Samsung’s Galaxy S7 Edge Olympic Edition on sale for $850
If you’re more into real-life superheros than fantasy ones, Samsung’s Galaxy S7 Edge Olympic Games Limited Edition is now available at Best Buy for $850. Like the Batman Edition, this is a standard Galaxy S7 Edge on the inside, but the outside is another thing. There, you’ll find a unique “black onyx” body replete with Olympic colors: A yellow-trimmed fingerprint sensor and speaker, red and green buttons and the iconic rings and camera tinted in blue. It also includes the Rio Olympics 2016 app with schedules, venue info and real-time updates and results.
Samsung said that it would only sell 2,016 of the devices around the world, including in the US, so you may need to act quick if you want one. At $850, the device is a $100 premium over the regular Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. We originally thought it may come with a Gear IconX wireless Bluetooth earbuds, but Best Buy’s listing doesn’t mention those, so they may be reserved for the 12,500 Olympic athletes getting the phone for free.
Via: Mashable
Source: Best Buy
Apple entices its first big drug company to ResearchKit
Although Apple’s ResearchKit is almost two years old, the platform has mainly been reserved for clinical studies hosted by universities and medical researchers. Hundreds of thousands of people are already contributing data for studies focusing on asthma, diabetes, breast cancer, autism, epilepsy and melanoma, but now drugmakers are getting in on the act. Almost a year after it said it was readying studies using Apple’s health data-collecting tool, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has confirmed the launch of a new research app to help monitor patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
GSK’s Patient Rheumatoid Arthritis Data from the Real World (PARADE) study is the first of its kind and is the first time a major pharmaceutical (or big pharma) company has embarked on such a project. PARADE is designed to look at the impact of rheumatoid arthritis on a patient’s life, by using iPhone sensors to collect information on joint pain, fatigue and overall mood. GSK will track the activity and “quality of life measures” for 300 patients over a three-month period.
Although GSK uses over 40 different technologies to collect health data, ResearchKit allows doctors, scientists and researchers to collect data more regularly and accurately from patients via their iPhone. It’s not testing a new treatment yet, but the company intends to use the data it collects to “develop medicines more effectively.”
Via: Bloomberg
Source: GSK
Softbank buys mobile chip designer ARM for $32 billion
Japan’s Softbank, which owns US carrier Sprint and many other firms, is set to buy mobile chip company ARM in a blockbuster £24.3 billion ($32 billion) deal. The UK company designs the processors used in virtually every mobile device, including most models from Apple, Samsung and HTC. While it doesn’t build them itself, it licenses the tech to Qualcomm, MediaTek, Samsung and others. If the deal goes through, it would be one of the largest acquisitions of a European tech firm ever, and a vote of confidence by Softbank in ARM’s business in post-Brexit UK.
Softbank has been freeing up cash lately through a variety of deals. It recently sold Clash of Clans maker Supercell to Tencent for a reported $8.6 billion, and cashed in $10 billion worth of shares in the Chinese retail giant Alibaba. The company owns US carrier Sprint, 28 percent of China’s Alibaba and the Japanese divisions of Yahoo and Vodafone. All told, it has participated in 140 deals worth over $82 billion in the last 10 years, according to the Financial Times.
Standalone VR headsets powered by ARM chips may flood the market over the next year.
ARM is a hugely important UK tech company, as over 15 million chips using its technology shipped last year. It became a tempting acquisition target following the UK “Brexit” vote to separate from Europe. That, in part, caused the UK pound to plummet 28 percent against the Japanese yen, effectively making the company cheaper. ARM is considered to be shielded from any potential Brexit fallout in the UK market, since it has customers around the world. However, there’s some concern that top UK engineers may flee to Europe and elsewhere once Britain’s EU divorce is finalized.
ARM was assured by Softbank that it would stay independent and keep its UK headquarters in Cambridge. The Japanese firm says it will also invest considerable sums into the business, “including doubling the UK headcount over the next five years.” It will also add employees outside of Britain. The deal would be an “all cash acquisition,” but is still subject to a number of conditions before it’s finalized.
Intel has often been seen as a suitor for ARM, but it’s now clear the purchase price may have been too rich for it to stomach. While ARM designs most of the chips used in mobile devices, it only had revenue of around $1 billion in 2015, and the purchased price is reportedly 70 times its net income. However, ARM has diversified from mobile and sells chips used in the “internet of things,” servers and network equipment and now, virtual reality.
