Lots of articles on the Internet about him noting that he is the most influential gay person in corporate America.

The only negative thing in my post was about the stupid 'flashy new gadgets' dig in the article. That was my major point. Apple doesn't churn out forgettable chum every month like their so-called competitors.

My criticism is this. If I want a health monitoring app, terrific, I can add it to my iPod or phone. But I do not want this as a default part of the OS of the device I am using. I don't want to opt out of something this private and intimate.

I also do not want my device to have home automation as a default either. I do not want to be locked into a vendor specific appliance universe. Nor do I want my devices 'communicating' with other devices that access the very public and NSA spied upon internet.

These camel-noses dressed in pretty widgets and shiny white bezels are not worth the trade-offs especially at the premium cost for the same hardware made in the same Chinese factories for other corporations.

I mean, I can get an app that does this already. It is now a default part of the OS but doesn't have to be used. Will it remain that way? Why is it there? Why add an app that other developer's have already created?

I don't use. It makes no difference to me.

There were already plenty of browsers available for Windows. The point was that Microsoft wanted you to use THEIR version, knowing that most people won't bother to download an application to replace something that is already built in. It gave Microsoft control of the ecosystem. Apple is doing the same thing, for the same reasons. There are already apps available that provide this functionality, but adding these features to iOS gives Apple control over the technology and ecosystem so they can shape it to fit their vision. There will always be the power users who gravitate toward superior alternatives, but Apple just has to provide a built-in solution that is "good enough" to satisfy the average person who is clueless about the technology. It gives Apple a new revenue stream as they sell the various adapters and gizmos out of the Apple stores, and places them into a position where they can potentially steer the industry.

Large corporations want power and money. It's their reason for existing. In that regard, Apple is no better or worse than any other big corporation.

I have an Alarm.com managed system built around a Simon XTi and ZWave devices. When I head to work in the morning, I tap one button on the app to lock the doors, close the garage, and set the alarm. When I leave work, I tap an app on my phone to let my system know that I'm on my way, and it automatically adjusts the thermostat. When I pull into my driveway, another tap opens the garage door, turns on the outside lights, unlocks the doors, and disables the security system. When I'm away, it cycles the outside lights and a living room lamp automatically to make it look like someone is there. I even have a 2Gig ZWave doorbell button that sends me a text when someone comes to the door, so I can open my Alarm.Com app and check my porch camera feed from my phone to see who is at the house...even when I'm halfway across the country.

Other than voice integration, which is honestly a bit passe at this point, I'm not sure what Apple can do that can't already be done. The Alarm.Com app is already available to everyone with an iOS device, so this functionality already exists for Apple users. I use Alarm.com, but there are plenty of other companies and apps that offer the same kind of functionality. People have been developing this kind of "Smart House" tech for years, and it's a relatively mature market already.

FWIW, the barrier to entry on this stuff isn't the technology, because the modern ZWave stuff is incredibly easy to use. The barrier is COST. The deadbolt on my front door cost me $250. You can buy a standard deadbolt for $30. My ZWave light controllers cost $50 each, and simply permit the hub to turn some lamps on and off. I'm pretty sure the light controller cost more than one of the lamps it operates. My cameras cost over $200 each, and I have three of them. My doorbell BUTTON was $45. You can buy a standard doorbell button at Home Depot for $5. The ZWave 3-Way light switch that had to be installed by an electrician and controls my outside lights cost me nearly $300 by the time everything was done...and that's just to turn the outside light on and off (much of that was the electricians fee). Add in the garage door interface, the security system, the thermostat, and the rest of it, and you can see why I have well over $2000 invested into my smarthome system. That's about average for a do-it-yourselfer (everything except the light switch, which had to be done by an electrician).

Home automation systems remain uncommon simply because most people aren't willing to spend thousands of dollars just to control their home from a smartphone. I did it simply because I'm a technology geek, but I'm definitely in the minority. Since driving costs down has never been a focus for Apple, and since cost reduction is really the ONE thing that home automation systems really need in order to take off, I'm not sure what Apple will really be contributing to the marketplace.

...will go wild for this integration.

That being said, the cost of the home automation hardware is prohibitively expensive for most. But that's that's not in Apple's control.

Google bought Nest for $3.2 billion dollars. Now it turns out that their hardware and software is buggy.

$250+ for a thermostat? Please...

Apple's introduction of this API will create a lot more players in this field, expanding the choices in hardware, and bringing down the cost of home automation.

Both FT and Gigaom are now reporting info from manufacturers indicating that the Apple Smart Home program is primarily a branding campaign. The idea is that manufacturers will create Bluetooth or WiFi devices and get them certified with the "Made for iPhone" logo. Apple will then provide a simple interface, using both touch and voice, to allow you to use the devices. Not a programming API or management features, but simply a unified interface.

Unfortunately, this is a bit of a letdown. Existing home automation products have a far better feature set than what Apple will be providing. If I leave home and set my alarm to Away mode, my house will automatically adjust the thermostat to save energy (and do a way better job than those overhyped Nest thermostats). If I lock the door and set it to Stay mode, it knows that someone is home and will keep the house comfortable. If everything is unlocked but the motion detectors don't detect any movement for a couple of hours, the system will send me a text just to make sure that I didn't forget to lock the doors and set the alarm on the way out...and I can do so from anywhere. If my smoke detector goes off and I'm not home, it will notify the fire department, send me an alert on my phone, flash my front lights while sounding a siren so the firefighters can find the house easily, and unlock the door when they arrive. It can even notify my NEIGHBORS, so they can check it out, and I just have to hit a button to unlock the doors for them. If my CO detector goes off at 2AM when I'm home, it will not only sound an alarm to wake us up like any other CO detector, but will immediately crank up the AC to get the air circulating in the house and dissipate the danger. People with the Vera system (I don't have, but it's another popular Open Source product that started via a Kickstarter campaign) even have apps available that allow their systems to be activated and deactivated automatically, simply by the locations of their smartphones. If the house detects that everyone has left, the house will lock and secure itself, and place itself in an energy efficient mode. If it detects that someone is a mile away and coming home, it can power everything up and unlock the doors as they are pulling into the driveway.

By the sounds of it, the new Apple platform won't be able to do anything like that (which is interesting, since Apple recently pulled a patent covering the exact scenario I outlined in that last sentence). If the functionality is essentially limited to using your iPhone as a centralized switch, as it's increasingly sounding like, then I'm not convinced that they'll have much of an impact at all. It's starting to sound like a huge step down in both technology and features. And since many of the hardware manufacturers like Lutron already have huge investments into their ZWave devices, it will be interesting to see how many Apple lure away.