Category: enterprise

Episode 119: Amazon’s Echo Show makes me feel lonely

After a week with the Amazon Echo Show I realize that I have no friends–on that device at least. In addition to my review of the Show, Kevin shares a review of the GoControl Z-wave sensor pack he purchased to go with the Wink, and I talk about the Leviton Decora light switch in depth. Reviews aside, we also chat (and sing!) about low power wide area networks, Ingenu’s departing CEO and the closure of the company behind a $500 backup camera.

The Plume WiFi pods

And because I’m so obsessed with Wi-Fi, I interview Fahri Diner, the CEO of Plume about where Wi-Fi is heading. He’s one of those that convinced me that Wi-Fi will end up in more devices, and he talks about how his deals with Comcast and Samsung will make that possible. We also discuss why you’re going to pay your ISP for Wi-Fi and where the retail model will struggle. You’ll have opinions about this episode.

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guest: Fahri Diner, CEO of Plume
Sponsors: Schlage and Affiliated Monitoring

  • I’m not totally sold on the Echo Show
  • Say goodbye to Pearl Backup cameras
  • Kevin tries some GoControl security sensors
  • Where will Wi-Fi be? Everywhere!
  • Retail Wi-Fi isn’t a big market

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Episode 118: Reviewing Eero’s new gear and IoT ransomware

Alexa has new skills thanks to the Echo Show launching this week, and the Google Home gets some fancy new code. Kevin and I discuss how to turn your Echo device into an intercom, my take on the new Eero routers and a new $100 million fund from TrendMicro for IoT security. There’s also Apple’s reported acquisition of an eye-tracking firm to discuss, since augmented reality is supposedly one way we’ll tackle the influx of information connected sensors can provide. We also talk about Petya and ponder what the ransomware threat means for IoT.

The Echo Show has a 7-inch screen. And Alexa!

This week’s guest is Daniel Elizalde, who teaches a course at Stanford on IoT product management. Elizalde offers his advice on how to develop a connected product from the hardware all the way to the service. In our conversation, he shares common mistakes, does a deep dive on risk management as part of our security discussion and provides a framework for companies trying to “add some IoT” to their business. It’s a helpful listen.

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guest: Daniel Elizalde of Tech Product Management
Sponsors: TE Connectivity and Affiliated Monitoring

  • Drop in on your Echo-owning friends with Alexa’s new talent
  • What if an IoT company like Wink or Nest gets hit by ransomware?
  • Stacey reviews the new Eero routers
  • In IoT, security is essentially risk management
  • The biggest product mistakes a company can make

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Episode 117: Intel’s new IoT strategy has fewer things

Intel plans to discontinue several of its boards designed for makers. Kevin and I discuss what this means for Intel’s IoT strategy. We also talk about ARM’s extension of a program that eliminates license fees to design custom chips, Ring’s new doorbell and Hue’s new lights. We then circle back on Amazon’s Whole Foods purchase and the availability of the Dash wand, while Kevin shares his favorite new Alexa Skill.

Too hot for the IoT?

Next up is blockchain, specifically how it could build sustainable IoT business models and even help generate wealth in the subscription economy. My guest Paul Brody is a principal at EY and a blockchain expert. You’ll learn a new way of thinking about subscriptions, fractional ownership and why blockchain and IoT are like chocolate and peanut butter. Listen up.

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guest: Paul Brody from EY
Sponsors: TE Connectivity and Affiliated Monitoring

  • What happens to the Intel Quark?
  • I replaced my doorbell transformer to handle the connected options
  • What do you think about Amazon’s interest in food?
  • Using blockchain to share cars or even solar farms
  • Open source software and blockchain can cut consumer IoT operating costs

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Episode 116: Meet Eero’s new routers and see how Aclima uses IoT to stop pollution

There was a lot of Wi-Fi news this week with new routers and services from Eero. Meanwhile, the Wi-Fi Alliance has created a certification program for builders to ensure that newly constructed homes get the best in-home coverage available. Since I was out this week, Kevin and I recorded early, so there’s news of AWS Greengrass and Softbank buying Boston Dynamics. Plus, Kevin and I share how to connect your smart locks to Alexa and further information on the WeMo dimmer.

This is BigDog, one of Boston Dynamic’s scarier robots. Image courtesy of Boston Dynamics.

