Suddenly, music is a business again. After years of wallowing in the post-Napster/iTunes era, streaming is beginning to take hold and everyone’s phone is now an iPod. So while Sonos has been in the smart home audio business since 2002, now’s the time to push for mainstream adoption. That’s why it makes sense that Sonos just raised $130 million, according to an SEC filing. Sonos declined to comment on the news.
Keeping an eye on your house while you’re away doesn’t have to mean spending a lot of money on fancy cameras — or even buying cameras at all.
CamioCam, a company that turns your smartphone or tablet into a surveillance camera, is finally releasing its free iOS and Android apps publicly. Although a beta version has quietly been in the App Store for a few months, the official version is now out and with a few new features including full-video recording and playback, two-way talk, and live streaming capabilities. CamioCam also works with the Chrome and Firefox browsers, as well as with Internet-connected cameras.
No one wants an internet-connected wine bottle. Or a “smart” baby diaper, no matter what sort of data it collects. According to new market research, consumers are most interested in the Internet of Things when it helps them save money, or more easily control their other household appliances.
What they’re not interested in is a connected device for its own sake, like a lightbulb that flashes when the phone rings, or that pulses to the beat of music. If the Internet of Things is going to grow as fast as is projected, companies will need to start by tailoring products to existing consumer needs.
Samsung Electronics announced today that every new connected Samsung device will tie into the company’s smart home environment, which is being built on the SmartThings platform and the Tizen operating system.
Samsung is opening the platform to developers, who can now create apps that utilize sensors and devices in the phone. In one of the apps demonstrated here at the Samsung Tomorrow developers conference, the sound of angry dogs barking flowed from the Sonos home audio system when sensors in the home detected someone who wasn’t supposed to be there.
There’s currently no shortage of ‘smart’ security devices for your home, due to the ascendancy of the smart home market as a whole, coupled with a hardware renaissance driven by the rise of crowdfunding. These consumer home security devices usually consist simply of an Internet-connected camera of sorts, combined with motion detection and a supporting cloud service and smartphone app to ping you when a potential intruder is detected. Debuting on IndieGoGo today, however, is Cocoon, which adds ‘infrasound’ into the mix.
Mysterious smart home company Leeo is finally pulling back the curtain on its first product: a smoke detector aid.
Unlike, say, Nest’s Protect smoke detector or even its thermostat, you don’t have to play electrician and start dismounting and rewiring devices to install Leeo’s product. You simply plug Leeo’s smart smoke detector aid into an electric socket, and you can get to work making your existing alarm smart as soon as you download Leeo’s companion iOS app and input a few pieces of info.
While it’s in the “smoke alarm” realm, it is actually using sound detection rather than smoke detection to do its job.
n recent years Apple, Google, and Microsoft have invested heavily in speech-recognition technology, encouraging people to issue voice commands to their smartphones and games consoles. A new device called the Ubi that launched Wednesday aims to extend that idea to your entire home. You can call out commands to do things like turn up the thermostat or draw the blinds.
The Ubi is meant as an easy way to control many different connected home devices. In recent years, many home appliances and devices that can be controlled over the Internet have appeared. Among them are thermostats, door locks, and lightbulbs. But most must be managed using their own dedicated mobile app or Web service.
Google today announced a new Chromecast feature that lets you turn your TV screen into a backdrop. To turn on this functionality, you’ll need to download the new version of the app directly from Google Play and Apple’s App Store.
