

Meanwhile existing iPhone owners will get iOS 8 on September 17. It will be compatible with the iPhone 4S, iPod touch 5th generation, iPad 2 and above.

Read more: Why Apple Made Massive New iPhones

Image courtesy of Apple

Bottom Line

The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus represent Apple’s biggest ever iPhone redesign . Key selling points will be the larger screens, anodized aluminium chassis, improved battery life, enlarged memory and the NFC-enabled Apple Pay.

The handsets were not without their disappointments though. Sapphire appears to be a major casualty, the iPhone 6 has a disappointingly low native resolution and OIS really should have been offered on the iPhone 6 not just the iPhone 6 Plus.

Meanwhile the ‘Reachability’ workaround for iOS 8 feels like a stop gap until Apple works out a better way system for reaching the key navigation buttons it still positions in the top left and right screen corners.

Despite this a lot more could have gone wrong when Apple super sized its iPhones, but it is fair to say for the vast majority Apple has nailed it. The iPhone 6 is likely to be the bigger seller, but for me the iPhone 6 Plus is the more complete handset.

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The Smart Home Is Going To Be A Huge Boon To Accessibility

By: Unknown on 3:49 AM

I reach for the iPhone tucked down the side of my wheelchair and launch the Hive app. After a couple more taps on the screen, there’s an audible click from across the room. A few seconds later, I hear the boiler sparking up before the central heating finally kicks in. It’s a familiar sound, but this time the experience is profoundly different.

I break out in a smile knowing that I will never again need to take a stick and whack the boiler’s out-of-reach array of switches each time I want to override the central heating schedule or adjust its settings. Nor will I have to ask somebody else to operate the central heating for me. The future is here and it just got a little more evenly distributed.

The smart home — which at its most basic is enabling various devices around the home, such as thermostats, lighting and door locks, to be connected to the Internet and controlled via a smartphone — is going to be a huge boon to accessibility. However, like a lot of technology before it, this vision of the future has been prohibitively expensive (and often overly complex), putting it beyond the reach of many, including people like me who have a physical disability and for whom smart home technology could potentially make the most difference. That’s starting to change.

More recently, a raft of new smart home products have been coming to market, both from traditional consumer electronics companies and startups alike, helped by the rise in crowdfunding via platforms like Kickstarter and IndieGoGo. Unlike the uber smart home systems traditionally sold by smart home specialists, however, these new generation of products tend to take a small pieces, loosely joined approach that makes it easier (and cheaper) to dip a toe in the smart home waters.

The disadvantage, of course, is that discrete devices, by their very nature, don’t always talk to one another, requiring a separate app each to operate, and aren’t nearly as smart as they could be. But that too is changing.

For iOS users, Apple has unveiled HomeKit, its own (somewhat locked down) platform for integrating third-party smart home devices, letting them interact with each other, as well as with Apple’s Siri.

Google-owned Nest is also opening up through its “Works with Nest” developer program, which positions the company’s Nest Learning Thermostat as the hub of the smart home, enabling other apps and devices to utilise the smart thermostat’s motion sensor and feed into its self-learning capability.

Others vying to become a smart home standard are Quirky’s Wink, and Samsung-acquiredSmartThings. The Internet of Things ‘recipe’ service IFTTT is also doing a good job at providing some level of interoperability between disparate smart devices.

It’s still early days, however, and this is reflected in the cobbled-together nature of my own smart home setup. It currently sports a Hive smart thermostat from British Gas, two sets of smart lightbulbs from Philips and LIFX, a Belkin smart plug and motion sensor, and an Apple AirPlay-enabled home audio system.

But, while my approach has been tentative so far, I’ve already experienced enough first-hand to know that, just like other enabling technology before it, the smart home has the potential to change my world for the better.

British Gas Hive Active Heating

Hive Active Heating is a smart thermostat from UK energy household name British Gas, with technology provided by AlertMe. The device replaces your existing thermostat and boiler switch, enabling your home’s central heating to be programmed and controlled via the excellent Hive iOS and Android smartphone apps, or the Hive website.

