Podcast Homekit Insider
on The Latest Episode of the Homekit Insider Podcast, Dan Wroclawski from Consumer Reports joins to break the news of the week, as well as talk about artificial intelligence, how smart devices are tested and much more. The Voroskaya owner this week, which serves as the senior house & amp; Streaming from the observed bias against Apple due to its recommendations by the MacBook Pro and Homepod in 2017. We conducted their testing procedures that are controlled by data, which at that time did not value the design or united elements of the ecosystem.
Eight years later, at present, in friendly terms, we join the work that Consumer Reports does after the news, including how it decides what test devices, how it measures their safety, and how it helps to inform consumers about the platforms of intellectual houses and standards.
Plus, we will have fun about the last Samsung refrigerator. The new refrigerator advertises ai-capitalization that may not be as accurate as you hoped in tracking your food.
The full interview is transcribed below and edited for clarity.
>>>>>>>>>In the news, Eufy launched his last Vacuum Smart Home. Omni E28 is a robotic vacuum with support, but at the top it has a removable deep clean, humid Higher Higher Higher Attitude to clean your carpets and upholstery.
GOVEE also announced the new open fire of the “branch”. These paths are available only in the EU, but have full -color control and IP66 resistance rating with support for matter.
Bird Buddy launched his latest Kickstarter, collecting money to finance the production of the petals and Wonderblocks Habitat. He also has his own optional local center for processing, instead of relying on cloud services.
Finally, we get into the wallets with support for my support, includes the ESR Boost wallet, which supports up to 5 cards and 3 accounts. Despite so many options, the perfect wallet of your master has not yet been released.
Links from Homekit Inscat Podcast Homekit Podcast Homekit Podcast Hom Wroclaswki on Cr
Andrew> Andrew> Andrew About ' Hara: let's talk about consumer reports and in everything that you get into. I find this material super exciting. , so tell me a little, just in general, about how you got into consumer reports. And yes, let's start talking about your testing process for Smart Home devices. Dan Wroclawski: I am with CR now for seven and a half years, which is a kind of amazing. But this is just a great place to work. This is really good if you want to have a family, and it is pleasant to work in an organization based on a mission and MDash; Not only one was concentrated exclusively on making money. We do a lot of advocacy. When we find products with products, we turn to the manufacturer and try to force them to fix them. This is just a really useful place to be. For CR, I cover a bunch of different things. Smart Home is one of them, but I also do refrigerators, home safety and MDash; And I just randomly received cameras from all things. So I will soon plunge into this world. Andrew about ' Hara: I was going to say & mdash; refrigerators, smart refrigerators are cool. This is a smart house. Security systems too. Dan Wroclawski: Yes, I still consider this a smart home. And Dash Cams & Mdash; I think this thought was, I am a security guy, so it is like security. But yes, I do a lot of funny things. From the point of view of a smart house, we cannot check everything under the sun, because we are already testing thousands of products every year, and the market is much larger than it. So we really should choose and choose effectively. We focus on things such as intellectual thermostats, smart locks, security cameras, video calls, robotic vacuums, smoke and CO detectors. We are also engaged in intellectual TVs, streaming players and sound panels and MDash; Although this falls more under our television team. Andrew about ' Hara: I have a lot of questions. Here is a common one: you have all these categories, but how do you determine what specific models to focus on? Take robotic vacuums & mdash; There is a million. Only IROBOT released nine new this year, and this is only May. Then there is Roborock, Ecovacs, Switchbot, and this does not even consider advertising brands such as Shark. So how to narrow it? Dan Wroclawski: A great question. In fact, we have a whole team of market analysts whose work consists in evaluating the market for various categories of products. They decide, based on data on retail and sales, which brands and models buy most people. This is what we are trying to concentrate on. We cannot cover everything & mdash; It is simply impossible. Testing takes a lot of time and money. But we try to get a sample that represents what people will actually see when they go shopping and mdash; Be it on Amazon, in Best Buy, Walmart or Target. For robotic vacuum cleaners, this means lighting the latest IROBOT, ROBOROCK, SHARK models and some others that dominate the shelf and interests of customers. and even outside this & mdash; We do not do this for robots vacuums, but I can tell you about refrigerators and MDash; We conduct national surveys and examinations of members. We use these data to create ratings at the brand level based on reliability and satisfaction. Andrew about ' Hara: So even if someone looks at the refrigerator that is not revised directly, can they use your data to make a decision? Dan Wroclawski: Exactly. As in the case of refrigerators, we may have from 250 to 350 refrigerators in our ratings & mdash; Do not quote me on this & mdash; But this is just a part of what is on the market. Assessments at the brand level help fill the gaps. For example, if the LG clogs refrigerators for frost freezing, and you are considering LG, which we have not examined, at least you know that the brand has a strong track record. Andrew