This is exactly how you should not use Apple HomeKit

Apple HomeKit is Cupertino’s homegrown home automation toolkit, a system that ties into Apple’s ecosystem to enable users to control everything inside their homes, such as doors, windows, lights, climate, managing the content of the refrigerator, and lots more.

Unfortunately, according to a recent experience by a Springfield Missouri resident, HomeKit proved the old adage in regard to having “too much of a good thing”, uncomfortably true.

The man, known only as “Marcus”, as initially reported by Forbes, is a die-hard fan of Apple products, to a point where he has been able to rig nearly every nook and cranny of his residence to be controlled through a single iPad Pro. This includes 30 Philips Hue LED bulbs that dim on command, two Ecobee thermostats using eight temperature sensors, and an August Smart Lock, the latter of which turned out to be the achilles heel of Marcus’ entire home automation dream.

Last week, Marcus’ neighbor, who was one of the first to be given a tour of the iPad-controlled residence, decided to make a point about the one glaring problem with Marcus’ setup, and before Marcus’ eyes, his neighbor simply called out Siri and told her to “Unlock the door”, which is exactly what Siri did.

Needless to say, this is something that Marcus should have seen happening at some point, in the aftermath of his enthusiasm, however it’s also something that Apple is bound to take into consideration and provide a fix for, as in Marcus defense, he used his iPad as it was intended by Apple in the first place. With that said, this is precisely the reason for Apple to push through with other mechanisms to interact with HomeKit, such as CarPlay, which can interface with sensors to automatically open a garage door or unlock a gate, and Apple Watch, which could be used to authenticate and unlock doors remotely, in the same way as it is capable of unlocking macOS Sierra, on a MacBook.

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