Tag: Homey Pro

Episode 436: Can Alexa (and the smart home) stand on its own?

Amazon’s head of devices, David Limp, plans to retire as part of a wave of executives that have been leaving Amazon in the last year. Also, next year Alexa and the Amazon Echo will be 10 years old, which prompted us to take a look at the role Alexa and the Amazon Echo have played in the smart home, along with what has and hasn’t changed. Our concerns about the state of the smart home are perfectly illustrated by this review of the Mill composting system created by Nest co-founder Matt Rodgers, and the news that Masonite is now selling its expensive smart door at Home Depot. There’s positive news as well, as the FCC releases its Notice of Proposed Rule Making for the IoT cybersecurity label. Y’all have 30 days to comment, so get on it. Then we talk about Microsoft’s discovery of a new set of vulnerabilities affecting industrial equipment, and a new company that will become a secondary source of Z-Wave chips. Kevin also shared his review of the Homey Pro smart home hub, which is expensive but allows users to control their devices locally. Finally, we answer a listener question about what light bulb a woodworker should use in a lamp he’s trying to build.

The Masonite smart door is on sale at Home Depot. Image courtesy of Masonite.

Our guest this week is Mariusz Malkowski, founder and CTO of Trident IoT, who tells us about the company’s origin and what it means for the Z-Wave community. He also explains how Matter will work with Z-Wave, and the importance of bridging between the two standards. We discuss the future of Z-Wave, including the plans for Z-Wave Long Range and planned security upgrades. We then cover how Trident is going to build Z-Wave chips, but also how it will focus on building or integrating other smart home radio protocols into devices, and will act as a Z-Wave certification house as well. Enjoy the show.

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guests: Mariusz Malkowski, founder and CTO of Trident IoT
Sponsors: Skyhawk

  • David Limp’s departure from Amazon inspires a smart home reckoning
  • Are expensive doors and compost services the future of the connected devices?
  • The Homey Pro is an expensive hub with privacy in mind
  • Why a new chipmaker could boost the Z-Wave standard
  • Trident IoT is building a new type of chip company

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Episode 434: So many new hubs, and a primer on LPWANs

This week’s show kicks off with a surprising revelation from Kevin, who has decided to swap out his smart home platform. He explains his choice, which also may represent a theme of sorts, as we see more and more high-end smart home hubs hit the market. We discuss the HOOBS Pro device and the Homey Pro, both of which cram a bunch of different radios into one powerful box. Then we talk about California’s Privacy Protection Agency and its decision to investigate how connected car companies are using consumers’ data. Do connected car companies violate California’s 2018 privacy law? After that we dig into a new report about the troubles facing OT and IT security professionals, and marvel over a water-soluble PCB board that might help address some of the challenges associated with e-waste. The board isn’t destined for large scale production or IoT devices yet, but we applaud any effort to bring more easily recycled electronics to the market. Finally, we hear from Signify’s CEO that the maker of Philips Hue devices is planning a video camera for a home security offering. We close the first segment with a pair of comments from our listeners responding to last week’s question about turning off lights using a sensor.

Infineon is testing out a water-soluble PCB board. Image courtesy of Infineon.

Our guest this week is Alexis Susset, the CTO of UnaBiz. He’s on the show to explain the value of Low-Power Wide-Area networks and Unabiz’s plans to offer many LPWANs under one roof. He shares how the acquisition of Sigfox’s assets last year helped give Unabiz the credibility it needed to create deals with other LPWAN providers to share their networks. He also does a deep dive into the pros and cons of various available LPWAN technologies such as Sigfox, LoRaWAN, and cellular. Finally, we talk about the rise of satellite networks for IoT devices and whether or not we’ll need any more LPWAN technologies in the near future. Enjoy the show.

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guests: Alex Susset, the CTO of UnaBiz
Sponsors: Wilderness Labs and Skyhawk

  • Kevin switches to Home Assistant, and even his wife likes it
  • Hubs are back, baby
  • Criminals are still hacking enterprise networks and critical infrastructure
  • How Sigfox helped UnaBiz make deals with other LPWAN providers
  • Why IoT devices might benefit from specialized satellite

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