Nest Labs

16 'Nest Labs' stories December 2013 - April 2016

Revolv, acquired by Nest Labs in 2014, is shutting down all its services next month

Greg Barbosa Apr 4 2016 - 11:53 am PT

Revolv, a home automation device company, has announced that it will be officially be shutting down next month. Alphabet’s Nest Labs purchased Revolv back in 2014 and the duo had worked toward bettering out the Works with Nest platform since then. After the acquisition, Revolv’s products continued to function as expected, but today’s shutdown announces that neither the hub or app will be functional any longer after May 15th.

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Tony Fadell implies in BBC interview that the Google Glass Explorer Edition may have been a mistake

Ben Lovejoy Jul 24 2015 - 7:00 am PT

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Nest founder and former Apple iPod lead designer Tony Fadell has intimated in a BBC interview that the decision to make an early version of Google Glass available for public sale may have been a mistake.

He said that while Google has always launched beta versions of its products and gathered feedback from users, there was a very big difference between software and hardware.

If you are only doing services based on electrons, you can iterate quickly, test it, and modify it and get it right. But when you are dealing with actual atoms – hardware – and you have to get manufacturing lines and it takes a year or more to develop that product, you better understand what it is and what it’s trying to do and specifically what it’s not going to do.

Customers have to spend money to buy those atoms. They want something that delivers value or you end up with a real disappointment and you can spoil the market.

He was, however, “very bullish” about the product, and believes it has a big future …
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Nest smart thermostat getting smarter as it connects to everything from cars to washing-machines

Ben Lovejoy Jan 5 2015 - 7:48 am PT

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Nest’s smart thermostat is getting smarter, thanks to a number of new additions to the Works With Nest connectivity program, ranging from your car to your washing-machine.

Some of the applications are obvious, such as your August smart door lock setting the heating or cooling to Away mode when you leave the house. The Kevo lock goes one better, letting Nest who is home and away, so that their preferred temperatures can be used …
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$50 off Nest Black Friday Now: Learning Thermostat: $199, Dropcams: $99

Seth Weintraub Nov 27 2014 - 7:04 am PT

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From 9to5Toys.com where we are rounding up all the best Black Friday deals we have two huge headliners on the almost never discounted Nest product line (that Google picked up along with iPod-father Tony Fadell earlier this year):

The Nest Learning Thermostat (2nd generation) for $199 shipped. That’s $50 below list and the best price we’ve ever seen.

You can find it at Amazon, Best Buy, Lowes and Abt for $199 for a limited time.

The Nest Learning Thermostat remembers what temperatures you like, turns itself down when you’re away and can be controlled from your smartphone, tablet or laptop
Auto-Schedule creates a personalized schedule for your home by remembering when you adjust the temperature
Auto-Away automatically turns Nest thermostat down when there’s nobody home so you don’t waste energy heating or cooling an empty house
Remote control Nest thermostat over Wi-Fi from your smartphone, tablet or laptop
Energy History shows you how much energy you’ve used and what affects your energy use most

The Dropcam Wireless HD Video Monitoring Camera can be found for $99.99 with free shipping. That’s $50 below list and the lowest price we have ever seen on this cloud-based camera/recording system.

Available for $$99 ($50 off) at Amazon and Best Buy.

With a 107° degree field of view and 4x zoom, Dropcam keeps you connected with people, places and pets in sharp 720p HD video.

60 Second Setup – Use your computer to find your Wi-Fi network, live stream in under a minute.
High Quality Video – Get into the details with 720p high-definition video.
Fast and easy setup – online and securely streaming 720p HD video in 60 seconds.
Field of View – 107 degrees diagonal, plus Night Vision and Zoom, means you don’t miss a thing.
Cloud Video Recording (CVR) – Review footage and make clips with optional secure offsite recording.
Stay connected with Two-Way Talk, Intelligent Alerts, Scheduling and Mobile & Web apps.

