Stacey on IoT | Internet of Things news and analysis
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Stacey Higginbotham is the host of the Internet of Things Podcast about IoT and the Smart Home, and published the Stacey Knows Things newsletter about IoT.
Stacey on IoT | Internet of Things news and analysis
7M ago
This is the final episode of The Internet of Things Podcast, and to send us off after eight years, we don’t discuss the big news of the day such as Arm’s planned IPO, a new display option from Brilliant, or new gear from Leviton. Instead we share our reasons for stepping back from the show, and where we’re heading next. Also, because everyone wants some new podcasts or IoT news options, we share some of our favorite resources. On the podcast side, I sometimes listen to the Mr. Beacon Show or The IoT Podcast. We also read The Verge, TechHive, The Ambient, and The Journal of Innovation published ..read more
Stacey on IoT | Internet of Things news and analysis
7M ago
This article was originally published in my weekly IoT newsletter on Friday August 18, 2023. It was my last newsletter.
Most of y’all know that I am stepping back from producing the weekly Internet of Things podcast, and that I’m also stepping back from creating this newsletter focused on the internet of things. But it is not a true goodbye. I will keep posting on Bluesky and will likely send out the occasional newsletter when I feel strongly about something.
Before I say anything further about why I’m doing this, or my next steps, I want to offer a sincere thank-you to everyone who ..read more
Stacey on IoT | Internet of Things news and analysis
7M ago
This article was originally published in my weekly IoT newsletter on Friday August 18, 2023. It was my last newsletter.
I wasn’t going to write anything more in this newsletter, but I was feeling inspired and so decided to leave y’all with one final opinion — and one final mandate.
During a webinar Thursday focused on how journalists can use generative AI, one of the panelists bemoaned the fact that developers in the newsroom don’t want to invest in building AI verification tools because the problem of detecting deepfakes is constantly evolving, meaning the tools would need to constantly ..read more
Stacey on IoT | Internet of Things news and analysis
8M ago
Verdigris has raised $10M for smarter buildings: I am so excited by this news, because roughly eight years ago I met one of the founders of Verdigris in an Austin coffee shop to talk about how to use AI and connected HVAC to make buildings greener. The company just raised $10 million in funding (in this environment!) led by DCVC and Solea Energy to continue selling the product. I’m happy to see that Verdigris is still around and that the overall hype around AI will help a company that has long been using IoT and AI to make buildings more efficient. (Verdigris) — Stace ..read more
Stacey on IoT | Internet of Things news and analysis
8M ago
Amazon’s head of devices David Limp plans to retire, as part of a wave of executives leaving Amazon in the last year. Also, next year Alexa and the Amazon Echo will be ten years old, which prompted us to take a look at the role Alexa and the Amazon Echo has played in the smart home, along with what has and hasn’t changed. Our concerns about the state of the smart home are perfectly illustrated by this review of the Mill composting system founded by Nest co-founder Matt Rodgers, and the news that Masonite is now selling its expensive smart door at Home Depot. There’s positive news as well, as t ..read more
Stacey on IoT | Internet of Things news and analysis
8M ago
If you need any more indication that Matter is not going to kill all of the pre-existing standards in the smart home anytime soon, check out the launch this week of Trident IoT, a new company devoted to building Z-wave chips. Trident was founded in April to design and support Z-wave devices, and launched this week with news that it is a month out from taping out its chips and plans to sample them to customers before the end of this year.
This is huge news for the smart home and the Z-Wave standard in particular. For decades, when I spoke to people about the Z-Wave standard, I heard praise for ..read more
Stacey on IoT | Internet of Things news and analysis
8M ago
Following the launch of the $69 Homey Bridge, the $399 Homey Pro is now available in the U.S. Stacey reviewed the lower-costing Bridge model back in March, and reported feeling mostly positive about the product. The more expensive Pro model removes most subscription fees and limitations found in the Bridge. It also adds optional ethernet connectivity for an additional $29 and the promise of future Matter support, including Matter over Thread.
Depending on the devices you have in your smart home, I see great potential in the Homey Pro, but it’s not for me. I’ll explain why s ..read more
Stacey on IoT | Internet of Things news and analysis
8M ago
Here’s a bit more on Philips Hue’s potential as a home security play: On an earnings call the president of Signify, which owns the Philips Hue brand, said the company was working on a security camera for it. Now reports are saying that there are four cameras planned and some contact sensors. I’ve had Hue lights in my home since 2013, and after 10 years of watching others commoditize the lighting sector I think it could make sense for Hue to get into security. It has brand recognition, for one. Plus, there are only so many people who want to pay a premium for light bul ..read more
Stacey on IoT | Internet of Things news and analysis
8M ago
This week we make a big announcement about the podcast and newsletter. Get ready! Then we talk about the issues with Matter and who’s to blame. We lay out the challenges that both we and The Verge have highlighted with Thread credentialing, and talk about uneven device support. It’s a mess. Other messy topics include the prospect of hacked radiation sensors in Chernobyl, as reported by Kim Zetter. Then we get chippy, discussing the new RISC-V company that Qualcomm, NXP, Infineon, and others are backing, and the proposed sale of an IoT module business to Renesas. A drone startup is building an ..read more
Stacey on IoT | Internet of Things news and analysis
8M ago
Given the extreme heat this summer and the general awareness of how fragile our power grids are, there is a growing consensus that smart homes should include some form of smart energy management component. Today that might be a smart thermostat that’s hooked into a utility’s demand response program.
But it’s likely that in the next decade it will also include some form of smart breaker box, smart EV charger, and perhaps solar or some form of energy storage. Controlling the entire system will be software that communicates with the devices in the home and back to the utility to ensure that ..read more