Nest CEO resigning as company looks for new direction

Posted on by Jules Wang

Tony Fadell is “leaving the Nest”.In a blog post, he explained that he had been planning on transitioning out of his CEO position in the home IoT business for at least six months. He will remain at parent company Alphabet as an advisor to CEO Larry Page. Marwan Fawaz, formerly of Charter Communications and then-Google-owned Motorola, will replace Fadell as Nest chief.Fadell claims 18,000 developers to Nest and ...

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Nest CEO wants to address work culture with Alphabet over lunch

Posted on by Jules Wang

Nest has been in the news for all the wrong reasons recently. In addition to disappointing financial returns and making ill will from the acquisition of Dropcam along the way, The Information has been reporting on multiple cases of just plain bad work culture that would have heads at HR spinning.Tony Fadell, CEO of the troubled IoT company, decided to make himself available to staff at Google and Alphabet to ...

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Nest may be disappointing Alphabet when it comes to cash

Posted on by Jules Wang

Would Alphabet put down what Google picked up? Or will things change to a major degree? Either Amazon has become the Internet of Things hub or Nest is stuck in a tide pool where a slow rise just isn’t enough.In 2014, Google had purchased the smart thermostat-maker for $3.2 billion. The terms of purchase allowed key employees to retain their positions ...

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If you’re “Feeling Lucky” at home, you can play the Google Store Claw on Twitter

Posted on by Jules Wang

If you’re in Austin this weekend for SXSW, we’re jealous. Major jelly going on. And for those of you who aren’t participating in the hours of tech, music, thought-provocation and the mad dash to Franklin Barbecue, you can grasp at the straws of fun or grasp at a few Nexuses or a Moto 360 or two.LIVE on #Periscope:

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Amazon may have won IoT as Nest connects to Echo, Fire TV

Posted on by Jules Wang

Google may have taken the early bird to get Nest, but it seems that one of it’s first major flights will connect to a hub of Amazon’s.In a few weeks, the Nest Learning Thermostat will make its first connection with the Amazon’s Alexa voice assistance service, featured on the Amazon Echo, Fire TV and, likely, the company’s latest Echo ...

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Sevenhugs Smart Remote aims to free your smartphone from connected-home duty

Posted on by Stephen Schenck

Whether your house is rocking a smart thermostat, lighting control, or any number of other connected-home technologies, you’re likely using your smartphone to interact with all this gear. And while that’s a pretty ideal fit, you don’t always want to tie your phone up with that kind of remote-control duty. For users looking to enhance their collection of connected-home tech with an easy, central control solution, or maybe get started for the first time with a ready-to-use-out-of-the-box kit, the Sevenhugs Smart Remote might be right up their alley. This week we checked in ...

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Here’s what the Google OnHub should have been

Posted on by Joe Levi

When we stop to think about just how much technology has entered into our lives, we’ve got to pause and give consideration to the technologies that enable the smartphones and tablets that have become such an integral part of our lives. To a certain extent these devices can stand alone (requiring only power to charge them, a cellular signal to feed them data, and a human to operate them). However, without that connection to the web, the utility of our mobile devices is greatly diminished.Now we are sitting on the eve of an evolutionary leap – the Internet of Things is knocking ...

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Nest Cam, new Nest app leak in advance of next week’s announcement

Posted on by Stephen Schenck

Last week we learned that Google-owned Nest was planning to share some news with us on June 17, and all signs pointed to some kind of new product. Rumors suggested that we’d see something more akin to a refinement of an existing device than something all-new, with a particular emphasis on slimming things down. While we’re not sure if we have the whole picture just yet, at least one new Nest device has just leaked, as details emerge about the wireless Nest Cam.Nest bought Dropcam a while back, and ...

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New Nest hardware likely for June 17 announcement

Posted on by Stephen Schenck

We’ve been thinking a lot about the connected home lately, especially with the arrival of the first Apple HomeKit-compatible hardware and word that more HomeKit news could be in store for WWDC next week. Google’s got its own interests in smart home tech, as it made abundantly clear last year when it spent $3.2 billion acquiring Nest. ...

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Google’s voice control learns to adjust your thermostat

Posted on by Stephen Schenck

Google’s voice-controlled features can already do some wonderful things. You need only speak the words, “OK, Google, how tall is Tom Cruise?” aloud before your phone fires back with, “five feet, seven inches.” Or you can ask your phone what the weather’s going to be like tomorrow, how many milliliters there are in a tablespoon, or who sung “Call Me Maybe.” And while Google’s voice features are very good at answering things for you, maybe even more impressive are tasks you can accomplish directly with voice commands. This week, the service picks up a pretty ...

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4 awesome things you can do with Android Wear right now

Posted on by Joe Levi

Out of the box Android wear can do a lot of amazing things (although, as we mentioned in our review, it’s still somewhat buggy and inconsistent). We’ve all seen the commercials showing you how Android Wear can set a reminder or even hail a cab. While those are certainly noteworthy, there are some even cooler things that your Android-powered wristwatch can do today.There are a few ways you can add features and functionality to your Android Wear smartwatch, ...

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Google talks ads on smartwatches, Glass-like wearables, and the connected home

Posted on by Stephen Schenck

The evolution of wearable devices is still very much in its early years, and upcoming milestones like the release of the first Android Wear models or the long-rumored iWatch could go a long way to changing how we look at the technology. While this maturity promises to bring us better user experiences and more refined ways to interact with these devices, what about the downsides? As wearables become a larger and larger market, they’re bound to attract ...

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Google starts selling Nest thermostat in Play Store

Posted on by Stephen Schenck

When we think “Google Play Store Devices,” the first thing that pops into our head is the Nexus series. But Google’s been slowly adding hardware to its selection over the years, and now you’ll also find Google Play edition Androids, the Chromecast, an assortment of Chrome OS laptops, and a bunch of accessories. Today Google opens up a new chapter in hardware sales, offering the Nest Learning Thermostat. As you may recall,

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Google’s acquisition of Nest could revitalize Android @Home

Posted on by Joe Levi

Google initially introduced us to Android @Home at Google I/O in 2011. Up to that point, Android was powering smartphones, tablets, and some set top boxes, but that was about it. With Android @Home, it seemed that Google wanted to make Android the one-stop-shop for home automation. Various home appliances and fixtures could tie into an open ecosystem, all of which would play nicely with products powered by Android. It was a marvelous vision of what the future could hold — and then it fizzled out. However, thanks to a recent acquisition, all hope may not be lost. Thought it may not be ...

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Pocketnow Weekly 079: Galaxy S 5 whispers, Moto moves, and the CES 2014 virgin experience

Posted on by Michael Fisher

[vamp] [vamp] [vamp] [vamp] That’s the text that leads us in to each episode of the Pocketnow Weekly: a column of virtual prompts on the rough rundown reminding us that, after our loosely scripted intro block, there’s a gulf of pure off-topic nonsense between the opening music and the rundown’s news section. It’s a handful of minutes devoted to office banter, good-natured ribbing, and, in today’s case, an EQ experiment by our own Taylor Martin that results in him literally reading the “vamp” cues out loud like the delightful troll he is. ...

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