August Smart Lock Reviews - Not so Smart II

We have mentioned about the August Smart lock numerous times over the last couple of years and finally have found a number of reviews about this product that we feel important to share.

Some of the reviews below are from multiple countries and experiences and may not be an accurate portrayal of the product, however often online reviews are helpful to convince a would be purchaser that they are making the correct decision about a product or service.


These first set of reviews are sourced from the Apple App Store. There are multiple pages of reviews there. We are including a selection from the first page... (click on the link above to read more)

The impetus here is not to denigrate the product offering, but more to provide our readers with more information about the product to assist with their personal research.

(reviews after the jump)

Breaking News - August Lock Acquired By Assa-Abloy

Breaking News:

August Lock Co. acquired by Assa-Abloy.

In a shake up of the lock manufacturing industry, reports are surfacing about the August Lock Company being sold to the worlds largest lock product manufacturer Assa-Abloy.

The sum of purchase is as yet undisclosed and the expectation is that regulatory approval will happen before the end of the year.

The August company launched in August 2013 after a crowdfunded campaign by it's inventor Yves Behar. The company led by CEO Jason Johnson will continue to operate independently until fully absorbed by the Assa-Abloy behemoth.

Yale, one of Assa-Abloy's oldest purchases and the company who first patented the modern pin tumbler lock system back in 1865, have also manufactured some high quality, yet competitive priced "smart" lock products in recent years. Many of their offerings are fairly reasonable quality and we like to recommend their products for their longevity, ease of use and aesthetically pleasing properties.

August modified their product offerings in the last couple of years, adding complimentary products to their initial door lock line up.

August were one on the first in a large group of crowdfunded inventors, to go to market with their door lock. Initial bumps appeared, as is common with many electronic products today, but they seem to have dealt with the issues along the way, professionally and quickly. That is a sign of an engaged operation, passionate about their offerings and concerned with the customer experience.

Many of the other large lock product manufacturers have released wireless electronic lock products to compete in this continually expanding market and we expect to see a number of additional startups get swallowed by the major industry players, before long.

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August Lock - Now Operable With Google Home Smart Speaker

News: August Lock, the infamous Smart Lock company recently purchased by Lock and Door Hardware Manufacturing behemoth Assa-Abloy, have just announced the integration of Google Home Smart Speaker to the products functionality.

This integration, allows would-be users of the sensational Google Home Smart Speaker and users of the August Lock Smart Deadbolt actuator, to lock, unlock and determine the locking/unlocking state of their August Lock product.

The integration of many Smart Home products, including door locks, thermostats, even alarm systems to function using a users voice commands, as opposed to the conventional keypad code or mechanical key operated switches, that control many of today's Smart Home products.

The unique look of the Smart Home lock activator, has certainly increased interest and usability of modern day lock activation systems and added a much desired component to home owners, dwellers and office patrons.

This new addition to the August Lock operating system, allows users to add Google Home voice controlled operations to the Smart Home products, fundamentally changing how our homes and controlled security and access products operate.

The source below, explains how to add the functionality to your Google Home product.

It adds desired functionality to the continually expanding range of products that can be integrated with Google Home.

While we still argue that some Smart Home products do not adequately protect your dwelling from unauthorised use, we believe that the use of voice-controlled "switches", should be considered a progressive forward step in modernizing our homes and offices. Arguably, voice controlled products will see the Keyless Market continue to expand and make all our lives simpler.

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August Lock - A New Bluetooth Key System

This is the August Lock Adaptor. It is a product similar in concept to the Lockitron product we have mentioned before here.

This classy looking gadget works similarly to the Lockitron product, using Bluetooth to pair with your selected mobile handset.

This is an add on product that installs to the inside of your existing deadbolt lock. It offers convenient keyless access to your entry. It is designed to work with many existing brands of single cylinder deadbolt locks.

Similar to the much touted Lockitron product (which is currently 6 months overdue for release), you simply replace the inside turn button with the August Bluetooth adaptor. The product works just like your existing turnbutton.

Here you can see a depiction of what it will look like on the inside of your door.

Once programmed, you can invite selected users to use their personal phone to access your door. No more handing out keys or worrying about surreptitious duplication.

