InternetOfThings
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2015: The year the Internet of Things jumped the shark
The Internet of Things started off as a way to turn on a few lights and control the climate in your home. Then as manufacturers ran out of bulbs and thermostats to shove chips into they looked to connect the rest of the devices in the home, sometimes for better, but a lot of times for worse. The result is a dizzying array of smart devices that are answers to problems no one actually has.
Tiny wireless sensor never needs a battery
The internet of things is a nice idea, but there's one big catch: you have to power all those smart devices, which is no mean feat when some of them might not even have room for a battery. Dutch researchers think they have a solution, though. They've built an extra-small (2 square millimeters) wireless temperature sensor that gets its power from the radio waves that make up its wireless network. All it needs is energy from a nearby router -- once there's enough, it powers up and starts working.
Amazon's Echo speaker wants to play games with you
Amazon seems bound and determined to not let its internet-connected wünderspeaker, the Echo, fall prey to the same fate as the Fire Phone. Good on Jeff Bezos for that. In case you're already bored of the device reading you news headlines and finding restaurant info for you, now the gizmo's Alexa app will play games and even tell you how much gas you have left in your car. Games include Bingo; trivia; simple math puzzles and even rock, paper, scissors. As Android Central points out, the automotive stuff is available via a third-party solution, dubbed Automatic, that interfaces with your car via a $100 adapter. With that, you can ask questions about how far you drove recently or what your gas gauge is sitting at. Or you could, you know, look at your instrument cluster. It's up to you!
Lowe's updated connected home system is built for your phone
While most connected home devices on the market were introduced as mobile-first solutions, the Lowe's Iris system on the other hand, required new users to set it up via a browser. After set up -- while the mobile app was able to share status information and access features like turning items on and off -- it was still a desktop-heavy setup. Today the hardware store-turned developer is fixing that with a new platform built from the ground up with a mobile-first strategy and updated devices.
'Robotic fingers' make your dumb appliances smarter
Naran, a South Korean startup, has developed a series novel devices that transforms analog, push-button devices into internet-connected tools for your smart home. The devices, dubbed "Microbot Push" are low-power Bluetooth gadgets that pull commands from an internet hub and physically push analog buttons on, say, your old blender or the toaster oven. That's a radically different functionality than conventional "wall wart" IoT-enablers -- like the Brio or Nyrius -- which simply control the electrical circuits that power your appliances. Additionally, the Microbots can either be manually activated through the associated smartphone app or be automated in much the same way that IFTTT works. Naran plans to launch an Indiegogo campaign for the devices on November 9th.
The coming smart-thing apocalypse
Bad Password is a hacking and security column by Violet Blue. Every week she'll be exploring the trendy new cyberhysteria, the state of the infosec community and the ever-eroding thing that used to be called "privacy." Bad Password cuts through the greed, fearmongering and jargon with expertise, a friendly voice and a little levelheaded perspective. Like some people I know familiar with the ins and outs of digital surveillance (and startle like housecats when an app makes a geolocation request) I don't own any "smart" home items. My 1913 flat is well-connected to the internet, and my living room is a hacker's honeycomb hideout of entertainment playthings, but I'm far too pleased with my paranoia to own something from the class of spyware and advertising honeypottery known as the Internet of Things.
Raspberry Pi offers custom-made, mass-produced boards
It's one thing to buy a Raspberry Pi for your own tinkering, but it's another when you need to buy a lot of them for your company -- you aren't going to tweak thousands of boards by hand. Thankfully, you don't have to. Raspberry Pi is teaming up with Element14 on a customization service that lets organizations order 3,000 or more specially-made boards at once. You can use the service to add or remove connections, rejigger the layout and otherwise get the exact mini computer you want. This is helpful if you're going to sell a Raspberry Pi-powered device (particularly important for appliances and other connected gadgets), but it should also be handy for education and other fields where an off-the-shelf board might not cut the mustard. It'll take up to three weeks before Element14 starts designing your custom board, let alone shipping it, but that could be a small price to pay if you're determined to get the right mix of circuitry.
