this post was submitted on 13 Sep 2023
40 points (100.0% liked)

Technology

37672 readers
259 users here now

A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.

Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.

Subcommunities on Beehaw:

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
40
The iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max will have built-in Thread radio. (www.androidauthority.com)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
9 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

The iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max will have built-in Thread radio, so they can directly communicate with smart home devices. Old iPhones could probably be used as a smart home hub.

I think this the most interesting update of the event.

top 9 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

For everyone else here who thought this had to do with Threads and wonder what Apple was thinking dealing with Meta like that:

Thread is a wireless smart home protocol designed to help your smart home devices talk to each other faster and more efficiently. Thread devices can connect to the internet and each other regardless of their brand and manufacturer. It is also the main infrastructure for Matter devices since it is designed with smart home meshes in mind. The more Thread-supported products you own, the stronger your smart home network becomes.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

So is this another zwave or zigbee alternative?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

So is this another zwave or zigbee alternative?

Kind of: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thread_(network_protocol)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Not sure about Z-Wave, but the ZigBee Alliance promotes Thread as ZigBee's successor. A lot of Thread devices are backwards compatible with ZigBee.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

So does that means devices or people around me would be able to use my internet quota?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

I do not think so.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

No it usually works like this:

  1. Plug in/turn on your smart device (light bulb, temperature sensor, etc)
  2. Open a smart home app on your phone (Apple and Google both include one in the OS, or you can use third party apps)
  3. Click "add device"
  4. It'll pop up a QR code scanner, scan the QR code that came with the device

Once scanned, it will do whatever is necessary to connect the device to your home network.

It's a flexible system that can use a variety of network technologies... (wifi, ethernet, bluetooth, thread, ultra wideband, etc). It will pick the best one available. And switch technologies automatically if one of them becomes unavailable.

Thread has about the same range as wifi, but it uses a lot less power. It doesn't really have enough bandwidth for something like a video camera, but it's great for light bulbs, temperature sensors, etc.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Interesting. I hope other phones start doing this too.