The product uses a proximity sensor to detect an authorised user's presence and automatically unlocks the lock.

It is important to remember that this is only designed for the deadbolt. many people also use a locking handle or knob on their entry doors. If you do use a locking knob, the August product becomes irrelevant.

Realistically, locking knobs are not a secure product anyway and often the only real security you have on your door is through the use of a deadbolt lock.

While the merits of keyless entry are obvious, I think that many people will forget to lock the door as they exit, leaving your property unsecured.

Other features of this product include notifications (logs) of entry and exit that you can view on your computer or mobile phone.

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Apple Withdraws August And Kevo Smart Locks From Its Shelves

According to an article in Techhive, a tech industry online magazine, Apple have pulled the popular August and Kwikset Kevo Smart Locks from their stores.

Apparently Apple have decided to only include products that adhere to their chosen HomeKit Smartphone platform.

While this may be interesting news for Apple iPhone users and existing owners of August and Kevo products, I think it is not surprising.

Apple is a forward thinking tech giant that offers premium quality products at premium prices and aligning themselves with cheap stuff doesnt really seem an appropriate fit for America's leading company.

We have posted articles about the August Smart Lock and also the Kwikset Kevo in the recent past and we continue to remain totally unimpressed by the products.

There is no doubt that electronics embedded in door locks is here to stay. But the quality of door lock, you choose to have on your home or office can say much about you. Choose wisely.

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BlueBorne - A New Attack That Exposes Almost Every Bluetooth Connected Device

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***BREAKING NEWS***

The Attack Vector “BlueBorne” Exposes Almost Every Connected Device

If there were not enough cyber attacking to worry about...


Check out this current threat to anyone who uses Bluetooth on their devices.

Recently exposed and alerted to Apple, Google and Microsoft in August, a recent threat to virtually all devices has been issued.

If there were any more reason to stick with mechanical high security lock systems, what are they?
Many locks today are Bluetooth controlled too. Mechanical key locks, like Bilock Extreme Security restricted key systems are maintenance free and virtually pick proof, are 100% bump proof and virtually improbable to duplicate the color coded keys

If you currently use a connected device, you may want to disconnect the Bluetooth functionality until the new patches have been sent over the air.

Here are some excerpts from our discovery....

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August Smart Lock - Not So Smart

End of May last year we wrote an article about the August Smartlock that has seen a great many pageviews.

I just came across an article in The New York Times written by an author who has been using their August lock for a little while and found some difficulties.

In the article the author suggests that people dont really need to invest sometimes hundreds of dollars for a battery powered door lock that has obvious shortcomings like battery life, proximity issues and no wifi connectivity. Without explaining the pro's of keyless entry systems, he has more or less tossed many of the current crop of similar gadgets on to the waste pile as not as secure or convenient as one might have expected.

He did explain the obvious benefits of the product, easy to install, giving temporary key access to friends or strangers etc.

And the product, similar to the Lockitron in it's intended use, does look good.

Reading through many of the comments to the article, shows that many people are looking for another kind or style of product instead.

Coming Soon - Auto-Magnetic Latching Lock with wireless release option!

View the New York Times article in the source below.

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Latch - $37 Million In Startup Funding Realizes Contract With AirBnB

An interesting article I read today has sparked my curiosity thanks to the well written, spelled and grammatically correct piece by it's author, Cliff Kuang.

The article tells a story about Luke Schoenfelder, a former Apple junior policy wonk working in their Washington DC office.

Apparently Luke decided, about 4 years ago, to get involved with a startup that was aiming to enter the already crowded IoT (Internet of Things)  Smart-Lock market with an especially new designed product by talented designer, Thomas Meyerhoffer called Latch.

Luke's upbringing from a large and old farm in Pennsylvania where he was reared, motivated him to become somewhat of an infrastructure geek, as he describes himself. The article goes on to tell about his early years and why he decided to get into the Smart-Lock business. You can read more about Luke and his involvement in Latch in the source article.