Samsung is buying a stake in a Chinese car maker
Now that the smartphone market is cooling off, Samsung needs another way to keep raking in cash… and it’s going in an unusual direction to make that happen. The tech giant is buying a stake in Chinese automaker BYD that, at least at first, will help boost the two companies’ businesses in parts for electric cars and smartphones. What’s next may be more important, however. Samsung says that the two will talk about possible partnerships in “various businesses” — don’t be surprised if they work closely together.
Samsung has yet to reveal the size of the stake (BYD shot down rumors that it was 4 percent), so it’s not certain just how much of a commitment it’s making. Suffice it to say that the company stands to profit if everything goes to plan, though. The electric car market is quickly heating up, and Samsung could ride the bandwagon by supplying BYD with everything from batteries to processors. As it stands, Samsung might not want to sit on the sidelines when its big rival Apple is reportedly designing an EV of its own.
Source: Reuters
‘Pokémon Go’ expansion marred by a possible cyberattack
Good news! Pokémon Go is available in 26 more countries… if you get a chance to play, that is. Trainers can now grab the mobile game across a wider swath of European nations (such as the Netherlands and Sweden), but temporarily went down amid reports of a possible distributed denial of service attack. The internet collective PoodleCorp claims to have flooded Pokémon Go servers worldwide with enough traffic to effectively render them useless.
We’ve reached out to the developers at Niantic for its take on the claims and will let you know if it can shed light on the situation. However, it’s hard to know how much of this was due to the self-proclaimed attackers. As many players can tell you, Pokémon Go has had periodic issues since launch. Although it’s unlikely that numerous servers would fail on their own at the same time, there’s no firm evidence of a denial of service attack beyond the alleged perpetrators’ say-so.
PokemonGo #Offline #PoodleCorp
— PoodleCorp (@PoodleCorp) July 16, 2016
Via: Gizmodo
Source: Pokemon Go (Facebook), PoodleCorp (Twitter)
Mini review: Our quick verdict on the Samsung Galaxy S7 Active
Last week we reviewed (and accidentally damaged) Samsung’s newest rugged phone, the Galaxy S7 Active. Though we learned the hard way not to push the envelope with drop tests, we were impressed that the S7 is every bit as high-end as the regular S7. We say that because many of the rugged phones on the market make do with lesser specs. Here, though, you get the same great camera set up as on the standard Galaxy S7, along with fast internals and a capacious battery that’s actually bigger than on the original. And, despite, the fact that we cracked the screen, we were grateful that the phone at least worked normally afterward — not something we’d expect from most devices. All told, the main caveat isn’t that its screen isn’t crackproof: It’s that it costs a hefty $800, and is exclusive to AT&T. Focus to recommend this, then, you better be OK with that carrier, and probably have a serious case of butter fingers too.
Don’t believe the ‘Pokémon Go’ privacy hype
When the Pokémon Go obsession reached full saturation this week, privacy concern whispers became full-blown hysterical shrieks when a researcher’s blog post accused the game’s maker of taking over its users’ Google accounts. As it turned out, the app’s iPhone permissions were just poorly implemented, and fixed immediately.
Unfortunately that didn’t stop the privacy and security hysteria machine. All week long, headlines made a mountain out of the molehill, scaring some people into uninstalling the app altogether.
Pokémon Go, a phone game released by Niantic Labs and Nintendo, has been an astonishing success. The game is basically a GPS-guided treasure hunt using a smartphone camera. It sends people out into the world around them, gets them interacting with others, and has brought the US some much-needed distraction and smiles.
The stories emerging through social media might be more entertaining than playing the game itself. Pokémon have been “caught” at gay bars and churches, people have been shooed out of police stations and courthouses trying to catch the little beasts. Someone found a dead body, people have been robbed, and some police departments have even been forced to issue safety guidelines. On the plus side, there are some mental health benefits. Meanwhile, Pokémon Go has added nearly $11 billion to the value of Nintendo since its release.
Naturally, a few hackers became interested in what was going on under the app’s hood. But before anyone had a chance to publish detailed findings, researcher Adam Reeve rushed to make a post that set off the chain reaction of hysteria.
Reeve wrote that if you signed into Pokémon Go with Google, the app was given full permission to access your Google accounts. He claimed that the company could read your Gmail, see your Google search and Maps history, access your private photos, delete things in Google Drive, and more.
