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.
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/
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.
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.