Latest news with #Homey
Time of India
20-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Homey targets 10,000 beds by 2027 with focus on inclusive co-living
Co-living startup Homey plans to operate over 10,000 beds by 2027 as it aims to add 5000 beds in the current financial year and another 5000 planned in FY27. With a primary focus on hybrid holistic living and value-based education, Homey currently operates over 1000 beds, with 120 more underway in East Delhi's Laxmi Nagar . An additional 2000 beds are set to be launched within the next six months. Company's business follow 70–30 model, which ensures inclusivity as 30% of beds are offered free to underprivileged tenants. In Delhi, Homey has entered into a partnership with Iskcon Dwarka for leasing rooms and setting up beds. 'Our aim is to create conscious co-living communities where young minds feel safe, supported, and inspired. As we expand into new cities and cross the 10,000-bed milestone, our focus remains clear: to make high-quality, affordable living easy and meaningful, especially for those who need it the most,' Homey CEO Madhukant Prabhu said. Alongside ISKCON, Homey has partnered with JIMS, Delhi University, APJ School of Management and multiple aviation institutes to provide community-based housing solutions. Through Iskcon Dwarka's network, Homey aims to reach out to migrant populations aged 18 and above, particularly those from underprivileged backgrounds, to provide accessible accommodation options. In a global context, initiatives like Common in the USA, The Collective in the UK, WeLive in the USA, and Quarters in Germany have paved the way for innovative co-living solutions. These companies offer shared housing options with a focus on community-building, affordability, and convenience for young professionals and students. Homey will debut in Ahmedabad within six months with 500 beds, followed by Pune, Hyderabad and Bengaluru later this year. Its future plans include entering Kota and other key educational hubs in the next 12–18 months.
Android Authority
05-06-2025
- Android Authority
My favorite smart home device has a cheaper version now, and I love it
Homey Pro Mini The Homey Pro Mini is less powerful than the regular Homey Pro, but don't let that deceive you. For most people — especially those just beginning their smart home journey — this has more than enough power and features to make its 50% cheaper price tag over the Pro an absolute steal. Unless you have deep pockets or feel limited by the lowered RAM count, there is no reason to go for the Homey Pro over the Homey Pro Mini. Let me be right up front: the Homey Pro (2023) is not only one of my favorite smart home devices, but one of my favorite devices, in general. In my life, very few tech products have had as profound an effect on my day-to-day existence. I'm saying this because I want you to understand my perspective towards the newest Homey-branded product: the Homey Pro Mini. The Homey Pro Mini is a pared-down version of the Homey Pro — think of them like a Pixel 9a and a Pixel 9 Pro XL, respectively. The Mini sacrifices many features of the Homey Pro in an effort to fix the biggest barrier to entry: pricing. I want to tell you all about what you're sacrificing by getting a Mini over the regular Pro. But, most importantly, I want to tell you why the Homey Pro Mini is now the perfect device to start a smart home — even more so than the standard Pro model. What even is a Homey? If this is the first time you're learning about Homey and Athom, the company behind it, I highly recommend reading my Homey Pro review from last year or watching my video review above. Very basically, though, a Homey device acts as a one-size-fits-all hub that lives at the center of your smart home — the one hub to rule them all. Those of you who have dabbled in smart home stuff will know how much of a mess it is. There are multiple protocols (Wi-Fi, Zigbee, Z-Wave, Infrared, etc.) that don't integrate well with one another, and thousands of brands that don't play nice with all the others. On top of this, some products need a specific hub to function, causing you to have multiple hubs all around your home, each one taking up space and an outlet. To make things even worse, each device family has its own app, making an already confusing experience even more cumbersome. A Homey device will act as the 'brain' of your smart home, making order out of the chaos that owning a smart home entails. Athom wants to organize this chaos with its Homey products. The Homey Pro, for example, supports every major smart home protocol. It connects with tens of thousands of devices across hundreds of manufacturers. Using its incredibly well-designed software, you can make a smart home that's actually smart, with one device connecting to and controlling everything through just one app. What's more, you can even do this all locally, giving you total control over your privacy and security. The most significant problem with the Homey Pro, though, is that it's costly, starting at $399. This is far too much money for someone just beginning