IoT news of the week for March 29, 2019

Wyze adds home smarts on the cheap: After announcing a $20 million funding round and one million WyzeCams sold, Wyze is following up with its next low-cost product, the Wyze Sense. This is a $20 add-on package of products, available in May, that includes one motion sensor, two door/contact sensors, and a plug-in bridge that attaches to a WyzeCam. That’s a very low price for a small suite of sensors, which fits nicely with the company’s strategy of inexpensive smarts for your home. Wyze Sense will eventually be supplemented with smart bulbs to complete the set. Note that in order to keep costs down while maintaining a long wireless range, Wyze has opted to use a proprietary protocol in the 915 MHz band, so integration with existing smart home hubs is an open question. (Wyze)

Robots are delivering food to hungry college students: If you’re strolling around the Northern Arizona University campus and see a small robot roll by, don’t panic. It just means that the students are so busy studying, they don’t have time to run out for a bite to eat. Instead, they’re using food delivery robots from Starship Technologies, which first rolled out the delivery service in January at George Mason University’s Fairfax campus. The cost of a high-tech food drop? Just $1.99 on top of the food order, which works with student meal plans. And to think I used to believe that a 5-minute walk to the Student Union building for coffee was convenient. (VentureBeat)

Resideo buys Buoy Labs: Stacey has previously written about Buoy Labs and the $800 whole-home water monitoring system it offers. Now Buoy is part of Resideo, the Honeywell Labs spin-off from October, which announced the acquisition on Friday. We wondered what steps Resideo would take after leaving Honeywell, and now the strategy is showing early signs of life. With the Buoy Labs purchase, Resideo has the opportunity to get its brand inside of homes and take advantage of subscription services, such as the $17.99 monthly fee that Buoy currently charges for its water monitoring service. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Resideo start spending more money on other smart device companies over the coming months. (Resideo)

Microsoft improves Azure for Industrial IoT: In advance of its participation in next week’s Hannover Messe, an industrial trade show expecting more than 220,000 visitors, Microsoft announced several Azure advancements specifically for IIoT. The company claims to be the first public cloud providing end-to-end IoT security through its Azure Security Center for IoT, Azure Sentinel, and Azure IoT Hub. And in the oft-confusing world of proprietary platforms, Microsoft says it has continued to develop “open-source components based on open interoperability standards.” Imagine that! Joking aside, Microsoft seems to be finding a strong footing in the industrial space with a broad spectrum of Azure products that provide its centralized device and threat management combined with cloud smarts and security services. (Microsoft)

Do you really know if there are cameras and sensors around you? Well, this is scary. A Fast Company story highlights at least a half-dozen places and scenarios where cameras or sensors have been found — unbeknownst to the people in them. The examples range from embedded cameras in airline entertainment systems to license plate readers hidden in cacti to sensors in supermarket freezer doors. All of devices are meant to do one thing: gather information about you. And since there are no terms of service nearby, it’s next to impossible to even realize you’re providing that information. I think I’m going to start buying ice cream with my face covered from now on. (Fast Company)

Volkswagen teams up with Amazon: No, you won’t be purchasing your next VW car on Amazon’s retail site. But VW will have access to data from all 122 of its manufacturing plants thanks to Amazon’s push to get AWS IoT services into the industrial world. This is a big step for both companies, since AWS will power the Volkswagen Industrial Cloud, which integrates 30,000 total facilities and 1,500 suppliers for the company. Aside from using machine learning for production optimization and waste reduction, Volkswagen expects to improve forecasting and analyze vehicle production operational trends. (Volkswagen)

Hubitat gives new life to Lowe’s Iris devices: With the Lowe’s Iris platform shutting down at the end of this month, consumers who bought the smart products will be left out in the cold. Or will they be? Just in the nick of time, Hubitat announced that it has found a way to support the ZigBee devices sold by Lowe’s. Of course, you’ll need a $99 Hubitat Elevation hub and the patience required to set it up. Though that may be a small price to pay for people who may have previously invested hundreds of dollars in Lowe’s Iris gear. Keep in mind, too, that Hubitat is one of the few hubs that keeps device data local, so if privacy is a concern in your smart home, this is a double win. (Hubitat)

TomTom’s GPS finds IFTTT support: I don’t know how many standalone vehicle GPS systems are sold today, but people must be buying them. And if they buy the latest one from TomTom, they’ll get a welcome surprise: IFTTT support is built in. The idea is that you can use the IFTTT service to make things happen in certain locations, such as having your garage door open when pulling into your driveway. Sure, you can do this with a smartphone and IFTTT — not to mention any number of other services or apps — but it’s a clever move from TomTom in a market that’s surely shrinking over time. (TomTom)