Episode 327: Amazon’s Halo health push and more Matter

Any Amazon Halo subscriber can try Amazon’s Movement Health service now, so Kevin and I explain what it is and what Amazon’s decisions around the Halo fitness tracker signal about the company’s interest in healthcare. We then cover the good news that Google will support connected Nest devices with security updates for up to five years after launch and Google’s new location tracking app for its Wi-Fi routers. Kevin wonders why Verizon needs its own smart display and tells us about Lenovo’s latest Google clock display while I share news of a smart building startup getting funding. We end with the news that ADT and Ring have settled their lawsuit about Ring’s use of the trademarked blue ADT octagon. After the news, we answer a listener’s question about changing Wi-Fi SSIDs and passwords and what that might mean for his smart home devices.

The Lenovo Smart Clock 2 can charge your phone using a Qi dock. Image courtesy of Lenovo.

Our guest this week is Nathan Dyck, chief product officer at Nanoleaf. We kick off the segment by focusing on the future of lighting before digging into a discussion of the Thread protocol. He talks about why Thread is such a positive choice for the smart home, and then we talk about Matter. He explains what the multi-admin feature is and tells us why he’s excited about the distributed ledger for tracking the provenance of a device. We end with a look ahead at some of the features he expects to see in smart lights after Matter is established. Enjoy the show.

Host: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guest: Nathan Dyck, chief product officer Nanoleaf
Sponsors: Silicon Labs and Trek10

  • Amazon’s Halo isn’t about fitness, it’s a about health
  • How long should a thermostat get security updates?
  • Could Verizon’s new display offer a path to Amazon’s Sidewalk?
  • Nanoleaf didn’t start out making smart lights
  • Matter may make new features easier to develop

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Episode 326: It’s about ethics in smart devices

Kevin and I start this week’s show with a discussion of his Amazon Prime Day purchases and then talk about the kerfuffle over smart thermostats and demand-response energy programs in Texas. I happened to be there at the time, and there is a definite right and wrong way to enroll people in the program. We also mentioned a more egregious example of digital overreach with Massachusettes pushing COVID-tracking apps to Android devices. After that, we explain Senator Amy Klobuchar’s interest in the Matter smart home protocol,  Arm’s confidential compute plans and share plans for a new LoRaWAN network. We round out the rest of the show with an update on Ecobee thermostat’s smarts and new devices from Wyze. We close by answering a listener question about the Ting fire safety device.

Ecobee participates in demand response programs such as those that caused frustration in Texas. Image courtesy of Ecobee.

Our guest this week is Mary Beth Hall, director of wireless strategy and marketing with Panasonic. We dig into the reality of 5G deployments inside manufacturing plants and what it will take to actually see real deployments instead of mere pilots. She’s responsible for putting 5G inside Panasonic’s line of Toughbook handheld computers used in industrial settings, so she has good insights into what’s real and what’s hype. She also shares her thoughts about what 5G will offer manufacturing customers when they finally adopt it. But she can’t actually tell us when that moment will come. I enjoyed her honesty.

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guest: Mary Beth Hall from Panasonic
Sponsors: Bsquare and Edge Impulse

  • Smart thermostats aren’t the problem in Texas, communication is
  • The Senate wants more information on smart home interoperability. Us too.
  • Why I’m excited for Arm’s confidential compute plans
  • Why most factories are fine with 4G wireless
  • Why 5G will help carriers deliver five nines

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Episode 325: The IoT goes to Congress

Hello! This week we start with Congress, where the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings related to interoperability and lock-in tied to smart home devices. We drew special attention to testimony by Jonathan Zittrain, who wrote a long, but insightful statement about the development of the web, the benefits gained when using interoperable protocols, and what the government should do to ensure the openness of the IoT. After that, we discuss Amazon’s use of person detection on its new Echo Show devices to use motion-sensing as a trigger for routines and Apple’s planned features for its next smartwatch. We then talk about the new Level lock and why you may want to wait before buying a smart lock. In our news roundup, we track the rise of smart home devices, IKEA’s new $199 picture frame speaker, a new cellular module, and Accenture’s acquisition of umlaut, an industrial IoT engineering firm. We close on a question from a listener about which devices will support Matter going forward.

IKEA’s new speaker hides within a picture frame, but IKEA has limited art available. Image courtesy of IKEA.

