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Tag: smart home

  • Google Invests $450 Million In ADT, Forms Nest Partnership

    Google Invests $450 Million In ADT, Forms Nest Partnership

    Google has announced it is investing $450 million in security company ADT, in a multi-year partnership that will give Google a 6.6% stake.

    The deal is a win for both companies. Google benefits from ADT’s security expertise, not to mention its 20,000 professionals, who will soon be selling and installing Nest devices and services. ADT, on the other hand, benefits from Google’s AI-driven smart home developments.

    “Over time, Nest’s devices, powered by Google’s machine learning capabilities will enhance ADT’s security monitoring and become the cornerstone of ADT’s smart home offering,” writes Rishi Chandra, Vice President and GM, Nest. “The goal is to give customers fewer false alarms, more ways to receive alarm events, and better detection of potential incidents inside and around the home. It will also provide people with more helpful notifications that make everyday life more convenient, like package detection. ADT customers will also have access to Nest Aware, a service that keeps people informed about important events at home, including intelligent alerts and event history recording for up to 30 days.”

    Google has repeatedly been in the news lately, with its recent Fitbit deal under intense scrutiny in the US and the EU. Regulators are concerned with how Google will use the data it acquires from the wearables maker. It’s possible this scrutiny was a motivating factor in Google investing in ADT, rather than attempting to buy it or a competing firm outright. Whatever the motivation, it’s evident Google has high hopes for what the partnership will bring.

    “Together, we aim to create the next generation of the helpful home—based on new security solutions that will better protect and connect people to their homes and families,” writes Chandra.

  • LG Shakes Up Leadership, Appoints Mobile Head to CEO

    LG Shakes Up Leadership, Appoints Mobile Head to CEO

    LG has announced another shakeup of its leadership, appointing Brian Kwon to the post of CEO.

    Brian Kwon headed LG’s TV division until he was put in charge of the company’s ailing mobile business in 2018, where he succeeded in stemming losses. Thanks to his performance, he has been tapped to run the entire company as CEO.

    “LG Electronics (LG) today announced that Brian Kwon, currently head of LG’s Mobile Communications and Home Entertainment companies, has been named to take the helm as Chief Executive Officer effective December 1. Other changes announced for 2020 include: Park Hyoung-sei as president of the Home Entertainment Company, new Mobile Communications Company president Morris Lee, William Cho in the newly created position of Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Financial Officer Bae Doo-yong.

    “Brian Kwon has played an important role at LG in his more than three decades at the company. Mr. Kwon (56), joined Goldstar in 1987 and has held a variety of positions including business planning at LG Wales and head of the monitor division before being promoted to oversee the Home Entertainment Company in 2014. Mr. Kwon is a native of Busan, receiving his bachelor’s degree from Seoul National University and MBA from Aalto University in Finland.”

    The company made it clear that it will focus on businesses with strong potential.

    “Going forward, LG will expand its focus on future core and common technologies with the establishment of the Future Technology Center to support the existing Artificial Intelligence Lab, Advanced Robotics Lab and Software Business Project Management Office under the CTO division. Future businesses with strong potential, such as smart home, content partnerships and beauty care will be bolstered and broadened. Other organizational changes to speed up decision-making in critical areas will be implemented with some overseas responsibilities for research and development, production, purchasing and design transferred to headquarters.”

  • CES: Google’s Nest Gets A Bunch Of New Integrations

    Last summer, Google’s Nest Labs unveiled its first “Works with Nest” integrations. These are experiences created by third-party developers that enable Nest to work with different types of products.

    The first integrations included: one from Jawbone to adjust your home temperature as you get out of bed; warning-flashing lightbulbs from LIFX; a universal remote from Logitech; a Mercedes-Benz integration to tell Nest when you’re going to be home so it can start heating or cooling; and washer/dryer integrations from Whirlpool. Additional integrations from various parties have launched in the meantime.

    At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nest is announcing some new partners with additional integrations. One is the August Smart Lock, which can set the Nest Thermostat to Home when you unlock your door, and start warming or cooling your house. When you lock the door on the way out, it will set it to Away to help save energy.

    There’s also a Kevo Smart Lock, which tells your thermostat who’s home and what temperatures they like.

    Another integration is with Chargepoint, which lets your car charging station know when energy is in high demand to avoid charging your car when electricity is most expensive. There’s also an Ooma VOIP home phone integration, a Philips Hue integration, a Withings Sleep System integration, and additional Whirlpool integration, which lets your washer and dryer know when you’re home so they can automatically switch to quiet mode.

    Here’s a look at some other stuff that’s coming soon:

    The company will be showing off a lot of new stuff at the show. They have over a dozen booths and meeting venues.

    Image via Nest

  • Home Energy Management Market to Take Off

    As technology and connectivity improves, more and more commonplace items and appliances are becoming connected. The eventuality of this trend is what tech market watchers call the “internet of things,” a term meant to convey our lives when nearly every part of them are connected in some way.

    One of the earliest manifestations of this tech will be smart homes that adapt to their dwellers’ whims. Already energy efficiency systems for houses are beginning to become smarter. Market research firm Navigant Research today released a new report predicting that the home energy management (HEM) market will continue to grow in the coming years, eventually becoming a billion-dollar industry.

    The report estimates that $512 Million was spent on HEM systems worldwide during 2013. Navigant predicts that the market will steadily rise to top $2.8 billion by the year 2020. Following this peak the firm sees the market dropping quickly back down to only $1.8 billion in revenue in 2022.

    The HEM market is, of course, heavily tied to the fledgling smart thermostat market. Navigant expects 32 million smart thermostats to have been installed worldwide by the year 2020. The recent Google acquisition of Nest is also seen as a strong sign for the coming HEM market.

    “Companies like Comcast, ADT, Verizon, and AT&T in the United States have added energy management as an option that can be bundled with home security, automation, or internet access,” said Neil Strother, senior research analyst at Navigant. “The uptake of home energy management by consumers is still relatively low, but these service providers are seeding a market that has reasonable potential over the next several years.”

  • Google Glass Is The Perfect Complement To Your Future Smart House

    Developers and users have been doing some amazing stuff with Google Glass ever since they got their hands on the device earlier this year. It’s strange then that we haven’t seen Google Glass tackle home automation yet.

    Last week, the developers at Revolv revealed their new Google Glass app that allows those wearing the device to control their home wirelessly. With just a few simple swipes, Glass is able to turn on the lights, lock the door and turn on a music player. It also have voice control to change the color of the lights.

    Google Glass is just a curiosity for Revolv at the moment as it primarily focuses on smart home controls for smartphones. Still, it’s incredibly exciting to see stuff like this being done with Google Glass. The smart home is already being controlled by only one or two devices, and things like Google Glass will make it even more personal than ever before.

    Of course, Google Glass soon won’t be the only wearable computer on the block. It will be interesting to see if Samsung, Apple or Microsoft talk about home automation when and if they reveal their respective smart watches.

    [h/t: BGR]

  • Siri Lets You Talk To Your House

    Siri Lets You Talk To Your House

    You should talk to your house more often. It’s feeling left out.

    Carnes Audio Visual, makers of the Crestron home control system, have added Siri functionality to it. This allows the user to communicate with their home and give it commands. In the demonstration, the demonstrator uses it to adjust the lights in a home theater as well as control what plays on the projector.

    We’ve seen voice controlled home control systems before, but this is still pretty cool.

    Check out the live demo and tell us what you think. Would you want to control your home via voice? Does it seem more convenient than just using the touch interface on the device itself?