Hey everyone! I’m a developer from the Netherlands and was recently between jobs. I wanted to use some of my free time to learn Swift, so I decided to build something useful for my own home.

Another developer had recently released a similar app, but it wasn’t available in Europe because of the requirements around publishing trader contact details. I also looked at HomeBatteries, but personally felt it was too expensive for what it offered.

So I started building LoopJuice.

I wanted to see which batteries needed attention, but also remember what batteries each accessory takes and when I last replaced them.

LoopJuice shows your accessories in a list or grid, grouped by room. It records battery history and estimates roughly when a battery might run out. You can save battery types, quantities, replacement and recharge dates, and compare multiple battery cycles. I included some options for custom widgets and added some Apple Watch functionality.

There’s optional iCloud sync to combine history across iPhone and iPad, plus an Apple Watch app and widgets. It works with accessories that expose battery information through HomeKit, and the predictions are approximate.

Everything is free. Building it filled my free time and helped me learn Swift. I have no plans to charge for it in the future either. It’s just a fun hobby project I wanted to share.

I’m planning to buy an iPhone Duo once it goes on sale and add support for it, and support HomeView once it becomes available in Europe.

LoopJuice on the App Store

If you try it, I’d love to hear what you think and what you’re missing! I have more free time this month to include any requests!

anyone else struggling with the ios27 update? I have no idea how to fully scroll through video feeds anymore. Why does it switch cameras instead? does Apple even test things?

I just preordered my homeview and I want to replace my ring cameras. I have ruled out unifi cameras with scrypted. It looks too complicated to me. I don’t have any device to run scrypted on. I would also have to invest in a unifi system with the NVR, etc. I know that’s the best option out there, but I don’t think I need the best system.

I don’t need 24/7 continuous recording. Events based recording is good enough for me. The main thing I want is very quick loading on the Apple TV and HomeView to see who’s at the front door quickly and some AI features, especially facial recognition. Any thoughts on going with an Eve, Aqara, or waiting for the LG camera?

I have iCloud Plus and would like to use HomeKit secure video. I will be very disappointed if there’s a lag on HomeView or Apple TV. when I want to see who’s at the front door quickly. That’s probably the most important factor to me.

I should’ve also mentioned that I have fiber Internet. My ring cameras do load very quickly on the app. But I’m willing to go with power over Ethernet if there’s a huge difference in speed.

The other thing I would do is get a simple unifi protect system with a few cameras and forget about Apple integration for now. I will be curious if their AI features are superior to the new Apple system.

I literally purchased the Aqara Doorbell Camera G410 last week prior to apples announcement of their new products.

Is it worth returning to get the LG one Apple released?

The price difference is roughly $100-120.

I've recently started turning my house into a "smart home" as much as possible, and I'm completely hooked!

I started by picking up some Eufy security gear (motion sensors, homebase, door sensors, an indoor camera, and just last week, the outdoor doorbell + monitor combo). I absolutely love it—the dedicated monitor is a massive time-saver.

Since then, I bought a cheap 8-inch tablet to act as a dedicated hub for widgets and apps (controlling things like my Govee TV lights and robot vacuum).

My Next Step / Potential Upgrade:

I’m thinking about upgrading to a 21- to 24-inch Android wall-mounted touchscreen to consolidate everything from the small tablet. I also want to use it as a family calendar (similar to a Skylight calendar) by running a dedicated Android app.

To keep things streamlined and minimize the number of apps/widgets, I want to stick to as few brands as possible. Here is what I am planning to add:

Aqara for smart switches

Govee for Wi-Fi bulbs

Bosch for smart thermostats (since it matches my boiler brand)

My questions for you guys:

What’s your general opinion on this potential setup? Any glaring issues or things I should watch out for?

What are your real-world experiences and opinions on Aqara switches?

And bosch smart thermostat or aqara? I was thinking that it would make sense for the Bosch but I don't know each one is better and easier to control. My thought was having the boiler/radiators control under the same app hence the Bosch choice.

Just caught up on this week’s event and noticed a few journalists/influencers mentioned it was a ‘look, but don’t touch’ event and even the demos outside of the dislay room were operated by Apple team members only. Seems weird for a small event like this, particularly given this device has supposedly been ready since 2024. I had a few questions I hoped to find answers too but all I can find is the exact same question overview.

- Can I set other HomePods as the permanent default output? Similar to the options in an Apple TV? I want to wall mount one and use it with my stereo pair HomePods.

- Can I disable calls and messages completely? I will never use it for calls and don’t want it ringing every-time I get one.

