(Photo: Jeff Chiu, AP)

SAN FRANCISCO — A handful of connected-home devices tethered to Apple's HomeKit communication platform are rolling out Tuesday, just days before the tech company's big developers conference here next week.

HomeKit allows Internet of Things devices such as thermostats and light switches to be controlled manually — or through voice activation via Siri — by means of an app on an iPhone, iPad or even Apple Watch.

HomeKit was introduced with great fanfare last year, and is a competitor to Google's growing selection of connected products anchored to its acquisition of Nest.

The first five companies to launch HomeKit-enabled products include Lutron, iHome and Ecobee, maker, respectively, of lighting and shade controls, smart plugs and thermostats. Another gadget, Elgato's Eve, captures and relays information about a home's air quality, temperature and energy consumption. And Insteon's Hub aims to serve as a brain monitoring everything from climate control to garage doors.

"We were looking into (making connected products) when Apple announced HomeKit, and given their similar commitment to providing a great customer experience we decided to go this route," says Matt Swatsky, Lutron's director of product management, who says for the moment only the company's Caseta product will be HomeKit compatible.

Swatsky adds that the year-long gap between the announcement and product launch was due to "hardware changes that were needed, as well as new software."

Apple is expected to announce more such HomeKit-connected products at its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco on June 8.

Light-switch maker Lutron is among the first companies to make Apple HomeKit-enabled devices available to consumers. (Photo: Lutron)

The Internet of Things is a hot topic for tech companies and developers alike, with some 25 billion devices expected to be connected by 2020, according to Gartner. Obstacles to IoT's rapid adoption include the ongoing debate about communication protocols, or what technical language these objects will use to communicate with each other seamlessly.

At a recent connected-home conference in Silicon Valley, Nest executive Mike Soucie suggested that tomorrow's home will leapfrog that of the futuristic cartoon family, the Jetsons, by virtue of our machines' ability to intuitively know what we want them to do, as opposed to being directed by remote controls.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/06/02/apple-homekit-enabled-connected-home-products-roll-out/28359313/