The Internet of Things Podcast - Stacey On IoT

Elon Musk’s SpaceX satellite broadband company is getting into the IoT with the acquisition of Swarm, a smallsat IoT connectivity provider. We talk about that deal, plus what it means that Helium scored $111 million in funding led by Andreessen Horowitz. After that, we talk about malvertising infiltrating the IoT and the Samsung smartwatch that launched Wednesday. We also discuss the creation of a virtual border wall built with surveillance tech and facial recognition. In other news, Wyze has a new camera option, there’s a connected sump pump on the market, and Legrand is using Netatmo’s tech to launch battery-powered light switches that can control pre-installed Legrand dimmers and switches, allowing them to work as a remote control for existing switches. Finally, we answer a listener question about older Insteon gear and telnet. Legrand’s new battery-powered switches can act as a remote for existing Legrand switches in the home. Image courtesy of Legrand.  Our guest this week is Rob Aitken, a fellow and director of technology at Arm, who came on the show to discuss the new priorities in designing chips now that Moore’s Law is less of a driver for innovations in silicon. His argument is that price-performance per watt is the new focus for designers, although flexibility and cost still matter a lot. We talk about the drivers for chip innovation in the past and he also shares his thoughts on a future where chip design is less focused on the latest process node, and embraces older alternatives. This might also help us mitigate some of the problems associated with the chip shortage. Aitken packs a lot of insights into his interview, and you’ll learn something even if you aren’t a huge chip nerd. Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel Guest: Rob Aitken, a fellow and director of technology at Arm Sponsors: Very Why Swarm got snapped up by SpaceX Helium’s 5G network needs more details Samsung’s new smartwatch isn’t bad Why Moore’s Law matters less Chip designers have more freedom to play without Moore’s Law The post Episode 333: An IoT networking bonanza appeared first on IoT Podcast - Internet of Things.

12 Aug 202156min

This week, news slowed down a bit so Kevin and I kick off the show talking about a connected manual device to physically press buttons or twist dials as needed to turn older appliances “smart.” After praising that idea we panned Amazon’s new soap dispenser for having a Wi-Fi chip that’s really underused. In other Seattle news, Wyze, the makers of so many connected devices, has raised $110 million from a venture firm associated with Jay-Z and IKEA launches an air-purifying side table. Sure. Philips Hue plans to launch a slightly brighter color-changing (and tunable white) bulb while Home Assistant has added energy-monitoring features as part of its latest update. We also talk about the creation of Alphabet’s industrial robot software startup Intrinsic and what innovation in robotics software could enable and end with Kevin’s take on the U.S. being behind in smart cities. IKEA’s new air purifier is built into the side table. Image courtesy of IKEA. Our guest this week is Shaun Cooley, CEO of Mapped, who is on the show explaining why smart buildings are getting more attention lately.  We talk about what matters for real estate with the ongoing pandemic (I can no longer bring myself to say Post-COVID, y’all) and a renewed focus on energy savings. For the nerds, we cover technologies and data layers such as Haystack, Brick, and Microsoft’s Real Estate Core for building digital twins. He also shares his thoughts on how buyers are maturing when it comes to evaluating the security of their tech purchases. It seems buyers are asking more questions and better questions, which can only be a good thing. I agree. Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel Guest: Shaun Cooley, CEO of Mapped Sponsors: Very We have a good idea/bad idea segment this week Wyze has $110 million in new funding for AI Home Assistant gets energy monitoring as a feature Why smart buildings are having a moment Which standards matter for smart buildings The post Episode 332: The IoT gets a good idea and a bad idea appeared first on IoT Podcast - Internet of Things.

5 Aug 20211h

We start this week’s show with a $200 million funding for Wiliot, a company I profiled back in 2017 as one of the vanguards of low-power sensing. Then we tackle a creative idea that could see consumers create safe words for their smart homes to indicate when they might be in trouble. Next up is President Biden’s National Security Memorandum on securing cyberinfrastructure. Like coffee? This connected coffee machine raised $20 million.  If coffee’s not of interest, perhaps you’ll want to hear about research into the incidental users of smart home gear and what we owe them, or how to change Alexa to Ziggy and get a new voice option. I also talk about a new dev kit that will let you hook up Swarm’s satellite connectivity to a variety of sensors. Or maybe you’d like to hear Kevin’s review of the $60 Vilo mesh Wi-Fi system or about the upcoming Firewalla Purple device. We end the news segment by answering a listener question about the Firewalla Purple. The Swarm Eval kit could be yours for $499 plus the $60 annual connectivity fee. Image courtesy of Swarm. Our guest this week is Jason Shepherd, the VP of Ecosystem with Zededa, a container orchestration company for the industrial internet of things. It’s been a while since Shepherd has been on the show, so I asked him for an update on the IT and OT divide that we talked about four years ago. Both sides are coming together, but there are still challenges when it comes to bringing IT to scale in operations. We talk about heterogeneity, security, the challenges of remote access, and more differences worth thinking about when we put computers in industrial equipment. We also talk about the challenges of scaling machine learning models at the edge, and especially those designed to adapt to changing real-world conditions. It’s a fun interview. Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel Guest: Jason Shepherd, the VP of Ecosystem with Zededa Sponsors: Very Does your smart home need a safe word? Or an emergency alert? Biden wants to secure our infrastructure from cyberattacks Want to try a satellite connection for your sensors? Four ways IT folks have to adapt to the real world of OT needs How to scale machine learning for the edge The post Episode 331: Safe words for smart homes and cheap mesh appeared first on IoT Podcast - Internet of Things.