their smart home journey. This is made all the more problematic when you learn that a person who has already created an extensive smart home network likely has jumped to Home Assistant, which acts similarly to the Homey ecosystem but requires you to create a custom hub using an always-on computer you either build or retrofit. This leaves the Homey Pro in the unenviable position of being incredibly good at what it does, but also difficult for me to recommend to its intended audience. The Homey Pro Mini, though, is here to pick up the users left behind by the Homey Pro. Homey Pro Mini vs Homey Pro: How is it different? C. Scott Brown / Android Authority The first and most obvious difference with the Homey Pro Mini is that it's smaller than the regular Homey Pro. The Mini is a squircle-shaped black puck that's about 50% more compact than the circular Homey Pro. For space-conscious smart home owners, this will be good news. Unfortunately, with that shrink in size, the Homey Pro Mini loses one of the best and most iconic aspects of the Homey Pro: its RGB lighting. I adore the light ring on my Homey Pro, so not seeing it on the Mini was disappointing. Not all the physical differences are a drawback, though. Despite its smaller size, the Homey Pro Mini has a built-in Ethernet port, something the regular Homey Pro inexplicably lacks. To hardwire a standard Homey Pro to your home network, you must buy an adapter, which Athom sells separately. However, this is unnecessary with the Homey Pro Mini, as you can easily connect it directly to your network with the Ethernet cable included in the box (or any other you own). The drawback here, though, is that the Homey Pro Mini doesn't support Wi-Fi like the Homey Pro. This might be confusing, so let me clarify. The Homey Pro Mini cannot connect to your home network through Wi-Fi, but once connected to that network with an Ethernet cable, it can control Wi-Fi-connected smart home devices. In addition to internet/cloud smart home products, Homey Pro Mini has radios for controlling Zigbee, Thread, and Matter devices. Out of the box, it will be able to control almost all your smart home objects that use those protocols. Unfortunately, this means it doesn't have radios for Z-Wave, Bluetooth, 433MHz, and Infrared, so if you have devices that rely on those protocols, the Homey Pro Mini will not be able to control them. Thankfully, you can add support for these radios by connecting the Mini with a Homey Bridge, which is sold separately for $69.99. Even if you buy a Homey Pro Mini and a Bridge, you'll still be spending a lot less than you would on a Homey Pro. For a significantly reduced price, the Homey Pro Mini cuts included RAM in half and removes a litany of connectivity protocols. As far as computing power is concerned, the Homey Pro and its Mini counterpart are similar. Both have the same 1.5GHz ARMv8 quad-core processor and 8GB of onboard, non-expandable storage. However, the Mini has 1GB of RAM — half as much as the regular Homey Pro. This will limit the number of apps you can run on a Homey Pro Mini. Within the Homey ecosystem, you use downloaded apps to control your smart home devices. These can be official apps (i.e., made in concert with the manufacturer) or community apps created by other Homey users. Either way, each app takes up storage space on your Homey and requires a certain amount of RAM to function as an always-on service. With the 1GB of RAM in the Homey Pro Mini, you can run about 20 apps comfortably. This is a far cry from the 60 or so apps you can run on a Homey Pro with 2GB of RAM. Although the Mini sounds anemic compared to the standard Pro, its limitations aren't as bad as it might seem. While 20 apps might not seem like a lot, it's probably plenty for most people. I am only running 15 apps on my Homey Pro, for example, and my smart home is pretty elaborate with around 50 connected devices, a dozen virtual devices, and a handful of always-on services. According to Athom, the average Homey user only has 14 apps installed, so a 20-app limit should be fine for most. Because the Homey Pro Mini lacks all these features, Athom dropped the price by 50% to $199. This is its greatest strength. How is it similar to the Homey Pro? C. Scott Brown / Android Authority The most important thing to remember when comparing these two devices is the name: Homey Pro Mini. The 'Pro' moniker is essential because that's what this product is. It is not a cloud-based Homey and will use the same apps as the 2023 Homey Pro. It's best to imagine the Homey Pro Mini as a Homey Pro but with some of its features removed — but it's still a Pro. Although it's a 'Mini,' don't forget that it's also a 'Pro.' Because of this, the experience using the Mini is remarkably similar to using the standard Pro model. The software is identical — in fact, the Homey app lists the Homey Pro Mini as a Homey Pro when it gets updates, so it literally is exactly the same (see photo above). That means you get access to all the Pro-level software features and do not need to pay any monthly fees. Also, assuming you have the