Head over to 9to5Toys for the Best Black Friday deals on the web. A little more background on Nest:
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Airbnb providing select hosts with Nest smart thermostats in new partnership

Zac Hall Sep 4 2014 - 10:39 am PT

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Speaking of Nest, lodge booking service Airbnb announced a new partnership with the Google-owned company today. As part of the partnership, Airbnb will be providing some Airbnb hosts with the Nest smart thermostat for use in locations available on the booking service.

We provided selected Airbnb hosts in the US with the Nest Learning Thermostat with features such as Auto-Away which turns down the heat when a host or guest is not home, and can be controlled from anywhere in the world with a mobile app – perfect for travelers! And with Nest’s MyEnergy service, hosts can easily track their energy consumption and improve their home’s efficiency.

Our community is passionate about environmental sustainability. In a recent study on the environmental impacts of home sharing, we found that Airbnb guests in North America use 63 percent less energy than hotel guests. This partnership with Nest gives our hosts more control over their home’s energy consumption, with technology that is both beautiful in design and good for the planet.

The partnership focuses on the Nest thermostat’s ability to be controlled remotely and save energy. Nest says it already has a list of some homes using the Nest Learning Thermostat for potential bookers to browse.
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Hackers working on tool to prevent Nest, Google from collecting user data

Chance Miller Jul 16 2014 - 2:27 pm PT

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When Google announced its $3.2 billion acquisition of Nest, many users reacted strongly to the idea of Google having access to their information and data, despite both companies claiming that they wouldn’t share any information. The WSJ published a report last month, however, claiming that Nest and Google eventually planned to share some user data between each other. This report only led to even more privacy uproar. Now, a handful of hackers have taken matters into their own hands and have developed a tool to prevent any user data from be sent back to Nest or Google (via Forbes).

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Samsung, Nest, ARM and others say Smart homes need more than WiFi and Bluetooth, propose Thread IP6 mesh network

Ben Lovejoy Jul 15 2014 - 3:54 am PT

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Wifi and Bluetooth may work fine for today’s limited number of smart home devices, but neither is ideal for future homes in which every switch, socket and lightbulb may be a connected device – that’s the claim of a consortium of companies that includes Samsung, Nest and ARM.

GigaOM reports that the companies have jointly created a new radio system which they believe is more suited to smart home networks than existing systems.

Dubbed Thread, it is a low-power, mesh network protocol that also supports IPv6. The standard is built on the existing radio hardware used by ZigBee devices (802.15.4), which means that a company could update their ZigBee devices to support Thread with software if they chose …

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Observations from Google I/O 2014: The Sundar Pichai Show

Seth Weintraub Jun 25 2014 - 4:21 pm PT

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There is both a lot happening at this year’s Google I/O and very little, depending where you look. Obviously, if you are a developer who builds Android and even web apps, you are a kid in a candy store. If you are looking for new hardware, there isn’t much that wasn’t out there already. Neither Google co-founder took the stage this year after successive years where Sergey Brin led the introduction of Google Glass (which is all but absent this year) and Larry Page led an epic Q&A last year.

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Future Nest products may not need new hardware, could be just apps, says Fadell

Ben Lovejoy May 29 2014 - 5:41 am PT

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[protected-iframe id=”ee8f89c8e8a919fbb2f5c26911077925-22427743-8994189″ info=”http://player.theplatform.com/p/PhfuRC/9RGhkvepi1us/embed/select/h_PJWCPpI_2K” width=”640″ height=”360″ frameborder=”0″]

If you love the idea of smart home technology like Nest, but are concerned about the cost of replacing half the appliances and devices in your home, Nest CEO Tony Fadell has some good news. Speaking at the Re/Code conference, he said that while “you need new hardware to allow things to flourish,” there are many things that could be done with software alone.

Just like your smartphone has many many apps on it, we think there [could be] many apps in your home but you don’t necessarily need new hardware …

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Report: Google “considering” purchase of Dropcam, Apple has also shown interest

Chance Miller May 26 2014 - 5:36 pm PT

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Earlier this year Google acquired smart-thermostat company Nest, and according to a new report out of The Information, the company is not planning on stopping its quest to enter the home automation and security market. The report claims that Google has “considered” acquiring Dropcam, the makers of a system that streams live footage directly to phones and computers.