He also indicated that it wasn’t possible to sign in alternately, by creating a Pokémon account, and sort of made it sound like something suspicious was going on. News outlets rushed to write hyperbolic headlines without bothering to note that this was only happening on iPhones.
That’s how we ended up with hysterical, misleading headlines like, “Pokémon Go is a major security risk for your entire Google account.” And it’s why we had people screaming white frothy rage on social media that Niantic was backdooring user accounts. It’s also how we ended up with Senator Al Franken sending a letter to Niantic demanding answers about Pokémon Go’s privacy practices.
To their credit, Gizmodo contacted Adam Reeve, who then backtracked on his claims, saying he wasn’t “100 percent sure” his blog post was actually true. He also admitted that he didn’t test any of the claims in his post.
In fact, it turned out that Pokémon Go was never able to read people’s Gmail, or any of the really scary things that Reeve and some trigger-happy media outlets claimed. Dan Guido, CEO of security company Trail of Bits did the deep-dive analysis that was needed before any digital ink was spilled in histrionic headlines.
Guido and his team not only cast serious doubt on Reeve’s claims, he talked to Google tech support. Imagine that! They told him the “full account access” everyone was freaking out about doesn’t mean a third party (in this case, Niantic, Nintendo, or Pokémon) can read or send or send email, access your files or anything else being claimed.
It did mean that Niantic could read so-called biographical information, like an email address and phone number. What Trail of Bits also discovered was that Pokémon Go’s Google authorization process was using the wrong permission “token.” Their post linked to another researcher who said, “I believe this is a mistake on Google and Niantic’s part, and isn’t being used maliciously in the way that was originally suggested.”
Before the Trail of Bits post was even published, Niantic had reacted. The company put out a press release explaining that there had been a permissions snafu with the social login process, and they fixed the internal mistake in record time. Their statement said:
“We recently discovered that the Pokémon GO account creation process on iOS erroneously requests full access permission for the user’s Google account. … Google has verified that no other information has been received or accessed by Pokémon GO or Niantic. Google will soon reduce Pokémon GO’s permission to only the basic profile data that Pokémon GO needs, and users do not need to take any actions themselves.”
Further, it turned out the mystery about Pokémon’s account signup process being suspiciously unavailable at the time of Reeve’s post wasn’t a conspiracy after all. To the surprise of no one, Pokémon’s servers were getting hammered by all the new traffic.
It’s quite interesting to see so many people wig out about an app’s over-reach of permissions. Which is, incidentally, a big deal. And it’s about time.
But it’s really frustrating to watch the outrage flames get fanned and Senators spring into action over something that feels more like crying wolf — when there are flashlight apps that dubiously “need” to know where you are, or must have access to write arbitrary code to your phone. Or, how about a little outrage and action over our recent discovery that popular running app Runkeeper records your location after you’ve turned the app off? (Runkeeper is in trouble for this in Europe, but not here.) Better yet, how about a senator demand answers from Facebook over tracking user locations without consent and matching it with strangers locations? Because we sure as hell don’t know when Facebook did that, or to whom, (or for how long) the company did that. Nor can we can trust that they’ve actually stopped doing this, or won’t do it again in the future.
So this week, everyone we know basically joined a geocaching cult. We already knew that no one reads or understands the terms they agree to for apps and websites, even if they demand giving up your first-born child as payment. We learned that setting up social login permissions is actually really fussy, and difficult to do right. And everyone learned that signing in with your Google or Facebook account means putting some kind of access to your personal stuff in someone else’s hands. Which, by the way, is why I recommend never, ever in a million years signing in to any app or website in this manner. Seriously, if you do that, just stop locking your front door and get it over with.
If only the entire internet, security’s brighter minds, and our elected representatives would level this amount of scrutiny at all apps.
But as one forum commenter wisely explained, “iOS users using Google Account sign-up affected by Pokémon Go permissions bug, Android unaffected” just doesn’t make a sexy headline.
Moto G4 and G4 Plus review: Bigger and (mostly) better
When it comes to getting the most smartphone for your dollar, the Moto G line has been your best choice for the past few years. We adored the previous model, which came in at a mere $180. Now with the Moto G4 and G4 Plus, Motorola is literally aiming to make its budget lineup bigger and better. They’ve got larger and sharper screens, improved cameras and, of course, speedier processors. With those upgrades come compromises, though. For one, they’re more expensive: The G4 starts at $200 and the G4 Plus at $250. Motorola also made some curious design decisions, which in many ways feel like a step back. Still, they both manage to carry the mantle of Smartphone Value King.