Commands are actually sent via the cloud, so require the Hive system to be permanently connected to the Internet in addition to your home’s WiFi network. However, this also means you’re able to toggle your heating even when you are away from home, which is especially convenient on a freezing British winter’s night.

More recently, British Gas has added geo-location features to alert you if you accidentally leave the heating on when leaving the house or if you’re returning home and the temperature is set lower than you find comfortable.

On the downside, Hive Active Heating doesn’t feel especially smart, at least not compared to other smart thermostats on the market. Here I’m thinking of Nest’s self-learning algorithms that help it understand how long your home takes to heat up in various weather conditions, or Tado’s geo-fencing functionality that means it can be set to automatically switch on your heating as you approach home.

There’s no open API yet either, meaning that other smart home devices and apps can’t interact with Hive, though I’m hopeful this will change in the future. However, none of the above takes away from Hive’s accessibility credentials; being able to control the central heating via my laptop and smartphone has been truly empowering.

Pros

• Well-designed apps for iOS, Android and web.
• Control your central heating and hot water when you are away from home.
• Unlike competitors, Hive Active Heating includes free installation from a qualified British Gas engineer.
• Doesn’t over-rely on the use of the Hive apps but reassuringly includes physical controls on the Hive thermostat itself.

Cons

• Consists of three separate hardware components: a hub, receiver, and thermostat.
• Not especially smart and no API for integration with third-party apps.

Philips Hue

Philips Hue is a ‘connected’ lighting system that comprises various LED-based colour-changing lightbulbs and other lighting products, which can be controlled over your local WiFi network and, optionally, the cloud. Like Hive, the Hue’s main accessibility draw is the ability to adjust your home’s lighting via a smartphone.

My setup consists of a Hue starter kit (see our full review), providing three LED multicoloured lightbulbs, and the required Hue hub, which can talk to up to 50 bulbs on the same local area network. This lets me use my iPhone to switch any of the three Hue bulbs — two in the lounge and one in the hallway — on and off, along with adjusting their intensity and colour. The latter feels a tad gimmicky at first but soon becomes a great way of changing up the atmosphere of a room, which is especially useful as somebody who works predominantly from home.

There’s one accessibility caveat, however: If someone turns the lights off at the existing wall switch, the corresponding Hue lightbulbs no longer receive power and are therefore temporally disconnected from the network and can’t be controlled by the Hue app. This isn’t an issue specific to Philips Hue, but is common across almost all connected lighting solutions. Nonetheless, until you retrain your household’s collective muscle memory, be prepared to lose that new-found independence at the flick of a switch.

The other major plus of Hue is its growing ecosystem, which is already seeing an increasing number of third-party apps and services add support for Philips’ connected lighting. This means, for example, that you aren’t stuck using the official iOS and Android app, which is just as well since it’s overly complex and not particularly intuitive.

Pros

• Set up was super quick and easy, even if I wasn’t keen on putting yet another hub in my living room.
• Nice looking bulbs.
• Excellent developer support, resulting in a plethora of third-party apps and service integration.
• Control you bulbs over the cloud so you can make it look like someone is home even when they aren’t.

Cons

• Overly-complex and unintuitive official app.
• At only 600 lumens, the Hue connected lightbulbs could be brighter.
• Doesn’t come in bayonet versions, thus requiring an adaptor for use in most British households.

LIFX

Startup LIFX is a direct competitor to Phillips Hue, and offers a similar accessibility proposition: theability to control your home’s lighting via smartphone apps and the cloud. However, unlike Hue, the LIFX connected bulbs don’t require a separate hub and, instead, connect directly to your home WiFi network. As a result, they are more expensive per bulb, but have less upfront cost, since you don’t need to purchase a starter kit but can begin with a single bulb.

A few other noticeable differences compared to Hue: The LIFX bulbs are considerably brighter, running at a maximum of 1,017 lumens, and colours seem more vibrant, which may be important depending on your take on multicoloured lighting. The official LIFX app for iOS and Android is also a lot more intuitive than Philips Hue.