- Are there expanded privacy controls in Apple Home with this? Eg can I let my kids control their bedroom lights but nothing else etc etc

Hola ojalá puedan ayudarme, resulta que agregué la tv LG a mi habitación y una vez encendida puedo apagarla pero ya apagarla no puedo encenderla por comandos de voz.

Considering how much we all wanted 4K support for Apple Home, it’s all been extremely quiet since being enabled. Other than the new Apple/LG Home products announced this week (which only seem to be 2.5K video), I’ve not heard or seen any other companies pushing updates or announcing new hardware that will give 4K.. has anyone heard/seen anything..?

A couple of weeks ago, overnight, Apple Home (the app) decided to change the location of my home about 500ft east. The location of my home in my contacts, Apple Maps, and Find My is all correct, but now Apple Home has broken all of my geo-fenced home automations. I’ve looked online and have done everything short of deleting and recreating my home (really don’t want to re-add the numerous devices again). Has anyone had this issue and solved it without having to do the nuclear option?

There is no mention on the website, but is there an ability to combine it with other speakers in, say, the kitchen so you have maybe 2 or 3 Homepod Minis and they all work out where they all are in relation to each other - or at least all you to have a Homepod allow you to have a second speaker, so you can use it as a proper speaker for dancin' rather than just coming from the one unit?

Totally newbie to HK here. Got some Aqara cameras and they installed fine by just scanning the QR code. The W200 doesn’t seem to have the code to scan. Is there something different about it? It can’t just add straight into HK?

all the hardware is there. I think it's shocking that they didn't allow the ability to remote view from the device.

Security isn't really an argument, since it connects to the internet and can act as a medium for FaceTime.

In addition to “Lock After Closing,” iOS 27.2 also adds “Door Left Open” notification settings for compatible locks.

Options include Off, 5, 10, 15, and 30 minutes.

Locks have to advertise Matter’s Door Position Sensor feature and report the DoorState attribute. Doesn’t work with a separate contact sensor.

There’s a report from a few weeks ago that mentioned this notification, but the new settings remain disabled behind a feature flag (HomeApp/lock_dps). The disabled Home/LockDPS flag enables Matter door-position mapping into HomeKit.

My once working smart home is now a shadow of its former self. I am at my wits end trying to fix it and reconnect all my Matter devices to the Apple Home app.

I had a completely working smart home of about a dozen devices all connected to the Apple Home app via Matter. After upgrading my internet and mesh network, everything transferred fine and reconnected in place once I named the new WiFi the same SSID as the previous. I was now running (and am running still) T-Mobile 5G Home Internet with a pair of Orbi routers set in AP mode.

It was working fine for months on end. I was able to control all my  devices the same as before; all my scenes and automations ran perfectly. Then, I got a couple of new devices and noticed that they would not connect to the app no matter what I did. I would always get an error when trying to pair that the device couldn’t be found, or couldn’t communicate with the network.

Fast forward and after much troubleshooting my network and connections, I decided to wipe out my home from the app, delete the iCloud syncing and the enable it again, and then start from scratch.

I was able to connect my HomePod mini to my newly created home to act as the hub. But now, nothing would connect. Absolutely nothing. None of my devices that worked before would connect to the app. After hours and hours I was beyond frustrated and ready to dispose of the entire lot of smart devices I have.

It’s easier to list out all the different things I tried to get this to work (not necessarily in order):

• Reset all devices and put in pairing mode again.
• Change the Orbi from AP to Router mode.
• Set Passthrough mode for IPv6 on the Orbi router.
• Disconnect the HomePod mini and try using only an Apple TV as the hub.
• Try to pair via QR codes and/or setup codes.
• Disable the Orbi mesh and connect only to the T-Mobile gateway.
• Reconnect the mesh and use the IoT network functionality to create a separate network just for the smart home devices using 2.4 GHz only and WPA2.
• Connect the HomePod mini as a hub now using the separate IoT network.
• Ensure all firmware across all devices were updated.
• Disable private IP address on iPhone.
• Disconnect all devices but one and try to pair to the app.
• Connect all devices to manufacturer app first.
• Don’t connect all devices to manufacturer app at all.
• Reset hubs and set them up as new.
• Disable iCloud syncing for Home app, sign out and back in to iCloud, and reenable Home syncing.
• Create a second home alongside the first and try to pair devices to it.

Trying everything above and no devices were ever able to connect other than the hub. I don’t know what else to do!

Oddly enough, each device connects to their respective app via WiFi quickly and easily, and I get no issues like that. It’s only Matter via HomeKit that is killing me.

