Category: enterprise

CES 2018 was about more than voice

CES is full of stories if you know where to look. This year we had to look beyond companies putting Alexa in everything from toilets to toothbrushes. If you did, you could find out all kinds of fascinating things, such as the big opportunities in the enterprise internet of things or what Comcast is doing with its purchase of Stringify. While roaming the halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center and the Sands Expo, I asked people what they were excited about, what they were looking for and what they think the future might hold.

Once again, we bring you the less obvious side of CES.

The results are in this podcast, with interviews with Alex Hawkinson, CEO of SmartThings; Nate Williams, an EIR at Kleiner Perkins; a CEO who sold his camera startup to Ooma, and many more. I also share my favorite device from CES, which is not exactly something you can buy at Best Buy. But if we’re lucky, we could soon see it in something from Amazon. I hope you enjoy. If you do, thank the Open Connectivity Foundation which sponsored the entire episode, and gave an update on that standard effort.

Host: Stacey Higginbotham
Guests: There are a lot
Sponsor: Open Connectivity Foundation

  • Comcast explains what’s next for Strinigfy
  • Alexa Hawkinson on Samsung’s plans for SmartThings
  • Ben Nader of Butterfleye on how to pick a buyer
  • Nate Williams on enterprise tech
  • Willy Pell on how to architect machine learning at the edge

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Episode 146: ARM’s CEO on Spectre and Meltdown, plus hot CES 2018 takes

This week. the Internet of Things Podcast crew (Kevin and I) went to CES to discover that the consumer electronics industry was ALL OVER the internet of things. We talked about the big trends and news, such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant starring in everything, the concept of a smart bathroom and Samsung’s really big play in the connected home. We also talk about Ring’s latest lawsuit, Z-Wave’s newest low-power chips and some of the cooler things we’ve seen so far at the show. We also answer a question about bathroom fans taken from the listener hotline.

Google was really pushing Google Assistant and the Google Home.

While at CES I had the chance to sit down with Simon Segars, the CEO of ARM, to discuss the future of technology as well as the Spectre and Meltdown security vulnerabilities. Segars says that the potential attack has “blown away” chip designers with decades of experience who had never considered that particular type of attack. He also gave some good advice to any consumer concerned about how this particular flaw affects them. Listen up.

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guest: Simon Segars, CEO of ARM
Sponsors: Lux Products and CBT Nuggets

  • Samsung’s open IoT vision is coming to pass
  • Why Alexa and Google are everywhere at CES
  • Can IoT help with bathroom smells?
  • Where ARM fits in Softbank’s grand plan
  • Will Spectre and Meltdown fixes slow my phone?

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Episode 145: The block-less blockchain

This week Kevin and I talked about the death of an expensive smart lock, Amazon buying a security company, and spent a lot of time wondering what the heck is going on with Google’s IoT cloud platform. We also wondered what the ad strategy for voice UIs will be given the news that Amazon is talking to consumer product brands about advertisements. Our news wrap-up includes voice computing from Roku, Arrow buying eInfochips, and the Intel CPU flaw that shouldn’t affect edge devices too much. We also answer a listener question on which smart speaker to buy if you don’t have a smart phone.

The Otto lock will likely never ship after the company shut its doors.

And for those tired of cryptocurrencies, we bring you block-less blockchains for the internet of things from Computes, a new startup. Computes founder, and former IoT Podcast guest Chris Matthieu, discusses why IoT needs decentralized computing and why a new type of blockchain makes the most sense. We dig into Computes, blockchain and more in a somewhat geeky interview. Enjoy the show.

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guest: Chris Matthieu of Computes
Sponsors: Lux Products and CBT Nuggets

  • Why 2018 is the year of cheap smart home tech
  • What should a voice ad sound like?
  • Arrow goes from distributor to IoT integrator with latest buy
  • Why IoT needs decentralized compute
  • What the heck is a block-less block chain?
  • When it comes to smart speakers sans smartphone ownership, which do you buy?

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Episode 144: Our IoT predictions and my family’s thoughts

Once again it’s time for the holiday episode of the Internet of Things Podcast, where Kevin and I gather weeks ahead of the show’s air date to predict what we think will happen next year. We kick it off with our disappointments from 2017, such as very limited (at best) presence detection in the home and a lack of flexible cellular plans for IoT devices. From there we shared our predictions for 2018 such as Kevin’s expectation that local machine learning will finally offer contextual smarts in the home and my prediction that IT shops will reassess how they value IoT deployments. We end with our big questions for the industry wondering what havoc GDPR regulations will wreck and if we’ll get a new security model that works for IoT.

