The Smart Home Show

This week Mike talks with that company that puts a UL on all those devices in your home, Underwriter's Laboratories. He talks to Tom Blewitt, who has been at UL for almost 40 years and has watched as devices went from dumb things stuck on formica countertops to smart devices that can anticipate and communicate. How does a company like UL adjust? Listen to the podcast and find out! You can fin...

This is the Smart Home Weekly news wrap up for the week ending November 15, 2014. In this episode, I talk about: -Amazon's Echo (and whether its a smart home controller) -iDevices, $10 Million HomeKit bet -Target's entry into smart home -The Scout home security appliance has started shipping -Quirky's huge smart home announcement this week If you want to see my written analysis of a...

This week, iDevices surprised most everyone when they announced they'd invested $10 million in HomeKit-centric smart home development. This involved not only their own product - which they will unveil at CES 2015 - but a platform which others can use to build HomeKit centric smart home devices. This conversation is the first podcast interview with Chris Allen since the unveiling of their new...

A podcast 2-fer: A weekly update and an interview with Roost's Roel Peeters. We combined the smart home weekly update this week with an interview with the CEO of smart battery company Roost. Today's topics include: -Verizon's new router with Z-Wave -Goji smart lock delays -Walmart enters the smart home -The retrofit smart home opportunity -Keen smart vents -SmartThings gets a Window...

This is the Smart Home Weekly news wrap up for the week ending October 26, 2014. This episode is almost entirely about the Revolv acquisition by Nest. Joining Mike is Richard Gunther, smart home podcaster from the Home:On podcast. We also announce the winner of the Oort smart home system and give all the details about our next smart home gear giveaway, so you'll definitely want to listen! Rem...

The Smart Home Weekly news wrap up for the week ending October 18, 2014. All the big stories for the smart home discussed in one podcast. Also, we're giving away an Oort Bluetooth smart home system. For details, go to www.smarthomeweekly.net and see the latest Smart Home Weekly for October 18th or listen to the podcast. Stories this week: -Apple doesn't make news (meaning no new Apple TV...

Guest: WeMo's Ohad Zeira Belkin's WeMo has been one of the most popular DIY smart home line of products around. Mike catches up with Ohad Zeira, the head of WeMo, to hear about where WeMo's been and where it's going. You can find out more about WeMo at: http://www.belkin.com/us/Products/home-automation/c/wemo-home-automation/ You can subscribe to the Smart Home Show at: http://...

The Smart Home Weekly news wrap up for the week ending October 11, 2014. All the big stories for the smart home discussed in one podcast. Stories this week: -Apple TV gets HomeKit -Best Buy expands smart home section -Mr. Coffee brews some WeMo -Echostar becomes smart home Sage -Allseen launches smart lighting group -Broadcom leaves OIC -Revolv connects to Danalock -PeQ revs software -MaxMyTV off...

Guest: Radek Tadajewski of Oort. Mike goes deep on the Bluetooth centric smart home with Oort's Radek Tadajewski, which is launching their Bluetooth smart home system on October 15th in New York. If you want to know more about how Bluetooth will fit into the smart home in the future, this is a must listen! You can find out more about Oort at www.oort.in You can find more Smart Home Shows at h...

Guest: Jeremy Jaech, CEO of SNUPI, creator or Wally Home. In this episode, Mike catches up with Jeremy Jaech, longtime Seattle entrepreneur and the CEO of SNUPI. SNUPI has a product called Wally Home, an in home moisture sensor which uses a patented technology that allows ultra low cost communication using in home powerline and enables a battery to last up to 10 years. You can find out more about...

This Week in Smart Home, Smart Home Week in Review (or whatever!) for week ending September 26 (plus a few bonus days). Mike talks about his thoughts on: -Amazon's smart home ambitions -The Wink Relay device -AlertMe's new platform -INSTEON's Cortana integration -Goji going dark -Haven doorjamb-ish smartlock -Doorbot changes name and focus If you want to read about all this - and Mi...

It's the first (of maybe more) Smart Home Shark Tank segments in which Mike takes a pitch, gives feedback and maybe even convinces someone to make changes. This episode basically happened because I got an email one day from a prospective smart home entrepreneur pitching his idea for a new smart home security system. I told him he needed to make some changes, it became a respectful email back...

