MacRumors

Ahead of Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, several of the company's HomeKit partners are today announcing the availability of the first HomeKit-compatible products. HomeKit is Apple's home automation platform, first introduced at the 2014 Worldwide Developers Conference.

HomeKit provides a standardized framework for manufacturers that develop home automation products, letting them interface with the Apple ecosystem and with each other. Through HomeKit, connected devices like lights, thermostats, speakers, smart plugs, and more can be controlled by Siri. For example, HomeKit enables commands like "Siri, turn off my lights," or "Siri, turn the temperature up before I get home."

Though HomeKit was announced in 2014, it has taken nearly a year for companies to complete Apple's certification process and get products ready for store shelves. Several companies like iDevices, Schlage, and Elgato have previously announced plans for HomeKit-compatible products, but until today, no products were ready to launch.

The first three companies to announce completed HomeKit-compatible products that will be available for purchase shortly are Lutron, iHome, and Elgato. Lutron is debuting its Caséta Wireless Lighting Starter Kit with Smart Bridge, while iHome is announcing its iSP5 SmartPlug, and Elgato is launching its "Eve" connected home sensors. Ecobee and Insteon also announced new HomeKit-compatible products today.

Lutron's Smart Bridge, part of the Lighting Starter Kit, supports HomeKit and is designed to let users control their Lutron Caséta Wireless dimmers using Siri on an iPhone or iPad. The kit includes one Smart Bridge, two Caséta Wireless dimmers (which support dimmable LED, halogen, and incandescent bulbs), two remotes, and two pedestals.

The Caséta Wireless Smart Bridge with HomeKit support allows homeowners to control lights in specific rooms or areas. For example, just before bed, tell Siri "turn the lights off" and the Caséta Wireless Smart Bridge will turn off lights throughout the house. Unsure if the basement light is still on? Ask Siri to check and if so, turn it off.

iHome's iSP5 SmartPlug fits into a standard wall socket and can use Siri or the iHome Control app to control lamps, fans, and other devices that are plugged in to the SmartPlug. The SmartPlugs support different "scenes" to control multiple connected devices within the home, and the app will allow multiple SmartPlugs to be grouped and controlled with a single command.

Up to two SmartPlugs are able to fit into a single wall socket and a Wi-Fi connection is required for the plugs to communicate with iOS devices. According to iHome, today's iSP5 SmartPlug is just one of several products that will include HomeKit support, with other accessories in the iHome Control line coming in the future.

The Eve brand of connected home sensors by Elgato, which the company announced last Fall, allow users to monitor air quality, smoke, humidity, air pressure, energy, and water consumption all with the ease of a synced iOS app. The line-up of different sensors each focus on a specific aspect of home detection: the Eve Room for indoor air quality, Eve Weather for outdoor temperature and humidity, Eve Door & Window for security notifications of open and closed points of entry into a house, and Eve Energy for basic energy consumption data and the control of electronic devices.

Some of the devices in the line aren't just simple sensors, either, with Eve Energy acting as a go-between for electrical-based devices and a wall outlet (although it's currently only available for European sockets). The product subsequently can monitor energy consumption of a device and can turn the product connected to it on and off at the touch of a button within the iOS app. Each of the products in the Eve family of home sensors are fully functional with Siri, allowing users to speak to their iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to ask about temperature, the security of doors and windows, and control devices connected to Eve Energy.

The Caséta Wireless Lighting Starter Kit is available for $229.95 at Apple Stores beginning today. iHome's iSP5 SmartPlug will be available for pre-order for $39.99 from the iHome website beginning June 15. Elgato's Eve sensors are up for pre-order starting today, ranging in price from $39.95 to $79.95.

Ecobee and Insteon also announced a new HomeKit-compatible smart thermostat and Insteon Hub for controlling a range of switches, outlets, thermostats, and lightbulbs respectively. In the coming weeks, there will be even more announcements as companies producing smart home products finish their work on HomeKit.

Mitchel Broussard contributed to this report.

Intel today at Computex 2015 unveiled Thunderbolt 3 with a USB Type-C connector, instead of Mini DisplayPort, and support for USB 3.1, DisplayPort 1.2 and PCI Express 3.0, as outlined by Ars Technica. The new spec's Thunderbolt transport layer provides up to 40Gbps throughput, double the max bandwidth of Thunderbolt 2, alongside an optional 100 watts of power for charging devices in accordance with the USB Power Delivery spec, or 15 watts of power without USB PD.

"Thunderbolt 3 is backed by Intel's new Alpine Ridge controller. USB 3.1 support is provided by integrating a USB 3.1 host controller into Alpine Ridge. There will be two flavours of the controller, one that uses four PCIe 3.0 lanes to drive two Thunderbolt ports, and another version that only uses two PCIe lanes connected to a single Thunderbolt port."

Thunderbolt 3 is capable of driving up to two 4K external displays at 60Hz or a single 5K display at 60Hz running off a single cable. Dell and other manufacturers currently use a dual-cable solution for most 4K and 5K external displays, since the current DisplayPort/Thunderbolt spec does not provide enough bandwidth to drive the high-resolution monitors. Thunderbolt 3 also supports more protocols than any other I/O controller, making it compatible with virtually any dock, device or display.

Intel expects initial products with Thunderbolt 3 to start shipping before the end of this year, and ramp up in 2016. Thunderbolt 3 is rumored to launch alongside Intel's next-generation Skylake chips, succeeding the Broadwell line, later this year, and the new spec could theoretically be included in Skylake-based Macs that could possibly be released in late 2015. Refreshed Macs would likely gain USB-C ports integrated with Thunderbolt 3 as an all-in-one solution.

Apple today updated the Apple TV to re-add the Events Channel, where the company plans to broadcast the Worldwide Developers Conference keynote on Monday, June 8. "Tune in at 10:00 AM (Local Time) on June 8 to watch this event live," reads the channel.

Apple has not yet updated its Events website, but it's likely the company will provide a live stream of the keynote on the website for users who are using Macs and iOS devices. As always, MacRumors will also provide live coverage of the event both on MacRumors.com and through the MacRumorsLive Twitter account.

This year's WWDC keynote event promises to be an exciting one, with Apple expected to debut a new streaming music service, a revamped version of iTunes Radio, an updated Apple TV set-top box, and iOS 9 and OS X 11. New features and updates to Apple Pay and HomeKit may also be announced, but as we learned earlier today, the company's much-rumored subscription television service will not make an appearance.

Update: Apple is now also advertising the live stream on its website.

Apple today updated its "Shot on iPhone 6" microsite to include a new video section, entitled "World Gallery in motion." The new section more heavily emphasizes the video taking capabilities of the iPhone 6, with a tagline that reads "The camera that changed photos does the same for video."

The Shot on iPhone 6 site previously featured a few videos captured with the iPhone 6, but the newly introduced video-specific gallery includes a total of six videos that are new. The short 15-second videos, also available on YouTube, cover subjects ranging from birds, dogs, and bugs to landscapes. All are set to accompanying music and end with the text "Shot on iPhone 6."

Several of the videos, including the one featured above, show off video-specific iPhone 6 features like slo-mo and timelapse, while others simply depict scenes with impressive colors and clarity. Like Apple's "Shot on iPhone 6" photos, the videos were shot by iPhone 6 users rather than professional videographers. Photos on Apple's site include information on what filters were added, but these videos do not include details on software used for editing or changes made to coloration.