Homey just made the smart home controller I hoped Apple would build

Homey’s new tactile touchscreen controller has a rotary dial for controlling lights, climate, music and more. Smart homes have gotten really good at making things really complicated. Turning on a light can involve multiple steps, compared to just flipping a switch. Homey, the Dutch-based smart home platform owned by LG , thinks it has a solution. This week it launched the Homey Portal, a touchscreen smart home controller that looks very promising, if very expensive. Preorders open today at an introductory price of $249/€249, with units shipping in December. A 2.8-inch round touchscreen device with a stainless steel dial, the Homey Portal can sit on a desk or mount to the wall and is powered by a USB-C cable. You tap the icons to control devices li … Read the full story at The Verge.