29 Jul 20211h 1min

This week we got great news on the Matter front, as Amazon announced its plans for supporting the smart home interoperability protocol on most of its Echo devices. We talk about new features for Alexa developers before talking about new research from ARM showing a 32-bit ARM-based chip printed on flexible plastic. We then turned to a discussion of Qualcomm’s attempts to build something for wearables and plans for a new smart lighting platform from Nokia. (Actually, the platform is from Smartlabs Inc. which makes the Insteon brand and has now launched Nokia-branded smart lighting products.) We also focused a bit on industrial IoT security with the results from MITRE’s testing of several industrial IoT security platforms including Armis, Dragos, and Microsoft. We also mentioned Samsung’s upcoming Unpacked event that you can watch on August 11. Then we ended by answering a listener question about creating a sunrise/sunset-based schedule for Wyze lighting outside the native app. The Nokia smart lighting keypad switch will sell for $59.99. Image courtesy of Smartlabs Inc. Our guest this week is Michael Martin, CEO of RapidSOS, a company that provides software to 9-1-1 providers that lets phones, cars, and IoT devices send sensor data to 9-1-1. The 9-1-1 infrastructure has been having trouble adapting to the end of stable location data provided by landlines and the adoption of cell phones, so when people call for help on a cell phone, 9-1-1 agents can have trouble getting their location. RapidSOS has deals with Apple and Google to use a phone’s GPS to share location and is also working with clients in the vehicle space and now in the smart home to bring in new sources of data for emergency workers. Martin talks about what sensors would be most useful for first responders and what the future might entail. It’s a good glimpse of how the smart home might help people in the years ahead. Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel Guest: Michael Martin, CEO of RapidSOS Sponsors: Silicon Labs and Trek10 Almost all Amazon Echo devices will support Matter What could you do with flexible electronics? Welcome the Nokia brand to the smart lighting world Why you might want to send your health data to 911 Smart cameras, cars, and wearables would help first responders The post Episode 330: Amazon’s Matter plans and how IoT helps first responders appeared first on IoT Podcast - Internet of Things.

22 Jul 202158min

Welcome to another show! We’re spending the first few minutes of the show diving into the rise of RF sensing in the IoT, covering the news of Amazon applying for an FCC waiver to use radar for sleep tracking, the FCC creating a notice of proposed rulemaking to use the 60 GHz spectrum for radar, and a deep dive into other technologies in the 60 GHz spectrum such as ultrawideband and even Wi-Fi sensing. Then we talk about Ring’s end-to-end video encryption, right to repair news, and how to use local control on the Amazon Echo. Our news bits include stories about Google, an IIoT vulnerability, new light strips from Wyze, and Motorola Solutions planning to buy Openpath. We end by answering a listener question about Wyze. The latest generation Google Nest hub uses radar to track sleep. Soon, we could see the tech in more devices around the home and in cars. Image courtesy of Google. Our guest this week is Chris Grove, product evangelist at Nozomi Networks, who is on the show to discuss a new report detailing the escalation of ransomware attacks across several industries. He also talks about how the recent spate of ransomware attacks has and will continue to affect manufacturing operations. He breaks down how attacks on IT networks can affect operations networks and he offers some advice on how governments and companies can mitigate the harm of ransomware attacks. One suggestion I found worth noting was his idea that more companies start adopting separate Safety Instrumented Systems,  which are separate networks that monitor and can shut down other network systems in case of an error. It’s a really informative interview for those who want to understand more about the demands of OT systems and what they can teach us about IT security. Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel Guest: Chris Grove, product evangelist at Nozomi Networks Sponsors: Silicon Labs and Trek10 Want to understand everything you need to know about radar? Biden’s right-to-repair rules target smart farming equipment In which we discover Alexa has local control options Why IT folks should know more about safety instrumented systems Cameras are everywhere, and they are still pretty vulnerable The post Episode 329: Radar is coming to the smart home appeared first on IoT Podcast - Internet of Things.