There are many options today in the current consumer marketplace, offering interesting and useful attributes that are self contained in Smart-Lock products. When people think about Smart-Locks, often they might know about the August Smart-Lock product, which has been heavily marketed over the last few years and especially exciting is the recent news about August being acquired by lock industry behemoth Assa-Abloy. You can read an article we wrote recently about that here.

Luke and Thomas teamed up to produce and market the product known as Latch. The video at the top of this page was made a little over two years ago and adequately shows the concept. Thomas Meyerhoffer is reknowned as another technology engineer who worked alongside Johnny Ive, the talented design engineer for Apple and influential in many Apple products, including the iPhone, Mac and Apple TV products.

What is Latch?

Crime Statistics - O'Fallon, Missouri August 14-28 2011

Here is a mudmap of the crime statistics reported by the O'Fallon Police Department for the 14 days August 14 - 28, 2011.

We found 54 incidents for this time period.

There are multiple different incident layers to choose from displaying incidents, we choose to look at Breaking and Enterings, Theft, Vehicle Theft, Robbery, Alarms, Commercial & Residential Property Crimes and Community Policings.

Break & Enter - 6

Community Policing - 1

Commercial & Residential Property Crimes - 10

Robbery - 1

Theft - 30

Theft From Vehicle - 6

These records are for only a 2 week period, but they do indicate an escalating crime rate compared to other localities.

Whereas there are only 6 Break & Enter records, the Commercial and Residential Property Crimes and incidents of Theft could have occurred with no sign of forced entry. That could indicate possible inside access from dishonest keyholders. Do you know who has all your keys to your home or business? If not, wouldnt it be fair to want to restrict the quantity of keys floating around that could potentially get into your property?

Master Key Systems America LLC are securing American doors, one at a time. Our technicians are especially trained to provide services that enable property owners and tenants to feel secure by using premier quality products and services.

All estimates/quotations are FREE. Please call us to arrange a no obligation security assessment and estimate.

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ALOA National Convention 2010 Orlando FLA

The Associated Locksmiths Of America (ALOA) are holding their annual convention this year, August 1-8 at the Orange County Convention Center, Orlando Florida.

This is the 54th annual conference and security expo of the most widely known locksmith industry showcase. The trade exhibit's run August 5, 6 & 7.

ALOA are expecting significant attendance from across the country and around the world. Exhibitors from the leading security products manufacturing companies are all providing booths and show specials.

We intend to showcase some of the exhibitors with articles here. We hope you find these products and news interesting.

Post Revisited - August 20, 2007 Lock Bumping By Master Lock

A little over 11 years ago we posted the following article here in our blog.

Since then, a great many products have come and gone from the marketplace, claiming to be bump proof, bump resistant, pick proof, pick resistant etc.

Unfortunately, ensuing years have proven many of these claims to be untrue, except for the leading Australian designed Bilock Extreme Security, bump proof and virtually pick proof high security key and lock system, among few others including Abloy and in later years Multilock MT5.

The advent of many electronic lock products has not prevented many of them being vulnerable to bumping or picking and many customers still appear to be accepting the advice of untrained and unknowing sales assistants at leading big box hardware stores over the tried and true experience of the second oldest profession on Earth - Locksmiths. 


August 20, 2011

Latest Bumping Video from Master.







Bilock is the only fully 100% guaranteed bump proof pin tumbler lock cylinder available. Bilock has been available since 1980's with technology that is many years ahead of others.

Locks210.com is a proud Bilock Extreme Security exclusive dealer.


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Otto - Digital Door Lock Manufacturer Introduced In August 2017 - Closes Up Shop 5 Months Later

Breaking News: OTTO Closes Down.

Otto displayed their new entrant to the digital deadbolt market back in August 2017 with a great deal of hype.

The system purported to be a high quality top end system aimed at the residential home security market.

Promising features and high quality manufacturing priced the new product at the upper end of similar offerings.

The IoT (Internet of Things) industry has brought a great many new players into the market and industry in recent years and home security products purports to be a $20 Billion - $30 Billion dollar industry and constantly growing.

There are no end of new products coming to market to whet the appetites of consumers, each with varying product features and uses. WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC, Deadbolts, Door Handles etc all vying for a piece of the pie.