Our guest this week is Lesley Carhart, an incident responder at Dragos. Carhart’s specialty is industrial IoT incident response which means she’s been busy, given how often ransomware attacks have taken out critical infrastructure in the past few months. She explains how she got into doing industrial security and how it differs from IT security (which she also did). She shares what industrial clients want IT security professionals to understand, and shares how people can get into the field of providing industrial IoT security. In my favorite moment, she explains the Purdue Model of security used by manufacturing and industrial clients. Understanding these things will only become more important as we place more assets online. Please listen.

Host: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guest: Lesley Carhart, an incident responder at Dragos Sponsors: Bsquare and Edge Impulse

  • A few remedies to prevent lock-in by the tech giants
  • Wellness is gaining ground in the smartwatch world
  • Maybe wait on that smart lock purchase
  • Hardhats may be necessary for industrial IoT security response
  • What the OT world wants the IT world to know about security

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Episode 324: HomeKit and Home Assistant embrace Matter

We start this week’s show with a quick update on Amazon’s Sidewalk and then focused on the smart home news from Apple’s WWDC event earlier this week. We’re excited about third-party devices getting Siri support. We then cover the EU’s thoughts on anticompetitive behavior by IoT device companies, as well as the launch of a new standard that allows for low-power, highly-dense, mesh networks for 5G and Bluetooth. While on the topic of networking, we explain why Qualcomm’s new cluster of IoT chips is pretty cool. Then we talk about Google backing off AR Measure and Helium getting a new customer. I also review the new Nanoleaf Elements light panels and explain why you might want them, despite their cost. We close by highlighting a caller’s demand for two-factor authentication on smart home devices, specifically the Moen Flo products.

Ecobee’s SmartThermostat will be one of the first third-party devices to support Siri. Image courtesy of Ecobee.

Our guest this week is Paulus Schoutsen, the creator of Home Assistant, a smart home platform for DIYers. He talks about why he built the service as well as plans for new hardware later this year. We also discuss his plans for the Matter protocol and difficulty implementing the available Matter code on Github. Schoutsen also shares his recommendations on what buyers should look for in a connected product, especially one that connects back to the cloud. We end with a bit about Home Assistant’s business model, and with me asking for his help on a common listener question. It’s a fun show.

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guest: Paulus Schoutsen, the creator of Home Assistant
Sponsors: Bsquare and Edge Impulse

  • Apple’s bringing Siri to more devices and opens up on Matter
  • The EU isn’t keen on walled gardens in the smart home
  • This new low-power, highly-dense wireless network is worth a look
  • The folks at Home Assistant are working on new hardware
  • Will Home Assistant support Matter? You betcha!

 

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Episode 323: Stick with Sidewalk, y’all

This week’s show is going to get controversial with a discussion of Amazon’s Sidewalk. Kevin is out on vacation this week, so my friend Chris Albrect of The Spoon is here to co-host.   We start with a rundown on why I think you should participate in Amazon’s Sidewalk network but also explain how to opt out. We then talk about how tech-savvy lawyers helped push Amazon to drop arbitration clauses, the meatpacking hack, and new rules from the Army’s CIO on IoT devices in the home. Then we focus on fitness, discussing the potential for connected rower Hydrow to go public, Google’s plans for Fitbit, and the speculation around Apple’s upcoming Airpods. We end by answering a question from an electrician about what we’d like to see in a newly built smart home.

The Level Lock. Image courtesy of Level.

Our guest this week is Ken Goto, the co-founder and CTO of Level Lock. I invited him on the show because I am fascinated by how well the company has adapted to changing software requirements for the smart home. So I asked him what sort of planning that took and how the company approaches things like Homekit, Alexa, Matter, and even Amazon’s Sidewalk. Goto is actually a big fan of Sidewalk, and talks about what it can offer customers of the lock and what it does for him as a developer. We close with a look ahead at the technology he’s really excited about seeing in the smart home. Enjoy the show.