about ' Hara: Well, it makes sense. I want to return to the refrigerators later & mdash; Especially Samsung ' s ai refrigerator & mdash; But let's generally look at the ecosystems of a smart home. Some consumers do not care, but for others this completely changes their experience. If you are in Apple Home or Google Home, you will ignore something outside this vertical. Do you help users lead users in this way? And how is this factor in your result, especially that matter makes things more complicated? Dan Wroclawski: This is not a huge factor due to, but we take this into account. For categories such as thermostats, locks and security chambers, we will list which ecosystems support the product and MDash; Assistant Amazon, Google Home, Apple Home & Mdash; On the pages of the review in the section “Features and characteristics”. Sometimes we even note whether the integration of the intellectual platform is paid function, which occurs and annoying. This can affect smart functions. But in fact, our main goal is still the mass market consumer, and this audience did not fully perceive Tech Smart Home & Mdash; more. This improves, and matter should help, but the adoption was slow. We allow the filtering of the ecosystem. Thus, you can go to the rating page for intellectual castles and filter, for example, for the compatibility of “Apple Home”, and just see the models that work in your ecosystem. This is what we want to improve, because everything is becoming more and more related to matter. This is definitely in our radar. Andrew about ' Hara: True. And I feel that you have more responsibility than me. My audience & mdash; Be it Homekit Insider or Appleinsider & Mdash; Already care about Homekit and Matter. It’s easy for me to narrow the focus. Andrew: everything that I cover will mostly be like that, but for you, as you said, this is just this wide audience. Most of them do not know what the question is, but I feel that they will read your reviews, which will have to explain to them why they should know what it is and why it should be important and what it means. I mean, you know, you spoke so many times from listening to the show that it has some kind of problem with branding & mdash; Like, what is it? Who knows! you go to the store, and things say “matter” on the box, but no one knows what it means and they do very little to improve it. Therefore, I feel that now the only way that customers know is reading reviews and how to put forward this news. DAN: Yes, I mean, this is a big problem. We are trying & mdash; I do not want to speak, promote & mdash; But teach our readers all these various integrations of a smart house. We usually celebrate them in all reviews. We have guidelines for the purchase of all these different categories of products, and we will talk about these functions in these manuals. and yes, we are trying to train our readers. I have a large, long -standing leadership that explains all thoughtful and MDash; What is important, what he works with, what devices he supports, and all these useful things. Because, yes, this is a lot, and there are a lot of the average consumer. One of the largest things that people are always interested in & mdash; Fortunately, Homekit Stuff is very locked & mdash; But when you get into Amazon, the certification process is slightly weaker. How do you evaluate and check things such as security and vulnerability there? I mean when we look at the castles and some of them, you must do something. So, how are you doing security? DAN: Yes, so we have a special team that performs exclusively confidentiality and testing for safety on a heap of products. Right now these are mainly safety chambers and door calls, robotic vacuums, intelligent TVs, stream media players, such as Apple TV and Wi-Fi routers. We follow what is called a digital standard, which is a test standard that CR and a bunch of other advocacy groups helped to create. This has confidentiality and part of the security. For confidentiality, we will consider all the documentation for the product and brand & mdash; Privacy policies, service conditions, other documentation and MDash; And collect all this. We hunt this because it is not always easy to find. And we read what everyone says, and never do. We use this to understand: what are they doing with your data? Do they sell it? Do they use it to improve their products? All similar things. Then we turn this into an assessment of data confidentiality. For safety, we check whether the product uses the encryption. We are testing for penetration to look for vulnerability. We really found some. Last year, a fairly egregious video was sold on Amazon and Walmart, which was sold on Amazon and Walmart, which was very easy to hack. If there is a vulnerability, we try to work with the brand to fix it. We note that in articles or reviews, to find out people. Most of the devices that we find are actually quite safe & mdash; This is good. This is confidentiality, which is quite missing, even with some Apple Home products. Confidentiality is in order, but it may be better. So yes, this is a great resource, and I do not think that someone else really does such a job. Andrew: on the home side of Apple for Privacy and MDash; For example, as in Eve, since we are talking a lot about them & mdash; Each Apple Home product, you can use it exclusively with the Apple Home application. How much do these confidentiality problems still enter the game if you do not use the brand application? Like, if you just scan and go? DAN: This is a really fair point of view. This is a great strategy to avoid confidentiality and safety problems. Homekit is very safe and private, which is great. If you use it only through Apple Home and should not upload the & mdash application; What sometimes you do, just to get the code, especially