appropriate devices for it, you can run your entire Homey smart home locally for enhanced privacy and security. C. Scott Brown / Android Authority The Homey Pro Mini also supports energy monitoring, standard Flows (Homey lingo for automation), Advanced Flows (using the desktop app only), and Homey Dashboards (similar to Home Assistant Dashboards; helpful in turning a tablet into a smart home control system). Essentially, anything a Homey Pro can do, the Homey Pro Mini can also do. The Homey Pro Mini supports all the software features present on a Homey Pro. This creates a new paradigm for buying a Homey. The only reason someone should fork over $400 for the Homey Pro now is that they are sure they will need more than 20 apps. The Homey Pro's support for Wi-Fi connectivity is a moot point because anyone serious enough to spend $400 on a smart home device will use Ethernet anyway. On the same note, the Homey Pro's wider selection of built-in connectivity protocols (Z-Wave, Bluetooth, 433MHz, etc.) can be easily replicated on the Mini by connecting one or more Homey Bridges. Connecting up to two Homey Bridges to a Homey Pro Mini is still cheaper than a Homey Pro by a not-insignificant $60. You could even buy a third Homey Bridge and still only be $10 over. Really, the products are now so similar that I don't think I would recommend the Homey Pro to anyone anymore. The Homey Pro Mini is now the best way to enter the Homey ecosystem. Homey Pro Mini review verdict: I recommend this over a Homey Pro C. Scott Brown / Android Authority If someone were to tell me they were starting a smart home from scratch, I would immediately start singing the praises of my Homey Pro ($399 at Amazon). I'd tell them how it makes things so much more straightforward, everything from initial setup to organization to automation. I'd tell them how much I love creating Flows and how my home has never been more useful and convenient. In the end, though, I'd tell them not to bother buying a Homey Pro — at least, not yet. The only reason I'd advise against this is the cost. For someone just starting out, $400 for a helpful but still inessential smart home product is untenable. How many initial smart home users will buy a few smart lights and then stop there? How many will try to automate their home, get frustrated, and give up? There are so many reasons why someone would dabble in smart home technology and never use or need anything that a Homey Pro offers. The Homey Pro costing $400 makes it very difficult to recommend. But most of the same features for $200? That's a much better deal. Ah, but a $200 device that does mostly the same things? That's much more reasonable. It's still a lot for what is ostensibly a Raspberry Pi in an Apple TV-shaped box, but it isn't nearly as difficult to swallow as its $400 counterpart. If someone is new to smart homes but is reasonably sure they will be very into it, the Homey Pro Mini is a great start. C. Scott Brown / Android Authority I would also recommend the Homey Pro Mini to smart home veterans. As I mentioned earlier, most people who have established a smart home are already neck-deep in the Home Assistant ecosystem. For them, there's nothing a Homey Pro offers that they can't already do on their own for much less cash. However, someone just about to dive into Home Assistant might find Homey's software easier to use (because it very much is), and not needing to build anything has a certain appeal as well. I've used both Home Assistant and Homey, and I would happily go for the latter over the former any day. Really, the only people I would suggest the Homey Pro to now are those who have money to burn. In the future, I'd also recommend the Pro to people who own the Mini and are starting to find its limitations difficult. For everyone else, though, the Homey Pro Mini is more than adequate. After testing out the Homey Pro Mini, the only reason I won't permanently add it to my smart home is that Athom already sent me the Homey Pro. There's no reason to have both, so I'll stick with the one that allows for up to 60 apps and has RGB lighting. If I were shopping for a Homey, though, the Homey Pro Mini would be the version I would buy. Homey Pro Mini Supports all Homey Pro software features • Compact size • Built-in Ethernet port • Very competitive price MSRP: $199.99 Nearly all the Homey Pro features in a Mini body with a Mini price The Homey Pro Mini is physically smaller than the Homey Pro, has less RAM, and supports fewer smart home protocols. In exchange, it is 50% cheaper than the regular Pro model, making it an ideal starter device for smart home beginners. See price at Amazon Positives Supports all Homey Pro software features Supports all Homey Pro software features Compact size Compact size Built-in Ethernet port Built-in Ethernet port Very competitive price Cons Half as much RAM as regular Pro Half as much RAM as regular Pro Lacks support for some smart home protocols Lacks support for some smart home protocols Must connect to network with Ethernet
Black America Web
30-05-2025
- Health
- Black America Web
