Tapo the sub-brand of TP-Link has recently announced the forthcoming launch of a smart IR blaster, as part of their slowly expanding range of Matter devices. Matter is the only standard that supports IR control within Apple Home aside from dedicated AC controllers, so this will allow other IR -controlled products to be exposed to Apple Home, albeit in a basic way.
This is not anything new in many ways, as Japanese company Nature makes a range of blasters that can control IR devices in your home. Two of these also support Matter, with the most recent one being the Nano Remo Lapis (video below).
However, as Tapo already has a small but growing catalogue of smart devices that now support Matter, the new H110 will be able to work alongside them, either in Apple Home, or in a more integrated way, via the Tapo app. What makes the H110 potentially stick out (in a good way), is that alongside IR, it can also control other Tapo devices that use Sub-1GHz radio communication, which includes their sensors, for example.
As the H110 uses IR, it will allow you to control other devices that comes with an IR remote, which includes common items like AC units, standing fans, TVs, and even some air quality devices, like humidifiers.
Currently the Taco H110 is available for pre-order, but only on Amazon Japan, with an expected shipping date of November 22nd. Whether you’re able to order it for export almost certainly depends on where it’s shipping to, but the list price at the time of writing is ¥3980, which converts to roughly US$26 / UK£20 / EU€24, which is pretty competitively priced. However, the Tapo Japanese website doesn’t seem to state how many devices it can control that will be exposed to Matter. The Nature Remo Nano is limited to three devices, whilst the Remo Lapis can control 20 devices via Matter, so it’ll be interesting to see if the H110 can at least improve on the three device limit of the Remo Nano.
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