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The Internet of Things Podcast

A show covering everything about the internet of things -- from the smart home to automated factories -- and all of the technology that is required to make the internet of things come to fruition.
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The Internet of Things Podcast
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Now displaying: 2015
Dec 31, 2015

If you haven't gone totally paper free on your bills yet, it's highly likely that the envelope that arrives via the mail has been touched by a Pitney Bowes machine. Pitney Bowes is a $4 billion company that makes mail it's business, and Roger Pilc, its chief innovation officer, came on the show this week to explain how it thinks about the Internet of things, how it works with startups and invests in them to rethink how it manages mail. He also talks about how he's challenging the company to improve by signing up startups as customers who demand services that are a year or two ahead of the curve.

Sep 10, 2015

I hope you're hungry for some smart kitchen news because this week I have smart home analyst and the host of The Smart Home show podcast (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-smart-home-show/id689329574?mt=2&ign-mpt=uo%3D4) Michael Wolf coming on to discuss Amazon's plans for the kitchen and some really awesome technology he's seeing in that room of the home. Wolf, who is hosting a conference on the topic Nov. 5 (you can register using the code IOTPOD and get 15% off the conference fee) (https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-smart-kitchen-summit-tickets-17074050946?discount=IOTPOD ) wrote his take on the news that Amazon is building a connected device for the kitchen called Kabinet, that was leaked in a <em>Wall Street Journal</em> story. Wolf and I discuss what the Kabinet might entail as well as some other connected technologies he;'s seen and how the smart kitchen will evolve (http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelwolf/2015/08/27/heres-what-project-kabinet-amazons-smart-kitchen-computer-will-do/). Before Wolf and I get started, Kevin Tofel and I share the latest on this week's news with the Nest outage over Labor Day weekend (http://www.engadget.com/2015/09/07/nest-outage/), ARM and IBM's partnership to bring the internet of things to more industrial users (http://fortune.com/2015/09/03/arm-ibm-iot/) and introduce our own idea, which is that Google should buy web service If This Then That. The one thing you won't find is Apple's latest announcements, because we recorded the show the day before Apple's announcements. We just give you a reason to listen next week. In the meantime, please enjoy the show.

Sep 3, 2015

This week has a bunch of updates on old favorites for the smart home with a third generation thermostat from Nest and a new home hub from SmartThings. We start the show with Kevin and I discussing the slimmer Nest thermostat with a bigger screen and software upgrades (http://fortune.com/2015/09/01/new-nest-thermostat/). Our decision? There is no need to upgrade, but the Nest is still a winner. We also review the reviews of the new router from Google and Kevin decides if he can find one, he'll try it out and report back. But the biggest news on the smart home front is probably the upgrade to the SmartThings hub, which I've had in my home since 2013 and is getting an upgrade on Thursday. Our guest is SmartThings CEO Alex Hawkinson, who covers some of the changes and the new services model the company first unveiled at CES. We also talk about how it is handling Apple's HomeKit and competition after its acquisition by Samsung last summer. The company has handled the challenge of being open while also trying to make a consumer-friendly product, which isn't easy, as any Android user can tell you. This iteration may be the one that pushes it into the mainstream. Listen up and see what you think.

Aug 27, 2015

We connected our lights and locks to the Internet and frankly, we don't seem to be much better off. In this week's podcast I talk to Claire Rowland a user experience consultant and lead author of Designing Connected Products (http://www.designingconnectedproducts.com/buy-the-book/) about why that is, and who actually is better off. We also discuss what she's discovered about making friendlier designs and why she's optimistic about the smart home.

In the here and now, Kevin and I discuss how I connected my Wink and SmartThings hub to the Amazon Echo and what we can and cannot do now that we're linking our hubs into a larger hub. We also do a little review of the latest Hue light product from Philips--a $40 wireless dimmer kit (http://fortune.com/2015/08/25/philips-hue-dimmer/). I even managed to fix a lingering problem with my Wink setup and now I have porch lights that go on when my garage door opens. It's a known issue with scheduling on the Wink, so listen up to see if it might apply to you.

Aug 20, 2015

Technical skills are important when it comes to deploying a new connected manufacturing plant or designing a just-in-time inventory management system. But equally important is developing a management culture that can really take advantage of the data transparency that connectivity can offer a business, according to this week's guest on the IoT podcast. Satya Ramaswamy of Tata Consultancy Services shares his thoughts about a recent report on the Internet of things and how companies can adapt to really take advantage of this business shift(http://fortune.com/2015/07/27/tata-internet-of-things/).

