The HomeKit specialist now has 8 Thread-compatible smart home devices
Eve, makers of sleek, high-end HomeKit hardware, has launched a new version of its outdoor temperature sensor Eve Degree.
The new Eve Weather features a larger display that shows temperature, humidity, and local weather simultaneously.
But most excitingly the new device is Thread-enabled and it joins two more Eve products in the Thread line-up.
Eve is also announcing that the Eve Aqua (2nd-gen) will be getting a firmware update to Thread in early April and a 4th gen Eve Energy smart plug will arrive 6 April with the smart home protocol baked in.
Eve is betting big on Thread, telling The Ambient that the combination of the protocol and the new Thread-enabled HomePod Mini is a game changer for Eve and the smart home.
“Eve now has the largest HomeKit over Thread portfolio,” Tim Both, Brand Manager at Eve told us. “And we’re on a clear path to the smart home we’ve all been dreaming of.”
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According to Eve, that smart home is one that’s not dependent on the cloud (all of Eve’s products work locally), that’s 100% private – where the product is the product not the user’s data, and, most importantly, a smart home that is easy to use.
“We don’t want to limit ourselves to HomeKit.”
“Thread has been developed specifically for the smart home, to tackle all the issues other protocols have,” explained Both. “With a border router such as a HomePod Mini, it doesn’t use your main network, it’s a self-healing mesh network, it provides an instant response, and it doesn’t require a bridge.”
For Eve products especially this is a big leap forward, as they’ve been somewhat hampered by Bluetooth’s short range and WiFi’s battery drain, two issues instantly solved by Thread.
“A handful of Eve Energy smart plugs, added to your home within seconds, will span an ultra-robust, ultra-responsive and ultra-efficient mesh network across your entire house – without needing a bridge,” explained Jerome Gackel, CEO of Eve.
In addition to Eve Weather, Eve Aqua, and Eve Energy, Eve already has Thread switched on in its 3rd gen Eve Door + Window sensors, and plans to release a Thread-enabled Eve Room (an indoor air quality monitor), Eve Motion (a motion sensor), and Eve Flare (a lamp) in the coming months.
The company is also committing to bringing Thread to all its relevant products, promising a full transition in 2021.
If you’re not sure if your existing Eve products are Thread-enabled, head to Eve’s website where they have a handy product checker.
Eve is also the only manufacturer to have a Thread Network view in its app, which you view even if you don’t have any Eve products. “Here you can see each Thread accessory’s role in your smart home and it’s connection quality,” explains Both.
The new Eve Weather starts shipping 25 March, is IPX3 water resistant, works in temps of 0 to 130 degrees Fahrenheit, and is battery powered. It will cost $69.99.
A redesign of Eve Degree, Eve Weather retains all the same features of that product, adding a larger display (in the same form-factor) to show you local outdoor temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure at the same time, rather than just seeing temperatureas you did on the Degree.
In the Eve app you can view an aggregate of current and past climate data, and you can ask Siri for the current temperature outside your door.
The Eve Energy (US, UK and EU models) will be the first mains-powered Thread product in Eve’s portfolio, and as an always-on device can take over the role as a router within a Thread network, and relay data packets.
“The more of these routers operate on the network, the more stable and greater its reach becomes,” explains Both. “Battery-operated Thread accessories, such as Eve Weather or Eve Aqua (2nd generation), represent endpoints in a Thread network.”
The 4th-gen Eve Energy ships 6 April for $39.95.
Finally, Eve is also fully on board with the new CHIP protocol, whatever it should be when it finally arrives.”CHIP provides a clear path to the future, and is why Thread is so important to us,” says Both.
Most specifically because the HomeKit specialist is eyeing a leap to the other big smart home platforms.
“We don’t want to limit ourselves to HomeKit,” says Gackel. “We hope that CHIP is an answer to the condition that you need to have a cloud to cloud connection. That with CHIP, we won’t need the cloud to move to Amazon Alexa and Google Home.”