It's This Week in Smart Home (TWISH) or Smart Home Week in Review (SHWIR), or whatever you want to call it. It's essentially the audio version of Mike's written recap of the important smart home news for the week ending September 20, 2014. I talk about: -The big trend at CEDIA of high-end home automation players going downmarket -IControl's legal action against Zonoff and Secur...

It's an abbreviated smart home week in review for September 12, 2014 as Mike prepares to leave for CEDIA. The week was all about Apple, and given that Mike's been waiting and writing about Apple's entree into the smartwatch space for well over a year, he gives his first take on Apple's first wearable. He also welcomes a listener to the show in the first in a periodic segment ca...

This is the smart home week in review for the week ending September 6, 2014! The week started slow as folks recovered from Labor day weekend and shuttled kids back to school, but it finished strong. You can listen to the podcast where we discuss the week that was in smart home, or if you're the TLDL (Too Long, Didn't Listen) type, just read the wrap up below. I am going to try and do a w...

Guest: Arrayent CEO Shane Dyer While most people in the smart home space are familiar with the consumer-facing platforms, often times there is a company behind the company helping to power the smart home technology. Arrayent is one of those companies, helping companies like Maytag create smart home enabled products. Mike visits with Arrayent CEO Shane Dyer, who helped found the company in 2005. We...

We've got all your smart home news covered for the week ending August 30th, 2014! Mike's guest is Richard Gunther, host of the Home: On podcast from the Digital Media Zone. Visit http://www.technology.fm/thesmarthomeshow/ for full show notes with links. The topics we discuss on today's show are: - August finally ships it's Wi-Fi smart lock -Simplicam takes on Dropcam - what fea...

Last week, Smart Home Ventures debuted a new smart home hub called Pēq, which will be available through Best Buy on August 31st. I caught up with Ted Schremp, the CEO of Smart Home Ventures, to hear about the new platform. You can learn more about Pēq at https://www.mypeq.com/ You can subscribe to more Smart Home Shows at http://www.technology.fm/thesmarthomeshow via Knit

The first Smart Home Week in Review edition of the Smart Home Show for the week ending August 24th, 2014! Mike breaks it down with his all-time favorite home automation journalist Julie Jacobson of CEPro.com, and Electronic House technology editor Grant Clauser! Go to http://www.technology.fm/thesmarthomeshow/ for full show notes with links to stories as well as subscribe options. Check out www.ce...

Guest: Atif Noori of Emberlight Emberlight created a smart lighting adapter that turns any light socket into a smart light socket. I thought the use of an adapter was a smart idea, so I thought I'd catch up with Atif to to get the story behind Emberlight. You can find out more about Emberlight at www.emberlight.co You can listen to and subscribe to more Smart Home Shows at http://www.technolo...

Guest: Chaz Flexman, GM of Wink Wink came out nowhere this summer, and surprised a lot of people as the new spinout from Quirky announced its new hub and nationwide distribution partnership with Home Depot. I caught up with Chaz Flexman, the guy running the show over at Wink, to hear how the rollout is going, what the company's thinking was behind creating a dedicated smart home company and w...

Guest: Kevin Meagher, GM and VP of Smart Home at Lowe's This week I caught up with Kevin Meagher, who heads up the smart home effort at Lowe's. Lowe's was the first national home improvement retailer to make a big move into the smart home and consumer IoT, and so I wanted to hear what Meagher and the Lowe's team had learned over the past few years. We talk about how to sell sma...

Guest: Rach.io's Chris Klein Is your sprinkler system dumb? Maybe it's time to make it smart. Rachio builds a Wi-Fi connected sprinkler/irrigation controller and we talk to Chris Klein about the product, what this means and get a little of the story behind this Colorado based startup. You can find out more about Rachio at www.rach.io Subscribe to more Smart Home Show at http://www.techno...

Guest: Mark Walters, Chairman of the Z-Wave Alliance A whole lots been going on in the smart home world lately, including a whole bunch of new tech standards and protocols. One that's been around for a while, Z-Wave, is in millions of homes today and is the key networking tech for many smart home systems. We catch up with Mark to talk about the state of Z-Wave, talk about some of the new stan...

Guest: Chris Boross, President of the Thread Group Last week, Nest, Samsung and five other companies announced Thread, a new wireless networking protocol aimed at the Internet of Things and the smart home. I talked to Chris about how Thread differs from what is out there, some of the technology decisions they made and what we can expect over the next 12 months with Thread. You can find out more ab...