The Internet of Things Podcast - Stacey On IoT

Details about how the U.S. government plans to disperse $39 billion in funding for chips was announced this week, so we discuss the details and what the funds mean for the IoT. Mobile World Congress took place in Barcelona this week, and amid the news about 5G networks there were several IoT-related bits worth mentioning such as Qualcomm outlining plans for millimeter-wave spatial sensing and Wi-F...

The Connectivity Standards Alliance is back in the news this week with the launch of a new working group focused on data privacy, which we’re super pumped about. Also in privacy news, Tile has released a new anti-stalking feature that requires users to register their tags and fines them if they use it for bad behavior. Location tracking, especially at a few meters or centimeters, will be a b...

This week’s show starts off with news from the Connectivity Standards Alliance as Kevin and I talk about the new Health and Wellness Working Group. Then we discuss some of the challenges that people face trying to use Matter devices across multiple platforms. It’s not seamless or easy yet. Also on difficult things, we discuss the challenges of securing the industrial IoT thanks to a ne...

This week’s show kicks off with our hopes for privacy in the wake of President Biden calling out tech firms during his State of The Union address . Biden was focused more on targeted ads and protecting children , but children’s’ data gets swept up in smart home devices as well, so there’s a chance. We then explore why Josh.ai is combining its voice assistant with ChatGPT an...

This week’s show starts with an overview of the reviews for the new second generation HomePod and a deep dive into the security mess that Anker has made with its Eufy smart home cameras. We then dig into some earnings from IoT chip providers NXP and Silicon Labs , before discussing some new ideas to use RFID to prevent retail theft . We then talk about how the demand for retail tech could be...

This week’s show kicks off with a discussion about Carnegie Mellon’s research into detecting people’s movements through walls using Wi-Fi. As part of the discussion we also talk about the use of stick figures to protect privacy and how little trust consumers have in companies when it comes to the use of their data. That lack of trust might explain why so few consumers connect the...

This week’s show kicks off with a discussion of Apple’s new HomePod , which has some cool machine learning capabilities and new sensors built into it, plus a higher price tag than most smart speakers. Then we talk about a survey out of the UK that asked 119 appliance makers about their plans to continue updating software over the life of the appliance, finding out that some won’t...

Want to bring an IoT company back from the dead? Or understand the technical and business challenges associated with building an IoT product? Then this story by Kevin Chung is for you . Kevin and I  have left CES 2023 behind, but we had plenty of of things to talk about on this week’s show, starting with our sense of disappointment after the show. We also serve up some more news from CES tie...

Kevin and I are at CES 2023 this week and eager for the show floor to open to see all of the new and crazy gear. But before we see the show floor, we had to slog through the planned news and media events, which we’re talking about in this week’s show. Matter is everywhere so far with most companies choosing to announce new Matter products that will arrive in the coming months. We cover...

We tried Matter for the first time late last week , and have a lot to share with our listeners about what we and other journalists learned through the process. The early verdict is that most people should not update for a while because the process is tedious at best and downright frustrating at worst. But if you want to update, we provide tips. Then we focus on a story about iRobot’s Roomba...

This week’s show is a celebration of Matter actually hitting devices, with Google announcing its Matter roll out and Eve allowing users to update its devices to Matter as well. We’re super excited to play with Matter, and you’ll read more about in the newsletter or hear us chat about it next week. We also discuss how Z-Wave’s open-source efforts have gone, and the first por...

The end of the year is a busy time for M&A as companies rush to get deals done before the start of a new tax year, and this week the smart home sector saw Assa Abloy sell its Yale and August smart lock and some other brands to Fortune Brands for $800 million. We explain why the deal happened and why we can blame Matter and the DoJ for the sale. Then we discuss NRG Energy’s $2.8 billion p...

This week’s show starts off with a review of news from AWS Re:Invent which is happening now in LAs Vegas. We cover the general availability of support for the latest version of the MQTT messaging protocol , the launch of LoRaWAN and other connectivity technologies as part of AWS Device Location services , and there will be more in the newsletter as the conference concludes. We then talk abou...

