The Internet of Things Podcast - Stacey On IoT

Apple’s disclosure of the HomePod, a connected speaker and personal assistant, drove much of the IoT news this week. However, research from Pew on how rapidly people are becoming connected and the lack of transparency about how our data is used might end up being the story with real legs. Kevin Tofel and I discuss both this week, along with some Wink news , how he feels about the Google Home...

What makes a phone essential? Or Essential as is the case with Andy Rubin’s new company that features a new smartphone and teases a new connected home assistant? Kevin and I discuss what we know, and Kevin also explains a surprise decision he’s made regarding Google (here’s the link he mentions during the show). We also discuss Apple’s potential AI chips , ARM’s new d...

It has been a week since Google I/O, which gave Kevin and me time to wade through some of the developer videos and ponder the features Google is announcing for the home and for Google Home. The jury is still out on whether Kevin is buying the device, but he is tempted, y’all! We discussed Dish’s integration with the Amazon Echo , the new maker tier on IFTTT and IKEA’s plans to ma...

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 Thing...

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 computi...

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 art...

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...

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 fr...

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 w...

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...

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...

This week we discuss a personal assistant from Samsung , Amazon Alexa on phones and mistakes from Google Home . We also talk about a Legend of Zelda superfan and how he controls his home through an ocarina . We then talk about  ARM’s new architecture and discuss  two deals ARM did last month to boost support for low power wide area networks. Finally, I now have my SmartThings and Lutron inte...

This week Intel said it would spend another small fortune buying a chip company, Kevin discusses uses for LIDAR outside of connected cars and the Ring doorbell is embroiled in a security SNAFU . At SXSW this week, I learned about the IoT Design Manifesto and have some thoughts. Kevin discusses a new security flaw that deals with the physical side of cyber-physical systems and my SmartThings and Lu...

Wow. This week saw a bunch of news about the Amazon Echo. There were rumors of new hardware, the ability to make phone calls and the crazy revelations of the CIA’s hacking ability , which led me to wonder if I want a microphone in my home at all. We also got an update on police seeking Amazon Echo data and news that the Google Home was a bit glitchy for some users. I discussed my HomeKit exp...

Well, the skies fell this week for the smart home . Or more accurately the cloud was somewhat disconnected thanks to Amazon Web Services stumbling. We discuss what happened and how companies can avoid having similar problems by designing for resiliency. We also talk about several new Alexa skills for locks , routers and phones . We then discuss the hacked teddy bears and a few new devices worth ch...

It’s our 100th podcast, which would be a big deal if Kevin Tofel and I were a TV show hoping for syndication, but in the podcast world it means we’ve been at this for almost two years. YAY! We took a brief stroll down memory lane before digging into the week’s news covering new LTE chips for the IoT from Intel and Qualcomm as well as a report from ARM and The Economist that highl...

This week we have sales estimates on the Amazon Echo, a new way to unlock your August locks and a hub that may talk to both HomeKit and legacy Z-wave and ZigBee connected devices. We also cover several networking stories ahead of Mobile World Congress involving AT&T’s IoT network , a satellite-backed LoRa network and Nokia’s plans to offer an IoT-grid network on a wholesale basis....

This week we discuss the city of Louisville, Kentucky adding an If This Then That channel , a settlement over televisions that spy on you, and a possible new feature for the Amazon Echo that could bridge the gap between it and the Google Home. That last tidbit was contributed by Grant Clauser , the smart home editor at the Wirecutter who took Kevin’s place this week. (Never fear, Kevin will...

There’s a lot of money in the internet of things. No, not just in your smart home gadgets. The Boston Consulting Group estimates that by 2020 enterprises will be spending €250 billion on the internet of things. We discuss the survey, news of the week, an update on my OpenHab project and answer the question of how one gets started with a smart home. Two cases caught our eye on the privacy and...

Talking to the Amazon Echo just got easier, after Amazon adds “Computer” as a wake word, while I test out the use of Google Home’s new partner WeMo (Honeywell also made a connection with Google Home). Ring managed to raise $109 million this week, and we put that in context with the state of the smart home market. We also put Jawbone’s lack of customer support in similar con...

You asked and we delivered! This week Kevin discusses the possibility of using the Nvidia Shield as a smart home controller of sorts (and gives his impression of its gaming chops). I give an early review of the Stringify app which is now out for Android and iOS. We also discuss “The Big Show” as folks call the National Retail Federation conference that happened this week, hitting on ho...

Whelp, I’m back from CES with the obligatory cold, thinking over many of the conversations I had and the gadgets I saw. Some of that bubbles up in this show, with talk of Amazon Alexa Voice Services taking a star turn at the event, my thesis that industrial IoT is going to be where the real opportunities are and Kevin and I trying to parse the idea of Fitbit having an app store . We also tal...

This week’s podcast has too many guests to list (I’m going to list them anyway) and a format that’s totally different. We start off with a discussion on the state of the smart home and what we can learn from CES about mainstream adoption featuring commentary from Cory Sorice, VP of connected platforms at Chamberlain, Jason Johnson, CEO of August, and Ed Zitron of EZPR who is repr...

This week we bring our first impressions and several bits of news from CES, the consumer electronics trade show held annually in Las Vegas. I’m here while Kevin avoids the lines by staying in Pennsylvania, but we’re both happy to talk about connected grooming products, robots and the onslaught of Echo-related news . I also noticed that connected gadgets are essentially becoming a consu...

This week’s big story was the Bentonville, Arkansas case where police were seeking data from an alleged murderer’s Echo history. Kevin and I share our thoughts on the case, what police could learn from connected gadgets and what this means for your privacy. We then talk about Google’s new smartwatches coming in 2017, two new open/close sensors I discovered and Intel’s work...