Hardware
You won’t find any premium aluminum or chamfered edges on the G4 and G4 Plus. They’ve got practical and simple plastic cases. Still, they don’t feel like budget phones. Their curved edges make them easy to hold, and the slightly textured rear cover feels a bit luxurious against your palm. Both phones are also noticeably larger than any previous Moto G, thanks to their 5.5-inch 1080p screens. At least they’re thinner than their 11.6mm thick predecessor, clocking in at just 7.9 millimeters to 8.9 millimeters. Strangely enough, they weigh the same 155 grams (0.34 pounds) as before.
The G4 and G4 Plus feel pretty solid for plastic encased phones. There’s little flex or creaking when gripped tightly. Long-term durability might be a concern though — somewhere during my week of testing I nicked the top of the G4 Plus’s plastic edge. I never dropped it, so your guess is as good as mine as to how it got damaged. It does make me worried about how well they’d stand up to months of everyday use.
Both phones sport removable back covers, just like all the previous Moto G models. In addition to the nano-SIM slot, there’s a microSD slot for up to 128GB of additional storage. They pack in 3,000mAh non-removable batteries, a nice bump from the last Moto G’s 2,470 mAh offering. It’s a shame that the battery can’t be swapped out, but it’s also large enough that that shouldn’t be a huge issue. (We didn’t have a problem with it last year, either.)
Powering all of this budget goodness are 1.5GHz Snapdragon 617 octa-core processors. Both phones offer 16GB of storage by default, but you can bump up to 32GB with the G4 (a no-brainer $30 premium) or 64GB with the G4 Plus (for another $100). They come with 2GB of RAM, though the 64GB G4 Plus gives you a luxurious 4GB of RAM.
Given that they both share so much hardware, you’re probably wondering what makes the G4 Plus, well… Plus? The most obvious difference is the fingerprint sensor on its front, which sits right below the software home button. The G4 Plus also packs in a 16 megapixel rear camera with phase detection and laser autofocus. The G4, on the other hand, has a 13 megapixel shooter without the added niceties.
One unfortunate downgrade from last year: Neither phone is waterproof. Instead, Motorola is calling them “water repellant,” thanks to a “nano-coating” technology that protects them from spills. That means they should be fine during light rain, or if you spill coffee on them. Just don’t go fully submerging them in anything.
Display and sound
There’s nothing budget about the 5.5-inch 1080p displays on the G4 and G4 Plus. They’re not quite as fancy as the quad HD displays we’re seeing in some flagships, but they still pack in 401 pixels per inch, which is plenty sharp for typical usage. Colors were bright and bold, even in direct sunlight, and viewing angles were surprisingly great. I didn’t notice much of a difference between my iPhone 6S while reading long articles from Pocket and the New York Times app. Videos also looked uniformly great. The big downside is that they’re less capable when it comes to mobile VR. It’s no wonder they’re not Google Daydream ready (though nothing is stopping you from plugging them into a Google Cardboard headset).
On the sound front, Motorola made the curious decision of replacing the last Moto G’s solid stereo speakers with a single one. It’s plenty loud, but it doesn’t sound nearly as good as before. Now that Bluetooth speakers are cheap and small, I’d recommend just snagging one as an accessory.
One nice feature that I never thought I’d have to call out in 2016: both phones have headphone jacks! For the uninformed, you use them to connect a wide variety of audio devices, including headphones. Someone should tell Motorola that these audio ports, which have been universally supported for decades, would be a nice addition to their flagship Moto Z lineup. That’s especially true for the Z Force, which is thick enough to fit a headphone jack. (Yes, the Moto Z comes with a dongle, but that comes with plenty of compromises. You won’t be able to charge the phone when the dongle is plugged in, for example.)
Software
Motorola delivered a nearly stock OS on the G4 and G4 Plus, specifically Android 6.0.1. Marshmallow. The phones are devoid of the junkware and sponsored apps you often find on budget devices. None of this is new for Motorola, it’s been trying to deliver vanilla versions of Android since it was under Google. But it’s nice to see the company stick with that philosophy under Lenovo.
Motorola’s unique gestures, which made their debut on the original Moto X, once again make an appearance. Twisting either phone twice, similar to turning a door handle, quickly loads up the camera from anywhere in the OS. Making a double-chopping motion turns their flashlights on and off. What’s particularly nice is that both features work consistently even when the phones are in standby mode.
