This week we kick off the show discussing several smart devices that might provide a modicum of security or comfort in case of weather disasters associated with climate change. After that, we start the long goodbye to 3G and discuss how companies are reacting. And for those who are keeping track of algorithmic accountability efforts, California has a new law that could be better in my humble opinion. We also talk about the security woes for the IoT as covered by a report out from Kaspersky, before talking about some new products including a new Z-wave home hub for HomeKit, a smart dog collar, Home Depot’s new smart home app, and a prospective gun safe from Wyze. And speaking of security, there is big news in the access control space with Chamberlain getting purchased by Blackstone for $5 billion and Assa Abloy buying the company behind Kwikset and Baldwin locks.
Our guest this week takes us beyond the edge of the earth’s atmosphere with Charlie Kindel, a former executive at Microsoft, Amazon, and Control4, who is now advising companies who are working in space. We talk about how there’s a new economic flywheel driving investment in space communications and research and how that can be an advantage for the IoT. Those advantages aren’t simply related to communications and providing connectivity for sensors on Earth. Kindel gets excited about the ways researchers building networks for IoT can apply some of those learning to communications in space, where innovations are sorely needed. It’s a really fun interview.
Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guests: Charlie Kindel
Sponsors: Silicon Labs and Infineon
- Devices that might help you as climate change wracks havoc on the weather
- How I think we should regulate algorithmic accountability
- Consolidation hits the access control market
- Space is the final frontier for IoT
- Why investment in space is speeding up
This will sound silly, but I just this week realized I can get the podcast via Alexa!
EMERGENCY DEVICES
With regard to devices to help in an emergency, for some of us, there’s almost always a reason for even simple devices to be smart: we have disability-related issues that require alternative methods to turn them on and off. That could be voice or an app. (I myself am quadriparetic , so I’m very familiar with this issue.). I can’t push a regular switch or button.
I use Switchbot devices a lot for retrofit use cases, Like pushing a blender button or the eject button on the DVD player or the microwave door button on the older microwave which is not voice enabled. Or an emergency lantern.
A Switchbot is essentially a robot finger. They are battery operated and can communicate directly to the app on my phone via Bluetooth, so it will work even if the mains power and Internet are out. So I don’t necessarily need a smart emergency lantern, but I do need one with a button that a Switchbot can push. I realize that’s an edge case, of course, but it is part of our own emergency planning.
HOME DEPOT’s NEW APP
A user on the SmartThings forum, @automated_house, pointed out that this appears to be the app for the new WiFi versions of the Home Depot proprietary brands which used to just come in zigbee. The weird thing is that they call it “hubspace” when there isn’t a hub. Anyway, if they didn’t want to have their own app they would have to either wait for Matter or do like Eaton did with their WiFi devices and depend on the Alexa app. So it makes sense that Home Depot is offering an app for their Wi-Fi devices, it just seems to have been described by marketing as something bigger than that. In which case all the issues you brought up in the podcast apply.
CHAMBERLAIN
They did something about a month ago which broke a lot of unofficial third-party integrations for MyQ. Don’t know if that has anything to do with this sale or not.