ARM's latest graphics core will speed up your smartwatch
Let's be blunt: the graphics in most smartwatches suck. They're frequently limited to basic effects, and you'll sometimes see the kind of stuttering that has long-since disappeared on your smartphone. ARM aims to fix that, however. It's launching the Mali-470, a mobile graphics core that's virtually tailor-made for smartwatches, the internet of things and anything else where battery life is the top priority. The GPU supports the flashy per-pixel visual effects you see on modern phones (OpenGL ES 2.0, to be exact), but it uses half as much power as the long-serving Mali-400 even as it runs faster-- you could see lively 3D animations that don't kill your watch within a few hours.
ComEd wants to put a million smart thermostats in Illinois homes
ComEd, the largest power provider in Illinois, wants to give its customers a hand in switching over to smart thermostats like those from Nest and Ecobee. The idea is to get a million of them installed within the next five years, according to The Washington Post. The utilities company is offering $120 rebates to its customers who buy the gizmos and the Environmental Protection Agency tells WaPo that it's the "largest effort of its kind" in the country. ComEd likens the push to switch to the connected thermostats to the not-that-long-ago transition to compact fluorescent bulbs in terms of energy savings. Should the program be a success, it could drop total carbon dioxide emissions in the state by 709,000 metric tons and save folks up to $131 per year on their gas and electricity bills.
Nest gets more smart home devices talking to each other
Getting your connected-home gear to actually connect with one another can be a pain. Nest is trying to alleviate at least some of that hassle by adding Weave, its ad-hoc networking system to Works with Nest, it's third party development platform. Weave lets items talk to each other without relying on a home network. The company is also introducing APIs for the Nest Cam with basic camera controls and access to motion and sound events. Plus, it launched a Works with Nest store with hardware that, well, work with Nest. Finally, it showed off a new lock from Yale that works with the fancy new features it just announced.
Google's secret strategy for controlling your home
Yesterday in San Francisco, Google launched a pair of new smartphones, some AV devices and a Surface-like tablet. But future events could just as easily devote a large portion of their running time to the Internet of Things and smart home devices. Tilt your head by 90 degrees and you can almost spot Google's subtle strategy to become the dominant name in your home -- after all, as the phone market begins to play itself out, it's only natural that the firm would move onto the next big thing. After years of lingering on the periphery of the industry, perhaps souped-up lightbulbs and thermostats are ready for their day in the sun.
Nest Protect review (2015): Improved safety makes it easier to recommend
There's nothing cool about safety. Yes, safety is important, but it's very rarely cool. The stylish Nest Protect is, at its core, a smoke detector -- the least chic item in your home. Still, when the company that brought us the smart thermostat introduced a smoke alarm, it stood out from its rivals with swanky features like lighting your way in the dark and a companion app. Those were and still are nice, but it's the safety features that make the device a worthy addition to the home. In particular, Nest recently updated the Protect with more precise air detection. This is a welcome turn after the company's wave-to-silence feature in the last model ended up accidentally silencing the device. That experiment in parlor tricks led Nest to halt sales of the Protect, only to put it back on the market with the motion-control feature disabled. As before, the updated smoke/carbon monoxide detector uses a human voice to calmly warn you when the alarm is about to go off. Once again, too, the Protect reminds you that it's there thanks to a helpful night-light feature. At $99, it's more than double the price of other smoke alarms you'll find in your local hardware store. But, thanks to a companion app and its integration with the Nest Cam, Nest Thermostat and other Protects you may have installed, it's a solid investment for anyone who wants to constantly monitor their home, but more importantly, it's a safer solution than what you have on your ceiling right now.
Samsung's next-gen SmartThings home hub goes on sale
The next generation of SmartThings hardware is now available after a lengthy delay. Samsung purchased the home automation company just over a year ago, but was optimistic when it said the next-gen hardware would arrive in April. The hub, sensors and app (available on iOS and Android) are now good to go, however, along with developer tools to get other companies on board. The new hub improves on the last version in a couple of key ways. It no longer needs an internet cloud connection to function, and can run autonomously for 10 hours on a battery if the power is cut.
Internet-connected baby monitors are vulnerable to attacks
Don't call a priest just yet if you hear strange voices coming out of your child's baby monitor -- it's more likely a hacker than some kind of supernatural entity. Security firm Rapid 7 has released a study that shows just how vulnerable at least nine internet-connected baby monitors are. The team tested models from eight manufacturers (including Philips and Withings) this 2015 and found that hackers can easily break into them, not only to scare the living daylights out of a family, but also to monitor their activities. For instance, some models have unencrypted web apps, so hackers can use that flaw to gain access to their cameras.