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Christ Albrecht
Guest: Ken Goto, CTO of Level Lock
Sponsors: Bsquare and Very

  • If you opt-out of Amazon’s Sidewalk, do it for the right reasons
  • The Army is alerting teleworkers to smart home security flaws
  • Why not take a smart rower public
  • How Level tried to future proof its devices
  • Level’s CTO explains why he’s excited about Amazon’s Sidewalk

 

 

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Episode 322: Google’s Fuchsia looks promising for the IoT

Did you know that Roku aims to get into the smart home game? We discuss that along with a new set of vulnerabilities in Bluetooth during the first part of the show, before moving onto Google’s new Fuchsia OS and some updates from Google I/O. After that, we discuss surveillance technology from China and the need for more discussion and disclosure around new technology purchases by local governments. We touch on a proposed data privacy law, new HomeKit support for the Eero 6 routers, and Wyze night lights. We end the news segment by answering a listener question about the Wyze security system and Yale locks.

A DroneExpress drone and package. Image courtesy of DroneExpress.

Our guest this week is Beth Flippo, CTO at Telegrid, which owns DroneExpress. DroneExpress has built a drone delivery service based on drone and radio technology built by Telegrid for the military. With DroneExpress, Flippo aims to build a business delivering items weighing less than five pounds within a small radius. This month Kroger announced it was trying the service for grocery delivery. We discuss why Teregrid decided to sell a service as opposed to the technology, what niche drone delivery serves, and even how widespread drone delivery could change consumer packaging. We also talk about the limitations of drones and Flippo’s belief that drone delivery could reinvigorate brick and mortar businesses.

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guest: Beth Flippo, DroneExpress
Sponsor: Very

  • What will Roku do in the smart home?
  • Kevin thinks Google’s Fuchsia OS will be good for the IoT
  • Technology is a tool, but we need to understand its potential uses
  • Why sell hardware when you can sell a service?
  • How drone delivery might influence the size of consumer packaged goods

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Episode 321: Google decides Matter matters

This week’s show focuses on news from Google I/O 2021 where it’s clear the search giant is trying to build out a fairly open ecosystem based on the Matter protocol and WebRTC for audio and video streaming. Google also said it would use Wear OS for Fitbit and combine Wear OS with Samsung’s Tizen OS. Google also announced a CarKey deal with BMW. There’s bad news on the data-sharing front from Imperial College London and Northeastern University, where researchers tracked how many connections popular smart home devices opened, and what it means for privacy. In security news, Consumer Reports found flaws in four security cameras and video doorbells, and we discuss the Eufy video camera bug. Additionally, cyber risks are so high that the CEO of Swiss Re, a reinsurer, said insurance for cyberattacks was becoming impossible. Finally, we mention the new Echo Frame options, although Kevin is still not a fan. In our hotline, we answer a question about Matter and keeping a SmartThings hub.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaking at Google I/O 2021. Image courtesy of Google.

Our guest this week is Mark Hanson, VP of Innovation at Sony Semiconductor America. We talk about embedded computer vision and what it means to have machine learning taken care of on the image sensor itself. It enables lip-reading applications, occupancy sensing, and new ways to track inventory in stores. (He’s very excited about  inventory sensing cameras.) Hanson also says the sensor and its DSP can provide training at the edge, allowing a user to show the sensor images and then have the sensor later recognize those images. We also talk about how product designers can figure out if they need a camera for a particular use case.  Hanson really wants to get new ideas from everyone listening about use cases for embedded computer vision, so see if any of the interview sparks your creativity.

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guest: Mark Hanson, VP of Innovation at Sony Semiconductor America
Sponsor: Very

  • Google will embrace Matter in most displays, smart speakers and on Android
  • Do you know who your smart devices talk to?
  • Cyberattacks are becoming too big for insurance to cover
  • Why adding ML to an image sensor makes sense
  • How to use a “dumb” sensor to offload some computing tasks

 

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Episode 320: Project CHIP becomes Matter and hacked pipelines

This week’s show hits on two of the biggest stories of the year for the smart home: Project Connected Home over IP is now called Matter and Amazon’s Sidewalk Network adds Tile as a participant. We also discuss what it means for Zigbee after the Zigbee Alliance changed its name to the Connectivity Standards Alliance.  The Colonial Pipeline ransomware also merits some attention. We then spend time on some news bits such as Amazon updating its Echo Show devices for the video calling era we seem to be in, Wyze’s new earbuds with noise-canceling technology, and the new Phyn leak detection sensors. We also discuss the FragAttack vulnerabilities and try to explain them. We conclude by answering a listener question about whether we’ll see Thread on phones anytime soon.