But to corner a part of the market requires some capital and longevity in an industry that is truly dominated by few worldwide corporations that essentially own the market. Assa-Abloy is well known as the worldwide leader in manufacturing of access control, locking systems, hardware for commercial and residential entry systems. They have many competing companies under their umbrella and are well known as a builder of high quality products. They have the resources to continue to offer many of the leading and most desired products in the industry, across the planet..

Otto have become the latest startup to fall victim to a crowded market. They were just in the process of finalizing a corporate takeover of their company, when the buyer pulled out.
The ensuing damage damned the fate of this Silicon Valley startup, before they could get their product out to the market. They now have a warehouse full of product unable to be sold and are facing complete shut down.

Smartphones To Open Doors For World's Biggest Lock Company As It Eyes Deal With Telcos

Assa Abloy is the world's largest lock manufacturing company.

Last year alone it made more than $300 million, across multiple different manufacturers.

There has been a continual, albeit modest push to introduce more and more electronic smartphone enabled lock systems across their diverse range of products. 

technology companies like Samsung, Apple and Google have been at the forefront of research and development of all things smartphone, ever since Google beat Apple to market with the first Android mobile operating system.

Many startups have entered the market, touting their own novel products aimed at the residential home security market.

Products like Lockitron, August Lock, Yale Real Living and Schlage or Kwikset Z wave, to name but a few.

The automobile industry has long used the transponder chip technology to better secure our cars and trucks, but the residential entry door market has lagged behind this disruptive technology, only due to the issue relating to electricity.

You see, the reason electronic technologies work on vehicles is because vehicles already use batteries to start, run and power vehicle systems.

Most doors in a dwelling are free standing and most often NOT connected to a power source. This has lead to a surge in the number of battery powered products, like the brands listed above, entering the market. The primary drawback with these products, is the need to constantly be replacing batteries on the units to maintain operability.

There are many dwellings that use electric strikes and hardwired electric lock systems, but that technology, even though it has been around for over 100 years, is expensive to install and consequently maintain.

The market is heating up and demanding better electronic technology for use in our homes, but there has been little productive solutions to the issue of the lack of power.

Whereas the market will continue to develop and no doubt grow, I just cannot conceivably fathom the perfect or best solution to this power predicament. When the power dilemma finally gets solved, perhaps electronic and smartphone technologies will provide a benefit to us home owners who dont want to spend the required arm and leg to hard wire our doors, when a totally mechanical, environmentally friendly, green mechanical key operated hardware solution continues to provide ultimate comparative security and convenience for our homes.

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Goji - Crowdfunded Wireless Smartphone Controlled Deadbolt Fails To Launch

I'm not sure if you have seen or know about the Goji Smart lock that was being crowdfunded via multiple separate crowdfunding sites in the last couple of years, but a report out a couple of days ago indicates that this particular product has failed to launch.

The Smart Lock market has been evolving for a number of years now and according to sources, is expected to rise from the current fledgling $8 Billion market to $120 Billion by 2025.

There are a number of entrants that have evolved in recent years and we have written about a few of them. Products like the August Smartlock, the Lockitron and others. We have found that many of these "new breed" of stand alone wireless smart locks are being developed by entrepeneurs who lack industry knowledge, experience and longevity.

The large industry players like Assa-Abloy, Yale, Schlage, Kwikset, Master and others who have been in the security product manufacturing industry for a great many years, are also firmly entrenched in the Smart Lock market. But the difference between these industry stalwarts and the current breed of new entrepeneurs has much to do with their successes developed over many years of R&D, interaction with their customers and tried and proven manufacturing practises that continue to produce the high-quality requested by the consumer driven market.

Goji, obviously was seen to have merit and raised about $800,000.00 through multiple crowdfunding sites including Indiegogo and Fundable.

This news is not surprising really. there are many entrants to the smart lock market that appear to not have done their due diligence and market feasibility studies prior to launch. Goji had developed a promising looking product that operated with Android and iOS operating systems, but I suggest that the actual integration of these sophisticated smart phone operating systems proved too much for the Goji team to master.

