Episode 56 - Listeners' Corner feat. Jonathan Horvath

It's been a little over a year since we launched the hometech podcast. During that time we've been fortunate enough to hear from many of you with suggestions, comments, questions, and loads of positive feedback. Without fail this correspondence has led to inspiration and ideas for future episodes. In light of this fact we had a thought: why not take the correspondence itself and make a show of it?  

With that by way of introduction, we are excited to present to you the first edition of "Listeners' Corner". We were joined by Jonathan Horvath, who has been one of the most active members of our budding community. You may recognize his name from another recent episode and / or from a guest review he was kind enough to send us on the Yale smart lock. Jonathan has a interesting background in the commercial access control space. He is also working on some very unique projects in his own home, using open source tools to create his own Z-Wave based home automation hub. Tune in to hear all about it.

At the risk of sounding clichéd we often like to remind you that without your listenership this show may as well not exist. As podcast creators we obviously like to hear ourselves talk. But, after all, if we knew no one was listening the production would surely lose its luster in a hurry.  

Thank you for being a part of the show! If you are interested in joining us on a future edition of "Listeners' Corner" please don't hesitate to reach out on twitter or through our feedback page.

See you next week!

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Episode 55 - NEEO: The Thinking Remote with Raphael Oberholzer

About a month ago, February 12th to be exact, one of the most successful smart home Kickstarter campaigns  in recent memory came to its glorious end. Initially setting out to raise $50,000 for their nascent "thinking remote", the team at NEEO had obliterated their goal, ending the campaign at an astonishing $1.5 million. Clearly the NEEO remote has struck a chord with smart home fans. 

As we discussed in last week's show, 2014 marked a tipping point in the smart home. Countless products have since hit the market as companies rush in to stake their claim in this modern day gold rush. It would seem however that by and large control of consumer A/V devices in the media room has been overlooked.  In this week's show we chat with NEEO's founder, Raphael Oberholzer, to find out exactly why that is. More importantly we discuss what NEEO plans to do about it. Tune into this episode to learn about this exciting new product, and to hear about NEEO's plans to dominate the smart home, starting with your media room...

 

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Episode 54 - "The Silent Intelligence" with Daniel Obodovski

As the name of our show implies we consistently strive to keep a tight focus on technology in the home, and the home alone. On this week's show however we wanted to zoom out and look at the connected home as part of a larger context, namely the broad phenomenon knows as "The Internet of Things". Our featured guest, Daniel Obodovski, is perfectly suited to facilitate the conversation. 

Daniel is the co-author of the "The Silent Intelligence", a book that explores in great detail the ubiquitous connectivity making its way into our daily lives. Daniel is particularly qualified to speak on this topic. He has nearly 20 years of experience in the high-tech sectors where he has helped various companies come to market with connected devices. Daniel's book is packed full of insights, helping its readers understand the broad-reaching implications of the next revolution in computing, which is well underway as we speak. Join us for a fascinating conversation as we discuss the Internet of Things, and what it means for the connected home of the future.    

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Episode 53 - Special Guest Richard Gunther

Episode 52 - At Least It's Not a Toshiba

We had been looking forward to sharing an interview with Daniel Obodovsky this week. Daniel is co-author of "The Silent Intelligence", a very interesting book about the significance of the Internet-of-Things. Alas Daniel lost his voice the day of the show so we had to reschedule. We look forward to sharing that conversation with you in a few short weeks.

For this week's episode we bring you an update on Seth's new home. Specifically how the realities of an unexpected plumbing problem regrettably have him re-evaluating his lighting control options (read: budget). The image attached to this episode says it all...

We also discussed a couple of interesting stories from the smart home space this week. Stories covered include the release of an Apple TV driver by Control4 that uses 2-way IP control, and the announcement by Sony that they will be spinning off their AV business.  

Thanks for listening to HomeTech! We'll catch you next week!

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