The Uncomfortable Realities Of Middle-Aged Black Manhood
Source: Riska / Getty Welcome to the other side of 40, fellas. We made it. Not necessarily intact, not exactly thriving, but here we are. Still standing, still stubborn, still trying to figure out if our cholesterol numbers are good or just 'good for now.' Middle-aged Black manhood is an oxymoronic state. One foot planted in the land of group chats, salt-and-pepper beards, and Spotify playlists curated for grilling meat. The other foot? Knee-deep in unresolved trauma, aching joints, and a drawer full of receipts you swore you didn't need to keep. And let's not even talk about the vitamin collection on your bathroom sink. If your medicine cabinet looks like the supplement aisle at CVS, congratulations, you're officially on the other side. But this milestone, this strange liminal space between youth and elderhood, is where it gets real. For Black men, it comes with unique hazards, both hilarious and haunting. It also comes with a choice: Do we keep playing the game the way we always have? Or do we start making different moves, not just for ourselves, but for the people coming up behind us? Let's start with the first hard truth: Some problems can't be solved. We were taught to fix things. Broken faucet? Fix it. Car making that weird noise again? Fix it. Relationship in shambles? Fix it. Can't fix it? Blame yourself. But some things can't be solved. Some things need to be accepted. Others need to be mourned. And the hardest part? Some problems need to be handed off to someone else who actually knows what they're doing. Accepting that doesn't make you weak. It makes you wise. And at this age, wisdom is better than pride. Pride can get you jammed up. Wisdom gets you home. Go to therapy, Homey. Let's be honest: if you're a Black man in your 40s, you've survived some wild times. You remember D.A.R.E. shirts, stop-and-frisk, the rise and fall of Roc-A-Fella Records, and that one summer when everyone wore tall tees like they were clergy robes. We've got stories. We've got trauma. And many of us have spent years stuffing those experiences into an emotional junk drawer that's now overflowing. Therapy isn't weakness. It's maintenance. You're not trying to rebuild the whole car; you're just making sure it still runs. You don't want to be 60 still haunted by what a 20-year-old you never got resolved within himself. Hair is a blessing. If you're still visiting your barber on the regular and not just out of nostalgia, you're among the chosen. Treat that man like the sacred elder he is. Tip him. Bring him coffee. Because if he's still making your line-up crisp, he's doing God's work. Your circle will shrink. This is the decade where people start to drift. Not always because of drama (though there's always a little of that), but because life pulls us in different directions. Some of your boys will become unrecognizable versions of themselves. Others will simply ghost. And a few… well, they won't be here anymore. What remains is something deeper. Fewer people, but stronger ties. Folks you can call when life punches you in the face. People who understand your silences. These are your real ones. Cherish them. Quiet beats being right. You learn real quick that being right ain't always worth it. Sometimes silence is the win. The peace that comes from letting something go, not because you're wrong, but because you're wise enough to know the argument ain't worth the headache, is the real flex. Let the group chat fight over LeBron vs. Jordan. You've got a lawn to water and a 401(k) to understand. Your jeans are cooked. We need to talk. Your jeans? They're not 'cool' anymore. Either they're too skinny, too baggy, or too washed. Denim no longer loves you the way it used to. Accept it. Invest in a pair that respects your knees and doesn't offend the youth. You don't need to be trendy, but you also don't want to look like you time-traveled from a 2004 G-Unit mixtape release party. Dairy is the ops. Let's just say it: ice cream is not your friend. Mac and cheese? Delicious betrayal. That triple-cheese pizza? That's a 3 a.m. intestinal apocalypse waiting to happen. We once feared lactose for what it did to others . Now it comes for us. This is war. Choose your battles. Know the locations of all nearby restrooms. Regrets are easier to carry than denial. You've made mistakes. Wasted money. Fumbled love. Messed up good things. You could spend years pretending none of it happened, or you could own it, learn from it, and try not to fumble the next good thing that comes your way. Regret doesn't have to be a weight. It can be a compass. Hydration is life. Water is your new best friend. Gone are the days of chugging Gatorade and Red Bull like they were potions of youth. Your kidneys deserve better. Your prostate demands respect. Hydrate or suffer. You're planning for a future you may not see. This one is the uncomfortable reality. You start thinking about what happens after you. You open that high-yield savings account. You Google 'best life insurance for dads.' You ask yourself questions like, 'If something happened