The Phyn puck, cable, and extension node combine to create a compelling option for sensing leaks. Image courtesy of Phyn.

Our guest this week delves even deeper into the Matter protocol. Kevin Po, a senior product manager at Google, is involved in the Matter working group. Po explains the multi-admin feature that will let consumers swap ecosystems with ease if they have Matter-certified devices, and lets me pester him with specific questions for those who might have multiple ecosystems in one home, or those that might want to use different smartphones.  He also lays out some of the security features and explains where he thinks device makers should try to differentiate themselves as the Matter standard develops. He also foreshadows some Google-related Matter news at Google I/O next week, so we should probably pay attention.

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guest: Kevin Po, a senior product manager at Google
Sponsor: Very

  • Project CHIP becomes Matter and the Zigbee Alliance becomes the Connectivity Standards Alliance
  • Why the Colonial Pipeline really shut down
  • Amazon’s Sidewalk network is better than Apple’s Airtags at one thing
  • Will Matter let me have Alexa and Google in my home?
  • Is Matter an attempt for the big three tech firms to dominate the smart home?

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Episode 319: How ML at the edge will make products truly smart

This week’s show was a lot of fun to record with Kevin and me discussing Google’s upcoming I/O event and updates on the chip shortage from STMicro, TSMC, and someone who makes electronics. We also talk about Kroger’s drone delivery plans, cameras in cars, funding for robotic computer vision, and funding for robotic welding driven by AI. After that, we hit some smaller news items such as Amazon adding greetings to the Ring doorbell, Oura raising $100 million, and an update to Withings’ scale that provides a new biomarker. We then cover my review of the Lutron outdoor outlet and Kevin reviews Apple’s new AirTags. We conclude by answering a listener question about Bluetooth mesh.

Kroger will introduce a drone delivery pilot this spring in the Midwest in partnership with Drone Express. Image courtesy of Kroger.

This week, our guest is David McIntyre, the VP of marketing at Perceive, a startup building edge-based machine learning chips. He shares several ways that local machine learning will enable new features in products and explains how to add machine learning to consumer devices. He also explains how adding smarts to products changes their design and offers advice for those trying to rethink their own product strategies. We spent a lot of time trying to dissect what makes something smart as opposed to connected, and I think y’all will enjoy that discussion.

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guest: David McIntyre of Perceive
Sponsor: Very

  • The chip shortage will make a lot of gadgets more expensive
  • How should we handle camera data from inside our cars?
  • Lutron’s outdoor outlet is pricey, but high quality
  • Local ML will enable better Zoom calls and smart appliances
  • Forget the ecosystem, and think about differentiation when building smart devices

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Episode 318: Lawsuits galore and Silicon Labs bets it all on the IoT

This week’s show starts off with two lawsuits: the first filed by ADT alleging trademark infringement against Ring, and the second a decision by the Seventh Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals related to police accessing cell phone location data without a warrant. Wemo’s new scene controller, Everactive’s energy harvesting sensors, a discussion about Helium’s tokens, and a new network partner are next. We then cover some financial news with Life360 acquiring Jiobit for $37 million, Safehub getting $9 million in funding, and $55 million for OpenSpace, a startup that brings the IoT to construction. Then, Kevin shares his thoughts on Eve Aqua, a HomeKit and Thread compatible faucet controller. Finally, we close with a listener question about whether your smart home should have its own email address.

An image taken from ADT’s lawsuit alleging trademark infringement by Ring.

This week’s guest is Matt Johnson, the newly named president of Silicon Labs. He and I discussed Silicons Labs’ divestiture of its automotive and industrial lines of business to Skyworks for $2.75 billion. With this deal, Silicon Labs is going all-in on the IoT, and we talk about what that means for the company. He shares his thoughts on what the IoT requires from chipmakers in terms of hardware and software. We also explore how Silicon Labs plans to continue adding security for the IoT and the growth of machine learning on edge devices, and how that will affect chip design.

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guest: Matt Johnson, president of Silicon Labs
Sponsors:  DigiCert and Qt

  • ADT files another lawsuit against Ring
  • Will we try Wemo’s new HomeKit-enabled scene controller?
  • Helium expands its mining and network operations
  • Why Silicon Labs sold off a big chunk of its business
  • The two biggest trends in the IoT are security and AI

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