Episode 186: ARM’s new architecture and Anki’s adorable robot

This week’s podcast kicks off with a deep dive into the news shared at ARM’s TechCon event happening in Santa Clara, Calif. We talk about ARM’s new architecture, move on to Facebook’s privacy fudge and then spend a lot of time discussing the UK’s new standards for IoT device security. We then take a look at Github’s new Actions and speculate on what it could mean for IoT, and discuss Simplisafe’s new video doorbell, the Pixel Stand and Nest integration. We also share a website that’s great for finding frameworks for industrial IoT projects. We then discuss the death of the Myo armband and the launch of Anki’s new Vector robot. Finally, we close by answering a question about smart locks for a listener.

The SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Pro is will cost $169 and will be sold on the SimpliSafe site and at Best Buy. Image courtesy of SimpliSafe.

Our guest this week is Teo Swee Ann, founder and CEO of Espressif Systems. Espressif makes the ESP8266 and the ESP32 chips used by thousands of people and customers making IoT devices. We learn about the history of the ten-year-old company, discuss building IoT devices that can last 20 years and what Teo thinks about IoT in China. We also get the lowdown on the new architecture that Espressif plans to launch for IoT devices next year. It’s a fun show.

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guest: Teo Swee Ann, founder and CEO of Espressif Systems
Sponsors: Cognizant and Auklet

  • Explaining ARM’s big bets on IoT
  • The UK publishes great IoT security advice for business and consumers
  • Sometimes it’s hard to imagine your industrial or enterprise IoT project. This site can help.
  • What the heck is an ESP32 or an ESP8266?
  • What type of chip will the IoT need next?

Episode 122: Roombas, an IIoT dictionary and IoT networks galore

Kevin Tofel and I crammed a fine mix of IoT news into the show this week, starting with news of an employer popping RFID tags into employees and ending with a dystopian book recommendation from Kevin. In between we discuss August’s new funding round, the death of an smart home startup and the acquisition of Arraynet by Prodea, a company trying to build smarts for service providers and enterprises. And yes, we did talk about iRobot selling your home’s layout to companies, and why this is a potential turning point for IoT. My Amazon Dash Wand review, Elon Musk’s boring elevator, an ARM paper and a discussion of the new Industrial Internet Consortium’s new dictionary round out the show.

August raised $25 million to expand its Access partnerships.

Don’t be tempted to tune out after all of that, because we’ve got more! This week Comcast’s MachineQ IoT network is in the spotlight. We talk about Comcast’s interest in LoRa networks and its plans for enterprise and industrial IoT with Alex Khorram, GM of MachineQ. Khorram explains LoRA networks and what they are good for, how they might be built and what other providers are doing with the technology. Not only will you learn about LoRA, but you’ll also know what Comcast plans to do with it. Enjoy the show!

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guest: Alex Khorram, GM of MachineQ
Sponsors: Schlage and Smart Kitchen Summit

  • Roomba’s sucking up your data represent a turning point for IoT
  • Who is Prodea and what will it do with Arraynet?
  • My thoughts on the Amazon Dash Wand and Kevin’s book recommendation
  • Every thing you need to know about LoRa and LoRaWAN
  • Wait, is Comcast becoming a wireless carrier?

Episode 77: So much about security plus Canary’s new service

The internet of things is about services, not devices. This is why I had Jon Troutman, co-founder of Canary on the show this week to talk about Membership, a new service offering from the all-in-one security device maker. This week Canary joined the masses in offering an outdoor camera, but it also launched a monthly service that does for security what AAA does for autos. The service holds your hand after a burglary, repays your deductible if anything was stolen and yes, provides some cloud storage. We talk to Troutman about how the company figured out what to offer and its hopes for Membership.

The Canary Flex wireless indoor/outdoor camera.
The Canary Flex wireless indoor/outdoor camera.

But first, Kevin Tofel and I discuss more security related topics, from the governmental framework on autonomous cars to the Industrial Internet Consortium’s new security framework. I also clarify some things I said last week about the Kevo lock. We briefly discuss the idea of Google’s Assistant service getting a name so we can anthropomorphize it and cover ARM’s new chip design for industrial manufacturing, cars and robots. If nothing else, you’ll walk away from this show knowing that people are now thinking very hard about securing the internet of things.

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guests: Jon Troutman, co-founder of Canary
Sponsors: Macadamian and the Smart Kitchen Summit

  • What should we call Google’s Assistant in the home?
  • Cars and the industrial internet get new security frameworks
  • Security begins with hardware
  • Why Canary joined the outdoor camera gold rush
  • Rethinking a security service

It will soon be so cheap to add connectivity, everyone will do it

We spend a lot of our time focused on the U.S. market, but this week’s show we review an IP camera from a French company and feature Dave Friedman, the CEO of Ayla Networks, discussing the Internet of things evolution in China. Friedman discusses a recent deal his company signed to provide the back-end infrastructure that will let Chinese manufacturers connect their products to China’s WeChat social network. Friedman also offers to compelling stats on how much the cost of connectivity and cloud hosting has dropped in the last five years. No wonder more people have been using services similar to hostiserver.com. Soon we’ll add connectivity to everything!

The Netatmo Camera
The Netatmo Camera

First up Kevin Tofel and I riff on the ideas from this article in Wired, which looks at the convergence of features in the big mobile operating systems and says we’ve basically come to agreement on what a smartphone should do. Kevin and I apply that same questioning to the smart home during the first half of our show talking about the role of the cloud, context and services. Then we hit some news from the Industrial Internet Consortium and analysis around HomeKit that might make the AllSeen Alliance a little worried. Finally, we review the Netatmo Welcome camera which offers facial recognition. Listen up.

Host: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guests: Dave Friedman, CEO of Ayla Networks

  • Defining the essential features for the smart home
  • The industrial internet gets a new testbed
  • 5-Minute review of the Netatmo Welcome camera
  • Costs are dropping by 70 percent for connectivity and cloud services
  • China is embracing the smart home and isn’t too far behind the US