Goji CEO Gabriel Bestard-Ribas is quoted in a letter written earlier this week,

Smartlocks - New Generation Lock Products Need Mechanical Backups

Smartlocks appear to be all the rage today. We have written about many different offerings that have come about in the last few years including August, Goji, Lockitron, Yale and others.

Many of these "startups", have sought funding through crowd-funding campaigns and few have successfully released to the market.

An article we read today explains about the lack of foresight from many of these "new-age" manufacturers. Specifically, the deliberate removal of mechanical override cylinders from offerings. Mechanical override is a vital component in intelligent smart locks because, if the batteries are flat or there is a weather related malfunction or other issue, NOT getting locked out would seem to be an integral backup plan, no?

Customers across the marketplace are quickly understanding and appreciating the benefits of smart locks but may seem to be returning in droves to the old and time tested mechanical security options that have proven to maintain reliability.

I have installed multiple wireless access control deadbolts for particular customers over the last few years and I have always strongly recommended a mechanical key override, just in case. Glad i did so too, especially with one particular customer who let their batteries run flat and resorted to just using the override key. (effectively defeating the purpose of the "smart" function)

In the source below, find the article i read. There, the author explains how his wife was locked out of their home due to a malfunctioning product. Now, she refuses to use the "smart" component and only uses her mechanical key.

The author also explains how the established industry manufacturers also realized the benefits of the mechanical override backup and include them deliberately with their offerings.

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Bold - Smart Cylinder Access Control Technology

Bold Security Technologies just recently released their own iteration of a smart lock. But this particular design is somewhat different.

Technologies like this have been around for a few years now, with industry leaders like Salto, already including a similar product in their vast range of high security mechanical and electro-mechanical access control systems.

The Bold is trying to secure crowdfunding thru Kickstarter and it may even come off, although at $129 per cylinder and only aimed at the (relatively small and already competitive) European market, it is a tad dear.

I think the premise has merits and the idea may even have legs, but competing in an already top-heavy market, with many of the established industry players including Assa-Abloy, Salto, Simmons-Voss and others already producing much broader ranges of smart cylinders that operate across more markets than just the Euro cylinder segment.

The market has seen a number of recent entrants, all vie for share, including August, Kevo, Lockitron to name a few.

One of our signature product lines Meroni, are knee-deep in R&D to bring their nouveau, modern style product line of unique door hardware into the "smart" family. Meroni are perfecting their recent auto-magnetic latch mechanism design, that already provides an almost silent and hidden latch mechanism, with a system that can be locked and unlocked by smart-devices (cell phone, proximity device, etc).

We are anticipating a release of late next year on the Meroni.

Top 20 Under 20 - St Louis Small Business Monthly Award

We are pleased to announce we recently were awarded by St Louis Small Business Monthly an award for being one of the regions top 20 businesses with under 20 employees. The following article appeared in the Creve Coeur Olivette Chamber of Commerce newsletter...

On August 19th Small Business Monthly held a luncheon to

recognize the area’s top entrepreneurs with fewer than 20

employees. Danny Gurvis from Master Key Systems America

was honored as one of the “Top 20 Under Twenty”. Reprinted

below, with permission, is an article written by Small Business

Monthly.

In July 2006, when Danny Gurvis was challenged by a

colleague at BiLock, a distributor of a high-tech security product

line, to work on a business plan and start his own company, he

took the challenge seriously. He spent six months writing the plan

for Master Key Systems America LLC, a residential and

commercial locksmith business, and by December was off and

running. "The first nine months were spent procuring machinery,

tools, equipment, inventory, developing a marketing plan, and

advertising, all on a shoestring budget," says Gurvis.

A native of Melbourne, Australia, Gurvis worked as an

apprentice in the locksmith industry, learning from the best and

mastering his trade. Today he has used his experience to train

two part-time employees and increase Master Key Systems’

revenue by around 500%. "From the humble beginnings of one

job each week, we are now attending to approximately three to

five job requests per day," he says. “Our inventory has certainly

grown, and we are installing biometric access control systems

and closed-circuit television systems. We are also installing key

control systems for banks, schools and office-based companies

seeking greater control of their inter- and intra-office mechanical

physical security systems."

