IKEA's smart blinds now work with Apple HomeKit

IKEA's smart blinds should be much easier to control if you live in an Apple-centric household. The home furnishing giant is now rolling out HomeKit support for its FYRTUR blinds, making them easy to control without either using the remote or relying on Google Assistant. You'll need a TRADFRI gateway for this to work, but it should otherwise be straightforward -- you can use Apple's Home app or Siri to open the blinds as much as you need. They can also tie into scenes, so you can fling your blinds wide open in the morning at the same time as you adjust your lights.

This could get expensive when you're looking at between $129 and $179 for each set of blinds, plus $35 for the gateway. It might be worthwhile if you're tired of fiddling with conventional blinds, however. And when there aren't that many HomeKit devices of any type, this could be a valuable addition if you want a smart home that doesn't rely on Alexa or Google Assistant for unified control.