My family still loves the June oven we purchased this year.

Just like last year and the year before, the guest portion of the show features my family, sharing what they liked and didn’t like about our smart home this year. Much of what we use has become so ingrained in our lives we don’t think of it anymore, but there are still the usual challenges and irritations that show how far the smart home needs to come. Enjoy the show, and I hope you have a restful end of the year.

One more note: I used a different microphone to record this show. I will not be using it again.

Hosts: Kevin Tofel and Stacey Higginbotham
Guests: Andrew and Anna Allemann
Sponsors: ADT and FSG

  • Whither beacons and general presence?
  • New homes and apartments get smarter!
  • IT shops get smarter about IoT while carrier questions remain
  • My family still loves voice
  • We gave up on adding new devices to the home this year

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Episode 142: Smart sheets, suits and carpets are coming

We begin this week with another cautionary tale about bricked connected devices. This week it’s an automotive product called Mojio. From there I discuss the things I recently learned about building wireless networks in industrial settings while Kevin talks about how much money connected plants can save. We then get super nerdy on innovations in low-power chips before dipping into a lot of news such as IDC’s expectations for the IoT and new talents for the Google Home, Amazon Echo and Honeywell’s controller. We end the show with reviews on two connected devices we installed and answer a question about leak sensors from a listener.

Levi’s offers a jacket made with smart fabric from Google.

Stick around and you’ll hear from Nick Langston, head of business development at TE Connectivity, talking about the future of smart fabrics. While the biggest use case so far is in smart clothing to detect health data, Langston envisions a future where those same sensors might be put into sheets, carpets or even cars. He also shares an idea about what might be the coolest jersey ever that would react to your player getting hit on the field or light up in response to your team scoring a point. It’s pretty cool.

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham
Guest: Nick Langston, TE Connectivity
Sponsors: Lux Products and ADT

  • Another brick in the IoT device bag
  • How transistor design will change for IoT
  • The IoT will be worth $1 trillion by 2020
  • What happens to privacy if your bedsheets are a sensor?
  • Smart fabrics are soft, but the business model is hard

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Episode 141: Alexa suits up for business

Last week Amazon made a slew of IoT announcements at its annual user conference, bringing established functions into general availability and surprising us with the launch of Amazon’s Free RTOS after it hired the man responsible for the most popular embedded OS for microcontrollers. It also introduced Alexa for business. Kevin and I share our thoughts on that and also discussed Microsoft’s own platform announcement, the Google/Amazon spat, and Walmart’s search for a cheap sensor. I share my learnings from an event on IoT business models held at Target’s Open house last week and Kevin shares his thoughts on the GoControl/Linear garage door controller. We also discuss naming conventions thanks to a question on the IoT Podcast hotline.

Amazons IoT dreams are becoming clear.

The guest this week put the challenges of building an IoT project into perspective. After years of being “spoiled by cloud computing,” Upal Basu of NGP Capital says that we have to reframe our IoT projects with longer ROIs and more of a focus on decentralized deployments away from the corporate offices. His ideas make sense for anyone familiar with complexities of deploying sensors, and it’s a good interview for folks thinking about how to transform her business using connectivity, sensors and cloud analytics. I hope you enjoy the show.

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham
Guest: Upal Basu, General Partner at NGP Capital
Sponsors: Lux Products and ADT

  • Greengrass, Free RTOS, Device Defender and more from Amazon
  • Alexa gets her MBA
  • Sustainable IoT hardware is actually a service
  • You returns on IoT investments should be years, not 12-18 months
  • The value in IoT deployments happens where the sensors are

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Episode 140: How IoT will change war

This week we kick off the show with a bit about voice such as Google getting better at understanding your commands, the ability to talk to Waze and notifications coming to the Amazon Echo. We also touch on China’s plans to create standards for the smart home, including a preference for NB-IoT over Wi-Fi. Weather reporting gets more accurate without sensors and Kevin and I discuss the end of two smart light bulb startups. Finally, I offer a pro tip for the holidays and we answer a listener question about WeMo and HomeKit.

Google’s Home speaker and AI assistant.

After all the news, things get a bit grim as I discuss the future of battle with Tarek Abdelzaher, a professor of computer science at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. He’s part of a team that won a research grant from the U.S. Army Research Lab to figure out how to bring the internet of things to the battlefield. Our discussion ranges from technical elements to the ethics of having machines kill people. It will make you think.