Nest Thermostat gets a larger display that's easier to read
After updating its smoke detector and camera, Nest has finally decided to update the device that made the company famous; its Thermostat. The new smart controller has a slightly thinner profile, larger and higher-resolution display and will now alert users when their furnace is acting wonky. To make figuring out what's going on without walking across the room easier, the third-generation device will now display the target or current temperature or an analog or digital watch face on a larger display that's activated whenever someone walks into the room. The Thermostat now has a 480 x 480 (229 ppi) display. While the display got larger, the profile got smaller. The width of the device is now 1.21 inches instead of 1.26 inches. Not exactly a huge difference, but slimmer is slimmer. For furnace owners, the Furnace Heads-Up feature tracks shutoff patterns to see if there's a potential problem with the heater. This feature will be released for the first- and second-generation Thermostats later this year. The new third-generation Nest Thermostat is available now for $249.
LG sensor adds smarts to your 'dumb' home appliances
Sure, it's easy to find connected home appliances, but what if you want to add a dash of intelligence to many of your existing appliances (not just one or two)? LG might come to your rescue before long. It's launching a SmartThinQ Sensor which uses feedback like temperature and vibration to tell you what your devices are doing. It can tell when your washer has finished by waiting for the shaking to stop, for instance, or tell you if someone left the fridge door open while you were out. In some cases, you can even remotely control those older machines. There's no word on when the sensor arrives, but it'll be joined by the smartphone-controlled Smart Lightwave Oven and Smart Air Conditioner at the upcoming IFA trade show.
Hack Amazon's Dash buttons to do things other than buying stuff
Amazon's Dash buttons are tiny adhesive physical triggers that can order for you, through the magic of WiFi, anything you need to stock up on. But that's not the limits of their power, if you're willing to tinker with them. Ted Benson, (who works at a company that likes to regularly perform such shenanigans with the aid of its web tools), reckons it''ll you take under 10 minutes to repurpose Amazon's physical iteration of Buy It Now. (I think he's underestimating the degree of incompetence this editor possesses, but anyhow.) Benson managed to hack a diaper-ordering Dash button to act as an Internet Of Things-style tracker for how often his (adorable) baby poops. Or how many times he wakes up in a night. The trick lies in the fact that Amazon's buttons aren't constantly connected to WiFi. For the sake of battery life, the buttons only come to life when pushed, meaning the workaround picks up when your button is trying to access the internet, and registers that as a trigger for anything but buying stuff from Amazon.
Microsoft built a robotic air hockey table to show off Windows 10
Microsoft is more than a little proud that a version of Windows 10 runs on tiny, embedded PCs -- proud enough that it's willing to make clever devices to show this off. The folks in Redmond have built a robotic air hockey table whose virtual player is powered by a diminutive MinnowBoard Max running Windows 10 IoT Core. It's simple (it largely depends on an overhead camera to track the puck), but it's good enough to keep up with at least some shots, as you'll see in the video below. You aren't about to buy this table in a store -- it'd need to keep up with a ruthless human rival, for starters -- but it's proof that modern Windows can find its way into some very unusual places.
Tiny sensor tells you when your favorite places are crowded
You probably aren't a fan of showing up at the coffee shop right when there's a large line, or at the gym when there are no free machines. Wouldn't it be nice if you could find out how busy a place is at any given moment, without resorting to estimates? The new Density sensor might help. The tiny infrared detector is effectively a smarter, more connected pedestrian traffic sensor: it tells apps how many people are entering or leaving a building at any moment, giving you a good sense of whether that restaurant is packed or blissfully empty. Shops can use that data to their advantage, too. They can offer discounts whenever it gets quiet, or notify you the moment there's a free seat.
Chrome for iOS talks to smart devices through the web
Your iPhone just became a better remote control for the internet of things. Google has released Chrome 44 for iOS, which lets you see Physical Web devices (think smart parking meters and vending machines) in iOS' Today view -- you don't need to run specialized apps or open the browser just to see gadgets around you. It's still a worthwhile upgrade even if you don't live around compatible gadgets, since you can finally use Safari-style horizontal swipes to flip back and forth through web pages. Either way, you'll definitely want to swing by the App Store if Chrome is your surfing software of choice.
