News: US technology firm Honeywell has released a minimal smart thermostat that learns household routines, a rival to Nest's similar connected home product.

Honeywell's Lyric thermostat features bold, simple graphics on its buttonless touch-sensitive casing, and tracks the comings and goings of occupants to adjust the temperature of the home when necessary.

It incorporates a "geofencing" feature, which alerts the thermostat when the user comes within a certain range of the home via their smartphone location.

The thermostat can then turn on the heating and prepare the optimum temperature for when the user arrives back.

"With the Lyric thermostat's geofencing capability, my house returns to my preferred comfort setting when I'm within a few miles from home," said Honeywell president Beth Wozniak. "Quite simply, the Lyric thermostat offers me the ability to keep my life in tune – delivering comfort when I'm home and savings when I'm gone."

The technology factors in indoor and outdoor temperatures, humidity, and weather into its algorithms to predict and alter heating levels inside accordingly. "No other do-it-yourself Wi-Fi thermostat on the market today does that," according to the brand.

The thermostat can be controlled remotely using the Lyric app, compatible with Apple and Android operating systems.

A built-in proximity sensor turns on the display when the user approaches the device, showing current temperature and heating or cooling status.

The status is communicated using a light behind the circular gadget, which glows orange when heating, blue when cooling and green when in away or energy-saving mode.

Touch-sensitive surface allows users to check current and forecast weather conditions, or manually adjust the settings.

Lyric will be available to buy from August and is the first in a series of products to be announced by Honeywell, which is aiming to launch a family of internet-linked gadgets to create a connected home.

Rival brand Nest, which also produces a smart thermostat as well as a connected smoke alarm, was recently acquired by Google in a $3.2 billion deal.

Nest CEO Tony Fadell told Dezeen that he expects every electrical device in the home to be connected within 10 years - read the interview here.

Here's some more information from Honeywell:

Introducing Honeywell's Lyric Thermostat

The thermostat that recognises your family's busy lifestyle, heating and cooling your home based on smartphone location.

There's no such thing as a regular routine for today's busy families. No two days are alike and schedules change by the minute. Honeywell, the leader in managing home comfort and security for 125 years, is today launching the Lyric thermostat to put you back in control. The Lyric thermostat knows when you are coming and going, based on smartphone location, to deliver comfort when you're home and savings when you're away.

The Lyric thermostat is the first offering in a new family of innovative connected home products from Honeywell, the recognized category leader found in more than 150 million homes globally.

The Lyric thermostat is designed for how people really live today:

» Using the location of your smartphone, the geofencing feature automatically turns the Lyric thermostat into energy saving mode when a home is empty, and then senses when you are coming home and heats or cools the house to your preferred temperature.

» The Fine Tune feature factors indoor and outdoor temperature, humidity, and weather into its algorithm, enabling it to provide the most comfortable temperature for homeowners. No other do-it-yourself Wi-Fi thermostat on the market today does that.

"Most people don't have a predictable pattern to how they live their lives; why not have a thermostat that adjusts based on your real-time schedule?" says Beth Wozniak, president of Honeywell Environmental and Combustion Controls. "With the Lyric thermostat's geofencing capability, my house returns to my preferred comfort setting when I'm within a few miles from home. Quite simply, the Lyric thermostat offers me the ability to keep my life in tune – delivering comfort when I'm home and savings when I'm gone."

Beyond a smartphone, the temperature can be managed using Honeywell's familiar round dial control on the thermostat itself. With the Lyric app (available via the App Store on iTunes and Google Play), homeowners can adjust their home's temperature to life as it happens, wherever they are. When a homeowner walks up to the Lyric thermostat, a built-in proximity sensor signals the display to turn on and show current temperature and the home's heating or cooling status. A soft halo of light in orange (heating), blue (cooling), or green (away/energy savings) momentarily illuminates around the thermostat to indicate it is making temperature adjustments.

Additionally, touch-sensitive buttons flank the center display – one for accessing current and upcoming weather information, and one for setting back your temperature while you're away. The Lyric thermostat provides easy-to-understand alerts on when to change a filter, if and when your furnace needs servicing, and even help find a trusted service professional.

The gloss white finish and silver accents of the Lyric thermostat, along with its shallow depth and flush wall mount, add a contemporary appearance to any room. Beyond contemporary design and innovative functionality, it delivers the same reliable control and accuracy for which Honeywell is known since it introduced the iconic Round in 1953.

The Lyric thermostat is available now via professional heating and cooling contractors, and will be available at retail beginning in August 2014 for $279.