My guest this week tackles a serious topic. Davida Herzl, the CEO Aclima, discusses how we can use sensors on cars to map pollution data and shares the results of a study conducted in Oakland with Google. We talk about the importance of scientific validation for sensor data and algorithms as well as how to charge for this type of data. Beyond that, she shares why she thinks this sort of granular pollution monitoring is the future of fighting climate change.

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guest: Davida Herzl, the CEO Aclima
Sponsors: Affiliated Monitoring and TE Connectivity

  • So much news on the Wi-Fi front
  • How to tell Alexa to lock your doors using IFTTT
  • Testing Wink’s new service and WeMo’s dimmer
  • Where in Oakland is pollution the worst?
  • All IoT companies should be validating their data

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Episode 114: The Essential Phone and IBM’s Watson tries IoT

What makes a phone essential? Or Essential as is the case with Andy Rubin’s new company that features a new smartphone and teases a new connected home assistant? Kevin and I discuss what we know, and Kevin also explains a surprise decision he’s made regarding Google (here’s the link he mentions during the show). We also discuss Apple’s potential AI chips, ARM’s new designs and a way to add capacitive touch to wood! Finally, I share my WeMo dimmer switch thoughts.

The Essential Phone in white.

This week’s in the guest segment we discuss assistants and bots in the home and enterprise. Bret Greenstein, VP of Watson IoT for Consumer Business at IBM, shared a bit about Watson and IoT, but his biggest service might be his help breaking down how analytics, machine learning and AI all relate. It’s a good mix of the future for enterprises and consumers. Enjoy the show.

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guest: Bret Greenstein of IBM
Sponsors: Aeris and Affiliated Monitoring

  • Essential Phone and Home launch thoughts
  • Kevin’s surprise purchase
  • The WeMo dimmer is nice, but pricey
  • Time for an AI vocabulary lesson
  • What happens when computers know how you feel?

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Episode 113: Google Home gets way better

It has been a week since Google I/O, which gave Kevin and me time to wade through some of the developer videos and ponder the features Google is announcing for the home and for Google Home. The jury is still out on whether Kevin is buying the device, but he is tempted, y’all! We discussed Dish’s integration with the Amazon Echo, the new maker tier on IFTTT and IKEA’s plans to make its smart lights work with a variety of platforms.

Google’s Home speaker and AI assistant.

Our guest this week gives us a chance to discuss both the smart grid and saving sea turtles, which I imagine is a relative rarity. Michael Bell, the CEO of Silver Springs Networks, joined us this week to talk about scale, the future of the electric grid and the trouble with solar power. He also talks about new businesses for Silver Springs and turtles. Enjoy the show.

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guest: Michael Bell, CEO of Silver Springs Networks
Sponsors: Aeris and Smart Kitchen Summit

  • Google Home makes calls, offers shortcuts and has new partners
  • IFTTT gets way more flexible
  • The smart grid is just the beginning
  • How to scale to 25 million devices (and then more)
  • Saving sea turtles with smart street lights

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Episode 111: All about the Amazon Show and costs of IoT compute

Who’s buying an Echo Show? This week Kevin and I share our thoughts on Amazon’s latest device, which adds a screen to the Echo, video calling and more. We also talk about Apple buying Beddit presumably for sleep data, a new smart home product with a DARPA and Playground Studios pedigree and the industrial internet. Plus, we throw in a discussion on the economics of serverless computing as part of the launch of a new product from Yonomi.

The Echo Show has a 7-inch screen. And Alexa!

We have three guests this week. The number of our guests is three. (Props to all who read that as a Monty Python sketch.) We’re getting three different perspectives on the Echo Show, with the first from Mike Wolf, a smart home analyst and editor of The Spoon who discusses it as a kitchen device. Then we discuss design and the way we will interact with the smart home with Mark Rolston of argo design, and we finish with Jonathan Frankel, the CEO of Nucleus, which just saw its device replicated in Amazon’s new Echo Show. You’ll learn a bunch!

