Episode 37 - Revolv Acquired by Nest

This week we are bringing you another news-only episode, and there was no shortage of big news to talk about.  On the personal side of things Jason discusses the continual process of readying his home for the 'new addition'.  That's right, if you haven't heard, Jason and his wife are getting ready to welcome to their first child (a baby girl) in a few short weeks from now! And like any true gadget geek, he's been looking for ways technology can help.  In fact at the time of this posting he just finished installing a new Ecobee3 thermostat to help more accurately monitor the temperature in the nursery.  We look forward to sharing his thoughts on the product in a future episode.  Seth also has big news brewing with the pending purchase of a new home.  In fact he's looking to make some HVAC-related upgrades of his own.  Which led to a discussion of Ecovent, a previous show guest of ours, who is now taking pre-orders.  Lots cooking on the home front!  More to come, so stay tuned!

On the industry side, there were a few huge stories to cover.  The first being the acquisition of the smart home company, and previous show guest Revolv.  We were as surprised as anyone to hear of this news.  Founder Mike Soucie joined us recently and really left us with the impression that Revolv was a long term contender in the home automation hub space.  However part and parcel of the acquisition news was that Revolv (as a product) would cease to exist.  Very interesting indeed.  Tune in to get our take. 

We also discussed news that broke recently about Sonos suing D&M holdings (parent company of Denon) over alleged patent infringement related to the new product line Heos.  To close the show we covered the recent integration of Harmony Home products with IFTTT.  

As always, thanks so much for listening!  We hope you enjoy! 

Show Notes

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Episode 36 - All Quiet on the HomeKit Front

Another Apple event has come and gone.  And sadly it's all quiet on the HomeKit Front.  While many of their recent announcements are indeed exciting, new iPads, new iMacs, and new Mac Minis (finally!), we're not an Apple show, we're a home technology show.  So we have to admit to being a bit bummed about the lack of public news since the initial announcement of HomeKit back at WWDC. 

Even with the lack of HomeKit news, there was still plenty to cover in this week's show.  We opened the show talking about a few home technology buying decisions that we are facing in our respective personal lives.  At HomeTech, we both live and breathe this stuff in our daily work, so it's always a pleasure when we can put a more personal touch on things by discussing practical uses in our own homes.  In terms of recent news, we discuss the announcement by The Thread Group that they are officially accepting applications for membership.  To wrap up the show we have a chat about UHD / 4K TV Technology.  4K is all the rage these days.  As with any new technology however, there is more to it than meets the eye.  HDTV is not a topic we've spent much time on in the past, but with all the changes taking place in that landscape it may be a topic we revisit more moving forward. 

As always, we thank you so much for listening!  If you enjoy the show be sure to tell a friend or share it on your favorite social media channel.  If you have any comments, or suggestions feedback is always welcome!  Just head on over to hometech.fm/feedback and drop us a line!

Show Notes

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Episode 35 - Ted Schremp of SmartHome Ventures

On this episode of HomeTech we were joined by Ted Schremp.  Ted is the CEO Smarthome Ventures, the recently formed company behind the Peq Home Automation line of products.  Peq is intriguing to us for a number of reasons, and we were very excited to welcome Ted onto the show to discuss.  

Peq made headlines recently when rumors of the product first started circulating.  Speculation at the time centered around this product being Best Buy's answers to the likes of Staples Connect and the Lowes Iris.  While there is truth to the fact that the retail giant will carry Peq products, Smarthome Ventures operates as its own entity with ambitions above and beyond their deal with Best Buy.  With an impressive executive team, a polished lineup of products, and a business model aimed at long term sustainability, the Smarthome Ventures teams looks like they are playing for keeps.  We had a great chat with Ted.  As always we hope you enjoy and thank you for listening!

Show Notes

Episode 34 - The Box Formerly Known as Doorbot with Ring Inventor Jamie Siminoff

This week we were excited to welcome Jamie Siminoff to the show.  We have been working behind the scenes to get Jamie on for some time now.  It had been proving difficult to make our schedules line up, and now we know why! Jamie and his team have been very busy.

For those who don't know, Jamie is the chief inventor of Doorbot, which when it came out was the world's first WiFi enabled smart doorbell.  Big news broke this week when it was announced that Doorbot was rebranding and launching a new and improved version of their product, now known simply as Ring.  Jamie lays out his thought process and reasoning behind the rebranding effort in an excellent blog post you can read here.  But reading is a lot of work, and we know you're busy.  So we've made it easy for you.  Just hit play, kick your feet up, and enjoy our conversation with Jamie all about Ring, the box formerly known as Doorbot...

Show Notes

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Episode 33 - Slow News is Still News

Some last minute scheduling conflicts precluded us from having a guest on this week's show.  But no matter! We instead took the opportunity to focus on a weekly smart home news wrap up. 

First we give our opinions on the recently announced touchscreen-lightswitch combo from Wink.  Pricing for the upcoming product was recently revealed at $300, which given the target DIY customer might be a bit pricey.  We discuss a number of the challenges we think Wink will face with their entrance into the touchscreen business.  This is market in which traditional players like Crestron and AMX are losing all kinds of ground due to the near ubiquity of Tablets and Smartphones.  It remains to be seen if Wink can make this a viable product.  

Another interesting story we wanted to touch on is a recently launched Kickstarter campaign for a product called TiltMyBlinds.  As regular listeners well know, we often discuss what differentiates DIY type smart home systems from their professionally installed brethren.  For some time now automated shading control has fallen exclusively in the realm of dealer-installed technology.  TiltMyBlinds wants to change that.  It's a very unique offering, and a cool looking product.  We wish them the best in their endeavor! 

We also touched on a new miracast-enabled wireless display adapter from a little company called Microsoft (is anyone talking about these guys anymore??).  Lastly, we wrapped up the show with a discussion on the merits of managed WiFi networks.  This, in light of a new offering from Luxul in the form of a $399 wireless controller.  Traditionally managed WiFi networks have required enterprise-grade hardware often costing thousands of dollars, so Luxul's new product is very appealing for the residential networking market.

As always, thanks for listening!  Hope you enjoy!

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