IoT news of the week for Nov. 11, 2022

Alexa better get to work: Brace yourselves, Alexa owners. Amazon is looking at cost-cutting, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, and Alexa looks like a target. The WSJ reports that the business unit has a reported loss of $5 billion a year. This being Amazon, a loss isn’t something to be ashamed of as long as it contributes to the overall Amazon flywheel, but layoffs and caution are in the air in the technology sector right now. If Amazon wants to make cuts, the roughly 10,000 employees working on Alexa could be affected, and customers might see stupid grabs for cash like intrusive ads or higher service fees. It’s going to be a rough ride for a while. (WSJ) — Stacey Higginbotham

Honeywell launches software and sensors to help meet ESG goals: The IoT is going to be all about ESG this year, as tracking and reporting on carbon emissions become mandatory for regulatory and financial reasons. To hop on this trend, Honeywell has launched Honeywell Forge Sustainability+ for Industrials | Emissions Management and Honeywell Versatilis Signal Scout wireless Industrial IoT leak detection sensors. Honeywell’s Forge software helps customers manage their plant automation assets, so this new line adds another layer to that with sensors and software to track resource management. It’s similar to competing offerings from Siemens and Johnson Controls. (Honeywell) — Stacey Higginbotham

What will we see if we track everything? According to a survey from Avery Dennison, companies see a loss of 7.7% of goods throughout the supply chain resulting in $163.1 billion in inventory losses each year. While I am confident that billions of dollars worth of goods tend to “fall off the truck” or spoil en route, I also greet this survey with skepticism given that Avery Dennison is investing big in smart labels to place on every single item. The promise of being able to track an item across every step in the supply chain is compelling, but I’m not sure it’s worth it to ensure that every item gets from point A to point Z. Accepting some loss is probably the cost of doing business.  (Enterprise IoT Management) — Stacey Higginbotham

Wi-Fi sensing is on a roll: Last month on the podcast, we noted that the newest Verizon routers included Wi-Fi technology to detect movement in your home. This week, there’s more Wi-Fi sensing news. Cognitive Systems has partnered with chip designer MaxLinear for a similar feature. The former’s patented WiFi Motion technology is in the latest MaxLinear chip for broadband routers. This all might sound new, but we’ve been discussing the use of Wi-Fi for presence detection for half a decade. It appears we’re now approaching that turning point where the use of standard RF in the home for this purpose goes mainstream. In fact, Cognitive says that in just the last two years, it has enabled 2.5 million motion-capable devices with the product being offered by more than 100 service providers. (Cognitive Systems) — Kevin C. Tofel

Burst water pipe? Vivint to the rescue! In what is yet another example of the smart home being paired with services, Vivint is partnering with water damage cleanup companies. Customers of the Vivint platform can have the Water Sensor Experience, which adds water and leak detection sensors to the home, installed at no charge. If the sensors determine there’s a leak, the home owner will quickly get an email notification and be directed to a Vivint-trusted water damage company. The idea is to both inform the customer of a leak as quickly as possible and, in the case of a large water damage situation, get them the help they need. Doing so can reduce the amount of damage and direct customers to approved professionals fast — something that both homeowners and their insurance companies will appreciate. Currently, the Vivint Water Sensor Experience is available in Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, and Florida, with rollouts in additional states expected next year.  (Vivint) — Kevin C. Tofel

New Philips Hue lights can brighten your holiday tree: There’s a new set of smart holiday lights available, just in time for this year’s season of joy. The HomeKit-compatible Philips Hue Festavia string lights consist of a 20-meter cord with 250 LED bulbs. Being connected Hue lights, you can of course control them with your Hue app or by voice commands using your smart speaker of choice. The Festavia looks ideal for use on a Christmas tree since you don’t have to fumble around for a power switch to turn them on. And with support for different colors, scenes, and brightness, your tree can have a different look all through the season. The Philips Hue Festavia will go on sale for $159.99 starting Nov. 15. (Signify) — Kevin C. Tofel

Guess which smart home tech is a 2022 innovation of the year? If you guessed a smart pooper scooper for the litter box, you’re not even close, although it’s possible that such a product may use one of Time’s innovations of the year for 2022. It’s the Thread radio protocol! After a decade of work and now a mainstream implementation, Thread has made the annual list. That’s likely because it brings a cohesive way to transfer smart home data between devices and is a self-healing mesh network devoted to those devices. (Time) — Kevin C. Tofel

Custom buttons for Home Assistant: I’m still thrilled with my purchase of the Philips Hue Tap Dial Switch and its four buttons to control my lights. However, this project to create smart home buttons looks interesting to me. I like both the E Ink display component and the $39 price tag. You may not like that these buttons specifically work with Home Assistant, but given the relatively standard components, along with support for Wi-Fi and MQTT, I’m betting coders can modify the functionality. The 3D-printed case houses all of those components, which also include environmental sensors tucked in with the six buttons. (HackADay) — Kevin C. Tofel