Nest Thermostats

Alphabet-owned Nest is best known for its smart thermostat, but the company works on a number of devices which, albeit being generally good at their given task, do not communicate with each other particularly well. And that’s mostly due to the fact that said devices have always had a hard time detecting whether you are actually at home or not.

With the upcoming implementation of GPS support via the Nest app, however, it looks like your house is about to become decidedly more efficient – and smart…

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Update: Nest has reached out to clarify that the location data mentioned in the report is that of their weather provider’s remote stations and not of customers’ homes. Zip codes sent out to get weather reports are now encrypted. This article has been updated accordingly.

Researchers at Princeton University have discovered that Nest thermostats transmitted unencrypted zip codes of its users. Nest has since fixed the issue. The broader study takes a look at numerous Internet of Things devices from well known manufacturers to determine their safety and find privacy vulnerabilities.

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Nest owners have reported that their smart thermostats have stopped working and as a result many woke up to colder than normal temperature in their house and unresponsive completely dead Nests. The fault lies in a software update (version 5.1.3 or later) that was pushed out to devices in December that drains the battery and ultimately shuts down the device.

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Nest, the Alphabet company focused on building Internet of Things (IoT) products for the home that was acquired last year by Google for $3.2 billion, looks to be close to introducing an updated Nest Thermostat. That comes from an FCC regulatory filing first spotted yesterday by Business Insider.

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We told you Wednesday that Nest has some new hardware in the works (likely to be announced at its upcoming June 17th event), and now droid-life has come out with press images of the new Nest Cam—an update to the hardware and branding of the current Dropcam Pro. We also mentioned yesterday that Nest has a new app in the works that will work with all of Nest’s hardware, and it looks like we get to take an early peek at that too…
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Nest has a press conference planned for June 17th, but Tony Fadell and company haven’t mentioned—nor hinted—up to this point what they might be working on. Possibilities range from a refreshed Nest Thermostat, to new hardware for the company’s Protect CO2 and smoke alarm, to new Dropcam hardware, to a sweet new smart mailbox (maybe based on Google’s April Fools joke from earlier this year?).

Reports have claimed that the Google-owned company has an entire lineup of new hardware in the works, including new versions of all of these products (sans the mailbox, of course). We can corroborate this information, as we’ve also heard from people familiar with the products in testing that Nest does indeed have new hardware being trialled in small groups, along with a brand new app that will tie everything together…
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Nest sent out press invitations last week to an event on June 17th, and we speculated that it might mean that the company is ready to announce its first Dropcam successor since being acquired by Google in June of 2014. Now, thanks to an FCC filing that we’ve uncovered (published to the FCC website on May 28th), it seems more likely that the company is getting ready to announce the next generation of its security camera…
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Nest hasn’t made any substantial announcements since the company was acquired by Google last year, but it looks like that might change soon. In a press invite that’s very short on details, the company asks a select few publications to join for “a Nest press conference” scheduled to take place Wednesday, June 17th, in San Francisco…
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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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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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Pebble announced today that it has updated its Pebble app for Android the smartwatch app store feature that it first rolled out for iOS users last month. The app now lets Android users browse and install apps and watch faces for Pebble:
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Google CEO Larry Page (centre) with Nest co-founders Matt Rogers amd Tony Fadell (photo: technologyreview.com)

Tony Fadell and the rest of the Nest team will become Google’s “core hardware group,” working on a variety of hardware projects and given access to “as many resources as it needs,” according to an unnamed source cited by TechCrunch.

The new division will still work on hardware devices, but not necessarily thermostats or smoke detectors. In fact, Google would like Fadell to work on gadgets that make more sense for the company. Will it be a phone or a tablet? It’s unclear for now […]

When it comes to budget, Google is willing to let the Nest team use as many resources as it needs. In other words, the company is getting serious about consumer hardware, and Motorola was just a false start … 
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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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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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Back in May, we reported on a new piece of Glassware that controlled your Nest thermostat via Google Glass, and last month we saw GLASSTESLA, an app that lets you manage your car with Glass. Now home automation company Revolv has taken it a step further. The company has released a teaser video of a new technology developed by their Sr. Engineer that lets you control all sorts of things via Google Glass. Specifically in the video you can see office lights, Philips Hue lights, Yale Lock, and a Sonos player all being controlled with Glass. In addition to simply turning the Hue Lights on and off, the video also shows how you can change the color of the lights.  The app can be controlled with either gestures or voice commands.

It’s unclear when or if this technology will be released to the public, as it is simply the “side project” of Revolv’s Sr. Engineer. 
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