← Back to context

Comment by ajross

3 years ago

Because Apple's HomeKit stuff is significantly inferior. HN privacy nattering aside, consumers clearly want cloud-accessible home surveillance. It's what they pay for. And if you can get to it from that website using only your Amazon or Google account, so can Amazon or Google.

13 comments

ajross

Reply
nerdjon  3 years ago

I have a hub (multiple actually thanks to a few HomePods and Apple TV's) for HomeKit. I can control all of my HomeKit devices remotely and I can view any video remotely.

Yet it is still end to end encrypted because the processing happens locally on device (on the hub) instead of on a cloud server.

I have the ability to detect people, animals, vehicles, and packages and set recording settings based on that. In addition to if I am home or not based on the existing detection round that built into HomeKit.

This narrative around Apple's products missing major features is no longer true and has not been for a while.

  • ajross  3 years ago

    > Yet it is still end to end encrypted

    I don't see how that's possible. See the instructions at:

    https://support.apple.com/guide/icloud/set-up-homekit-secure...

    Nothing in the process requires a token/authentication/blessing be done from a pre-existing hub machine that would have to control the encryption. Apple can remotely grant your device HomeKit cloud video based on nothing more than your ability to attest ownership of your new device.

    And if they can do that, they can certainly recover the video internally for anyone who wants it. They just choose not to, and you believe them (where you clearly don't for Amazon).

  • mdeeks  3 years ago

    Is it possible to view video on the web? What about sharing videos or clips of videos? I assume you have to leave your Apple TV running 24/7 then?

    Also, can Android users use it?

    • nerdjon  3 years ago

      You can't view the video from the web but you can from the Home app on Mac, iPhone, or iPad.

      Technically yeah you need to leave the Apple TV running (or a HomePod) but it just stays in standby mode anyways. But I don't know 100% how that works power wise.

      When I look in my Home app at the hubs, I see all of my HomePods and Apple TV's there. The living room Apple TV is marked as "Connected" and the others "Standby". Assuming that means the Apple TV is the one processing things, it does not appear that the Apple TV is doing a ton. The light isn't on and it isn't generating really any heat.

      To my knowledge Android can't use HomeKit but maybe there are third party ways to use HomeKit with an Apple hub. But I would be surprised if those third party ways could access the secure video. But I honestly don't know.

  • seanmcdirmid  3 years ago

    How good is the recognition? One of the reasons I went with nest rather than ring was because the ML on the latter just wasn’t very good.

    • nerdjon  3 years ago

      I have never used the package or the vehicle recognition.

      But it seems to work decent enough. However the face recognition works off of the faces you have categorized in photos. So actually recognizing specific people will only be as good as that database is. I assume in the backend it is largely the same tech so you can get an idea of how well it will work based on that.

      I can't compare it to other offerings since I have never used them, but it does what I need it to do.

      I have had issues with false positives, but I also am using a not great quality camera with it so it is limited with that. I plan on getting a better camera but just have not had a need for it yet.

kevincox  3 years ago

You can still store the data on the cloud and access it anywhere. I think the only features that probably need to be limited are video-analysis features such as who is at your door and what is moving across the lawn.

TedDoesntTalk  3 years ago

How do you access videos from the Apple HomeKit products?