IoT news of the week for August 2, 2018

JBL Link View pre-orders begin: Following the recent release of Lenovo’s Smart Display, JBL now has its own Google Home entry, the Link View; pre-orders have begun at $249. The functionality is identical to that of Lenovo’s model; JBL even included the awesome camera shutter cover for privacy. Unlike Lenovo, however, JBL is only offering one screen size, an 8-inch display. Perhaps the sound quality is better with two speakers in the JBL unit, but I’d go for the Lenovo 10-inch model for the same price. The Lenovo Smart Display supports both 2.4 and 5 GHz Wi-Fi, while the JBL Link View is 2.4 GHz only. The company says pre-orders should start shipping on Sep. 3. (JBL)

Siemens plans a new IoT Integration Services unit: Assuming it gets regulatory approval, Siemens in early 2019 will close a €0.6 billion (roughly $695 million) acquisition of Mendix, which will become part of a new IoT business unit for the company. The idea it to use Mendix’s low-code application development technology, which Siemens says makes it up to 10 times faster to program and deploy apps. The IoT Integration Services unit will offer consulting, design, prototyping, and implementation services for Industrial IoT projects. (Siemens)

Here’s another insurance and smart home play: Travelers is partnering with Notion to help customers monitor their homes in order to prevent and mitigate water leaks, fire damage, and theft. This is really a pilot program to gather insights as it’s limited to select customers in California. Travelers will offer five Notion sensors for $50 which is a discount from the normal price of $200. Insurers might eventually subsidize the smart home. (Coverager)

More LoRA in China: The LoRA Alliance now has another member from the most populous nation on the planet with the addition of Tencent, and it’s a big win for the group. At the beginning of the year, Tencent, which provides internet services and products to millions of consumers, was Asia’s largest company based on market capitalization. Maybe you’ve heard of WeChat? Yup, that was developed by Tencent. Since the company is also involved in AI and robotics, IoT is a logical next step and it sounds like it will bypass carrier networks when connecting smart devices. (Tencent)

HomePod isn’t in that many homes: On this week’s IoT Podcast, we noted that the word “HomePod” wasn’t even uttered on Apple’s quarterly investor call. We may now know why. According to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, Apple’s HomePod only accounted for 6% of all smart speaker sales through the end of June. Amazon ruled the roost with 70% of the market, while Google had 24%. (Cnet)

Honeywell’s new home security startup:  As part of a restructuring announced last October, Honeywell has spun out its homes product portfolio and ADI Global Distribution businesses. Last month it explained that the newly created home security company would be called Resideo and would be led by Mike Nefkens. The spin out will be completed by the end of this year and will include security, comfort and home automation software. We’ll learning more soon on the podcast. -SH (Resideo)

That naked scale just raised $14M: Also on the podcast, we discussed the newest product from Naked Labs, which uses an infrared scanner on a mirror and a 360-degree rotating scale to create a 3D model of your body. Stacey wouldn’t use it, but I would; it’s no different than the TSA airport scans to me. And it can track changes in your body composition over time. Somebody besides me must like the product because Naked Scales just raised $14 million in Series A funding led by Founders Fund. That’s a lot of dough to not spend on clothes. (TechCrunch)

Fighting the Zika virus with lasers: Through a 2008 National Science Foundation grant, Dr. Eamonn Keogh of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of California, Riverside, was tasked with building an algorithmic database to help anthropologists identify artifacts more easily. It turns out that effort ties in nicely witNaked Scale, NSF

h low-cost sensors and a laser that can detect and classify bugs. That makes it useful for identifying locations of potential Zika virus outbreaks. The wearable sensor currently costs around $60, but should get cheaper over time. (Medium)

Changing waveforms for IoT wireless communication: Most IoT devices have relatively short wireless ranges, but a team of French researchers thinks it can change that for the better by using a system that can modulate the waveform of wireless communications based on the situation. By smartly switching between three different modulation schemes and frequencies, IoT devices could theoretically transfer data up to 19.4 kilometers, or just over 12 miles. Take that, Bluetooth, and your limited range! (IEEE Spectrum)

Oh great, my IoT devices could steal my Bitcoin: Well, this is scary. Scientific American suggests that hacked IoT devices could be the entry point for stolen cryptocurrency or the gateway to get crypto-mining software on your computers with you getting none of the mining rewards. According to some researchers, It’s even possible that smart appliances could be mining for cryptocoins without your knowledge. Hmm…maybe I need to unplug that June Oven when it’s not in use. (Scientific American)