Hosts: Kevin Tofel and Stacey Higginbotham
Guests: Mike Wolf of The Spoon; Mark Rolston of argo design; and Jonathan Frankel of Nucleus
Sponsor: Aeris

  • Will Kevin buy the Amazon Show?
  • Startup Lighthouse has a new take on personal assistants
  • Apple buys sleep-sensing tech
  • Amazon’s Echo Show was “inevitable”
  • Amazon’s Echo Show was also a betrayal

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Episode 109: How to scale the industrial IoT

Google Home can recognize your voice, SmartThing’s Connect app on Samsung’s Galaxy 8 can act as a hubless hub for the home, and Spotify may be considering its own connected device. Kevin and I discuss these stories, plus Waymo’s autonomous car testing in Phoenix, and why iDevices was acquired. There’s also a quick discussion of Symantec’s latest security report and Microsoft’s new IoT suite.

iDevices, the maker of this connected dimmer, was acquired this week.

We did forget to discuss Juicero’s challenges, and the Amazon Look came out after our recording, which just means you’ll have more to look forward to next week. In the meantime, sate yourself with a deep dive into the launch of the EdgeX Foundry platform for the industrial internet of things. Dell’s Jason Shepherd describes the newly launched open source effort as a way to scale IoT like we once scaled the PC. Listen up.

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham
Guest: Jason Shepherd, Director IoT Strategy and Partnerships at Dell
Sponsors: Samsung ARTIK and IFTTT

  • Kevin bought a Samsung Galaxy 8
  • Who the heck is Hubbell?
  • Microsoft’s IoT efforts are compelling
  • Dell’s push to make industrial IoT scale
  • Standards? We don’t need no stinkin’ standards!

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Episode 108: Owning digital property could save our privacy

Kevin is back for this week’s show, and we talk about Google Home, Amazon’s latest hardware plans for the Echo and how we think voice may evolve. I installed the Honeywell T5 thermostat as well as a leak sensor from Honeywell, and share what I liked and what I didn’t. We also discuss Kevin’s field trip to the Biosphere 2 project in Arizona and the latest developer survey from The Eclipse Foundation.

Bitmark’s platform used a custom-designed blockchain to store digital property records.

After some more news, we turn to this week’s guest. Sean Moss-Pultz, CEO of Bitmark, explains how he thinks giving people the ability to own digital property will make privacy easier online. His company has built a blockchain based software product that stores rights to someone’s digital data whether it’s photos or fitness info. We discuss why this sort of record matters and how Bitmark plans to make its abstract ideas real. It’s a fun discussion.

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guest: Sean Moss-Pultz, CEO of Bitmark
Sponsors: Samsung ARTIK and IFTTT

  • What devices do I want to talk to in the home?
  • News from Lutron, August and Logitech
  • A modest proposal for smart thermostat makers
  • Should we turn digital assets from intellectual property to just property
  • Donate your data — or just keep track of it online

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Episode 107: How the internet of things came to be

This week’s IoT Podcast starts with a focus on security, beginning with bot bricking connected devices, IKEA’s smart lights and Microsoft’s Project Sopris efforts. After security, we talk about a new home hub from Fibaro, TP-Link’s new mesh router, Alexa’s new lighting skills and Ring’s new video recording plan. We also cover the results from my week spent with Google Home in place of the Echo in my kitchen/living room, and Richard installed smart blinds. (Astute listeners might notice that instead of Kevin, my co-host this week is Richard Gunther, who has his own smart home podcast called Home: On.)

Have you ever wondered how the internet of things got its name? Well wonder no more, as this week’s guest explains how the phrase came to be. Kevin Ashton, who is the author of How to Fly a Horse, joins me to talk about the beginnings of IoT, his optimism about the future and how the world he imagined back in the late 90s measures up to today.

The possibilities afforded by interconnected devices are of a huge benefit to businesses. IoT technology has totally changed the way companies think about cloud computing and customer relationship management, and as a result, new solutions to common issues are constantly entering the fray. For example, companies that use Pipedrive CRM platforms can now complete a pipedrive google contacts sync to compile a comprehensive database of customer information that can be used in outreach and to highlight areas of improvement.

Over all, it is a fun episode that will take you back to the pre-dot com era.

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Richard Gunther of The Digital Media Zone
Guest: Kevin Ashton, author of How to Fly a Horse
Sponsor: Samsung ARTIK

  • Security is getting better?
  • I swapped my Echo for a Google Home and this happened!
  • Want Smart Blinds? Try these.
  • Cisco’s John Chambers helped give the Internet of Things its name
  • Computer vision couldn’t have happened without connected sensors

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