The iPhone does many amazing things. For instance, it can help you stay fit, and it can get you organized. You can also use it to make FaceTime audio and video calls and listen to endless hours of iTunes Radio playlists.
Frankly, users expect nothing less from Apple's bestselling smartphone. But here's something out of left field: home automation capabilities. The Financial Times said that Apple is prepping a 'smart home' system that will enable you to do amazing things. The system will be unveiled at WWDC in San Francisco next month.
Just imagine being able to use your iPhone to dim the lights in your kitchen, arm or disarm your security system and manage your appliances.
In order to benefit from these features, you'll of course need a supported, internet connected device. In order to ensure that this smart home project is success, Apple has enlisted the help of various device manufacturers to produce appliances that talk to the iPhone.
Now home automation isn't anything new. Popular cartoons like "The Jetsons" have alluded to such a future in the years to come. And companies like Nest Labs, recently acquired by Google, are hard at work fulfilling the promise of a connected home.
Current home automation systems are exorbitantly priced and use proprietary controllers and software. It isn't, by any stretch of the imagination, as convenient as its made out to be.
What makes Apple's smart home system so great is that almost everyone knows how to use an iPhone. The automation features will be controllable via an app just like everything else that runs on the phone.
And the fact that the automation functionalities would be built into an already popular, mass-marketed device, at no additional cost to the end user (minus the appliances of course) make this an intriguing addition to Apple's already robust iOS mobile operating system.
Would you be a specific appliance that communicated with your iPhone or iPad? Do you find it creepy that Apple could potentially turn on or off the lights in your house? Let us know in the comments section below.
