The Missing piece in Apple’s HomeKIt - iControl

At Apple’s recent Worldwide Developers Conference HomeKit, a suite of tools for controlling devices such as lights, locks, garage doors, alarms, thermostats and more using iOS device was announced.

In my opinion, current iOS devices (iPhone & iPad), are not well suited for Apples HomeKit & Home Automation for a number of key reasons:

• The lack of ZigBee, Z-Wave, IR prevents compatibility with hundreds of existing Home Automation devices.
• Many members of a household still do not own their iOS device (small children, grandparents, ……).
• Limited battery life for Home Automation.


A crucial hardware piece that is missing in the Apple Home Automation ecosystem, is a device / hub that would be in the centre of the living room,  to control “Smart Home".
The simplest way to describe this gizmo is that it is a cross between a universal remote control and an iPod Touch with lots of connectivity options and sensors built into it.

And for the lack of the better name, I'm calling it iControl.

iControl

 Features:
• metal body

• 4” touch screen

• Touch ID

• connectivity – Bluetooth BLE, WiFi, ZigBee, Z-Wave, IR infrared

• front & back camera

• Siri, AirPlay, AirPlay Mirroring. Facetime, VoIP phone….

• significantly larger battery (possible solar or wireless charging)

•Built in sensors to assist Smart devices (motion, temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, light etc).

Lots of connectivity options

I wouldn’t be too surprised to see Apple’s own low-power and low-latency wireless protocol for Home Automation.

While you were away…

What does it do:
• connects & controls Smart devices such as lights, locks, garage doors, alarms, thermostats and more

• connects & controls other Apple products & services – iTunes, iCloud, Mac, iPhone, AppleTV,

• controls Home theatre, TV, receivers, stereos…

• communication – email, SMS, iMassage, Facetime, audio Facetime, VoIP phone.

• built in different sensors assist “Smart Home” devices, also devices less expensive to make

(if iControl has motion, temperature, humidity sensor …. Thermostat doesn’t need them – less expensive to make).

iControl as VoIP Phone – Bria App

iControl connects to iTunes

Dimensions:
iControl
W 58.6 mm x H 153mm x D 12.6mm
iPhone5 /5S
W 58.6mm x H 123.8mm x D 7.6mm

iControl & iPhone5

Back side

For years I have been hoping Apple would enter in to Home Automation, and create their own device.

Old Concept - iControl

Here is the concept of Apple iControl remote, from few years ago, I have made but never completed.
Notice iPod style scroll wheel in my old 3d concept
This is the product that I would buy in a heart beat.

“Smart Home”

Very soon, new blog post:
The Missing piece in Apple’s HomeKit – iControl, part II

Find out more:
http://ipack3d.com/missing-piece-apples-homekit-icontrol/

iPhone 6

Design exploration what a future iPhone 6 might look like.

Peter Zigich

iPhone 5 is still the best looking phone today.
Competition is not standing still. Some nice "premium" phones are coming out from other companies.

It makes me wonder what will Apple do to stay on top, and beat out the competition.

This is how I imagine next iPhone 6

3 key areas next iPhone has to address:

• improve its already spectacular design of iPhone 5
• compete with cheap smartphones 
• compete with large screen smartphones (phablets). 

Home Button

It has been there since the first iPhone. 

The physical Home Button is one of the best design features of the iPhone, but it takes up a lot of space at the front.

How about moving Home button to the side?

We could end up with bigger screen or a smaller phone. 

Two Home Buttons, one on each side. 

With Home button on the side there's room to add another row of icons, while physical dimensions remain the same as iPhone 5.

Closeup of the side Home button 

Feature two Home Buttons, one on each side, instead of one.

More possible functions combining left & right Home buttons with single, double, triple click. (Example: double click left Home button then single click right Home button; or press left & right at the same time, etc).

iPhone 6 same dimensions as iPhone5

H x W x D - 124mm x 59mm x 7.6mm 

I estimate it would cost the same as iPhone 5 $650 without a contract ($200 with two year contract).

Side view 

Is one iPhone enough?

Apple has 4 iPods (Touch, Nano, Classic & Shuffle), and 2 iPads (iPad & iPad mini).

Why Not 3 different iPhones?

Size comparison from left to right

iPhone 5, iPhone 6 Mini, iPhone 6, & iPhone 6 XL 

iPhone 6 Mini

Cheaper, smaller iPhone to compete with cheap Android phones, aimed at developing and prepaid markets.

Same premium materials as "flagship" iPhone, but with a smaller screen.
Screen is the same size as iPhone 4.

I estimate it would cost $350 - $450 without a contract ($0 - $100 with two year contract).
More expensive than some hope for, but the same happened with iPad mini.

iPhone 6 Mini - screen is same size as iPhone 4

H x W x D - 96.5mm x 59mm x 7.6mm 

iPhone XL - Large screen iPhone

There is a significant demand for a larger screen iPhone. 
Bigger Screen would allow for 1 extra row & 1 extra column of icons.

Same premium materials as "flagship" iPhone, but a larger screen.
Perfect for one handed use unlike ridiculously oversized Samsung Galaxy Note.

I estimate it would cost $750 - $900 without a contract ($300 - $400 with two year contract).

iPhone 6 XL - larger screen, perfect for one handed use

H x W x D - 137mm x 70mm x 7.6mm 

Size comparison, from left to right

iPhone 6 Mini, iPhone 6 & iPhone 6 XL 

Side view, size comparison,

iPhone 6 Mini, iPhone 6 & iPhone 6 XL 

3 very different iPhones 

Multiple screen size options for different segments of the market.
More choices for customers.

iPhone 6 Mini, iPhone 6 & iPhone 6 XL 

What about iOS?

