For some reason, until now, asking to change your house’s temperature with a Nest thermostat worked just fine with Google Assistant on a Home device, but not from a Pixel. However, as Android Police reports, this should not be the case anymore…
We’re only a couple short weeks away from what we assume will be Google’s announcement of the Pixel and Pixel XL, and the leaks are really heating up. We’ve seen detailed renders, terrifying pricing, and now, we’re getting an unofficial look at what might be the Pixel in an ad from Nest…
Since the departure of founder Tony Fadell, new Nest CEO Marwan Fawaz has reiterated that the company was “not for sale” and released a new outdoor camera a few weeks later. Fortune, however, is now reporting that the company is again restructuring. The restructure will reportedly see the Nest platform team join Google proper.
Today Alphabet-owned Nest is launching its latest product with the debut of the previously rumored Nest Cam Outdoor, as well as a redesigned app and new features.
The most notable enhancement over the original, indoor-only version of Nest Cam is necessary weatherproofing for outdoor use.
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Energy companies in California are set to move customers over to Time of Use plans over the next couple of years, and that’s going to mean that you — the California resident — will be paying for energy based on its exact price at any given moment. Some times of the day are cheaper than others. This is great for some, but it’s going to mean that many are going to have to more closely monitor their energy use if they want to stay in budget.
Nest today has announced that it is bringing a feature, called Time of Savings, to the Nest Thermostat to help you manage your Time of Use energy usage and keep your costs to a minimum…
Nest today has added some new views to the Farsight feature of its flagship thermostat product. Rolling out to all thermostats soon, users will soon be able to show the current temperature and a new animated weather screen from across the room:
People love Farsight. But we heard from a lot of customers who wanted it to show the current temperature in big numbers you can see from across the room. So now, it can. And we’ve also added an animated weather screen. (You know, to satisfy meteorology fans.) Just go to Display Settings on your thermostat and choose your view.
A letter from new Nest CEO Marwan Fawaz yesterday reiterated that the company is following through on its current product roadmap. Tech Insider is now reporting that upcoming products for this year include a rugged Nest Cam meant for outdoor usage and new colors for the Nest Thermostat, with bigger products launching in 2017.
Following the news that Tony Fadell was leaving Nest, questions immediately surfaced about his successor Marwan Fawaz. In a letter (obtained by The Verge) sent to all Nest employees, Fawaz stated that the company is “not for sale” and will continue on its current product roadmap. He also reiterates that the company’s plan is to scale up and reach more customers.
After months of criticism over the state of Nest, Tony Fadell announced in a blog post today that he is leaving the company. The transition has apparently been in the works since last year and Marwan Fawaz, previously of Charter Communications, is the new CEO. Fadell wills stay on as an adviser to Alphabet and Larry Page.
According to an alleged Nest engineer a couple months back, the company is on deathwatch. Of course the official word from Fadell himself is that all the bad PR doesn’t represent the company or its culture, but the evidence suggests still that financially and culturally there are lots of problems.
Now, we learn today (via Fortune) that Tony Fadell, Nest’s CEO, has had a little passion project going on in the background. Co-founded with its CEO Dave Bell, Actev Motors makes the Arrow Smart-Kart, a smart first of its kind electric go-kart with app controls and a $600 price tag…
In a product announcement in which it gave credit to Amazon Alexa, Google today teased Google Home, a device which brings the newly announced Assistant in to the home. Design-wise, it looks very similar to the OnHub, and is customizable and incredibly versatile. “It will let anyone in the family, kids or adults, have a conversation with Google”…
Belkin’s “Wemo” lineup of app-controlled smart home accessories is getting support for the Works with Nest program, which means you can now interface the smart thermostat with Belkin’s Wemo products in various ways.
Thread, the low-power mesh network protocol that Alphabet-owned Nest built in tandem with Samsung, ARM, and other companies, is now going open-source. Since it opened membership in October of 2014, the not-completely-open “Thread Group” has grown to have over 30 products. But this OpenThread release takes things a step further in the name of openness…
There has been quite a bit of press surrounding the behind-the-scenes aspect of Alphabet companies over recent weeks, mainly centered around Nest and Tony Fadell. Earlier today, it was reported that Fadell appeared at Google’s all-hands meeting two-weeks ago to address the stream of negative press. In addition to Fadell defending Nest, Re/code now reports that executive Sergey Brin also defended the company’s life science unit, Verily, at the meeting.
Following a number of recent controversies surrounding smart-home accessory maker Nest, Recode reports that CEO Tony Fadell defended the company while addressing the reports at a recent Google meeting.
First acquired by Google, Nest is now under Alphabet, the same parent company as Google following a restructuring last year.
At the weekly Google meeting, Fadell reportedly addressed recent reports of troubles on the Nest team that followed comments from Dropcam’s former CEO Greg Duffy regarding Fadell’s brash management style. Those comments led to a public response from Fadell and a number of mainstream media outlets picking up the story, while a report last week from Recode added that the company was under-performing financially and that its future at Google could be in jeopardy.
Here’s an excerpt from Fadell’s talk with Googlers addressing the reports:
Nest has now said that it wants to ‘help’ owners of Revolv home hubs after it announced on Monday that it would be completely disabling the devices, turning them into a useless hunk of plastic.
Nest last night tweeted an invitation to owners to email them in order to find “the best solution” to the situation …
Recent reports have painted a dire picture for Nest, with executives reportedly leaving, funding potentially on the verge of being cut, and much more. Now, a supposed Nest engineer has taken to Reddit to voice some frustrations. The engineer, who didn’t disclose his or her name, says that the company is “on deathwatch” thanks to “dire” sale and growth figures and no new innovation since the acquisition occurred.
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.
Things aren’t looking good for Nest. We told you last week about fallout happening within Alphabet’s smart home products maker, including the departure of Dropcam’s former CEO Greg Duffy and 50 of his former employees, and now the story continues. According to a report from Re/code, citing multiple sources, Nest has now lost its director of hardware design and engineering Shige Honjo as well Scott Mullins, a senior engineering manager…
According to a new report from Re/code, Alphabet-owned Nest is under-performing and its future at Google could be in jeopardy. The report, citing three people with knowledge of the matter, says that Nest generated $340 million in sales last year and while that’s solid for a company focused mainly on Internet-connected thermostats, it’s not as strong as what Google hoped initially.
In The Information‘s recent article about Nest and continued strife within the Alphabet subsidiary following a struggle-filled acquisition of Dropcam, Tony Fadell was dismissive of any blame for the departure of more than 50 Dropcam employees and their leader, Greg Duffy. “A lot of the employees were not as good as we hoped,” he said. He went on, saying Dropcam was “a very small team and unfortunately it wasn’t a very experienced team.”
Obviously this didn’t sit well with the former CEO of the San Francisco-based security cam company, who left Nest after a feud with the father-of-the-iPod over his brash ‘tyrant bureaucrat’ leadership style. And he took to his Medium blog this morning to chime in…
A new report (paywalled) from The Information today told us that Google is working on a competitor to the Amazon Echo, but it also detailed in-depth Nest’s struggle as an Alphabet subsidiary and the apparent horror that was its acquisition of smart home security camera company Dropcam. Before eventually ending his time at the Alphabet company, Dropcam co-founder Greg Duffy apparently told Nest CEO Tony Fadell that he runs the company like a “tyrant bureaucrat”…
Not more than just a few weeks after hearing that it’s lingering trust issues at Google that have kept Alphabet’s Nest division from working on a competitor to Amazon’s Echo speaker, a new report (paywalled) from The Information has revealed that Google itself might be working on a competitor to the Echo. Wait, what?..