However, third-party support and the platform as a whole feels less mature, although this is steadily improving. The LIFX bulbs themselves are pretty bulky, too, and can run rather hot at times.

Pros

• At around 1,000 lumens, LIFX bulbs are significantly brighter than Hue.
• Intuitive app for iOS and Android.
• Doesn’t require a hub.

Cons

• Bulbs are bulky and may suit a longer lampshade depending on your current setup.
• Third-party support isn’t as widespread as Hue.
• Expensive per bulb, despite a cheaper entry cost.

Belkin WeMo Switch + Motion

The Belkin WeMo Switch + Motion is my first foray into home automation, rather than making the home smarter simply by being connected. It consists of two hardware components: a WiFi-enabled power plug/outlet, and an accompanying motion sensor, which can be placed somewhere else in the home.

The former lets you turn devices on and off via the WeMo Switch and app, providing a similar accessibility advantage as the other smart home devices. The latter, meanwhile, goes one step further, and enables devices to be switched on and off based on motion, such as people entering and exiting a room, together with other rules, like time of day — all programmed via the very intuitive WeMo app.

While I haven’t quite figured out the ideal accessibility use case for motion detection, one example I’ve played with is having a fan come on and off depending on whether or not anybody is in the room. By combining IFTTT, which WeMo supports, you could also, theoretically, set a rule that adjusts this behaviour based on local weather conditions, too. If the outside temperature is low, don’t switch on the fan regardless of any motion detected.

Pros

• Very easy to install and configure.
• Intuitive iOS and Android app, and rule-based system.
• Support for IFTTT, extending the possibilities of basic home automation.

Cons

• The Belkin Switch is quite bulky and may not allow for another device to be plugged in side-by-side on a typical UK twin power outlet.
• Expensive to get started.

Apple’s AirPlay

Apple’s AirPlay technology, which lets compatible devices stream audio (and video and photos) to each other, should probably count as the start of my smart home journey, although I didn’t know it at the time.

Through the combination of an iPhone, iMac, Airport Express WiFi adaptor, and the excellent AirFoil app, I’m able to stream and control music from my smartphone or computer to two separate home audio/speaker setups in the lounge and bedroom/home office, respectively. This includes music stored in iTunes, and other sources, such as Spotify running on my laptop.

Once again, the accessibility advantage is the ability to remotely control my digital music collection and connected home audio system via an app.

Pros

• Mostly it ‘just works’.
• Widespread support on iOS.
• Lots of AirPlay-compatible connected speakers on the market.

Cons

• One of a number of competing media streaming standards, so support isn’t as ubiquitous as it could be.
• Apple’s AirPort Express is expensive, though there are cheaper third-party alternative AirPlay-compatible WiFi adaptors available.

WHAT’S NEXT?

The burgeoning smart home currently means different things to different people. As it stands, for a device to qualify as being ‘smart’ it simply needs to be connected, either locally and/or via the cloud — and this alone provides greater accessibility. However, over the next few years, the smart home is going to become a lot smarter by making better use of data and increasing integration between devices and platforms, with the end-goal being home automation.

Right now, smart home devices tend to give you a lot of control but require far too much intervention; as my colleague Natasha Lomas says, an app for everything is not particularly smart or liberating. In contrast, the idea behind home automation is to have the home take care of you, rather than you needing to take care of it.

This could be anything from blinds automatically opening and closing, based on factors such as time of day, ambient lighting or weather conditions, or the lamp in your home office coming on as you approach your desk, via the use of Beacon technology (an idea I’m going to explore after recently backing Airfy’s successful Kickstarter campaign).

In fact, with a new generation of smart home devices coming to market that pack an array of sensors, from motion or proximity detection, to something that measures air quality, the possibilities of home automation are going to become almost limitless. And it’s not hard to see how that future could further improve accessibility and the lives of people with disabilities. Or anybody else, for that matter. Just how I like it.

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