There are some things about iOS that drive me crazy. Finding Apps on the phone is getting more complicated.

The average iPhone user has 100 - 150 Apps on their device.

Users are just overwhelmed with the amount of Apps installed and they end up hidden away and forgotten.

It's necessary to rethink core UI — from a user experience perspective.
iOS has not fundamentally changed since it was introduced in 2007, and its starting to show its age.

There must be an easier way to find Apps on the iPhone 

I came up with a cool concept of how to find, organize, search and choose App in easy and intuitive way. In a few easy clicks users can, narrow the search for the right app on ther phone (even if you have 1000 applications installed). I call this process "Distill" - purify, extract essential elements.

This is still work in progress. I will post more info on it in the near future.

iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Mini & iPhone 6 XL 

Size comparison

iPhone 5, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Mini & iPhone 6 XL 

This is my vision of the next iPhone.

Let me know what you think.

Next project: One thing Apple TV is missing to become more than a hobby.


Peter Zigich
You can follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/PeterZ3

Future MacPro, Part II

Design exploration what a future MacPro might look like. Part II

Some of you have seen my Modular Mac Pro design Concept post.
Now, let's take a look how power-efficient CPU's will change design of a MacPro.

There's been a lot of talk of Apple ditching Intel for ARM.
I think Apple will switch, and many others will follow.

ARM Advantages:

• optimized for performance/watt
• power-efficient
• cooler
• fully scalable
• smaller
• cheaper
• custom CPU design

What does it mean?

• significantly smaller enclosure
• increase computing power by adding more CPUs
• increase & tweak important performance (custom Chip design)
• cheaper CPUs - higher profit
• smaller, lighter, quieter, cooler (less heat), "Greener" (Environment)

Size comparison with current MacPro
W x D x H - 230mm x 280mm x 220mm

Aluminum enclosure with removable side panel

3/4 View Perspective

Front View

Slide up/down front door to access USB3 & Thunderbolt ports

Back View

USB3, Thunderbolt, Ethernet, Optical In & Out, Mic, Speaker, Power ports + 3 PCI slots

Folding Snap & Lock Handle

Additional disk storage - external Thunderbolt enclosures

Removable side panel & Slide out Tray
4 HDD, 6 RAM slots, 3 PCI slots

Version 1a

Custom Apple designed ARM CPU  A10

2 CPUs on a Daughterboard Card.
Each Processor has 4 cores for a total 8 cores per Card.
4 Cards for a maximum of 8 CPUs (32 Cores).

CPU Daughterboard Card

2 Processors on Card 4 Cores each. Total of 8 Cores per Card

Heat Sink Cross Section

Up to 4 Cards - total of 8 CPUs (32 Cores)

MacPro ARM CPU Workstation with Tray Out
Total of 8 CPUs (32 Cores) + 6 Memory Slots

Version 1b

How about Intel Inside?

Maybe Intel can come up with super efficient Haswell Xeon CPU

2 Xenon CPUs can fit in the Heat Sink

It's impossible to ignore Intel. They are working on energy efficient CPUs.
Is it possible to put Haswell or Broadwell Xeons in such a small enclosure?
Liquid cooling, maybe.
Intel will do their best to keep Apple happy.

Version 2

Custom Apple designed ARM CPU  A10

Combined CPU & RAM Module. 

CPU Daughterboard Card comes with 2 CPUs and integrated 16GB RAM.
6 Cards for a maximum of 12 CPUs (48 Cores) and 96GB RAM

Second Version of CPU Daughterboard Card
2 CPUs on Card (4 Cores each) with 16GB embedded RAM. Total of 8 Cores per Card

MacPro Workstation with 6 Daughterboard Card Slots
Total of 12 CPUs (48 Cores) + 96 GB RAM

Alternative aluminium enclosure

Darker aluminum enclosure

Anodized Aluminium Color (same as iPhone 5)

MacPro Cube

If Apple creates custom GPU (shorter, less heat), enclosure

dimensions could shrink even more. 

MacPro Cube with a footprint of a Mac Mini.  200mm x 200mm x 200mm Cube.

This will be ideal "Made in USA" Apple Computer.

Apple Mac Pro Cube
with custom (smaller) GPU, 200mm Cube

Competition

I'm sure there are dozen other companies interested in creating their own ARM based PCs.

Just to name few:

• Microsoft - Windows 8 
• Amazon - Linux 
• NVIDIA - Linux 
• AMD - Linux / Windows 8 
• Google - Chrome OS (Linux) if they are serious about Chrome OS 
• Samsung - Linux / Windows 8 / desktop Tizen OS???
• Oracle / Sun - Solaris
• Intel - Linux / Windows, certainly not using ARM CPUs 

+ all the other PC makers: Dell, HP, Acer, Lenovo, Sony, Toshiba, etc.

This is my vision of the next MacPro. Tell me what you think.

Next project: iPhone 6 & cheap iPhone.
You can follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/PeterZ3

Peter Zigich

High end workstation running on ARM processors???

It's not very difficult to imagine PCs running on ARM processors in a near future.

Every major OS supports ARM Processors today:
Microsoft Windows 8
Apple iOS (OS X)
Linux
Google Chrome


How about high end workstations?

This is probably few years away, but it's still fun to imagine what workstation would look like.


More to come…..

iPhone 5 Belt Clip Concept

I've been using Belt Clips for years.

I was looking for a Belt Clip for iPhone 5 with specific requirements:

• well engineered product
• minimalistic design
• functional & elegant
• good safety features
• easy to take apart
• sturdy construction

After a long search, very disappointed results.
None of the existing products fit my criteria.

It shouldn't be difficult to make something much better.


This is what I want!
Hope you like it.

Peter Zigich
twitter.com/PeterZ3