Episode 79 - Everything But HomeKit

Home technology fans anxious to see HomeKit in the spotlight at Apple's recent 'Hey Siri' event were once again let down. While we could easily rant about the continual lack of movement on Apple's smart home initiative, who wants to kick a dead horse? We decided instead to focus this week's show on what Apple did unveil, and there was plenty. 

We discuss each of Apple's new product releases, and their implications, or lack thereof, on the home technology market. We take particular aim at the new AppleTV, a product that was long overdue for an update. The updated set top box is certainly an improvement over its predecessor, but it's not all roses (ahem... 4k anyone?).

While mostly focused on Apple, this episode is also rounded out with news from Lutron (yes, Lutron again!). We also discuss the recent push by KNX, a long-established European home automation protocol, to penetrate the US market. (We want to hear from our listeners overseas on this particular story. Tune in for more info and don't hesitate to let us know your thoughts). 

As always we hope you enjoy the show. If you find HomeTech to be a valuable resource please take a moment to leave us a review on iTunes! We'd also love you to consider becoming a patron of the show, more info on that here. We'll see you next week.

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Episode 78 - Empowering Creators with Peter Hoddie of Kinoma

This week's episode of HomeTech features a guest well-known within engineering and technology circles, Peter Hoddie. Having once served as Chief Quicktime Architect at Apple, Peter boasts a very impressive resume. Peter currently serves as VP of Kinoma, a division within the giant semi-conductor company Marvell. Back in 2002 he co-founded Kinoma, producing a virtual software platform widely deployed by companies like Palm, Sony, and Sling Media. While Kinoma has since been acquired, in many ways they continue to proudly demonstrate their startup roots. 

Peter joins us to discuss the recently crowd-funded project dubbed Kinoma Create. Create is a platform aimed at removing the low-level drudgery experienced by developers who work at the intersection of software and hardware. By drastically speeding up and simplifying the prototyping process, Kinoma's goal is to promote innovation in a variety of vertical markets, of which the smart home is no doubt a prime target. The company is also highly driven to see the adoption of Create amongst students, promoting tech-education through experimentation. 

Sure to be especially popular with the tinkerers and DIY-enthusiasts in our audience, this conversation provides a glimpse at the type of product which could inspire innovation in the smart home for a whole new generation of Creators. 

As always we hope you enjoy the show! For more episodes be sure to subscribe on iTunes or TuneIn, and don't forget to leave us a rating while you're at it! If you have any suggestions, comments, or just want to say hi, do so on Twitter, or using our feedback form. We look forward to sharing our thoughts on the upcoming Apple Event with you next week so be sure to tune in!

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Episode 77 - A Constant Cacophony

Ever wonder what the how the rest of the world perceives home technology integrators? Wonder no more. We kick this week's episode off by sharing the audio from a YouTube clip we think sums it perfectly. Not sure if we should laugh or cry, but a little levity never hurts either way.

Regarding (somewhat) more serious matters we discuss a few follow up thoughts on Just Add Power's new 3G line, a new entrant to the cloud-based video surveillance market, and a rather abrupt closure from a well-known speaker manufacturer. 

We bring the show to a close discussing the creation of a new Slack chat channel exclusively for HomeTech Patrons . We look forward to your participation in the channel and think it will be a fun way for all of us to interact! To access the channel you simply need to become a Patron of the show which you can do for as little as $1 a month. Learn more here

Thanks as always for listening. We'll see you next week!

Episode 76 - We Get No Respect

In what has become a bit of a rare occurrence lately this week's show actually features both of your regular hosts. No interview guest, but plenty of interesting news and opinion pieces to discuss. First we provide a wrap-up of the CEPro Summit, an event recently attended by Jason. Focused primarily on the professional integrators in our audience, the conversation provides an interesting peek behind the curtain for end-users and enthusiasts as well. 

Next up we discuss a few news stories including the announcement of UHD-enabled products from Just Add Power, an interesting hardware play by Google (and what it could really mean for the smart home), as well as a recent venture funding story with a few names you might just recognize. 

We bring the episode to a conclusion with another must-hear discussion for the integrators in our audience. A number of columns have appeared recently in CEPro that got our attention. Submitted by a Joseph Kolchinsky, of OneVision Resources, the pieces focus on a handful of critical flaws that pervade many of our business models. These flaws lead to a lack of profitability and respect amongst our trade partners. Joseph's articles offer great insight as to how we can improve, in turn enabling us to provide a higher level of service to our clients. We would love to hear your thoughts and feedback on this important conversation so shoot us an email or drop us a line on twitter.

Thanks as always for listening and we will talk to you next week!

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Episode 75 - The Proactive Smart Home with Alexei Erchak of BeON

Many tech companies are quick to use the word "security" when describing features such as mobile alerts and remote access to cameras. While certainly convenient these technologies are necessarily limited by their reactive nature, likely affording you little more than a front row seat to the violation of your home. Lost in all this marketing hype is the fact that a true security system's biggest benefit lies in it's ability to proactively prevent an intrusion from happening in the first place.

Enter BeON, an innovative smart lighting system designed to deter would-be intruders. BeON accomplishes this by intelligently learning and automatically mimicking the way you use your lights, giving your home the natural appearance of occupancy whether you are there or not. Alongside a handful of other nifty features BeON also has the ability to "listen" for events, such as the sound of your unique doorbell. Upon hearing the chime BeON will respond in a natural way making it appear, for example, as though someone is walking down the hall to check the door. The vast majority of home intruders will only act if they are confident a home is unoccupied. BeON intelligently exploits this fact, and in so doing provides a nice layer of protection that can either stand on its own, or serve as a compliment to traditional security systems. 

On this episode we are joined by Co-Founder and CEO of the company Alexei Erchak to discuss this unique product. With a Ph.D. in Materials Science & Engineering from MIT, and over 70 patents to his name Alexei brings a very impressive resume to his current endeavor. We had a great time producing this episode and hope you enjoy the conversation!

PS - As always we want to sincerely thank you for listening to HomeTech! If you enjoy the show please leave us a review on iTunes! Also we kindly ask that you consider supporting our ongoing efforts to produce the show by becoming a Patron. 

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