Home automation has been something Android has dabbled in in the past. The variety of standards and brands vying for the space is causing some confusion, but the more that are supported the faster we will see home automation become a realty for more households. The ZigBee Alliance is one of these specifications for wireless communication. Native support for the standard could soon be coming to Samsung and HTC phones. Samsung makes a slew of products, some of which are actually ZigBee products, so it's natural evolution for them to put support in their mobile devices. HTC is also interested in more support for standards like ZigBee. We have no official word from the companies or a date in which we think we may see support, but let's hope it's sooner rather than later. I for one am very excited at the prospect of home automation and would love to control light switches and appliances with my smartphone. As I mentioned above, the more support manufacturers enable on their phones, the faster we will see the deployment of more automation products.
Source: Pocket- Lint
Reader comments
Samsung and HTC phones to soon support ZigBee?
Whats zig be?
It explains it.
Posted via Android Central App
I meant to say it explains it in the article.
Posted via Android Central App
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=zigbee
Posted via Android Central App
As cool as it may be to control simple household electronics via a smart device, all I can think of is one step closer to the lazy, obese, and generally useless humans of Wall-E.
It's funny that I have a couple of people in mind that would end up like them.
Besides that, Zigbee is more then switching of lights etc. It's ideal to integrate with all kind of sensors, but it also allows you to control 'Smart' (zigbee capable) Electricity/gas/water meters.
This means you can have an IHD right in your pocket and control your energy consumption (from your lazy chair...)
I would imagine LG will roll out something soon as well, LG are part of the ZIGBEE alliance for their lighting fixtures and AC units.
Zigbee sounds great.. but in my experience the implementations of it are not very good and so products using it may not be great.
I think bluetooth LE has a better chance of becoming the standard.
What annoys me is that all the tech for home automation has been ready for years, and is only the lack of great standards that's spoiled it.