to me, would my people be okay?' Because now it's not just about you. It's about the ones you love, the ones you mentor, and the ones who'll walk the paths you help pave. This is legacy season. Plan accordingly. Middle-aged Black manhood isn't a crisis. It's a crossroads. Yes, your back hurts for no reason. And yes, you might still be chasing dreams that feel further than they used to. But now you know what matters. You've lived enough to stop performing and start being. So make better decisions. Drink more water. Call your people. Make that therapy appointment. Save that money. Embrace your softness without sacrificing your strength. And build a life that makes the younger version of you proud and the older version of you peaceful. You made it to halftime. Now let's finish strong. SEE ALSO: This Was Supposed To Be A Review Of 'Forever,' But It's Not Dear Old Morehouse: Can We Not With Cornel West? SEE ALSO The Uncomfortable Realities Of Middle-Aged Black Manhood was originally published on Black America Web Featured Video CLOSE
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New Homey app helps simplify affordable housing lottery application
NEW YORK (PIX11) — Two men set out on a mission to make applying for affordable housing easier for New Yorkers. Co-founders Wout Stienaers and Piet Goris launched the app Homey in March to shorten and simplify the process for applying for New York City housing lotteries. More Local News 'Homey is sort of like a translator in between our users and then the housing connect system,' said Stienaers in an interview with PIX11 News. App users create a profile and answer questions based on those asked by NYC Housing Connect. Homey focuses on asking the questions most needed to assess someone's eligibility for the lottery and eliminates some of the more detailed questions about things like one's assets. More: Latest News from Around the Tri-State After a Homey profile is created, a mirror profile is created on NYC Housing Connect using the information from the app. Users will then get alerts for any housing lotteries they're eligible for and can have Homey apply on their behalf. Applicants can continue to track their submissions and get real-time updates on their lotteries through the Homey app. How to apply for affordable housing in NYC 'We get all the emails and all the information from Housing Connect, we translate that to our users, and then we translate the input from our users to Housing Connect, and that way it makes it way easier for the users to actually use the system,' Stienaers said. The co-founder says the idea came from his own experience of trying to navigate NYC Housing Connect to apply for affordable housing. He's now working on adding new features to apply for Section 8 and housing vouchers. 'New Yorkers are busy. Between work, family, and life, they don't have time to constantly monitor new lotteries or deal with confusing paperwork,' said Stienaers. The Homey app is one of the recent services aimed at making affordable housing easier to obtain for New Yorkers. The NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development has recently launched a new website that makes it easier to find affordable housing rentals after a previous lottery winner has moved out. Dominique Jack is a digital content producer from Brooklyn with more than five years of experience covering news. She joined PIX11 in 2024. More of her work can be found here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Time Out
01-05-2025
- Business
- Time Out
This useful new app automatically applies for affordable housing units that you qualify for
If you've ever tried applying for New York City's affordable housing lottery and ended up rage-scrolling rental listings instead, you're not alone. A few months ago, Wout Stienaers decided to give the Housing Connect portal a try. 'I figured it'd take, what, 30 minutes?' Stienaers wrote on LinkedIn while chronicling his experience. 'Instead, I ended up drowning in forms, wondering whether it's even worth it to try finishing the application process.' That frustration led to Homey, a new mobile app that cuts through the red tape and actually helps New Yorkers apply for the affordable housing units they qualify for. Think of it like TurboTax, but for the housing lottery—and about 90% less painful. Unlike Housing Connect, which was designed for desktop (despite nearly a quarter of NYC households lacking one), Homey is mobile-first. It takes about seven minutes to set up a profile, skipping the redundant and privacy-invading questions that bog down the official site. Instead of listing every financial account in your household, you just confirm that your total assets fall under the limit, with a built-in safety buffer to protect your eligibility. But the best part? Homey automatically applies to all the lotteries you qualify for—no need to check back constantly, sift through fine print or risk missing deadlines. The app inputs your information into the Housing Connect system and tracks your application status in one place. And yes, it's already helping.
