This week Kevin and I spend more time reviewing gadgets than on news. First, we hit the latest update for Z-Wave which basically makes it easier to grab a new Z-wave device and get it on a network. Then we talk about vulnerabilities in medical … [Read more...]
Sorry, your hardware is all software now
This week, Google said it would kill its Works with Nest program, which allowed Nest devices to communicate their status and work with devices from other makers in the smart home ecosystem. In the future, all Nest devices will share data with the … [Read more...]
IoT news of the week for April 19, 2019
Alexa gets 2M ad-supported songs: The most commonly used smart speaker feature is listening to music, so it only makes sense that Amazon bring its Music service to Echo devices for free. And by free, I mean you won’t pay any fees but you will be … [Read more...]
Life in a Google Home and what it says about the smart home
In mid-December, my family went cold turkey on Alexa in both our kitchen and living room. Alexa still reigns in the bedrooms, but we removed the Echo Show to try out life with a Google Home, as we had been growing increasingly frustrated with Alexa's … [Read more...]
Here’s why smart home hubs seem to be dying a slow, painful death
I’m getting close to admitting defeat. And it hurts. I’ve long been a proponent of smart home hubs with multiple radios, particular those for Zigbee and Z-Wave, but it seems like the hub market is happy to ignore those in favor of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth … [Read more...]