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Search Engine Statistics For July 2011

Okay! here are the statistics from Google Analytics that indicate the top 10 popular search terms people used in search engines that lead them to this site, during July 2011.

Kwikset Smartkey Problems leads the field during July followed closely by Schlage Securekey Problems. However Schlage is mentioned 5 other times in the top 10.

The knowledge that Schlage has decided to discontinue their Securekey line omens well for consumers. No more trash can quality product will spell a more content marketplace.

Nearly 2000 searches in July with a bounce rate of 72% indicates that many people are finding suitable answers to their search queries here.

We have noticed a slight uptick in projects completed in July and August has proved stellar too.

We put this down to consumers becoming more savvy in their searching and realizing that we at Locks210.com can actually complete their requested projects in more timely and cost effective methods than many of our competitors.

Hacker Beats The Worlds Most Prolific Hotel Room Door Lock

We found out about this exploit, about a month ago but were reluctant to post about it here because the company had not been informed of the fault in their product that allowed this simple hack to occur. We have since heard that Onity have produced a fix for the locks, however existing lock owners are required to purchase and install complete new hardware.

Cody Brocious estimates there are 4 million Onity HT locks worldwide

By James Holloway

What's the password?

If, during your next hotel stay, you're met with a lock on your door like that pictured above, it's time for a conversation with management. This is an Onity HT series lock. Cody Brocious claims that the company has sold 10 million of its various locks to hoteliers, accounting for half of all locks worldwide, and appearing in one in three hotels. Described by Onity as its "flagship product," the HT series lock is its big seller: Brocious reckons there are 4 million HT series locks out there. Why does this matter? It matters because on July 24, Brocious took to the stage at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas to demonstrate how to unlock one in a matter of milliseconds using gear you and I can buy off the shelf from Radioshack for under 50 bucks.

The problem is this. Each HT series lock includes a DC charger port on its underside. This is used by hotel staff not only to recharge the lock's batteries, but also to program the lock with the hotel's unique 32-bit sitecode. With a self-programmed Arduino board, a 5.6 k pull-up resistor, and a DC connector, you have the gear you need to talk to the lock. Obviously it's not as simple as sending an "Open Sesame" message to the lock—not quite, anyway. For that you'd need to know the 32-bit sitecode. How do you get the sitecode? Turns out you just ask the lock for it.

"Given an address, the lock will send back 16 bytes of memory from that point," Brocious explained on a slide from his July 24 presentation, entitledMy Arduino Can Beat Up Your Hotel Room Lock. And it transpires the the sitecode is stored at the same memory address on every single lock. No authentication is required to retrieve it. Bewilderingly, unlocking the door is as simple as feeding the sitecode back to the lock. Once your home-brew device is connected, Brocious claims the whole process of reading the memory to unlocking the door takes just 200 ms. Given access to spare key cards, the technique can also be used to program duplicate keys.

Bentley, Audi, Lamborghini, Porsche and other Automobile Brands Security Weakness Discovered - But Covered Up

Megamos Cryptology, the science behind the electronic security of transponders for most vehicle systems available worldwide and preferred by many of the larger automobile manufacturers, has been cracked.

Scientists from the University of Birmingham, had planned to release their new whitepaper at the Usenix Security Symposium in Washington DC in August until a last minute high court injunction by the UK.
Volkswagen, one of the world's largest automobile manufacturers and the principal litigant, claimed the scientific discovery's publication could severely impact the security of vehicles, including four of their luxury car brands, Porsche, Bentley, Audi and Lamborghini.

The scientists involved argued that the technology responsible for leading to their discovery, called "chip slicing", has been available on the internet since 2009. Essentially, chip slicing is like reverse engineering technology, which has been used for many years by countries that do not respect patent laws, to build often cheaper, inferior versions of electronic gadgets and sell to the wider markets.

The argument, the scientists put forward, that insider knowledge (industry and criminal) of the methods to determine a vehicles security weakness should be tabled to potential buyers and current owners of automobiles, was dismissed by the High Court, who sided with Volkswagen. Mr Justice Birss said he recognized the scientists right to publish, but it will mean "that car crime will be facilitated".

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