Episode 33: Better Bluetooth and an AI for the smart home

If you’ve learned anything from this podcast, you’ve probably learned that the smart home is pretty much a mess if you want everything to work together in some sort of seamless, easy-to-use way. Amazon’s Echo helps. HomeKit has a roadmap, but it’s still got a ways to go. This week, our guest Alex Capecelatro, CEO of Jstar, a company developing a voice-controlled artificial intelligence for the smart home discusses how to build an intuitive self-learning home. Our conversation will teach you a lot about how machines learn and the limitations of voice for controlling your home.

The Misfit Shine.
The Misfit Shine.

Before we get to that, Kevin and I spend time breaking down the big news of the week including Lowe’s updated Iris home hub and the updated Bluetooth roadmap which includes speed updates and a mesh. We also break down Fossil’s reasons for buying Misfit, the company behind the Shine wearable device. So get comfortable, and listen up.

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guests: Alex Capecelatro, CEO of Jstar

  • Lowe’s updates its Iris Smart Home Hub
  • Bluetooth is getting meshy and faster
  • Why on earth did Fossil buy Misfit?
  • Building a better Alexa with Josh.ai
  • How does machine learning even work?

Published by

Stacey Higginbotham

I am a journalist who has covered technology for over a decade at publications such as Fortune, PCMag, Gigaom, The Deal and BusinessWeek.