Good morning to everyone! Hope the Summer is going well. We were promised a heatwave here in Ireland this week (common occurrence!), but nothing yet only lots of clouds so far! On the smart home, here are some stories that might interest you this Sunday morning:
New Hue Bulbs 💡
Looks like some brighter Hue Smart Bulbs are on the way. Currently, this popular line of smart bulbs is limited to an intensity level of 806 lumens. According to sources, Philips is planning to up the light levels to 1,100 lumens for standard-sized bulbs. And according to the rumors doing the rounds at the moment, the larger bulbs will support 1,600 lumens, pretty bright. Furthermore, there is also speculation that Philips will expand its filament range.
According to our sources over at the Hue Blog, these new smart lighting products will not be released until later this summer.
More Nest Privacy 🤐
This is actually a topic I find kinda interesting! I’ve taken various GDPR courses over the years and normally check out developments in this area, particularly when it comes to the smart home. And, consumer privacy is trendy at the moment as evidenced by Google Nest’s recent announcement. According to Ryan Campbell, Product Manager at Google Nest. The key takeaways from the blog post include:
- Google created a centralized Web location for content and tools associated with Nest privacy features.
- Google Nest connected smart home devices will now be validated using third-party, industry-recognized security standards.
- Continued tightening of Google accounts to enhance Nest smart device security levels.
- Nest smart home devices use verified boot to ensure the latest version of the software is running.
Apple has become synonymous with privacy and security within the smart home space, great to see Google adopting a similar approach.
There are plenty more golden details in the full blog post. Give it a read here!
This Weeks Blog Post
Before the smart home industry buzz began, Google was mainly known for being a search engine giant. Other than that, the other aspects that users would ever associate Google with were pay-per-click ads and, of course, Google+.
However, all this is not the case now. Ever since, through Google Ventures, the search engine giant now owns Nest. As we all know, Nest is a premier brand in the automation industry famous for manufacturing alarms and smart thermostats. When Google announced that they were acquiring Nest, most people didn’t know what to think about all this. However, with time people have begun to see results in the $3.2 billion deal.
>> Read the complete article on the blog
This Week’s Words of Wisdom 😊
Xiaomi Smart Locks 🔐
According to Gizmo China, the Chinese tech giant is getting into the smart lock business. The smart lock business is relatively competitive at the moment and Xiami may shake it up even more. Although not confirmed, here are some planned features:
- Dual cameras
- 3D face recognition capabilities
- Fingerprint, Bluetooth, and NFC unlocking capabilities
- Smart doorbell capabilities
You can check out this article to read some more on this subject.
Two Smart Home Giants Hook Up 2️⃣
This could be a pretty good partnership once it comes to fruition. Two vendors that focus their product ranges in the high-end smart home market have partnered to help smart home installers more easily control outdoor and indoor motorized solutions. Here are some relevant highlights:
- A new Crestron home driver is now available for Somfy’s smart home hub.
- Crestron Home can now seamlessly control Somfy motors in pergolas
- The integration will also help smart home installers to automate rolling shutters, pergolas, awnings, exterior screens, projection screens, and solar shading that use Somfy motors.
You can check out their blog post here for more details on this article.
Weekly Smart Home Voice Command! 🎤
Hey Siri, Turn the living room lights all the way up
Thanks for reading. 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