The report goes on to say that the status of talks and negotiations between the two companies is unclear at this point and that spokespeople for both companies did not reply to requests for comment.

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Google tells the SEC it could soon be serving ads on thermostats and other devices (Update: Google says no ad-based Nest)

Ben Lovejoy May 21 2014 - 5:52 am PT

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Those who expressed concern about Google’s acquisition of Nest may have have been right: the company has told the Securities and Exchange Commission that it may choose to serve ads on “refrigerators, car dashboards, thermostats, glasses, and watches, to name just a few possibilities.”

The WSJ reports that Google made the statement in support of its contention that it shouldn’t have to break out ad revenue from mobile devices …
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Parody Google Nest site plays on privacy concerns with fake services, including a “personal drone”

Chance Miller May 7 2014 - 3:39 pm PT

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Anyone who has followed Google over the past few years knows that it has had more than its fair share of privacy issues. The company’s had run ins with the UK government, US government, and others about privacy concerns, in addition to facing criticism over Google Glass. Microsoft has also mocked Google for its privacy issues as part of its “Scroogled” ad campaign. Now, a German activist group that calls themselves Peng Collective has launched a new website that parodies Google, its privacy issues, and apparent need to know everything about everyone.

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Nest Thermostat appears on Google support page, coming to the Play Store soon?

Chance Miller Apr 21 2014 - 2:07 pm PT

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Earlier this year, Google acquired smart thermostat maker Nest for the huge sum of $3.2 billion. This led to speculation that the two companies would work together, with Google using its online retail outlet to boost sales of product. Since the acquisition, however, nothing has come to fruition between the companies, with both continuing business as normal. It looks like, however, that Google may soon start to sell the Nest thermostat via the online Play Store.

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Google completes Nest acquisition, promises more innovative home devices to follow

Ben Lovejoy Feb 12 2014 - 5:53 am PT

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Google has confirmed in a regulatory filing with the SEC that it has completed its $3.2B acquisition of Nest Labs after the deal was officially cleared by the FTC. The company revealed that it had previously held a 12 percent stake in Nest.

It has been rumored that the Nest team will form Google’s core hardware design group, with an unlimited budget. Google has issued only a brief statement on the reason for the buy-out, promising more home devices to follow.

We expect that the acquisition will enhance Google’s suite of products and services and allow Nest to continue to innovate upon devices in the home, making them more useful, intuitive, and thoughtful, and to reach more users in more countries.

Any data gathered by Google-owned Nest devices will be “transparent and opt-in,” says Tony Fadell

Ben Lovejoy Jan 20 2014 - 6:48 am PT

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Photo: websummit.net

Nest CEO Tony Fadell has responded to data privacy concerns expressed after the company was acquired by Google, stating that there have not yet been any changes to the data collected by the smart thermostat and smoke detector, and that any future changes would be both transparent and opt-in.

At this point, there are no changes. The data that we collect is all about our products and improving them.

If there were ever any changes whatsoever, we would be sure to be transparent about it, number one, and number two for you to opt-in to it …
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Google reportedly working on Nest-like thermostat service, dubbed ‘EnergySense’

Chance Miller Dec 16 2013 - 3:35 pm PT

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Update: @evleaks has screenshots of the Android companion app:

Google: coming to a thermostat near you
[https://t.co/8lPHX9vONK] pic.twitter.com/EftKr5ZrKG

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) December 17, 2013

According to a new report from The Information, Google is currently testing Internet-connected thermostats, similar to products like the Nest, to help people easily monitor and adjust energy use. The report, citing “two people told about the project,” claims that Google has been testing the service in the St. Louis area with “Trusted Testers” that are not employees.

The report goes on to add that the project is reportedly dubbed “EnergySense” and the hardware is reportedly created by a third party, such as Ecobee. Ecobee denies that it is working with Google, but says that the company could still be using its hardware.
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