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guest: Tarek Abdelzaher, a professor of computer science at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign
Sponsors: Spark Cognition and ADT

  • Google Home gets a great new feature
  • China’s setting some standards for the smart home
  • Goodbye Emberlight and so long Stack Lights
  • What can Facebook teach us about programming sensors?
  • Will machines kill in the war of the future?

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Episode 136: Sony’s Aibo is back and Chamberlain’s CEO explains its moves

The best news of the week is that Sony is bringing back the Aibo robotic puppy. The bad news is that it will costs a pretty penny. Kevin Tofel and I discuss the pup, San Diego’s smart city efforts, the Apple HomePod, and funding for Ayla’s IoT platform as a service. I emailed companies to find out who has updated after KRACK and Kevin shares smart home data from Mozilla. Finally, we review the Amazon Echo Plus with ZigBee and Amazon Alexa’s new smart home interface.

The new Sony Aibo has OLED eyes and so many moving joints.

This week’s guest is JoAnna Sohovich, CEO of Chamberlain Group, who came on the show to explain where Chamberlain is heading with new commercial products, and its new subscription plan for IFTTT. Sohovich has been at Chamberlain for 20 months and in that time she’s focused on turning what was only a product business into a service business. Part of this is to better align with costs, but there is also a chance to boost margins by offering software features and integrations. We also hit on the future of smart home subscriptions. Enjoy the show!

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guests: JoAnna Sohovich, CEO of Chamberlain Group
Sponsors: SAP and ADT

  • Bring on the monthly subscription fees
  • Ayla gets $60 million and a Chinese joint venture
  • Why you may not want to buy an Amazon Echo Plus
  • Why Chamberlain is charging $1 for monthly IFTTT access
  • Chamberlain’s plans for the commercial market

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Episode 135: Amazon wants your key and Vodafone wants your sensor data

The home security train just keeps on rolling in the smart home with Amazon offering a connected camera and door lock combo to enfold Prime Members even more deeply into the ecosystem and Wink launching a new security package for its members. Also on the home front Kevin Tofel and I discuss the new lighting startup Noon, which launches Thursday. We also talk about some new devices including a $20 camera and a Google Assistant intercom system before answering a question from Derek about how to integrate a bunch of devices together using an Android app. And because today ends in Y we also have a security story with Reaper as well as ARM’s new IoT security effort.

The Noon lighting system on a wall.

The guest this week is Phil Skipper of Vodafone who shares the details of building a low power wide area network using cellular. Skipper is betting on NB-IoT, and he explains the role it will play compared with Cat M and even alternatives like LoRa. He also discusses how companies are using, securing and pricing NB-IoT services. I learned a lot about new business models for IoT in this conversation. Enjoy the show!

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guests: Phil Skipper of Vodafone
Sponsors: SAP and ADT

  • Amazon’s Key and Wink’s new security system are part of a trend
  • Noon’s lighting system is pretty cool
  • It’s not IoT exactly, but you should fear Reaper
  • Why choose NB-IoT over other low power network options
  • A glass break sensor can teach us new business models for IoT

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Episode 134: KRACKed security and a river of sensors

This week began with a bang as researchers disclosed a vulnerability in the Wi-Fi protocol that could cause problems for smart device owners. The details of the KRACK vulnerability can be found here, and a list of connected devices affected here. After that, we discuss Bluetooth issues and the trouble with most trackers. Kevin reviews the Sonos One and I review Alexa’s ability to tell different people apart. We also share some ideas from IFTTT to turn your smart home into a spookier one in time for Halloween. News from GE and Apple, an update on smart home device penetration and a spin out of Honeywell’s home division round out the show.

Find out what Kevin thought of the new Sonos One. Photo by Kevin Tofel.

After that I interview John Miri, who is the chief administrator for the LCRA in Austin, Texas. In his role, he oversees 275 sensors spread out over 800 miles of river in Texas. These sensors are part of a real-time flood reporting system that I was glued to during Hurricane Harvey. Curious about how it was managed, I asked Miri to discuss how the agency built it, how they keep it running and what data he’d like to see next. The biggest takeaway from the interview wasn’t that the IoT aspects were hard, but that the operations and maintenance were perhaps the most challenging. It’s a great interview for anyone who thinks IoT is a magic wand that will generate the data to solve your business problems.

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guest: John Miri of the LCRA
Sponsors: Qualcomm and SAP

  • What to do after KRACK broke Wi-Fi security
  • Samsung’s global tracker is cool, but can it do this?
  • IFTTT wants to help you automate a haunted Halloween
  • Measuring floods in real-time is harder than you think
  • Anyone want to build a new radio network for the LCRA?

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