They're more open than most electronics. They broadcast their capabilities and control URLs on the local network over UPnP. They don't have to be open to the in

They're more open than most electronics. They broadcast their capabilities and control URLs on the local network over UPnP. They don't have to be open to the internet to use them, just to get the firmware updates or use the mobile app from outside your LAN. You can talk to them directly from your code and people have written open source libraries encapsulating that.