‘Aliro’ open standard to be based on Apple’s HomeKey

Apple introduced HomeKey several years ago, and now The Connectivity Standards Alliance (Apple is a part of it) introduced Aliro – new open standard for electronic keys. CSA is also responsible for Matter standard.

The standard will include definitions for Near Field Communication (NFC), Bluetooth® Low-Energy (LE), and Ultra-Wideband (UWB) experiences, as well as asymmetric cryptography and credential data.

CSA

CSA:

Reference: New 'Aliro' Standard Aims to Simplify Unlocking Doors With Smartphones

iOS 16.5 and other platforms get beta 2

Apple releases second beta for iOS/iPad 16.5, macOS 13.4, watchOS 9.5 and tvOS 16.5. No corresponding Xcode beta is published.

New beta seem to be focused on administrator users and Matter support in Home app.

Beta download: Operating Systems

Release notes:

Vendors slowly adopt Matter for their smart home devices

Philips Hue postpones plans to support Matter for their devices til the end of 2023. According to their messaging, firmware update for Hue Bridge takes more time that it was initially expected.

Eve on the other hand announces Matter firmware availability on April 17. And currently Eve already started selling accessories supporting Matter.

Matter smart home standard simplifies hardware development and unifies APIs between multiple smart home solutions. Matter is industry standard which is adopted by multiple venders including Apple. Home app and HomeKit support Matter accessories starting with iOS 16.1.

References:

Apple releases iOS 16.4 and other platforms, older releases receive security updates

Apple releases iOS/iPadOS 16.4, macOS Ventura 13.3, watchOS 9.4 and tvOS 16.4. HomePod software is also updated to 16.4. Apple also released Studio Display firmware update.

Xcode 14.3 receives RC 2.

Apple also releases iOS/iPadOS 15.7.4, macOS Monterey 12.6.4 and macOS Big Sur 11.7.5 with security fixes.

iOS

This update includes the following enhancements and bug fixes:

  • 21 new emoji including animals, hand gestures, and objects are now available in emoji keyboard
  • Notifications for web apps added to the Home Screen
  • Voice Isolation for cellular calls prioritizes your voice and blocks out ambient noise around you
  • Duplicates album in Photos expands support to detect duplicate photos and videos in an iCloud Shared Photo Library
  • VoiceOver support for maps in the Weather app
  • Accessibility setting to automatically dim video when flashes of light or strobe effects are detected
  • Fixes an issue where Ask to Buy requests from children may fail to appear on the parent's device
  • Addresses issues where Matter-compatible thermostats could become unresponsive when paired to Apple Home
  • Crash Detection optimizations on iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro models

iPadOS

This update includes the following enhancements and bug fixes:

  • 21 new emoji including animals, hand gestures, and objects are now available in emoji keyboard
  • Apple Pencil hover adds tilt and azimuth support so you can preview your mark at any angle before you make it in Notes and supported apps on iPad Pro 11-inch (4th generation) and iPad Pro 12.9-inch (6th generation)
  • Notifications for web apps added to the Home Screen
  • Duplicates album in Photos expands support to detect duplicate photos and videos in an iCloud Shared Photo Library
  • VoiceOver support for maps in the Weather app
  • Accessibility setting to automatically dim video when flashes of light or strobe effects are detected
  • Fixes an issue with Apple Pencil responsiveness that may occur while drawing or writing in the Notes app
  • Fixes an issue where Ask to Buy requests from children may fail to appear on the parent's device
  • Addresses issues where Matter-compatible thermostats could become unresponsive when paired to Apple Home

macOS

This update includes new emoji along with other enhancements, bug fixes, and security updates for your Mac.

  • 21 new emoji including animals, hand gestures, and objects are now available in emoji keyboard
  • Remove background option in Freeform automatically isolates the subject in your image
  • Photos duplicates album expands support to detect duplicate photos and videos in an iCloud Shared Photo Library
  • Transliteration support for Gujarati, Punjabi and Urdu keyboards
  • New keyboard layouts for Choctaw, Chickasaw, Akan, Hausa, and Yoruba
  • Accessibility setting to automatically dim video when flashes of light or strobe effects are detected
  • VoiceOver support for maps in the Weather app
  • Resolves an issue where Trackpad gestures may occasionally stop responding
  • Fixes an issue where Ask to Buy requests from children may fail to appear on the parent's device
  • Addresses an issue where VoiceOver may be unresponsive after using Finder

watchOS

watchOS 9.4 includes improvements to Apple Watch and brings features to new regions. 

  • Wake-up alarms are no longer silenced with cover to mute gesture to avoid accidental cancellations during sleep
  • Cycle Tracking with retrospective ovulation estimates and cycle deviation alerts now supported in Moldova and Ukraine
  • AFib History now available in Colombia, Malaysia, Moldova, Thailand, and Ukraine

Beta download: Applications

References:

tvOS and HomePod software are updated to 16.3 today

Following the yesterday's updates to iOS and other platforms Apple now updates tvOS and HomePod software to 16.3.

Most notable feature would be enabling humidity and temperature sensors in HomePod mini.

HomePod software updates include: 

  • Temperature and humidity sensing measures your indoor climate with HomePod (2nd generation) and HomePod mini
  • Remastered ambient sounds are more immersive and can now be added to scenes, automations, and alarms in the Home app
  • Find My on HomePod now enables you to ask Sir for the location of friends and family, if they have shared it with you
  • Recurring Home automations can be set up using just your voice
  • Siri confirmation tone will now play to indicate when smart home requests are completed for accessories that may not visibly show a change or are located in a different room
  • Audio tuning optimizes spoken content such as podcasts for even greater clarity on HomePod (2nd generation) and HomePod (1st generation)
  • Updated volume controls on HomePod (1st generation) give you more granular adjustments at lower volumes

References:

Apple announces next generation HomePod

Following announcements on new Mac hardware Apple today announces update to HomePod.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMf_i1YBuMk
Introducing the all-new HomePod | Apple

Second generation HomePod gets S7 chip, UWB, temperature and humidity sensors. HomePod also gets Matter smart home standard support.

HomePod second generation follows design of original smart speaker while getting sound quality improvements too. However, it is noted that original HomePod could not be combined as stereo pair with second generation.

HomePod mini apparently also has temperature and humidity sensors. And those will be enabled with upcoming software update.

Sound Recognition feature comes to both new HomePod and HomePod mini to listen for smoke alarms in the house.

Apple Newsroom: Apple introduces the new HomePod with breakthrough sound and intelligence

References:

Weekend good reads for Apple developers, issue #55

It is last weekend before Christmas, so we have a bit more time to read something interesting.

And returning with video section! Great talk on JavaScriptCore usage – Make your app securely extensive with JavaScriptCore.

https://youtu.be/u1iJAalE8lw
https://youtu.be/u1iJAalE8lw

And that is for today! Have a great weekend!

Just after iOS 16.1 release Apple publishes first round of betas for the next one

Apple provides developers with access to first beta of iOS/iPadOS 16.2, macOS 13.1, watchOS 9.2 and tvOS 16.2.

Beta brings Freeform app which Apple demoed on WWDC22. External display support is also now available for iPads with M1 and M2 chips.

Also new beta brings new Home app architecture aimed to improve stability of smart home management.

Also, iOS 16.2 will have an option to report erroneously triggered SOS calls to Apple. Possibly, this should minimize false calls in the future.

Notably, no new Xcode beta is published. Xcode 14.1 is still in RC2 stage.

Beta download: Operating Systems

Release notes:

Apple Developer: Get ready with the latest beta releases

References: