CES 2017: Mixtile Hub Promises to Expand HomeKit to ZigBee and Z-Wave Smart Home Devices

by

Focalcrest, a Chinese company focusing on intelligent hardware solutions, today debuted a new HomeKit hub that promises to bring HomeKit connectivity to various connected home products that would not otherwise be able to interface with Apple's smart home platform.

The Mixtile Hub, which is MFi certified by Apple, is designed to connect to ZigBee and Z-Wave products and interface with HomeKit, allowing them to be controlled in via Siri and with Apple's Home app.

mixtile1
The hub plugs into a television set, which is used as a display to allow users to discover smart devices located in the home. From the television, the devices can be connected to the hub, and an accompanying smart phone app allows users to designate what a product does so that it can be used appropriately through HomeKit.

mixtile3
According to Focalcrest, it can interface with Z-Wave and ZigBee products, as well as connect to various smart home devices through Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Focalcrest did not provide specific examples of the kinds of hardware the hub can work with, so there are some unknowns with the product at this point in time.

The Mixtile Hub supports wireless communication protocols such as ZigBee, Z-Wave (optional), Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. It can also communicate with various other sensors (temperature and humidity sensors, optical sensors, door sensors) surveillance devices (monitors, alarms, intelligent locks) and smart home products (intelligent lamps, outlets and air conditioners), through ZigBee and Z-Wave.

Several existing hub-based HomeKit products work the same way as the Mixtile Hub, such as the Philips Hue. The Philips Hue base station is HomeKit enabled, while all bulbs connect to and receive commands from the base station using the ZigBee protocol.

ZigBee and Z-Wave are popular options for smart home products that don't support HomeKit. Many home security companies use Z-Wave, as do some major brands like Honeywell, GE, Schlage, D-Link, and First Alert. A wide range of connected home products use ZigBee, like the Logitech Harmony Remote, Cree lightbulbs, GE lightbulbs, and more.

Hardware wise, the hub is equipped with a quad-core processor, 1GB RAM, and 8GB of storage space. It has a built in 2,500mAh battery, dual microphones, an Ethernet port, an HDMI port, a micro-USB port, and a USB 2.0 port.

mixtile2
Focalcrest says the Mixtile Hub will be priced at approximately $150, and it will tentatively see a release sometime around March of 2017.

Tags: CES 2017, HomeKit Guide, Mixture Hub

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro 34ths Perspective

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 10 New Features

Sunday March 23, 2025 10:00 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
Read Full Article • 239 comments
Generic iOS 18

iOS 18.4 Coming Soon With These New Features for Your iPhone

Tuesday March 25, 2025 6:45 am PDT by
Apple is expected to release iOS 18.4 to the general public as soon as next week, following more than a month of beta testing. Apple's website says some iOS 18.4 features will be released in "early April," so the update should be out as early as Tuesday, April 1. Apple this week seeded the iOS 18.4 Release Candidate, which is typically the final beta version, barring the discovery of any...
Read Full Article • 14 comments
ios 19 messages app

Here's What Apple's iOS 19 Messages App Might Look Like

Tuesday March 25, 2025 11:52 am PDT by
Leaker Jon Prosser today shared a mockup of what he says the Messages app will look like in iOS 19, demoing an interface with rounded, translucent bubble-shaped navigation buttons at the top and softer, rounder corners for the keyboard and word suggestions. Jon Prosser's Messages app mockup The return button, a button for going back to the Messages list, and the FaceTime button have a deeper...
Read Full Article • 93 comments
iCloud General Feature Redux

iPhone Users Who Pay for iCloud Storage Receive a New Perk

Thursday March 20, 2025 12:01 am PDT by
If you pay for iCloud storage on your iPhone, Apple has a new perk for you, at no additional cost. The new perk is the ability to create invitations in the Apple Invites app for the iPhone, which launched in the App Store last month. In the Apple Invites app, iCloud+ subscribers can create invitations for any occasion, such as birthday parties, graduations, baby showers, and more. Anyone ...
Read Full Article • 30 comments
airpods max 2024 colors

Don't Buy Into Apple's Hype About AirPods Max Gaining Lossless Audio

Monday March 24, 2025 4:24 pm PDT by
Apple today announced that AirPods Max with a USB-C port will be gaining support for lossless audio and ultra-low latency audio with a firmware update next month, alongside the release of iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, and macOS 15.4. For context, audio files are typically compressed to keep file sizes smaller. There are lossy compression standards like MP3 and AAC (Advanced Audio Codec), which...
Read Full Article • 267 comments
Apple Lumon Terminal Pro

Apple's Mac Site Features Fictional 'Lumon Terminal Pro'

Wednesday March 26, 2025 12:19 pm PDT by
Apple is going all out with promotions for the popular Severance Apple TV+ show today, and as of right now, you'll find a new "Lumon Terminal Pro" listed on Apple's Mac site. The Lumon Terminal Pro is designed to look similar to the machines that Severance employees like Mark S. and Helly R. use for macrodata refinement. The Terminal features a blue keyboard, a small display with wide...
Read Full Article • 104 comments
macbook pro blue green

When Will Apple Release the M5 MacBook Pro?

Wednesday March 26, 2025 4:53 pm PDT by
Apple regularly refreshes the MacBook Pro models, and a new version that uses M5 series chips is in the works. Apple just finished refreshing most of the Mac lineup with M4 chips, and now it's time for the M5. Rumors suggest that we could see the first M5 MacBook Pro models this fall. Design There have been no rumors of a design update for the M5 MacBook Pro models that are coming this...
Read Full Article • 110 comments
Generic iOS 19 Feature Mock

Gurman: Jon Prosser's iOS 19 Mockups 'Aren't Representative' of Redesign

Tuesday March 25, 2025 4:47 pm PDT by
The iOS 19 mockup images that leaker Jon Prosser shared today are not representative of the actual iOS 19 design, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said on social media. According to Gurman, the images that are "floating around" are based on "very old builds" or "vague descriptions," and are lacking key features. Gurman says that we can "expect more from Apple in June." Gurman made the same comment ...
Read Full Article • 131 comments

Top Rated Comments

AngerDanger Avatar
AngerDanger
107 months ago
I wonder how people in the comments are going to twist this article to make bad comments about Tim Cook.
Let me take a crack at it.
Mixtile Hub Promises to Expand HomeKit to ZigBee and Z-Wave Smart Home Devices
A third party device shouldn't be required to connect non-HomeKit devices with HomeKit. Maybe if Tim "bean counter" Cook would actually try to innovate or get fired, this wouldn't be the terrible, horrible, awful, bad, no good issue that it is. Also, Tim Cook killed my dog once! (He wasn't involved in the other killings.)
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
EdT Avatar
EdT
107 months ago
I wonder how people in the comments are going to twist this article to make bad comments about Tim Cook.
Someone beat me to it, but:

[LIST=1]
* It took a Chinese company to add on the functionality that should have been there out of the box.
* Fire Tim Cook.
* Samsung already did this. Apple has lost all innovation.
* Someone should fire Tim Cook.
* Google has already done this. Apple is years behind the competition.
* So Fire Tim Cook.
* Android.
* Fire Cook.

I do have to admit I have taken part in some of the Apple bashing going on lately, although I blame the company as a whole and not one man.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ChrisCW11 Avatar
ChrisCW11
107 months ago
So yet another 3rd party filling in the gaps of Apples lack of innovation or cooperation with the tech industry.

Don't get me wrong, HomeKit is a good idea, but promoting it as the only way your Siri enabled device will talk to home automation devices is short sighted. There are a lot of products that work together without licensing a proprietary sdk, Echo for instance can work with Philips Hue or Nest thermostats without Amazon imposing its own intellectual property on other companies and forcing them to work the way Amazon warns them to work. Instead Echo adapted to work with other products, even products that came out years before it like Nest.

Apple wants you to have to rebuy products to work with its platform, and I don't like that. I'm not in the habit of buying $300 thermostats whenever someone happens to support Apples platform. And Apple has a long history of deprecating technology to promote a new platform on a whim, I wouldn't be surprised if all HomeKit devices today no longer work in a few years when HomeKIt 2.0 comes out or Apple decides home automation is absurd because they failed to make it captivating.

While HomeKit might be the AAA solution for Siri support in the home today, there is no reason for Apple to not play nice with other platforms and protocols. I mean it can only be a win/win for Apple to empower more devices with Siri, even if they begrudgingly have to use a third party protocol, yet Apple's constant walled garden approach to innovation is why their platform has been slow to establish in the home while Alexa has taken off far more quickly.

So, the idea of a third party box acting as a mediator between Siri and the rest of the world is attractive, but it's a shame you need to, once again, glom on another box, dongle, or add-on to make Apple work better for you in the real world.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tasset Avatar
tasset
107 months ago
I want this. REALLY BAD. I have been halfway surprised nobody has made this yet, then again not so surprising as it seems every manufacturer has an outsized value of themselves and think they are a platform. (Wink, Wemo, etc etc).
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
iapplelove Avatar
iapplelove
107 months ago
I'm slowly moving backward with technology. The more I know the less I desire a "smart" life.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AJ5790 Avatar
AJ5790
107 months ago
eh why bother with home kit. Get an amazon echo or a google home
Yeah, why does the security of a device IN YOUR HOME matter at all... meh, just go with the devices that can become great botnet candidates. Excellent choice.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Read All Comments