Tag: Google Home

Consumer Electronics, IOT, Smart Home

Google Home makes scheduling events a breeze

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Google Home makes scheduling home events easier

New updates to Google Home enable you to set commands for the future — up to seven days. Some applications might include turning lights on at 6 am, or turning on holiday lights at 5 pm. CNET

dis-rup-shun: Home automation for the mass market is now Google and Amazon’s turf to lose. These companies have, moreso than any other, placed the smart home hub into the homes of nearly 30% of the U.S. population, according to Interpret. Three variables will enable these companies to slowly own a larger part of the connected home: keep integrating third party products; keep device prices low; make connecting devices mind-numbingly easy. Apple, with HomePod is not playing this game, and therefore, will not be a major player in smart home, but Google and Amazon already are.

And if you liked the story above, here are the best, inexpensive smart plugs

Want to have Google start the coffee maker at 6 am? Plug it into these very inexpensive and (getting smaller) smart plugs and you have instant smart home. TP-Link’s Kasa, Wyze and Wemo make small smart plugs, all of which communicate with Alexa or Google Home and range from $15 to $50. CNET

dis-rup-shun: Smart speaker and smart plugs are a game changer for holidays. If you have lights on your house or a Christmas tree, then there is no more plugging and unplugging, and no more struggling to program complex outdoor timer mechanisms, whose instructions are hopelessly tiny or lost after the first season of use. Using a smartphone app or voice to control holiday decorations is reason in itself to automate.

What is open banking and how is it changing consumer finance?

Open banking is the concept of big banks with lots of customers sharing data about your accounts with other vendors that you desire to connect to your bank account. The movement enables new fintech companies with interesting savings or payment capabilities to use financial data housed by your bank. The U.S. startup Plaid, that Visa seeks to acquire is an example. Swedish fintech Tink has received 85 million euros to reach a valuation of 680 million euros. The company is backed by PayPal. CNBC

dis-rup-shun: Open banking will make for a far more interesting life for consumers. We will be able to open an app, release our credit score, and instantly receive offers for loans with various terms — much like choosing a credit card. Transferring accounts from multiple sources will be a breeze. Scamming will also likely increase — a price we are all paying for online convenience.

Apple AirPods Max for $549

Apple has gone toe to toe with Sony and Bose with high end over the ear headphones, leveraging the popularity of AirPods’ brand. The headphones are driven by Apple’s own H1 chipset and feature adaptive noise cancellation features. TechCrunch

dis-rup-shun: What do you do if you have started making your own silicon (processors) and the economics of silicon manufacturing bring profits only after higher volumes are reached? If you are Apple, you make more products in order to have more internal customers for your semiconductor fabrications. Expect Apple to ramp up the number of products, and numbers of variations of products in those lines, to keep the company and profits growing.

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Apple teaches Facebook a privacy lesson

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Apple iOS 13 big on privacy

iOS 13, to be released in September, changes the way voice calls over the Internet work. iOS 13 will not allow these apps, such as Whatsapp and Facebook to connect calls if they are not open and actively in use. This move is designed to enable users to know when an app is running, and therefore tracking their location and sites visited — as opposed to apps constantly collecting information in the background. Forbes

dis-rup-shun: Applause to Apple for taking a stand for consumer privacy. While this move will not change the fact that consumers give away a tremendous amount of data everyday by choice, it does draw a line for a new industry standard on when apps can “spy” on their users. Apple’s move will not be easy for Facebook, as apps must be rewritten, and let’s hope other phone makers such as Samsung and Google follow Apple’s lead. 

Samsung’s smart speaker MIA after one year

Samsung’s answer to Amazon Echo, Google Home and Apple HomePod, the Samsung Galaxy Home, is a year (and counting) late to market. The Verge

dis-rup-shun: Questions: Why does a company that is a proven innovator struggle to develop a product long released by its chief competitors? What slice of the consumer electronics market is left after Amazon and Google, a distant second, have flooded the market with voice compatible devices? Answers: Samsung, being late to the market, must be trying to do something truly unique that others aren’t, and hence the delay. If not, then the product will not get much traction outside of being built in to Samsung devices, as Amazon has already won voice control for toasters, microwaves, light switches, etc. Of course, Amazon’s arch rivals, like Walmart, may be anxious to promote Galaxy Home at the expense of Amazon’s devices.

Trump bars companies from working with Huawei (again)

The ban, beginning August 13th, targets Hauwei, ZTE, Hytera, and Hikvision, all Chinese companies with potential, according to the White House, of spying. TechCrunch

dis-rup-shun: Months ago, the President prohibited companies from working with Huawei, then granted many exceptions, then backed off on the campaign against the company. Now, with an escalating trade war, focus again is on locking Chinese tech firms out of U.S. markets. It looks like its time to take Chinese trade off the table for several years. Many industries were hoping to resume business as usual after a few months of posturing, but now it the business plan needs to be revised to remove Chinese customers from the mix.

Apple locking batteries, making replacement more difficult

Apple’s latest models come with a software lock — one that cannot be reset by unauthorized Apple repair shops who replace the battery. Gizmodo

dis-rup-shun: Given that smartphones are now about $1000, and given that we are likely to keep them longer, we are more likely to replace the battery to get one more year of use. To have to now go to an Apple store to do so is inconvenient, and a real disservice to small businesses who are conveniently located on every street corner to fix cracked screens and replace batteries. Apple isn’t making any new friends with this move.