Episode 69 - "Lights That Rock" with Shaun Springer from Twist

For this week's show we are pleased to present a conversation with Shaun Springer. Shaun is the founder and CEO of Astro, the company behind the newly released smart lightbulb / speaker combination Twist. Shaun's background in the smart home will be of particular interest to the integrators in our audience. Earlier in his career Shaun worked at Crestron, where he led research and development on the company's Core3 UI initiative.

Through his new venture Shaun is setting out to tackle the smart home by providing unparalleled simplicity. With the Twist lightbulb formally launched, we thought we'd bring him on for a conversation. We discuss some the rationale behind Astro's decision to position their products specifically for renters, an arguably underserved smart home market segment. Spending the remainder of the interview discussing the design and feature set of their new product, we discover a number of truly unique aspects to the manner in which Shaun and his team are approaching the smart home. Some of the company's ideas, on app control and 3rd party integration for example, might surprise you. Tune into the whole episode for more on that. 

Overall the Twist product seems well thought out and tastefully designed. We enjoyed having Shaun on to learn more. If you find this episode, or any of our others, enjoyable do us a huge favor and tell a friend about the show, or leave us a review on iTunes!  

See you next week.

Episode 68 - The Nest No-Show

In a couple of respects this was a rather disappointing week in the smart home. On one hand we had been looking forward to a press conference from Nest. The company has been awfully quiet since being acquired by Google in February of 2014 for whopping $3.2 billion. At the time of that blockbuster deal it was only natural to assume that, given this sort of brand-power and funding, Nest would be moving quick with further ventures into the smart home. Cue the crickets...

Hence it was with great anticipation that we were looking forward to Nest's June 17th press conference. As it turns out there wasn't a whole lot of meat on the bone. For all the pomp and circumstance what we essentially got was some minor updates to the Nest Protect smoke alarm, and a DropCam with a fancier stand. Tune into this episode to get our full take on the event.

While we were on the topic of disappointments we figured it was no brainer to discuss the latest in a long line of tough news for the folks at Wink. The home automation hub, spun off from the so-called online "invention platform" Quirky, has faced tough sledding from the get go. First in a series of scathing reviews from consumers and tech-press alike, then in the form of a security debacle we discussed on a previous episode. The product, which has consistently failed to meet expectations, now looks like it's heading for the selling block. Join us for a conversation about what this news means for the company, consumers, and the smart home market at large.

As always we hope you enjoy the show. If you find the find podcast valuable, entertaining, or both you can help us out either by becoming a patron or leaving us a review on iTunes! Either is immensely appreciated. 

See you next week!

Episode 67 - The HomeKit Roundtable 2015

Smart home professionals, enthusiasts, and reporters alike were once again left wanting in the wake of an Apple event. It's been over a year since the original announcement of Apple's smart home initiative known as HomeKit. Despite recent, and rather unexpected, announcements by several smart home manufacturers that HomeKit product is now shipping, Cupertino continues to keep the platform out of the spotlight. Those holding their breath for a long-overdue update to the AppleTV, which many suspect could play an integral role in HomeKit, were also left exhaling in disappointment. 

On this episode long time friend of the show, and fellow smart home podcaster Richard Gunther joins us for a WWDC 2015 Roundtable. Making a conscious effort to avoid speculation wherever possible, we spend the majority of the episode focusing on we do know about HomeKit. Whether intentionally, or inadvertently, Apple has managed to create a level of confusion around this release not typically associated with the company's new initiatives. This longer-than-usual episode will help you cut through the noise surrounding HomeKit, getting you up to speed with all you need to know. 

As always we hope you enjoy! Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next week. 

Episode 66 - Sensors and the Smart Home with Brian Leeners of NYCE Sensors

It's our first interview episode in quite some time, and well worth the wait. We are joined by Brian Leeners, CEO and founder for NYCE Control. NYCE is a company driving innovation in the sensor market with an array of zigbee devices. Brian brings a diverse background and well-educated set of opinions to the table in what proved to be a very fun and interesting conversation. In addition to covering NYCE's array of product offerings we also dive into discussions about how sensor technology will drive smart home adoption. As always we hope you enjoy! 

PS - be sure to tune in next week to get all of our thoughts on WWDC 2015

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Episode 65 - Crushing the AppleTV Pipe Dream

Last week we decided to take a small breather in order to celebrate Memorial Day as well as our own Seth Johnson's birthday (be sure to send him some BDay love on twitter). Turns out taking a breather was a good idea. This week we are back with a vengeance in what feels like just the beginning of what should remain a very busy 2015.

There was tons of ground to cover in smart home news this week. Some of the big stories we touch on included a few pieces of news from the Apple front. We discuss some rumors pertaining to what we can expect at WWDC 2015. These rumors include the exciting prospect of 3rd party app development on the AppleTV through a framework known as TVKit. Speaking of rumors, we also cover a recent Wall Street Journal piece that may finally crush the dreams of the iTV-wishful once and for all. If you count yourself amongst them you may want to have a box of tissue handy.

In other big news we discuss the rumored IoT operating system expected from Google called Brillo. More details about Brillo have become available via the Google IO conference, which started the day after we recorded this episode. Mainly our conversation focuses on some great coverage by friend-of-the-show Mike Wolf, which you can read here. 

All of these stories and more, including a pending IPO from Alarm.com, on this week's episode. Hope you enjoy! 

PS - Be sure to tune in next week to get more of our thoughts on Google IO.

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