with Matter & Mdash; This is a safer and more private route. If the code is on the device and you can just use it directly with Apple Home, this is better. Andrew: How do you feel like a person who checks all these things about chambers on robotic vacuum cleaners? I have mixed feelings. I like the idea of stray guards and mdash; We had an attempt to break many years ago, so we are now very much appreciated by security and MDash; But I also do not like the idea of a robot wandering and write down everything. DAN: I am also not a big fan. I am not a big fan of cameras in the house as a whole, if they do not have a cover cover. I need them & mdash; I have small children, and I have to know what happened when something will go wrong. But I only go with models that have confidentiality coatings so that I can turn them off when I do not want them to record. Andrew: When I checked the Roborock S8, they threw the camera and mdash; Then he returned it. I missed it! It will take a photo when he ran into something unusual, and it was useful. And I liked using it to find a dog or track a vacuum. my wife is wary of cameras, so we do not have them in the bedrooms, etc., but I liked that Roborock demanded that you turn the camera and mdash manually; Holding the buttons on the bot, setting the password. This cannot be remotely available, unlike some other brands. I feel it is progress. DAN: This is a smart implementation. There are good use options. The detection of the object is one. The hollow talked about the detection of animal litter and navigation around them. This is probably more difficult to do with a lidar than with AI on the basis of vision. Andrew: Let's complete and talk about refrigerators. I am curious what you perceive. On the one hand, the addition of AI and cameras seems stupid for a large device and MDash; It is expensive, it should last years, and can quickly become obsolete. But I was in a grocery store and liked to look inside through the Samsung application. In addition, my daughter repairs the refrigerator screen monthly with a collage with photos and MDash; It's fun! So I'm torn. There is confidentiality, unnecessary cost, short life span of software … What do you think? DAN: This is hard. They have some funny and useful functions. Even use the screen as a kitchen TV. But yes, the refrigerators are expected to last at least ten years, and Samsung has already ceased to provide updates to some family hub models, which were only 5-6 years old. This is only half the life of the refrigerator. So I would warn people. Think about whether you really want it. Most likely, this will not be supported for the life of the refrigerator. internal chambers are useful & mdash; For example, when you buy products. I checked one of the AI refrigerators made to order, which can identify food and expiration date. It worked about 50% of cases. He fought with packed objects, but everything is in order with clean containers and MDash; As a container with strawberries. Andrew: How about clean boxes? Are there chambers inside? DAN: No, but this can see through clear boxes and MDash; Just the front. It depends on the model. One has three side cameras. More new has a top camera that writes down how you invest the elements. But the angle is not great and mdash; I had to “show” the object in the camera when I placed it inside. No one will do it. Also, he does not see what is on the door shelves or turned off on the sides. This is a cool idea, and I think that one day it will work. But this is needed more cameras and many improvements. Andrew: I have one of these old models. Probably already lost support! This should identify elements, but often understands them incorrectly & mdash; How to tell me that I am investing in Tamal, grape tomatoes and dog food … When I did not. But, dude, I want it to work. Imagine that just ask the refrigerator: “What should I do?” And this tells you on the basis of what is inside. That would be great. DAN: Yes, this is a dream. This can reduce food waste and save money. It would be really useful. But it will take more cameras, more smart, and this does not apply to the freezer! Andrew: Exactly. In addition, these things need the best processors. They are cheap on it, because no one knows which chip is in the refrigerator. Then new functions cannot be supported. Mine sometimes freeze, just trying to revive the screen when I close the door. If you pay $ 2,000+, spend a little more on a decent processor. Especially if it should last 10 years. DAN: I agree. They are not enough. And the margin is tough, so they are trying to reduce the costs where they can. But this short consumers are in the long run. They need to think more. Andrew: Well, I feel that we can continue to talk forever, but we must complete. Anything you want to leave with, Dan? DAN: just consumer reports-excellent resources & mdash; Looking for home appliances, technologies, children's equipment or cars. I'm really trying to make it a great Smart Home resource with reviews and content for everyone. So check it. And do not forget the promo -code on Cr.org/homekitinsider & Mdash; This is a big deal, and you probably return your money in the savings of the product. Andrew: amazing. Thank you very much for hanging out, Dan. Come back at any time! Those who are interested in sponsoring the show can contact us at the reding@appleinSider.com “Follow all Apple in an appleinSider. Just say: “Hello, Siri”, to your mini homepod and ask about this, and our last episode of Homekit Insider. If you need experience with Appleinsider without advertising, you can support Appleinsider podcast, subscribing to 5 dollars a month through Apple application under the podcasts or through Patreon, if you prefer any other podcast player. Interview with Dan WroClawski From Consumer Reports