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The Apple Watch is now seen as one of the most popular watch brands in the world, beating the likes of Rolex.  This was no easy feat for a product that is only six years old.  With improvement in technology, excellent marketing and a strong phone brand to complement the watch, it’s easy to see how it happened.  And it is with these two products that Apple has found its way into the connected health sector.  Again, standing back and looking at it, I can see how it happened.  Today, the two things that are physically close to use at all times are our watch and our phone.  They sometimes physically feel, hear and see what we see.  Therefore, they are the best placed tools to monitor our health.

It is no joke when we said the home has become a fierce battle ground for connected technologies, and 2017 is the year of the smart speaker.  Already this year most of the well known brands have announced dates for release or plans to develop their own smart speaker solution.  Therefore, I can see a smart speaker being high on the shopping list for Christmas 2017.  Underneath the elegant and smooth designs will be one of four voice control systems Apple Siri, Google Assist, Microsoft's Cortana or Amazon Alexa. We have gather them all here for you to have a look and hopefully help you decide.

Stay connected while you're away from home by receiving rich notifications on your iPhone or iPad lock screen or Apple Watch from your Logitech Circle 2.  The company has announced that Circle 2 Wired home security cameras and mounts now work with Apple HomeKit. Simply set up your Circle 2 Wired camera with the Apple Home app and enjoy access to live video on your iPhone and iPad, notifications to your lock screen on iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch.  You can automate your home such as turning on the lights automatically when motion is detected by the camera.

Get one App to manage all your Apple HomeKit devices, for just $5.99 US the new PowerHouz App offers new advanced functionalities to help you manage your connected devices.  The App removes the need to have an App for each device in your home.  New features include triggers, which allow you to preset events for your devices based on pre-programmed events happening. These can be based on your location, the time of day and even special events like Sunset/Sunrise/Twilight.

As the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2015 draws near Apple HomeKit is in the news again.  There are talks about a delayed launch and there are some who said HomeKit will be launch next month at WWDC, but who knows; this is Apple we are talking about when up to now we have not heard anything official. We will just have to wait and see.  One good news around HomeKit, is that Broadcom has been given the stamp of approval as a certified HomeKit components manufacturer even though they were announced as official partner last June.

With the smart home sector estimated to worth billions it is an attractive market to be in at the moment.  Therefore, many businesses and individuals are marketing their solution to create their own niche. On the other hand many of us who write about these technologies have heard solutions announced all the time but never see it or hear about it after that announcement. The latest big announcement was Apple Homekit, Apple’s version of a connected home platform.

Crestron promse to make home automation setup and management easier with the new app Pyng. According to Crestron Pyng will sit at the heart of your home automation system. With it, home integrators can create lifestyle scenes for each room, schedule events, and much more right from an iPad. You whole home automation system can be ready in minutes without using any other programming application.

The next version of Apple’s mobile operating system will evolve the mobile handset into a new area of health services for the user. In addition to home automation via it Homekit, announced at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference, the iOS 8 is to offer connected health services via its HealthKit framework, a new developer platform for the health sector.

Over the last couple of weeks the news has been a washed with speculation on what the new Apple home solution will be. On Monday at the Apple annual Worldwide Developers Conference, the mystery solution was finally unveiled as Apple Homekit, a new connected home solution coming to your home soon. I think what Apple done this week; they should have done from 2009 or even earlier.  Why? Because it was from then that the public and home automation solutions providers need their support.

Ford has collaborated with Habu music app, ADT, Domino’s Pizza, Parkmobile and Parkopedia to offer more solutions to their in-vehicle mobile app platform SYNC AppLink. Drivers will be able to use the voice activated and touch screen solution to request service and manage other connected appliances.