Camera
This is where the Moto G4 and G4 Plus truly diverge. Should you settle with a 13 megapixel camera, or spend the extra cash for the G4 Plus’s 16 megapixel one loaded with autofocusing upgrades? Based on my testing, the G4’s camera is a bit hit or miss. Sometimes it delivered sharp and vibrant photos, but sometimes its color rendering was all off. It was also a constant disappointment in low light. The G4 Plus was a lot more consistent — it was able to lock onto subjects much more quickly, and it was actually useful in low light. Looking at both phones shows how far we’ve come in the world of mobile cameras. But, if I had to choose, I’d opt for the G4 Plus’s shooter without any hesitation.
While Motorola used a light touch with most of the software, its camera app is a very different experience from Google’s stock entry. There’s a radial exposure meter right next to the focusing ring, which lets you lighten or darken the image by dragging it up or down. Flash, HDR and timer settings are also on the left side of the screen, instead of the top. If you want to take panoramic photos, or simply want manual controls, you’ll have to use a separate app, like ProShot or Open Camera.
Performance
While I was bracing for a slow experience with the Moto G4 and G4 Plus (due to increased rendering demands for 1080p screens, last year’s display was only 720p), both phones surprised me with their relatively smooth performance. Sure, they’re not as instantaneously zippy as expensive flagships, but they also don’t feel like “budget” devices. Browsing around Android Marshmallow, launching multiple hefty apps like Pokemon Go, and juggling through them was relatively painless. There was the occasional slowdown on the G4, but nothing show-stopping. If anything, their performance feels more in line affordable mid-range phones like the Nexus 5X.
And when it came to demanding usage, I was surprised by how well both phones held up. I was able to capture 1080p videos of both phones’ displays using the AZ Screen Recorder app while running Pokemon Go and jumping through several apps. The Moto G4 showed a bit of slowdown, but Pokemon Go was still totally playable. And the resulting video didn’t have any major hiccups or dropped frames. The Moto G4 Plus with 4GB of RAM fared even better, with no slowdown during screen recording.
Moto G (2014)
AndEBench
16,159
16,371
4,259
3,929
Vellamo 3.0
2,762
2,819
1,992
1,669
3DMark IS Unlimited
9,841
9,851
4,518
4,679
GFXBench 3.0 Manhattan Offscreen (fps)
6.6
6.6
1.7
N/A
CF-Bench
61,030
60,998
20,999
14,470
The benchmarks for both phones reflect the strong performance I saw. Compared to last year’s Moto G, they scored four times higher in AndEBench, three times faster in CF-Bench and they were more than twice as fast when it came to the 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited. Of course, benchmarks aren’t everything, but huge performance bumps like these are noteworthy. I wouldn’t have dared play a complex 3D game on the last Moto G, but the G4 and G4 Plus ran games like Racing Rivals without any issue.
The fingerprint sensor on the G4 Plus was easy to set up, and it had no trouble accurately recognizing my fingers. Its placement on the face of the phone is confounding, though. Motorola would have been better off placing it on the rear of the phone like LG, or making it an actual home button like Samsung and HTC.
As for battery life, neither phone disappointed. Their 3,000mAh offerings had no trouble lasting me throughout a full day, even when I decided to go on some impromptu Pokemon hunts. In our test, which involves looping an HD video at 50 percent brightness, they both lasted around 12 hours and 30 minutes. The previous Moto G, lasted 10 hours and 40 minutes.
The competition
At $200 for the Moto G4 and $250 for the G4 Plus, both phones are practically in a class of their own. There are cheaper phones out there, including Motorola’s own Moto E and HTC’s $179 Desire 530, but they all have significantly worse performance in every respect. If you wanted a big upgrade, you could step up to the Nexus 5X, which currently sells for between $280 and $350, and remains one of the best Android phones on the market. Beyond that, there are the affordable high-end options like the $399 OnePlus 3.
If you’ve only got $200 to spend, there’s no better option than the Moto G4 right now. Stepping up to the G4 Plus gets a bit more confusing. If you want the 64GB version with 4GB of RAM, you’d have to shell out $300. At that point, the Nexus 5X is more tempting thanks to its faster hardware, though you’d have to live with its smaller 5.2-inch screen.
Wrap-up
Motorola’s big problem with these new phones is that the last Moto G was simply too good. In pushing for larger screens and other upgrades, it also introduced some compromises. Ultimately though, the good outweighs the bad. The Moto G4 and G4 Plus offer plenty of power and versatility without breaking the bank. And they show that, once again, nobody does budget phones better than Motorola.