Before we talk to Ramaswamy, Kevin Tofel and I discuss Google's new router (http://www.wired.com/2015/08/google-onhub-wi-fi-router/) and why it might be the best thing for the smart home. We also explore Intel's commitment to the internet of things based on its stunt-heavy opener at the Intel Developer Forum this week. In funding news we talk about a $28 million round for connected video doorbell company Ring as well as $5 million in funding for a startup that's combining the internet of things and the blockchain technology behind Bitcoin (http://fortune.com/2015/08/18/filament-blockchain-iot/). Enjoy the show.

Aug 13, 2015

This week's podcast explores how sausage gets made. Actually we explore how roast chickens, cookies and salmon get made. Ryan Black is the research chef at June, a company making a $1,500 connected oven (www.juneoven.com) When he's not appearing on the IoT podcast he spends his days baking 15 batches of cookies or 20 batches of salmon trying to figure out how to train the artificial intelligence inside the June oven how to build recipes for certain types of food. It sounds like an amazing job, and he's in a prime position to explain how technology and food prep can come together to change how people learn how to cook and how the internet of things might invade the kitchen.

Before we talk to Black about how he controls his June ovens at the command line, Kevin Tofel and I discuss Google's stunning corporate restructuring (http://fortune.com/2015/08/11/google-alphabet-alpha-bet/) and what it means for Nest and Google's Brillo and Weave plans. We also talk about a few examples of the smart home still being a little bit dumb, and some fall out on the security from the Black Hat security conference (http://fortune.com/2015/08/07/zigbee-hacked/). On the gadget front, D-Link has a new $60 Wi-Fi water sensor (http://us.dlink.com/products/connected-home/wi-fi-water-sensor/) and Kevin reviews the $15 connected Cree LED light bulbs.

Jul 30, 2015

Forget about connecting your smart home, can you imagine the technical challenge of connecting a rhinoceros to the internet (http://fortune.com/2015/07/27/iot-rhinos/)? That's what a new anti-poaching organization called Protect has done with its effort to connect rhinos in South Africa to the internet as part of an anti-poaching effort (http://weareprotect.org/index.html). Kevin and I discuss the project on this week's show, as well as the challenges of living with new products that try to train algorithms to help make life easier. So far, their just make you have to interact more with mobile apps.

We also discuss Best Buy's plan to use the Geek Squad as a network of experts to help homeowners navigate the complexities of the internet of things. Neither Kevin nor I are sure this is the way to save Best Buy, but we're willing to see if the Geek Squad can become the Apple Genius Bar of the smart home. In other retail news, we snagged David Newman, the man in charge of pulling together Target's Open Home store concept that was launched earlier this month to discuss plans for the space and what he's learned so far (http://fortune.com/2015/07/09/target-open-house/). He also shares why the furniture inside the store is clear. Listen up, and before you go, please note that Kevin and I will be skipping our show next week because we're taking a quick week-long break in broadcasting. See you next on August 14.

Jul 23, 2015

Hacked cars, Quirky's cash crisis, connecting the Echo and Wink and why crowdfunding isn't working for hardware companies anymore.

Jul 16, 2015

This week we don't have a guest on the show, but we covered a lot of great stuff starting with the week's news about The thread Group releasing its code and Qualcomm joining the group touting the wireless protocol (http://for.tn/1RwffOm). We also spent a considerable amount of time covering Target's new retail concept for the internet of things (http://fortune.com/2015/07/09/target-open-house/). The retailer has opened up a store in San Francisco that stocks connected devices from 50 vendors and shows people how these products work in a simulated home and how they work together.

Listen up to hear how Target plans to use the store as a lab to learn about how to sell the internet of things. After that we talk about using connected devices in sports, specifically tennis (http://www.tiauknews.org/news/2014/12/11/babolat-set-to-grow-connected-tennis). Since Wimbledon just wrapped up we pulled data on connected tennis rackets on Babolat from IBM (http://ibmcai.com/2015/07/09/can-the-internet-of-things-make-tennis-smarter/) and discussed how better data might change the way the sport is played and how it may influence the rules of the game. Kevin also referenced a scary NASCAR crash that you can see here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84hz9w2GlV4).

Finally, our 5-minute review this week is on the Vivint doorbell camera. 

Jul 9, 2015

If you love something you should set it free, but if you love a connected device you should spend gobs of money adding more gadgets until you have a platform. And this week I have done just that, spending $20 on six light bulbs that I can control with my Amazon Echo. I explain how I used GE's Link lights which work with the Philips Hue platform, which works with the Amazon Echo, to both lower my overall energy spend and add voice control to more of the lights in my home. It's awesome.

After this week's news and my lighting project I welcome Andrew Farah,CEO of Density to the show to discuss how we might count people in public places. Before y'all get too worked up, his sensors offer anonymity, and we discuss why merchants, offices, consumers and governments would be keen on getting a tally of people inside buildings. We also talk about alternatives that rely on facial recognition and how building a company that sells data is very different from building a company that sells products.

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