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584 episodes

Episode 64 · May 18, 2015

Ding! Ding! Dusting Off the New-Platform-Bell...

In another guest-free-episode we discuss a number of important smart home stories from the week, not the least of which is a new announcement from Samsung & SmartThings. At IoT World the companies announced a new initiative aimed at the burgeoning market for connected devices. A combination of chipsets, dubbed "Artik", as well as the development of cloud-based backend infrastructure, called "OpenCloud", gives manufacturers of connected devices some compelling options. Additionally the news gave us occasion to dust off the new-platform-bell... DING! DING!

Episode 63 · May 11, 2015

If This Then What?

In this episode we sat down to discuss a number of news stories from this week in the smart home. We start of the show with a couple of follow up points related the Apple Watch. Specifically we mention the release of the SmartThings app, which made its debut the day after we recorded last week's episode in which we commented on its conspicuous absence. Also in Apple news we discuss rumors of a completely redesigned AppleTV remote, supposedly being developed as part of the forthcoming product release expected this June.

Episode 62 · May 4, 2015

Watching the Watch

With the official launch of the Apple Watch now behind us, we thought we would take this episode to discuss the implications of the device on the smart home market. To no one's surprise details on many of the current Apple Watch smart home apps are a little sparse. A select few companies, such as Alarm.com, were presumably given a leg up on development so that their app could be featured in Apple's keynote. By and large however most companies are still scrambling to get their apps to market.

Episode 61 · April 27, 2015

The Wink Debacle (and Recovery)

With no guest for this week's show we take the opportunity to get caught up on some significant goings-on in the smart home. To kick things off we have a brief discussion about the official launch of the Apple Watch. We sat down to record this episode the night before the product finally goes on sale. Mostly we discuss how, and which, smart home manufacturers will benefit from the product's release. We hope to have more to chat about on this front for next week's episode, so be sure to tune in to get our thoughts.

Episode 60 · April 20, 2015

Smarter Living

We spend a lot of time here at HomeTech talking about what it really means to have a "smart home". This terminology does, after all, get bandied about at an ever-increasing pace. The attention of everyday consumers is a surely a welcome sign to anyone with an interest in the smart home market. There are those, however, who would take care to more accurately define what the term "smart home" really means.

Episode 59 · April 13, 2015

Intelligent Irrigation with Franz Garsombke of Rachio

In our main segment this week were joined by Franz Garsombke, co-founder of CTO of Rachio. For the uninitiated Rachio is the manufacturer behind Iro, an intelligent irrigation controller. Since it's launch the Iro has gained traction with several major brick-and-mortar retailers, including Home Depot, Apple Stores, and Best Buy. We brought Franz on to chat about what has lead to the product's success. Our conversation covered everything from the basics of installation and setup, to the large-scale challenges of water conservation the product aims to address.

Episode 58 · April 6, 2015

Listeners' Corner feat. Cody Crossland

We started out this week's show by trying to settle a little internal debate here at HomeTech. Amazon made a big splash on the tech-news scene this week with the announcement of the "Dash Button". One half of the HomeTech team thinks the product very clever, and worthy of the smart home label most tech journalists are using to describe it. The other half thinks it's just a silly button to help you buy more crap. Tune in to hear the debate (and tweet us with your thoughts if you're so inclined).

Episode 57 · March 30, 2015

Cut the Cord with Tablo's Grant Hall

If we've said it once we've said it a dozen times: 2015 is the year of the cord cutter. With new over-the-top offerings coming to market at an increasing pace, consumers everywhere are finding it increasingly easy to tell their big cable providers to go pound sand. While services like Netflix, Hulu, and the newly released SlingTV provide consumers with a great deal of content to chose from, they are all missing one thing - access to local, live, high-definition programming available free to anyone with an OTA antenna.

Episode 56 · March 23, 2015

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?

Episode 55 · March 16, 2015

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.

Episode 54 · March 9, 2015

"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.

Episode 53 · March 2, 2015

Special Guest Richard Gunther

This week on HomeTech special guest host Richard Gunther from the Digital Media Zone fills in for Jason while he takes a much deserved vacation.

Episode 52 · February 23, 2015

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.

Episode 51 · February 16, 2015

ISE 2015 Wrap-Up

We sat down to record this show on the evening of Thursday, February 12th. If you are wondering why we point this out it is because that date marks exactly the 1-year anniversary of us publishing our very first episode of HomeTech! With that in mind, and before we get into the specifics of this week's show, we wanted to reiterate our sincere appreciation for your listenership! We have had a great time getting this show off the ground over the last 12 months, and we look forward to many more years of growing the HomeTech community! Thank you for being a part of it!

Episode 50 · February 9, 2015

Perverted Robots

In what we suppose could be considered a miniature milestone we bring to you show number 50. Seth returns from the previous week's travels to join us for an all-news episode. As the CES hangover begins to dissipate the industry's collective gaze has begun to shift towards ISE 2015 in Amsterdam. ISE, the literal lovechild of CEDIA and INFOcomm, is a massive show that we at HomeTech hope to attend someday. For this year however we are stuck watching from afar. We look forward to sharing our thoughts on episode 51 so be sure to tune in next week to get the HomeTech take.

Episode 49 · February 2, 2015

Connectile Dysfunction

In our latest episode we depart from our usual format on a couple of fronts. First and foremost Seth had some unexpected travel come up. As such Jason is joined by a good friend, fellow Integrator, and industry podcaster Nate Schneider. Nate and Jason work on together a monthly podcast called AV Shop Talk that, especially for the integrators in our audience, we would encourage you to check out.

Episode 48 · January 26, 2015

Now That's a Home Theater!

On this week's episode Jason shares some of his experiences managing the installation of a very high end home theater in Los Angeles. The conversation ranges from technical topics, such as the inclusion of Auro3D audio, to the logistical challenges present when building a room such as this. These high end theaters require an immense amount of planning and a high-level of execution from multiple trades. We thought it would be interesting to share a sneak peek of what this process looks like with you.

Episode 47 · January 19, 2015

Chris Pinder of HDAnywhere

Episode 47 of HomeTech brings to you a conversation with Chris Pinder of HDAnywhere, a manufacturer of unique HDMI distribution solutions. As the video landscape continues to evolve, and 4K displays and content become more ubiquitous, it's become increasingly important to have an array of video-solution options in your tool belt. To that end if you're not familiar with HDAnywhere, you should be! This company initially came to our attention via our fans in the UK (Shout out to the #LiveInstall community). Recently HDAnywhere has made inroads into the US market. Their modular distribution solutions warrant special attention. Although only half of the HomeTech team (Seth) was able to conduct the interview, we are excited to present this episode!

Episode 46 · January 12, 2015

CES 2015 Wrap-Up

With the gaze of gadget lovers worldwide fixed on Las Vegas this week for CES 2015, it was not difficult for us to pick a topic for our show. In fact the challenge lay in separating the wheat from the chaff. As usual, the massive trade show brought about a plethora of stories, some worth noting others good for little more than a laugh.

Episode 45 · December 29, 2014

HomeTech's 2014 Year In Review

In our final episode of 2014 we decided we'd do what every other tech-news show and blog on the planet do, and take a look back at the biggest stories of the year. What we lack in originality we strive to make up for by giving our own personal take. Specifically offering our thoughts as home automation professionals and systems integrators.