White House pledges $400 million for 5G research
Following yesterday’s FCC vote to adopt new rules to guide the development of 5G technology, the Obama Administration is pledging support for research. More specifically, the White House announced a $400 million Advanced Wireless Research Initiative that will be led by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The project aims to build four “city-scale testing platforms” over the next 10 years. In the announcement, the administration reiterated that the US is the first to free up spectrum above 24 GHz for the high-speed networks that are said to be 100 times faster than the 4G we use today.
Yesterday morning, the FCC adopted a set of rules that will guide innovation and the development of 5G technology. Those guidelines aim to encourage new technology without letting unnecessary regulation hold up the process. They’re meant to serve as the foundation for companies and wireless carriers building devices and gear to run on the networks and those that will provide the wireless service. Both AT&T and Verizon have already announce testing plans, and there’s sure to be others to follow soon.
The NSF is pledging $50 million over the next 5 years as part of an $85 million total investment by the foundation and private-sector companies to build the testing platforms starting with the 2017 fiscal year. NSF is also committing $350 million over the next seven years that will take research from the concept phase to real-world testing at scale.
The National Science Foundation is working with Intel on a $6 million project to develop super fast wireless edge networks that can handle loads of data in less than a millisecond. NSF will also work with the Academy of Finland on a $4.7 million joint research push for wireless systems and networks, technology that also support the Internet of Things. The list of companies that are lending a hand with the federal 5G effort also includes AT&T, Verizon, Spring, T-Mobile, Samsung, HTC, Nokia and Qualcomm among others. Each will contribute research and testing know-how to the process as the technology is being developed.
Via: TechCrunch
Source: The White House
The best connected home might be one built for you
Outfitting your home with Internet of Things devices can still be a pain. Figuring out which pieces of hardware from different companies work together is a trip down a confusing rabbit hole. But for those in the market for a connected home, is increasingly becoming a ready-to-go option.
Adding home automation elements during construction isn’t new. What’s changed in the last few years is that the prices have dropped dramatically (from tens of thousands to about $3,000) and the systems can be run from Apple’s HomeKit or a voice assistant like Alexa instead of proprietary hardware. Now large homebuilding companies like KB Home, Brookfield Residential and Lennar are offering IoT options for new houses.
Providing homeowners turnkey solutions gives these companies an additional source of revenue. But, it also shows that the current wave of connected home devices and platforms is finally reaching a level of maturity that will convince people that home automation is actually useful.
Jacob Atalla, KB Home VP of sustainability, tells Engadget, “We are at stage beyond the (individual) widgets.” He added now that different devices are working together thanks to the HomeKit platform, his company is able to deliver a real experience to homeowners.
You shouldn’t expect to walk into one of these new houses and see a Nest on the wall or a WeMo controlling the lights. A home is a decades-long investment. Sure the startup world is exciting, but homebuilders are relying on established manufacturers like Whirlpool, GE and Honeywell. David Kaiserman, president of Lennar Ventures, tells Engadget, “When you buy a new home, it’s a significant piece of machinery. We rely on and take a lot of stock in the manufacturing process and quality control of the large manufacturers.”
The closest thing to a startup in these homes is Apple. All three homebuilders are working with the iPhone-maker to make sure the buildings are HomeKit-ready to simplify the transition to a smarter house. All the devices in the dwellings will be compliant with Apple’s IoT solution. “What people want is an entire package that’s simple and unified and easy to use. Consumers don’t want one device over another, they want an entire solution,” Kaiserman says.
But the executives all also noted that they are open to working with other platforms — which should be welcome news to Android-using home buyers. Plus, it’s a sign that the companies see this as a long-term trend. Brookfield Residential COO, Adrian Foley, believes once people see what a smart home can accomplish, they won’t go back. He used the car as an analogy, noting that people don’t want to return to a time before keyless entries and electric windows. “I think we’ll get very used to the convenience of the smart home,” he says.
In the meantime, house hunters have the opportunity to jump directly into a connected home without the headache of building it on their own. And while KB Home, Lennar and Brookfield Residential would like everyone to enjoy the benefits of IoT with a clean slate, the truth is that won’t happen. But, what will happen is that people will visit their friends in their fancy new automated dwellings will realize that maybe IoT is something they want in their own home — even if it still takes more effort than it should.
AIVAnet 