Use your Apple Watch to garden with GreenIQ
GreenIQ's hub will bring sprinkler control to your wrist through IFTTT.
As of today, you can turn your sprinklers on or off by pressing a button on your wrist. The GreenIQ Smart Garden Hub already had a wide range of interoperability, as it could control your sprinklers and talk to your connected plant sensors and weather monitors . Starting today, via Internet rule maker IFTTT and its DO app, you can control your garden from your Apple Watch , or any Android Wear device.
The $250 hub from Israeli startup GreenIQ replaces your existing sprinkler controller and helps you schedule when to water based on the weather. The IFTTT channel, allowing you to form rules for GreenIQ such as "when my phone senses I get home, turn on the sprinklers" had been announced and in the works since the product went on sale this spring. Today, as GreenIQ's IFTTT channel launches, it'll get the increased functionality offered by IFTTT's Do app , giving you single button controls on your wrist.
You can also set up rules based on other IFTTT devices such as "When my Parrott Flower Power senses my plants are dry, turn on the sprinklers." GreenIQ can communicate with the Koubachi Wi-Fi Plant Sensor and the Netatmo Urban Weather Station as well. Once you set up your rules, it might know better than you do about when it's time to water.
Flipping on your sprinklers with your wearable might be more for showing off, and in the demo video, you still have to open the Do app on your Apple Watch, then press the button and wait for the signal to reach your hub. It won't quite be instant gratification with a single push, but it'll be pretty close.
The GreenIQ can also control up to six zones, and you can customize your Do button to only turn on the zones you want. GreenIQ gains a leg up on its competitors in coolness since you can control it from your Apple Watch and Android Wearable. Since Rachio Iro also has an IFTTT channel, it might not be far behind -- if at all -- in terms of practical interoperability. Though I'm still excited to try out GreenIQ and use my wearable to turn on my sprinklers.