GM and hi everyone! Before jumping into this week’s smart home newsletter, a special welcome to the 24 newest readers of the smart home
newsletter! Thank you for giving me space in your inbox. 
I hope that you took the last week or so to rest, relax, and unwind because 2023 is kicking off with some big news—and the smart home weekly roll-up is here to bring you up to speed:
Origin and Aloe Care Health New Partnership 👵
Aloe Care Health and Origin recently formed a partnership that is bound to result in a major breakthrough in in-home safety for older adults and caregivers. In January 2023, Aloe Care will launch new in-home safety devices and a service capable of detecting whole-home motion and falls. Additionally, the new system will use Origin’s patented Wi-Fi Sensing technology, eliminating the need for smart cameras or wearable devices.
Aloe Care and Origin are expected to host joint demonstrations at the upcoming CES 2023 in Las Vegas starting January 5-8. Both companies share the same goal of improving health outcomes among older adults. The new technology will make it possible for predictive models to get ahead of potential falls.
In case of a fall, the new whole-home fall detection technology will immediately connect older adults to emergency services through Aloe Care’s patented Smart Hub to get the medical assistance they need.
Hue App’s New Function 💡
Some time ago, Philips Hue announced the ‘Natural Light’ scene that was expected to launch in the autumn of 2021. However, the company postponed the scheduled launch earlier this year. The main idea behind this scene is to adjust the white tones throughout the day. Please note that the official launch of this new function has not yet been announced, but you can still use the ‘Natural Light’ scene.
You can access this scene through the new search function in the Hue light scenes gallery. After searching ‘Natural Light,’ you may proceed to add the scene to rooms and zones and use it. The new Natural Light function is ideally designed to help you stay productive and feel supported in your overall well-being. It uses different shades of warm to cool white light to mimic the sun’s movement during the day.
This means that your lights will automatically change throughout the day, starting with a bright tone and ending with a golden glow. Once you’ve added this scene, you can edit it according to your preferences. You can easily adjust the five periods during the day, the lamps used, light settings, desired brightness, and time periods. However, you must ensure that each period is at least 30 minutes long.
Smart Home Shipments Expected to Decline in 2022 and Slightly Increase in 2023 🛥️
Due to the worsening macroeconomic conditions around the world, the global shipments of smart home devices are expected to reduce, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC).
Global shipments are expected to reduce by 2.6% in 2022, with smart speakers and video entertainment devices such as TVs being the most affected. Even though the global market is expected to grow in 2023, the growth will be relatively low, at only 4.6%.
Most of the growth will majorly come from emerging markets like China. On the other hand, smart home products like smart cameras, doorbells, locks, lights, and video entertainment products will account for the biggest share of this growth in the market.
Pepper and Notion Come Together to Create a Leading IoT Platform 🧂
Pepper and Notion recently announced that they have combined to create a leading IoT and smart home platform business that will provide insurance carriers with customized, seamless, and connected solutions in the fast-growing Insurtech and IoT industries. Pepper allows businesses worldwide to build, deliver and monetize secure connected devices and services to consumers through a sustainable revenue model.
On the other hand, Notion is an easy-to-use DIY smart property monitoring system and app that enables homes and small business owners to proactively monitor and reduce loss from costly property damages. It’s worth noting that Comcast has invested in the Pepper/Notion combination.
By 2023, the global Insurtech market is expected to reach a staggering $167 billion, while the US consumer IoT services market will be valued at $25 billion by 2025. With their combination, Pepper and Notion will get a big share in both markets by enabling insurance carriers to access a much-needed ‘protect and prevent’ approach over the costly ‘repair and replace’ approach.
Through their seamless and secure customer IoT platform, Pepper-powered solutions will open the door to much-needed actionable data for insurance carriers and their customers. With their combination, Pepper and Notion will make new value-added services such as additional insurance products. The combination will also create more attractive recurring revenue streams through a wide range of connected home premium services.
LG Electronics Avails Its New 2023 Sound Bar Lineup 🍫
LG Electronics is expected to unveil its 2023 sound bar lineup, including the brand-new SC9 and SE6 models, at the upcoming CES 2023 in Las Vegas. The new soundbars are expected to deliver outstanding customer value with powerful, fine audio, various convenient features, and stylish designs.
These sound bars will seamlessly integrate with LG TVs providing a great user experience and authentic sound. Once paired together, LG TVs and sound bars will offer great new features such as WOW Orchestra 1, which uses one of the two products’ audio channels to deliver an expanded soundstage with enhanced height, depth, and power.
Additionally, the sound bars will offer more synergy for a multi-surround sound solution, allowing users to enjoy Dolby Atmos and IMAX enhanced quality powered by DTS: X.
Other features users should expect with LG’s 2023 sound bar lineup include Home Dashboard on LG TV, WOWCAST for cable-free convenience, sophisticated design, bracket wall-mount/stand-mount, Triple Sound Technology, Triple Sound Optimizer, AI Sound, and lossless playback.
The new LG sound bar lineup will be displayed during CES 2023, ongoing at present.
Smart Home AI-Generated Illustration of the Week!
This is it for today, See you next Sunday morning 😉. If you have colleagues, friends, or neighbors that would benefit from knowing about smart home devices, please consider sharing them. They can sign up for the newsletter by going here.
– Gerard