Some possibilities raised by the 9to5Mac in the wave of news from iOS 14 are related to HomeKit.
According to them, it is possible that the gadgets Apple homes receive three important new features this year, such as improvements to lighting and security controls, in addition to a new configuration that includes Apple TV and HomePod.
HomePod as standard Apple TV speaker
THE 9to5Mac believes that tvOS 14 will gain a new option for permanent audio output to the Apple speaker. In this sense, a user can select, for example, a pair of HomePods that are in their living room as the standard audio output of the TV – without the need to make this configuration every time, as it happens today.
Still according to them, this feature would go very well with a smaller and cheaper model of HomePod, benefiting (and a lot) the owners of Apple TVs that would like to have a more permanent configuration as an option.
Although support for HomePod by Apple TVs has improved significantly since the launch of the speaker in 2018, it is still possible to improve the connection between them by providing just such extra settings.
Night Shift for lighting systems
Intelligent lighting is one of the main categories of HomeKit. If you use the system to control your home lighting, then you know that it is already possible to control the brightness, color and temperature of the light, in addition to programming these actions through automations and shortcuts.
However, a possible novelty of iOS 14 will be the ability for the system to automatically adjust the color temperature of the light throughout the day. In this case, if the user prefers lights with colder colors during the day and warmer at night, HomeKit would make this transition gradually, without the need for settings for each instant.
Currently, the only automatic adjustment in this direction depends on a setting on iOS that estimates an approximate time of sunrise and sunset, which also infer the color temperature of the light.
This, of course, would also depend on the support of the lights in this configuration. Smart lamps from LIFX, for example, already support this function, but it is necessary to control them through the manufacturer’s app, as this feature is not yet available through HomeKit.
Facial recognition in camera systems
Last year, Apple introduced HomeKit Secure Video among the new features of iOS 13, which supports smart cameras with integrated security features, such as motion detection.
Now, it seems, the company will expand the capabilities of this protocol with a new facial recognition technology that will allow users of this system to identify specific people in images, possibly offering notifications about the detection of family members, for example.
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As we know, none of the aforementioned “news” was officially presented by Apple, so it is difficult to say which ones will or will not be in force until the launch of iOS / tvOS 14, which have everything to be presented in June.