The biggest news in the internet of things this week was the staggering story about Amazon’s Alexa business being responsible for the majority of an estimated $10 billion loss in the year ahead. So Kevin and I discuss what Amazon pulling back on Alexa might look like and what it means for voice and the smart home. Then we talk about how a newly available Amazon device signals Amazon’s...

Amazon has started laying off workers, including some working on Alexa and in Amazon’s devices business . We discuss this as well as IBM following in Google’s footsteps and shutting down its IoT cloud business . We move from bad news to innovation with the news that the Bluetooth Special Interest Group is investing in new Bluetooth capabilities using the recently available 6 GHz spectr...

This week’s show kicks off with a discussion of the lawsuit between Arm and Qualcomm amid accusations that Arm is changing its licensing model . We cover what has been said, and what it might mean for the IoT before heading into some industrial news. Arduino has announced a programmable logic controller (PLC) in conjunction with Finder called the Arduino Opta . It’s part of a larger tr...

This week’s episode kicks off what I hope is a flurry of news from vendors about their Matter plans. We hear when and how vendors such as Amazon, Eve, Nanoleaf, and Schneider Electric plan to roll out Matter to new and old devices. We also call out companies that haven’t yet shared information and what you’re likely to see get support first. Then we go to other news such as leake...

We kick off the podcast with more conversation about the planned White House-led cybersecurity label for consumer IoT devices . Contrary to what I wrote last week , it seems that privacy won’t be as big of a focus, which is disappointing. Then we move into a bunch of updated product news, such as the launch of IKEA’s new Home Smart app and Dirigera hub. SmartThings has a Matter update...

TinyML is about to get really big, or at least that’s what a startup thinks, as we explain on this week’s podcast. Useful Sensors is the company that’s making inexpensive, low-powered edge sensors in a way that protects privacy . We discuss why we agree with that approach. Next up are our thoughts on  why 5G really hasn’t taken the IoT market by storm yet. You’ll want to hear our reasons for this...

The biggest news this week is probably the launch of a line of inexpensive smart home products from Roku , the smart TV and set-top box maker. We talk about the products, its deal with Wyze and where you can get them. Then we move on to Matter, specifically when you might get Matter on your devices , and the new pact between Google and Samsung SmartThings , that will make using either Google Home&...

Matter is now official  after almost three years of waiting, and Kevin and I are super excited. Well, I am. Kevin is more measured, but we talk about  what to expect  and when to expect Matter to start changing your smart home. In related news, we discuss Google’s new doorbell, mesh router, and  plans for the Home app . Google is also  adding more sensing capabilities  to the smart home through it...

This week’s show focuses on Amazon’s new devices and services launched Wednesday. Kevin and I talk about Amazon’s direction with Alexa as the manager of your life. We also gawp at the price iRobot is charging for its latest iteration of the Roomba robotic vacuum , although Kevin convinces me it’s not too crazy. Then we move into a discussion of the energy grid, sharing data...

The Federal Trade Commission is looking into Amazon’s decision to purchase the maker of Roomba vacuum cleaners for $1.7 billion. The agency this week asked Amazon and iRobot for more information about the deal, so Kevin and I took a moment to explain exactly what the FTC should worry about. Then we talk about Wi-Fi sensing showing up in Signify’s WiZ lightbulbs , and a wireless power p...

I’m in Austin this week, for Silicon Labs’ Works With event, and while there I hosted a panel that provided a good sense of what is going to happen with the Matter smart home interoperability protocol. I think Kevin is a bit more optimistic than I am. We also got some small updates on Amazon’s Sidewalk Network plans, which we discuss. After that, we talk about some news from Sili...

This week launched with a bang for those interested in the role insurers might play in the smart home as  State Farm agreed to make a 1.2 billion equity investment in security firm ADT. This follows on the heels of Google’s equity investment in ADT in 2020 and signals a shift in the way insurance companies are thinking about the smart home. Google also said it would add more money to its ADT...