Tag: smart home

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First HomeKit, now ‘Home’ – Apple ups the ante with their Smart Home App

Apple Home App

Apple HomeKit, announced back in June 2014, was Apple’s foray into the smart home market. But as a developer platform it had little interest for consumers. Now, with a large base of HomeKit devices available on the market, Apple are finally launching their Home app in iOS 10, which will let users control their connected home from their iPhone or iPad.

While you’ve been able to control a lot of smart home appliances with your phone through individual apps, the benefit of Home is that it creates one hub that controls everything. You don’t need separate apps for your lights, thermostat, and webcam. The Home app does it all as long as the appliance was built for HomeKit.

Read the full article on Business Insider

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Pets go hungry after IoT feeding app Petnet suffers server outage

IoT feeding app Petnet suffers server outage

Highlighting the dangers of relying on cloud-based IoT devices, Petnet’s smart pet feeder suffered an online outage this week leaving many pets unfed. The IBTimes reports.

The Internet of Things (IoT) may be touted as the next big thing in the technology industry, but these connected solutions designed to make our lives easier are still fraught with problems that could lead to some devastating results. Petnet, an internet-connected feeding app that periodically dispenses food for your pets, experienced a server outage on Wednesday (27 July) that left many pets hungry for hours.

Read the full article on IBTimes

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How to protect your Smart Home with Tor and the Dark Web

Using a Raspberry Pi and HomeAssistant software, the privacy-focused non-profit Guardian Project has developed a technique to apply Tor’s layers of encryption and network stealth to protecting your Internet of Things or Smart Home devices.

the Guardian Project turned a simple Raspberry Pi mini-computer into a smart hub running the open-source software called HomeAssistant software and acts as a so-called Tor hidden service, the same application of Tor that obscures the location of servers running dark web sites.

Read the full article on WIRED

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Oticon Opn – the connected hearing aid

Not to be dismissed as a simple gadget, the Opn from Denmark’s Oticon actually sounds useful. The Opn, which can be used with IFTTT (If This Then That) recipe-based automation, ensures the wearer knows when someone rings the doorbell, the smoke detector goes off or a baby monitor is alarming.

In the case of Opn, IFTTT provides the means for an Internet-connected doorbell to trigger an automated audio message to the person wearing the hearing aid, saying something to the effect of “There’s someone at the door”

Read the full article on Fortune

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Monitor your plants from your phone with Gro.io

Every plant grower can now become a master grower with Gro.io, “the world’s most intelligent hydroponics system.”

instead of outputting all that information to a local monitor, the Gro.io will push it to the branded iOS app on your phone via the tower’s integrated Wi-Fi receiver. The app allows you to monitor the long term growth of your plants…, adjust nutrient and light levels and receive notifications if anything goes awry.

Read the full article on Engadget

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Do IoT virtual assistants violate child privacy?

The Amazon Alexa and child privacy laws

Virtual assistants like the Amazon Echo are increasingly becoming an integral part of the family household in the US. But does the recording and storage of children’s voices contravene the US child privacy laws? Karen Turner at the Washington Post investigates.

Companies with virtual assistants, such as Amazon, could be fined millions of dollars for the collection of children’s data without explicit parental consent, The Guardian reported recently. Specifically, these AI devices store audio files of children’s voice commands, but don’t provide any information on how long these files are stored or how they are being used.

Read the full article on The Washington Post

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What’s behind Microsoft’s IoT magic mirror?

Microsoft's IoT Magic Mirror

The idea of a smart mirror has been around for a while, but now Microsoft have revealed details of how you can build your very own ‘Magic Mirror’, relatively cheaply, to display information like the time, date, weather, stocks and traffic using Microsoft services – while you’re shaving. ZDNet show you how to get reflective, with a Raspberry Pi, Windows 10 IoT and Microsoft Azure…

Microsoft wants you to tap Azure and its artificial intelligence to create your own networked magic mirror… Instead of reaching for the phone when you’re rushing to prepare for work in the morning, Microsoft would have you simply look into the magic mirror for key details to help get the day started, such as stock prices, weather and traffic information.

Read the full article on ZDNet

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The ‘Smart Skin’ that can monitor your health or even control your home

IoT Smart Skin

Scientists at University of Wisconsin-Madison have created the world’s fastest stretchable, wearable circuit. The Huffington Post takes a look and tells us how it could become the foundation for the next generation of wearable gadgets.

This ‘smart skin’ could do everything from monitor your vitals, control your music, track your runs or even let you control your own home – all wirelessly.

Read the full article on The Huffington Post

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Should we fear the Internet of Things?

Should we fear the IoT?

Are we heading for an Orwellian future? Deborah Cobing reports on the recent Connected Conference that took place in Paris and asks the question – Should we fear the IoT?

Those who have read the works of Margaret Atwood, Gorge Orwell, and Adolf Huxley are familiar with the idea of constant surveillance and a higher authority “in-touch” with our everyday lives. Unfortunately, all of the mentioned writers used the concept to create fascinating dystopias that are currently inflicting fear in the hearts of those who are put face to face with the notion of the Internet of Things.

Read the full article on States Chronicle

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The 5 biggest markets the IoT is poised to disrupt

IoT Battlegrounds Infographic

Consulting firm Bain & Company recently published a new report that focuses on “the major emerging battlegrounds” in the IoT that enterprises need to be aware of. Mike Wheatley at SiliconANGLE takes a look at these battlegrounds;

  • Consumer IoT
  • The Industrial Internet
  • Networking
  • Real-time Analytics
  • Self-driving Cars & Robots

Read the full article on SiliconANGLE