IoT news of the week for June 18, 2021

Google Home works with multiple voice assistants? Google claims that its Home products only work with Google Assistant. Sonos, however, disagrees, and to prove it has even offered to demonstrate how its own technology supports both Alexa and Google Assistant on the same device. This back-and-forth all came to light earlier this week as part of a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing on the topic of big tech and smart homes. Though none of it should come as a surprise to users of some Samsung Galaxy phones, on which both Google Assistant and Bixby used to be available. But it does illustrate how companies use their voice assistant platforms as the gatekeeper for our homes and the ecosystems that control them. (Protocol)

Wyze Lock gains Google Home support: Wyze Lock owners who update their app this week will find a long-overdue feature, one that they’ve been asking for ever since the lock first hit the market. The latest Wyze app update added Google Home support to the smart lock, bringing a richer integration for homes powered by Google’s platform. Once you have the updated Wyze app, you’ll see your Lock in the Google Home app and can use Google Assistant to control it. (Android Police)

COVID-19 and higher smart home device sales delivered a double whammy to chips: We’ve been hearing about chip shortages in the silicon industry since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. But as we start to emerge from lockdown, chip shortages won’t be left behind, not even in the smart home industry. A large jump in smart home device sales over the past 15 months has intensified the shortage even further. According to a report from Safewise, 85% of locked-down consumers purchased smart home products in 2020. That means the already limited silicon was in high demand, which won’t help the supply chain catch up any time soon. (MakeUseOf)

Should you buy a smart lock now? Silicon shortages aside, I say no, most consumers probably shouldn’t invest in a new or replacement smart lock until at least 2022. That’s because advanced smart lock features are coming to HomeKit, many of which will surely follow for Amazon and Google locks. Add in the fact that the new Matter standard doesn’t yet support locks and you run the risk of not having the latest and best lock technology, radios, or protocols if you make the purchase now. (Stacey On IoT)

Crate.io raises $10M for machine data at scale: One of the most difficult aspects of the IoT is wrangling all of the data it produces. That’s especially true in the industrial space and other markets that rely heavily on sensors. Enter Crate.io, which offers a cloud- and edge-based purpose-built time-series database. The company raised $10 million this week, bringing its total funding to approximately $31 million. (Crate.io)

What’s next for smart cities? Air quality sensors! I’m a bit surprised by this news, but according to Berg Insight, air quality monitoring is one of the fastest-growing smart city applications. The firm estimates a cumulative average growth rate of 34% for smart air monitoring devices through 2025. Had you asked me, I would have said connected parking meters or smart lighting solutions were in the driver’s seat. (Berg Insight)

MachineMetrics gets $20M to expand: Crate.io isn’t the only IIoT service company to raise more funds this week. MachineMetrics, which offers what it calls an industrial data platform, received $20 million in a Series B funding round. The company says its solutions are “enabling manufacturers to improve machine utilization and increase production without adding more machines,” all thanks to sensors and data from them. Maybe we can get some of the silicon supply chain companies on board with this? (MachineMetrics)

Clinical study shows Amazon’s Halo Body as accurate as a doctor: Stacey isn’t a fan of the Amazon Halo Body function, mainly because it requires you to take pictures of yourself. It’s less about those pictures than what happens after you take them, I think: The Amazon Halo service will analyze them to determine your body composition. Regardless of the creepy factor, Amazon this week announced that a clinical study has found the service to be accurate. How accurate? More than twice that of smart scales and about on par with what a doctor can determine. Somehow, I don’t think she’s going to share those snaps with Amazon, even after reading this. Even so, kudos to the machine learning used for the Amazon Halo Body app. (Amazon)

More drama in the age of Google’s wearables: If you own a current Google Wear OS device, you might have been excited to hear about the upcoming platform features announced last month. There will be more of a focus on smartly using health sensors, usability, and speeding up the software in general. The bad news is that you may not ever get any of those features. This week, Google said it wasn’t sure about migrating the new version of Wear OS, which uses Qualcomm’s silicon as the primary chip, to current and older devices. Qualcomm pointed the finger right back at Google, saying its silicon is perfectly capable of running the updated platform. We’ll have to wait and see how this shakes out, but really, this is why we can’t have nice IoT things. (Android Central)

Drones can keep you safe by hearing your screams? This is a little freaky, but it also has potential benefits. German researchers this week announced they’ve used artificial intelligence algorithms for drones to detect human screams. The idea is that drones can cover much more ground (air, technically) to find someone in danger. Next time you find yourself in a dangerous situation or get lost in a massive forest, be sure to belt out those screams so the drones can find you! (Engadget)

Foundries.io nabs $8 million for a secure IoT: Foundries.io, a startup that provides an OS as a platform for connected devices, has raised $8 million from IQ Capital, Crane Venture Partners, and Backed VC. The company was founded by the former CMO at Arm and the former CEO of Linaro to build what is essentially an OS as a service for connected devices. The idea is that a team of experts becomes responsible for software updates and security fixes so the device maker doesn’t have to maintain what is an increasingly vulnerable layer of an IoT device. I profiled the company back in 2019, and am excited to see that they are now working with actual customers and with more funding. (Foundries.io) — Stacey Higginbotham