Tag: Brillo

Episode 31: Walmart gets connected and this is what you want for Christmas

This week’s guest Rob Katcher is working with Wal-Mart to take a little of the pain out of grocery shopping with the Hiku connected fridge magnet. I chatted with Katcher to understand how he decided to create an entirely new category of device—a button that sticks to your fridge and lets you scan or tell it what you need. It then adds it to a shopping list that is available on a mobile app. With a new deal to link its magnet to Wal-Mart’s curb-side pick up in parts of the country and Peapod’s grocery delivery, Hiku is creating a service that consumers will love and a new revenue stream.

In the first half of the show, Kevin and I take a Mulligan on the SmartThings hub, after discovering a hub replacement solved many of my issues. We also discuss a new integration with the Ring doorbell, Google’s Brillo OS and finally talk about Kevin’s new toy. It isn’t connected, but you watch the snippets of him riding around above and tell me that you don’t want one of these things. Actually, I am sure I’ll hear from y’all. Please enjoy the show.

  • Replacing my SmartThings hub made it a whole new experience.
  • What is Google Brillo good for?
  • Self balancing scooters are pretty hot right now.
  • What it’s like to build a category defining device (you hope).
  • How to build a connected device and get paid.

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Episode 19: Meet the chef teaching a connected oven how to cook

This week’s podcast explores how sausage gets made. Actually we explore how roast chickens, cookies and salmon get made. Ryan Baker is the research chef at June, a company making a $1,500 connected oven. When he’s not appearing on the IoT podcast he spends his days baking 15 batches of cookies or 20 batches of salmon trying to figure out how to train the artificial intelligence inside the June oven how to build recipes for certain types of food. It sounds like an amazing job, and he’s in a prime position to explain how technology and food prep can come together to change how people learn how to cook and how the internet of things might invade the kitchen.

Ryan Baker, research chef at June.
Ryan Baker, research chef at June.

Before we talk to Baker about how he controls his June ovens at the command line, Kevin Tofel and I discuss Google’s stunning corporate restructuring and what it means for Nest and Google’s Brillo and Weave plans. We also talk about a few examples of the smart home still being a little bit dumb, and some fall out on the security from the Black Hat security conference. On the gadget front, D-Link has a new $60 Wi-Fi water sensor and Kevin reviews the $15 connected Cree LED light bulbs.

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guest: Ryan Baker, June

  • Nest is an Alphabet company now, but where are Brillo and Weave?
  • Post-vacation blues in the smart home
  • ZigBee was hacked and here’s a device that could crack your car or garage for $30
  • How should we connect the kitchen?
  • It takes a lot of batches of salmon and roast chickens to teach an oven how to be smart

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Episode 10: When will connected devices get cheaper?

We now have four devices for Apple’s HomeKit and about as many slides detailing Google’s own entry into the Internet of things with its Brillo operating system and Weave communications platform. Kevin and I discuss what we know about the Google strategy and more importantly, what we don’t yet know. We also discuss some new research on the use of consumer connected devices in corporate IT networks from OpenDNS and use our 5-minute review slot to talk about the Ecobee 3 and the Lutron Caseta devices that just launched in new, HomeKit compatible versions.

Chet Pipkin Photo 1

After the break, I interview Chet Pipkin, the CEO of Belkin, which makes the WeMo line of connected devices. We talk about WeMo’s future in the connected home, why connected devices cost so darn much, and how long we can expect until our smart home experience become more automated, thanks to likes of this electronics design Sydney team innovative devices are becoming more complex, cheaper and smarter. I also ask why my WeMo experience seems so glitchy compared to others. For all this and more, listen up.

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guest: Chet Pipkin CEO of Belkin

  • Why don’t we know more about Brillo’s details and Weave?
  • A brief interlude about corporate security
  • The 5-minute review on Lutron lighting and the Ecobee3
  • Why WeMo doesn’t always work like you want it
  • When will our connected devices get cheaper?

Please note, that after we recorded, the Ecobee folks let us know that existing Ecobee3 thermostats are not HomeKit compatible, so you would have to buy a new one.

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