Eve is kicking off CES 2022 with the launch of MotionBlinds, a product that could solve some of our biggest smart shade woes—namely speed. The company also announced its first Outdoor Cam, launching on April 5th with HomeKit Secure Video support.
Smart blinds are exactly what they sound like; motorized window shades that you control using schedules, apps, voice controls, and smart home routines. The concept behind smart blinds feels super futuristic, but in our experience, products like the IKEA smart blinds still feel a bit primitive. They can take fifteen or twenty seconds to respond to commands, which isn’t ideal for any smart home product!
But the Eve MotionBlinds support Thread, a fast networking protocol for smart homes. If you have other Thread devices in your home, such as a HomePod, then the MotionBlinds will receive commands faster than you can flip a light switch. In other words, Eve MotionBlinds should feel faster and more responsive than competing products, which is important, considering the high price of smart blinds.
In addition to Thread, the MotionBlinds are “Matter-ready.” That’s a fancy way of saying they won’t be HomeKit-exclusive when the Matter smart home standard launches later this year. Matter is a complicated thing, but the gist is that it allows all participating smart home products (from Google, Amazon, Apple, etc) to communicate with one another.
Eve has also announced its first Outdoor Cam, which costs $250 but features 1080p video, a 157-degree FOV, night vision, an integrated floodlight, two-way audio, and motion detection. Its the second outdoor security camera to support HomeKit Secure Video, a system that’s fully encrypted and doesn’t store video in iCloud.
The Eve MotionBlinds are available now starting around $400, though you need to purchase them through one of the company’s dealers. Eve says it will launch its Outdoor Cam on April 5th for $250.
Eve MotionBlinds
Eve’s MotionBlinds are the first Thread-enabled smart shades, meaning that they’ll respond to smart home controls a lot faster than the competition. MotionBlinds only support HomeKit, though they’re “Matter-ready” and will work with other smart home systems in the future.