IoT news of the week for August 18, 2023

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) — Stacey Higginbotham

Nordic Semiconductor has purchased a TinyML player: Nordic Semiconductor has purchased the IP of Atlazo, a San Diego, Calif.-based company that was developing technology to build low-power MCUs optimized for machine learning. Nordic, which makes low-power wireless chips for the IoT, says this is a bolt-on acquisition that will benefit the company within 12 to 18 months from closing. Given the demand for on-device machine learning and Nordic’s focus on the IoT, bringing ultra-low power MCU expertise makes sense. (Nordic Semiconductor) — Stacey Higginbotham

ChargePoint is taking a page from telcos to make EV charging more reliable: ChargePoint says it has built a network operations center (NOC) to monitor the health of its 243,000 EV chargers across the United States and Europe. As part of new legislation to promote the adoption of electric vehicles, the federal government is requiring new uptime requirements, which has prompted ChargePoint’s investment in the NOC. Honestly, I was surprised it didn’t have a NOC already, since the entire business is about providing customers EV charging when they roll up to a charger. It seems insane to not have had some way of monitoring that before now. And I would argue that any company providing connected services or devices should have similar teams in place to monitor for uptime, but maybe that’s just because I’ve accepted that we’re in a maintenance era. (Ars Technica) — Stacey Higginbotham

Are video doorbells simply security theater? That’s what this BBC article asks, and I’m on the fence. I think they can be convenient, but I also think porch pirates have adapted to the technology by simply hiding their faces. I’m interviewed in the story saying as much. (BBC) — Stacey Higginbotham

Shelly now has a premium subscription option: The lure of recurring subscription revenue is powerful for smart home device makers, and Shelly is no exception. The smart home device maker has added a premium subscription that is tied to energy management. The service is for Europeans and is available in the U.S. For €3.99 ($4.34) a month, subscribers get notifications when they leave lights on, alerts when products use more or less electricity than normal, ways to monitor their devices’ energy consumption, and more. Shelly says the service should shave up to 18% off an electricity bill, so it may be worth it. (Shelly) — Stacey Higginbotham

Some pure speculation about Google Nest: The Information is reporting that Verily, one of the businesses that Alphabet tracks under “other bets,” is preparing to stop using Alphabet’s corporate services in preparation for an eventual spin out in late 2024. The reporter who wrote the story notes that this could pave the way for additional spin outs of Alphabet “other bets.” And the “other bet” that we care most about in this newsletter is the Google Nest division. I debated posting this story because it’s pure speculation, and it’s behind a paywall. Yet, given how Alphabet is promoting Ruth Porat, who has been behind the culling of unprofitable Google services, and how Google has been pulling back on support for some of its Nest displays, I figured y’all might want to hear about any plans to spin out businesses that are part of Alphabet’s other bets. Because if Google decides to spin out Nest, that would have a huge impact on the smart home ecosystem. (The Information) — Stacey Higginbotham

New Aqara LED light strip gains Matter, but… The latest Aqara product launched this week and it’s a bit of a good news/bad news situation. First, the good news. Like the recently released Nanoleaf Essentials light strip, the Aqara LED Strip Lights T1 support the Matter standard. Priced at $49.95, you can order the T1 now and have it work with your choice of smart home platform. The bad news is that Matter doesn’t support Adaptive Lighting, the feature that automatically changes the brightness and color temperature of lights based on the time of day. You can get that feature working on the T1 but only if you opt not to use Matter for the connection. In that case, you need an Aqara hub for the light strip’s Zigbee radio. So while it’s a bummer that this is an either-or situation, that sort of summarizes the entire Matter implementation so far. (The Verge)  — Kevin C. Tofel

Want a non-cloud video doorbell? Here’s a DIY option: I don’t expect many of you will take me up on this one, but I found a nifty little video doorbell project this week. Using an ESP32 and open source software, you can follow the instructions to make a privacy-centric video doorbell. The current implementation works with Home Assistant, however I’m sure it could be adapted to work with other DIY-style smart home hubs, too. (CNX Software) — Kevin C. Tofel

A second-gen EveCam is expected next month: Thank goodness for Google Translate or I wouldn’t have been able to bring you this news. A German site spilled several details on an upcoming EveCam, expected to debut at next month’s IFA event. I don’t normally share rumors without some credible evidence but I’d say the FCC documentation on the new webcam qualifies. The new model appears to have been tested for both 2.4 and 5 GHz Wi-Fi networks and has a small 50mm square footprint. Although Eve Home products have only just expanded support beyond HomeKit via Matter, the Matter spec doesn’t include webcams so this is very likely a HomeKit-only solution. (appgefahren) — Kevin C. Tofel