Episode 6: Who will make the smart home mainstream? Comcast, Amazon or Apple?

Kevin and I both got what we wanted this week, with Kevin getting his Apple Watch about an hour before we recorded the show and Amazon adding support for If This Then That for the Echo speaker/personal assistant device. However both long-awaited dreams had a few caveats as we explored this week on the show, with Kevin discussing the learning curve of the Apple Watch and me laying out a big limitation with the Amazon Echo’s IFTTT triggers. You can’t really use it for controlling your smart home just yet.

The Leeo night light. One of the new devices that will work with Comcast’s Xfinity Home (credit: Leeo).

We also had a fair bit of news this week. Comcast opened up its Xfinity Home platform to devices from some great startups such as Nest, August Locks, Rachio connected sprinklers, Skybell, Lutron and more. It was so exciting I sang a little ditty about the smart home going mainstream! Prepare yourself. With LIGHTFAIR International happening in New York this week, we also discussed lighting news from GE, plus WeMo working with the cheaper Cree connected LEDs and coming back to IFTTT. We didn’t have a guest this week because I need a little time to get my iTunes and editing house in order, but we should be back in top form next week, on iTunes and even with intro music!

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Download the MP3 file for this week’s show here.

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel

• Does Kevin love his Apple Watch? How’s the call quality?
• Amazon Alexa gets an IFTTT channel, with a big caveat
• Comcast adds products from Nest, August and more to its Xfinity Home smart home platform .
• Cool LED news from a startup called Ketra, WeMo and GE Lighting and Apple HomeKit

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