Episode 396: Here’s when you’ll get Matter on your devices

This week we recorded before the big rush of news from Google I/O but we managed to cram in the details on Google’s new IoT Core beta that offers developers a cloud-based platform for connected devices. Since Google servers are used frequently by businesses it would be interesting to see how google monitoring would work within this new cloud beta. Kevin Tofel and I also discuss Android Things and the moves Amazon has made with the Echo to compete with anticipated Google news. These include notifications on the Echo and a pledge to pay some developers. Add to this, Samsung’s new ARTIK modules, Honeywell’s new venture fund and some speculation on Spotify and we have a solid show. Plus, soon I can shop at B8ta. GE’s appliances can talk to Alexa or Google’s Assistant. Our guest this week is Bill Gardner from GE Appliances, who shares the industrial giant’s thinking around connected ovens, stoves and more. There’s some bad news, an AI named Geneva that works with Alexa and Google Home, plus a call for partners in building the smart kitchen for the future. And just for fun, I find out why I may want a connected washer and dryer. Enjoy the show! Hosts: Kevin Tofel and Stacey Higginbotham Guest: Bill Gardner of GE Appliances Sponsors: Aeris and Smart Kitchen Summit Google gets semi-serious about an IoT cloud offering Amazon’s pulling out the stops to keep devs with Alexa Sorry, old appliances won’t get Wi-Fi Meet Geneva, the bot that will connect your kitchen Get a sneak peak at GE’s plans for the kitchen of the future The post Episode 112: Google’s IoT Cloud takes on Amazon and Azure appeared first on IoT Podcast - Internet of Things.

18 Maj 201747min

Who’s buying an Echo Show? This week Kevin and I share our thoughts on Amazon’s latest device, which adds a screen to the Echo, video calling and more. We also talk about Apple buying Beddit presumably for sleep data, a new smart home product with a DARPA and Playground Studios pedigree and the industrial internet. Plus, we throw in a discussion on the economics of serverless computing as part of the launch of a new product from Yonomi. The Echo Show has a 7-inch screen. And Alexa! We have three guests this week. The number of our guests is three. (Props to all who read that as a Monty Python sketch.) We’re getting three different perspectives on the Echo Show, with the first from Mike Wolf, a smart home analyst and editor of The Spoon who discusses it as a kitchen device. Then we discuss design and the way we will interact with the smart home with Mark Rolston of argo design, and we finish with Jonathan Frankel, the CEO of Nucleus, which just saw its device replicated in Amazon’s new Echo Show. You’ll learn a bunch! Hosts: Kevin Tofel and Stacey Higginbotham Guests: Mike Wolf of The Spoon; Mark Rolston of argo design; and Jonathan Frankel of Nucleus Sponsor: Aeris Will Kevin buy the Amazon Show? Startup Lighthouse has a new take on personal assistants Apple buys sleep-sensing tech Amazon’s Echo Show was “inevitable” Amazon’s Echo Show was also a betrayal The post Episode 111: All about the Amazon Show and costs of IoT compute appeared first on IoT Podcast - Internet of Things.

11 Maj 201751min

This week we discuss Apple’s plans to introduce Siri in a can, Amazon’s Style maven ambitions and a few other items on the personal assistant front. We also discuss Orbit, a new security idea from Cloudflare, and a lawsuit filed by ADT against Ring and Zonoff’s former CEO. From there we go straight into an ad which launches my new IFTTT channel so you can get the podcast and articles on my site in the form you favor. IKEA’s smart lighting products will expand over time. After that, I interview Bjorn Block of IKEA about the company’s four-year old effort to combine technology with the home and home furnishings. Block and I discuss the newly launched TRADFRI lights, the astonishing number of meatballs IKEA customers consume each day, and IKEA’s plans for future connected home efforts. We also discuss the environmental impact of connected products and IKEA’s plans to keep technology inside long-lived goods fresh. Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel Guest: Bjorn Block of IKEA Sponsors: Samsung ARTIK and IFTTT The one thing Apple must fix before launching an Echo-killer A new idea for IoT security IKEA thinks smart homes must solve a real dilemma Will IKEA open up its ecosystem? I’m opening a second-hand smart bulb store The post Episode 110: IKEA’s smart home plans and will you buy an Amazon Look? appeared first on IoT Podcast - Internet of Things.

4 Maj 201747min

Google Home can recognize your voice, SmartThing’s Connect app on Samsung’s Galaxy 8 can act as a hubless hub for the home, and Spotify may be considering its own connected device. Kevin and I discuss these stories, plus Waymo’s autonomous car testing in Phoenix, and why iDevices was acquired. There’s also a quick discussion of Symantec’s latest security report and Microsoft’s new IoT suite. iDevices, the maker of this connected dimmer, was acquired this week. We did forget to discuss Juicero’s challenges, and the Amazon Look came out after our recording, which just means you’ll have more to look forward to next week. In the meantime, sate yourself with a deep dive into the launch of the EdgeX Foundry platform for the industrial internet of things. Dell’s Jason Shepherd describes the newly launched open source effort as a way to scale IoT like we once scaled the PC. Listen up. Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham Guest: Jason Shepherd, Director IoT Strategy and Partnerships at Dell Sponsors: Samsung ARTIK and IFTTT Kevin bought a Samsung Galaxy 8 Who the heck is Hubbell? Microsoft’s IoT efforts are compelling Dell’s push to make industrial IoT scale Standards? We don’t need no stinkin’ standards! The post Episode 109: How to scale the industrial IoT appeared first on IoT Podcast - Internet of Things.