15 Jul 202157min

Imagine all of the potential problems associated with the internet of things, and then settle in, because I think we talk about all of them in this episode. We start by detailing research out of Northeastern University that shows old data isn’t deleted from hardware-reset Amazon Echo devices and then discuss a class action lawsuit going ahead against Google’s digital assistant. We toss in a disturbing stat from Microsoft and a school that’s deploying facial recognition to round it out. We also devote time to Facebook’s synthetic training environment for home robots, ADT suing Vivint, and  Brilliant’s connected light switches getting HomeKit support. Kevin also reviews the Wyze lock. We end by answering a listener question about developer access on Amazon’s Sidewalk network. Brilliant’s smart lights. Image courtesy of Brilliant. Our guest this week is Teppo Hemiä, the CEO of Wirepas. Hemiä explains what massive IoT is and where Wirepas’ network fits in with other IoT networks such as those from Amazon, Apple, or even proprietary industrial options. Instead of the physical radios, Wirepas makes a distributed, mesh network software that can run on other company’s radios. Hemiä shares some customer stories from a hospital and from a ball-bearing manufacturer to show the benefits of having access to a cheap, scalable connectivity layer. He then tries to explain how Wirepas technology is part of a new DECT-2020 new radio standard that was adopted by the ITU for 5G deployments. It’s a bit confusing but could lead to a non-cellular technology used as part of 5G networks. Enjoy the show. Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel Guest: Teppo Hemiä, the CEO of Wirepas Sponsors: Silicon Labs and Trek10 Researchers discover a privacy flaw in Echo devices Wait, how many requests for user data does Microsoft get each day? Can we train robots to handle the real world in virtual spaces? What the heck is massive IoT? How a non-3GPP standard is breaking into 5G The post Episode 328: The IoT is a privacy nightmare and more 5G appeared first on IoT Podcast - Internet of Things.

8 Jul 20211h 4min

Any Amazon Halo subscriber can try Amazon’s Movement Health service now, so Kevin and I explain what it is and what Amazon’s decisions around the Halo fitness tracker signal about the company’s interest in healthcare. We then cover the good news that Google will support connected Nest devices with security updates for up to five years after launch and Google’s new location tracking app for its Wi-Fi routers. Kevin wonders why Verizon needs its own smart display and tells us about Lenovo’s latest Google clock display while I share news of a smart building startup getting funding. We end with the news that ADT and Ring have settled their lawsuit about Ring’s use of the trademarked blue ADT octagon. After the news, we answer a listener’s question about changing Wi-Fi SSIDs and passwords and what that might mean for his smart home devices. The Lenovo Smart Clock 2 can charge your phone using a Qi dock. Image courtesy of Lenovo. Our guest this week is Nathan Dyck, chief product officer at Nanoleaf. We kick off the segment by focusing on the future of lighting before digging into a discussion of the Thread protocol. He talks about why Thread is such a positive choice for the smart home, and then we talk about Matter. He explains what the multi-admin feature is and tells us why he’s excited about the distributed ledger for tracking the provenance of a device. We end with a look ahead at some of the features he expects to see in smart lights after Matter is established. Enjoy the show. Host: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel Guest: Nathan Dyck, chief product officer Nanoleaf Sponsors: Silicon Labs and Trek10 Amazon’s Halo isn’t about fitness, it’s a about health How long should a thermostat get security updates? Could Verizon’s new display offer a path to Amazon’s Sidewalk? Nanoleaf didn’t start out making smart lights Matter may make new features easier to develop The post Episode 327: Amazon’s Halo health push and more Matter appeared first on IoT Podcast - Internet of Things.

1 Jul 20211h

Kevin and I start this week’s show with a discussion of his Amazon Prime Day purchases and then talk about the kerfuffle over smart thermostats and demand-response energy programs in Texas. I happened to be there at the time, and there is a definite right and wrong way to enroll people in the program. We also mentioned a more egregious example of digital overreach with Massachusettes pushing COVID-tracking apps to Android devices. After that, we explain Senator Amy Klobuchar’s interest in the Matter smart home protocol,  Arm’s confidential compute plans and share plans for a new LoRaWAN network. We round out the rest of the show with an update on Ecobee thermostat’s smarts and new devices from Wyze. We close by answering a listener question about the Ting fire safety device. Ecobee participates in demand response programs such as those that caused frustration in Texas. Image courtesy of Ecobee. Our guest this week is Mary Beth Hall, director of wireless strategy and marketing with Panasonic. We dig into the reality of 5G deployments inside manufacturing plants and what it will take to actually see real deployments instead of mere pilots. She’s responsible for putting 5G inside Panasonic’s line of Toughbook handheld computers used in industrial settings, so she has good insights into what’s real and what’s hype. She also shares her thoughts about what 5G will offer manufacturing customers when they finally adopt it. But she can’t actually tell us when that moment will come. I enjoyed her honesty. Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel Guest: Mary Beth Hall from Panasonic Sponsors: Bsquare and Edge Impulse Smart thermostats aren’t the problem in Texas, communication is The Senate wants more information on smart home interoperability. Us too. Why I’m excited for Arm’s confidential compute plans Why most factories are fine with 4G wireless Why 5G will help carriers deliver five nines The post Episode 326: It’s about ethics in smart devices appeared first on IoT Podcast - Internet of Things.

24 Jun 20211h 3min