Gadgetory

Apple Siri can control your home lights but it's a bit complicated I'm Bridget Carey this is your CNET update your iPhone can be your smart home control center you can give Siri commands to turn the lights on and off when you're away from home but to do that you need an Apple TV set-top box that's right your iPhone or iPad will not do it alone Apple's TV box is required to control smart home gadgets with Siri voice commands when you're away from home I know that's a lot of ifs and winds if you do not have an Apple TV the only way to control home gadgets with your voice is if your phone is connected to your home's Wi-Fi network but only talking to Siri from home just isn't as magical wouldn't you say smart home technology can be a headache to understand set up and sync generally speaking each of your smart home gadgets such as smart switches lights or thermostats all can be controlled with an app but Apple wanted to tie all these different gadgets under one standard it calls home kit if a gadget is home kit compatible it responds to voice commands with Siri but you may find the experience messy in these early days as an example let's look to the first product that works with Siri controls and home kit the cassettes a starter kit costs 230 dollars and it's programmed especially for working with Siri in our test we found it easy to give voice commands to change the lights that is it was easy on the Wi-Fi home network doing this off the home network with Apple TV was a whole other story Sina editor Megan Willerton found that the Apple TV connection was acting wonky and kept quitting on her during her review and she's troubleshooting it with Apple as of this report when you're installing any smart home device you might as well prepare yourself to be on the phone with tech support that goes for any product it comes with the territory of being an early adopter and keep in mind if all else fails you can just control Lutron with its own app everything I'm talking about here comes down to the power of controlling it with Siri voice commands and for controlling things on the Apple watch it's hard to understand why Apple would require its Apple TV set-top to make things work when you're away from home but maybe the company will address more of this at it's big conference on Monday and as for the Apple watch the company announced that in two weeks you'll be able to purchase one in stores before you had to order online to get it the watch is also expanding sales to seven more countries that's all for this tech news update but if you're still curious about the blue Tron home kit system we have a full review up on cnet.com and mark your calendar to follow our live coverage of Apple's event on Monday it starts at 10:00 a.m. Pacific 1:00 p.m. Eastern and we should learn more about new software for iPhones and Mac computers coming to you from our studios in New York I'm Bridget Carey