For the time being I’m using Google Home, but I would love to get Apple Home working again due to the integration with my iPhone and family.

What else can I try to get this to work?

Where am I today compared to 5 or 10 years ago with my smart home is much different.

With it releasing in November. I might wait to see if there are any Black Friday deals.

I was modelling the Homeview and decided to print it off so I could get a sense of scale. I have to say having it in front of me it’s actually a nice size to me.
I don’t plan to play shows on this, I was getting one for the kitchen as that typical “home hub” use case but seeing it on my desk it doesn’t dominate the space. I can see one replacing the HomePod mini here or even as a bedside clock so I could leave my phone charging in another room.

Edit: Makerworld link for those who want to print their own or use the STEP file

Posting this in case it saves someone else the rabbit hole I just went down.

The problem: IKEA's ALPSTUGA (Matter-native air quality sensor) paired directly to Apple Home — no DIRIGERA hub — shows up as a single combined "Air Quality" tile. Temperature, humidity, and CO2 are all measured by the device but never surface individually in Home app, because Apple's native Air Quality HomeKit service just doesn't carry those as sub-values.

What doesn't work:

- Tapping into the tile — no hidden temp/humidity readout, unlike some other air quality tiles.

- Homebridge's own "Matter support" (2.0+) and the Matterbridge project — both only go outward (exposing Homebridge accessories to Matter controllers), not inward (reading an existing Matter device's individual clusters).

- Without a DIRIGERA hub, there's no vendor REST API to just poll directly either.

The fix — run your own second Matter controller:

Matter supports "multi-admin" — a device can be joined to more than one controller/fabric at once without removing it from your existing one (Apple Home, in this case). So:

1. Install python-matter-server (https://github.com/home-assistant-libs/python-matter-server) (same engine Home Assistant's Matter integration uses) — it can run right on the same machine as Homebridge, no separate box needed. Needs Python 3.12+.
2. Put the ALPSTUGA back into pairing mode by opening its settings page in the Home app and clicking "Turn on pairing mode."
3. Commission it into your new controller using its setup code, via python-matter-server's built-in web dashboard → Commission Node → "Commission existing device" (since it's already network-joined, no BLE needed).
4. Once commissioned, the controller exposes each sensor's native Matter cluster individually — Temperature Measurement, Relative Humidity Measurement, Carbon Dioxide Concentration Measurement — fully separated.

Bridging that into Homebridge:

1. Wrote a small script that reads those three values from the Matter controller and makes them available locally for Homebridge to pick up.

2. Installed the Homebridge plugin homebridge-http-sensors-switches (https://www.npmjs.com/package/homebridge-http-sensors-switches) (generic JSON-polling plugin — not ALPSTUGA-specific, works with any HTTP JSON source) and pointed it at that script's output.

3. Homebridge publishes this as its own child bridge with two accessories — Temp/Humidity and CO2 — each requiring its own pairing (normal for Homebridge child bridges, same as any other plugin running isolated). Add it in Home app: + → Add Accessory → "I Don't Have a Code or Can't Scan" → Enter Code Manually, using the setup code Homebridge generates for that bridge.

4. Once paired, the two tiles show live data pulled straight from the Matter controller. Set both the matter-server and the bridge script up as systemd services so they survive reboots.

Built this with Claude walking me through the whole thing i.e., commissioning, scripting the bridge, and the Homebridge config.

My current smart lock uses a thumb turn on the inside so you can always turn it if it fails. But the u600 from what I can see has a button that is powered to get it to unlock from the inside. If that fails how would you open the door? From the outside you can also use the provided keys but can you use keys from the inside?

With the HomeView not supporting the Notes app at launch people began to assume the only way to view recipes was through a News+ subscription.

It turns out that you can handoff a Safari tab to the HomeView and if the page is detected as a recipe it will apply the styling we saw in the announcement video. Proof here: https://youtu.be/v3wcg4Vi4u0?si=BzLJPKDISyKp2UQx&t=65

I think there are still a lot of things left to learn about HomeView that we won't see until people have them in their hands next month.

Cost me an arm and a leg, but it’s worth it to finally get rid of my Alexa’s. I won’t be able to run them via Ethernet, however I have a hardwired Apple TV 4K.

So my theory is to have the Apple TV 4K as the main hub rather than auto-select. I am hoping that due to having about 50 thread devices, including a number of IKEA Grillplats that the HomePods being on WiFi should not cause instability.

Anyone else jumped on the new HomePods?

I ordered one for my home office and am thinking about another for the kitchen.

I’m optimistic.