27 Apr 201755min

Kevin is back for this week’s show, and we talk about Google Home, Amazon’s latest hardware plans for the Echo and how we think voice may evolve. I installed the Honeywell T5 thermostat as well as a leak sensor from Honeywell, and share what I liked and what I didn’t. We also discuss Kevin’s field trip to the Biosphere 2 project in Arizona and the latest developer survey from The Eclipse Foundation. Bitmark’s platform used a custom-designed blockchain to store digital property records. After some more news, we turn to this week’s guest. Sean Moss-Pultz, CEO of Bitmark, explains how he thinks giving people the ability to own digital property will make privacy easier online. His company has built a blockchain based software product that stores rights to someone’s digital data whether it’s photos or fitness info. We discuss why this sort of record matters and how Bitmark plans to make its abstract ideas real. It’s a fun discussion. Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel Guest: Sean Moss-Pultz, CEO of Bitmark Sponsors: Samsung ARTIK and IFTTT What devices do I want to talk to in the home? News from Lutron, August and Logitech A modest proposal for smart thermostat makers Should we turn digital assets from intellectual property to just property Donate your data — or just keep track of it online The post Episode 108: Owning digital property could save our privacy appeared first on IoT Podcast - Internet of Things.

20 Apr 201754min

This week’s IoT Podcast starts with a focus on security, beginning with bot bricking connected devices, IKEA’s smart lights and Microsoft’s Project Sopris efforts. After security, we talk about a new home hub from Fibaro, TP-Link’s new mesh router, Alexa’s new lighting skills and Ring’s new video recording plan. We also cover the results from my week spent with Google Home in place of the Echo in my kitchen/living room, and Richard installed smart blinds. (Astute listeners might notice that instead of Kevin, my co-host this week is Richard Gunther, who has his own smart home podcast called Home: On.) Have you ever wondered how the internet of things got its name? Well wonder no more, as this week’s guest explains how the phrase came to be. Kevin Ashton, who is the author of How to Fly a Horse, joins me to talk about the beginnings of IoT, his optimism about the future and how the world he imagined back in the late 90s measures up to today. The possibilities afforded by interconnected devices are of a huge benefit to businesses. IoT technology has totally changed the way companies think about cloud computing and customer relationship management, and as a result, new solutions to common issues are constantly entering the fray. For example, companies that use Pipedrive CRM platforms can now complete a pipedrive google contacts sync to compile a comprehensive database of customer information that can be used in outreach and to highlight areas of improvement. Over all, it is a fun episode that will take you back to the pre-dot com era. Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Richard Gunther of The Digital Media Zone Guest: Kevin Ashton, author of How to Fly a Horse Sponsor: Samsung ARTIK Security is getting better? I swapped my Echo for a Google Home and this happened! Want Smart Blinds? Try these. Cisco’s John Chambers helped give the Internet of Things its name Computer vision couldn’t have happened without connected sensors The post Episode 107: How the internet of things came to be appeared first on IoT Podcast - Internet of Things.

13 Apr 201756min

It’s time to swap out my Amazon Echo for a Google Home because all of my integrations are working so well, and because Google added Logitech’s Harmony Hub. August added a lock for the pro channel and Samsung’s Tizen OS has a lot of security flaws. This is not good for anyone, especially Samsung. The new Zebra SmartPack Trailer product uses a camera and offers analytics. We talk also about Zebra’s new tech for tractor-trailers and why virtual beacons from Mist are better than real ones. Finally, I confess to a secret and contemplate an IoT device to solve it. This week’s guest Simon Bungers discusses what happens when the internet of things invades research labs, and how it could change scientists’ job descriptions. Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel Guest: Simon Bungers, CEO of Labfolder Sponsor: Samsung ARTIK Google Home just got better. Is Kevin convinced? Zebra has good new freight tech and virtual beacons are better than the real thing Tizen has some major security flaws. Roughly 40 of them. Meet Smart Nora, which may help my husband sleep at night Scientists will spend more time with Python than petri dishes The post Episode 106: Stacey has a secret appeared first on IoT Podcast - Internet of Things.

6 Apr 201753min

This week there were two big stories in the internet of things. The first is that Google Home has expanded the number of companies it works with, adding Rachio, Wink, August and more. The other story is that Congress has repealed rules that prevented ISPs from selling your personal data. This will open up consumers’ search history to ISPs and marketers, but Kevin and I discuss what it means for your smart home devices and data. We also discuss IKEA’s new smart home products, Kevin’s poor Z-wave lock experience and hacked commercial dishwashers. This week’s guest is in charge of a smart home platform that aims to take over a huge number of homes in the US. Daniel Herscovici is the head of Comcast’s Xfinity Home program, and he has some big ambitions. We talk about the purchase of iControl, why Comcast isn’t keen on Zigbee and why Comcast isn’t sweating standards. It’s a fun show. Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel Guest: Daniel Herscovici of Comcast Sponsors: Samsung ARTIK Ikea has smart home ambitions Google Home… is it good enough? How to protect your IoT devices from your ISP Comcast wants to be the base platform for the smart home Standards aren’t holding back innovation The post Episode 105: Comcast’s platform plans revealed appeared first on IoT Podcast - Internet of Things.

30 Mars 201751min