How is this getting investor money, and how are consumers seeing this as something worth paying for?
It's just not hard to just flip the light switch when you leave the room, and you don't need an all-seeing eye uploading everything that happens in your house to a massive corporation.
I can't believe this is a feature that gets the hype that it does. It's almost as cliche as the example of making a dinner reservation.
I live in a 1700sqft space - not small, but not large. I have ~15 separate banks of overhead lights that were built into my builder grade condo when I bought it, and probably 20 light fixtures (lamps, accent lights, etc) I've added myself. If you are even remotely interested in design, decor or lighting it's easy to end up with a similar number of lights in an average sized space. When I walk through the door, the scene sets itself perfectly based on the time of day. If I didn't have that automation, I'd probably end up turning on the nearest 1-2 lights out of convenience. It's a huge quality of life improvement. Today it takes some up front effort to get it set up, but it's getting easier and easier and more people will realize the benefit.
This immediately made me think of "smart water bottles" that detect how much of your drink has left the vessel. They can detect what kind of drink they contain and what temperature it is. And so on.
You could not pay me to use such a stupid device. No clue why people invest in or purchase such a product.
Motion sensor is not the same as a presence sensor. Presence sensors often include a PIR sensor in addition to several other sensors to detect if someone is in an area.
Also how much are we saving flipping lights off for a few hours in the age of LEDs? Most of my electricity bill is either fixed costs or from heating water.
What investor money? This is purportedly an internal project by a large tech company. And what hype? This is speculative article based on second-hand leaked information.
I so sorely lost faith in Apple when they started serving ads in Maps. I know they're trying to be privacy preserving. But a compromised value isn't a value, it's a guideline.
The number of ads I have gotten lately about buying ads on Apple Maps has me glad I'm not using Apple Maps. It turns out they're just late to the ad game, not opposed to it.
Sadly in current year, whenever tech companies say they aren't going to do something that means they are going to do it in two different ways and try to hide them both.
"They found the analytics control and other privacy settings had no obvious effect on Apple’s data collection—the tracking remained the same whether iPhone Analytics was switched on or off." (https://gizmodo.com/apple-iphone-analytics-tracking-even-whe...)
> record: to cause (sound, visual images, data, etc.) to be registered on something (such as a memory card, hard drive, or optical disc) in reproducible form
It is reproducible. It has to be for their feature to work. They're trying to find some way to communicate to people that the recording is to a ring buffer, and isn't durably saving everything it hears indefinitely. It's an unenviable position to have to find a way to sell your engineering that enables a fairly privacy-preserving implementation of a feature that intuitively feels like it depends on surveillance to a mass audience. Made especially difficult by the environment where most products really are surveilling you even when they don't need to.
Of course, Apple still collects more data than it needs to and abuses users in other ways, so I don't really feel bad for them.
"we're gonna put a camera on a closed-source/closed-firmware device in your living room but it's totally not recording, trust me bro"
> switch lights off when a room becomes empty
How is this getting investor money, and how are consumers seeing this as something worth paying for?
It's just not hard to just flip the light switch when you leave the room, and you don't need an all-seeing eye uploading everything that happens in your house to a massive corporation.
I can't believe this is a feature that gets the hype that it does. It's almost as cliche as the example of making a dinner reservation.
I live in a 1700sqft space - not small, but not large. I have ~15 separate banks of overhead lights that were built into my builder grade condo when I bought it, and probably 20 light fixtures (lamps, accent lights, etc) I've added myself. If you are even remotely interested in design, decor or lighting it's easy to end up with a similar number of lights in an average sized space. When I walk through the door, the scene sets itself perfectly based on the time of day. If I didn't have that automation, I'd probably end up turning on the nearest 1-2 lights out of convenience. It's a huge quality of life improvement. Today it takes some up front effort to get it set up, but it's getting easier and easier and more people will realize the benefit.
This immediately made me think of "smart water bottles" that detect how much of your drink has left the vessel. They can detect what kind of drink they contain and what temperature it is. And so on.
You could not pay me to use such a stupid device. No clue why people invest in or purchase such a product.
It's just a feature that's been available on other smart home platforms for years.
Really depends on your home layout. More new homes are open layout so the light switch may be further away.
But ya, it's not that hard, the only place I've found a motion sensor to be useful was in the garage.
Motion sensor is not the same as a presence sensor. Presence sensors often include a PIR sensor in addition to several other sensors to detect if someone is in an area.
Also how much are we saving flipping lights off for a few hours in the age of LEDs? Most of my electricity bill is either fixed costs or from heating water.
This could also be achieved so many other ways for a fraction of the price
What investor money? This is purportedly an internal project by a large tech company. And what hype? This is speculative article based on second-hand leaked information.
sound like they are trying.
Unfortunately apple devices collect EXTREME amounts of telemetry, you are opted-in by default, and much of it is impossible to opt-out of.
I so sorely lost faith in Apple when they started serving ads in Maps. I know they're trying to be privacy preserving. But a compromised value isn't a value, it's a guideline.
The number of ads I have gotten lately about buying ads on Apple Maps has me glad I'm not using Apple Maps. It turns out they're just late to the ad game, not opposed to it.
Privacy was simply a marketing scheme, not an actual conviction.
Sadly in current year, whenever tech companies say they aren't going to do something that means they are going to do it in two different ways and try to hide them both.
You can disable analytics sharing in the settings menu of iOS.
"They found the analytics control and other privacy settings had no obvious effect on Apple’s data collection—the tracking remained the same whether iPhone Analytics was switched on or off." (https://gizmodo.com/apple-iphone-analytics-tracking-even-whe...)
> expected to use a low-frame-rate camera alongside facial recognition and infrared sensors to identify people and pets around the home.
Thanks for letting us know that it's mainly the surveillance device. The advanced one.
Sure, just like the Apple Watch doesn't "record" audio, it "flows."
"You think your watch records the audio around you? No no no. The audio flows into the Secure Enclave, and flowing is definitely not recording because it’s a different word." (https://leancrew.com/all-this/2026/09/new-apple-watches-have...)
> record: to cause (sound, visual images, data, etc.) to be registered on something (such as a memory card, hard drive, or optical disc) in reproducible form
via https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/record
Seems accurate if the audio captured isn't stored in a reproducible fashion.
It is reproducible. It has to be for their feature to work. They're trying to find some way to communicate to people that the recording is to a ring buffer, and isn't durably saving everything it hears indefinitely. It's an unenviable position to have to find a way to sell your engineering that enables a fairly privacy-preserving implementation of a feature that intuitively feels like it depends on surveillance to a mass audience. Made especially difficult by the environment where most products really are surveilling you even when they don't need to.
Of course, Apple still collects more data than it needs to and abuses users in other ways, so I don't really feel bad for them.
Sure. It's the transcript that is stored, isn't it?
could what it produces be used by someone else (lawfully or not) to invade my personal privacy?
that’s really the question to be answered here.