IoT news of the week for March 31, 2023

Wirepas is the newest CSA member: Add this to the list of things I didn’t see coming: Wirepas joined the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) this week. Why does this surprise me? Mainly because Wirepas isn’t a connected device maker, nor does it have products that work with Wi-Fi or Thread, which are used by the CSA’s Matter standard. The main focus of Wirepas of late is the non-cellular 5G DECT NR+ standard. Regardless of the wireless protocol used, Wirepas brings a high level of expertise in decentralized mesh networks, something that could be of huge benefit to the CSA moving forward. (Wirepas)

There’s a new chair in town: Speaking of the CSA, the organization announced that its current chair, Bruno Vulcano of Legrand, is now the Alliance Chair Emeritus. That opened up a key position and no, I didn’t get it. Instead, Musa Unmehopa from Signify will take over the reins. Having a chair from Signify, formerly Philips Lighting, is certainly a good choice. However, it’s also notable that Philips Hue, a Signify company, this week failed to deliver its promised Matter upgrade to the Philips Hue Bridge by March 31. In fact, there’s no new time frame for Matter support with Philips Hue. I guess the CSA members will have something fun to discuss at the next board meeting! (Connectivity Standards Alliance)

GitHub adds free support for one-click SBOMs: We’ve recently discussed SBOMs, or software bills of materials, as they pertain to the IoT. These are used to show a list of open source software and service components, helping to track potential vulnerabilities and software versions. SBOMs are key to understanding and managing the software used by IoT devices. This week, GitHub announced “self-service SBOMs,” a method that provides such a list of software components in a standard format approved by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. The best part? GitHub creates the SBOM for free with a single click in a code repository, which reduces any friction that might come with building and maintaining them. (GitHub)

Tiny AI measures vibrations with minuscule data: Plenty of IIoT devices are monitored for vibrations as the data can be useful for predicting breakdowns or non-optimal machinery. But while that sounds good, such sensors create a massive amount of data. And much of it is just “noise” in the grand scheme, which means it requires lots of compute power to get at the useful data. Polyn has an answer with its VibroSense Tiny AI chip solution, which it introduced this week. The company says it uses small vibration patterns and Tiny AI to get the relevant data, with the patterns being up to 1,000 smaller than the data created from traditional vibration sensors. That means less data sent to the cloud and less power required for actionable information. (Polyn)

You may be talking to Google Bard, not Google Assistant: I’m sure you’ve been hearing a lot about generative AI in the news lately. It seems like we’re in a digital gold rush of artificial intelligence right now as large companies scramble to add this technology into any products they can. To that end, Google recently released Bard, its entry in this space. Surprisingly though, Google this week announced that it was reorganizing its Assistant division with a major focus shift to Google Bard. While I wouldn’t expect Assistant features to simply stop evolving, I do think we’ll see more experimentation as Google attempts to bridge its Bard AI service with the Google Assistant. That’s not necessarily a bad thing as digital assistant smarts have stagnated of late. However, based on my own usage of Bard, Google has a long way to go before it becomes a value-add to the Assistant experience. (CNBC)

Show me your hand and I’ll give you a sandwich: If the idea of scanning your palm to shop at an Amazon Fresh or Whole Foods gives you the willies, you’re not going to like this next development. At least not if you also like Panera Bread. The company has partnered with Amazon to bring the latter’s palm-scanning payment system to two St. Louis Panera locations. More Panera Bread locations will follow suit, although so far there are no details as to where, when, and how many. I’m still not a fan of giving Amazon even more of my data, especially when it comes to biometric data. Guess I’ll just have to visit my local Subway more often. (Amazon)

Ikea HomeKit support is a breath of fresh air: Good news for those who bought, or plan to buy, the Ikea Vindstyrka air quality monitor and use Apple Home. Since its launch, the Ikea sensor has only worked with Ikea’s Dirigera hub. A firmware update released this week adds HomeKit support for the Vindstryka. That means your Apple Home can get temperature, humidity, VOCs, and particulate matter (PM 2.5) data from your Ikea sensor once you upgrade your hub. (HomeKit News)

Tapo adds three new smart home devices, but…: Tapo, a TP-Link smart home brand, has a trio of new devices available, although unlike the company’s newest smart plug, they don’t use Thread. Instead, Tapo is using Wi-Fi and 900 MHz spectrum for connectivity. There’s a $23 smart hub with a chime, and both a new smart motion sensor and contact sensor that retail for $20 each. Tapo says the hub can support up to 64 devices, which is more than enough for those new to the smart home. While these new Tapo products offer an inexpensive way to add some smarts to your home, I’d rather see more Thread and Matter products from the company, even if they cost more. (Tapo)

Maybe the FireTV can earn Alexa more money: It’s been reported that Amazon has lost billions of dollars on its Echo and Alexa products, mainly because the company is finding it hard to monetize them. Perhaps it was focused on the wrong products all along. That’s the premise of this article, which suggests Amazon FireTV is the better option to boost revenues. It does make sense given that “customers who use voice features on Fire TV engage with content nearly twice as much as those who don’t,” according to Amazon. I don’t own a FireTV so I can’t speak to the experience of it as compared to an Echo. But I’d love to hear from those who do own one. Do you engage with it in ways that can add more money to Amazon’s bank account as opposed to using an Echo speaker or display? (ArsTechnica)

Sorry Apple, iOS 16.4 didn’t fix my broken HomeKit home yet: On the podcast this week, I expressed utter frustration with the new Apple HomeKit architecture that’s plagued me since iOS 16.1. That architecture update was pulled, but not before I installed it, and we’ve had nothing but problems with HomeKit ever since. So when I heard that this week’s iOS 16.4 update would finally address the problem, I did my duty and updated all of my iOS devices. And now my wife can’t see any of our smart home devices. I’ve been relegated to receiving her text messages asking me to dim or turn off a light. For many, likely those who didn’t get the architecture update before it was pulled from iOS 16.1, all is well. For others, like me, the problems haven’t been resolved. If you’re also in this boat, please accept my sympathy and this forum of potential fixes. (Reddit)