Google's new Nest, and NinjaBlocks adds gestures to smart hubs

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The dust hadn’t even cleared from CES when Google decided to demolish the smart home status quo by announcing a $3.2 billion purchase for Nest, the maker of a connected thermostat. In this week’s podcast, Kevin Tofel and I discuss the deal and what it means for the connected home, privacy and Google. You can also listen to find out if Kevin plans to keep his Nest once it gets new owners.

The show also features a conversation with NinjaBlock’s founder Pete Moore, who shares how the company went from making connected sensor to a connected hub (the NinjaSphere) and why it includes gesture recognition and a fairly powerful processor. Moore explains why he thinks intelligence will need to be in both the home and in the cloud as well as why he chose the MQTT protocol for implementing his vision for the smart home. It gets a little nerdy and meaty toward the end, so be warned.

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Host: Stacey Higginbotham
Guests: Kevin Tofel and Pete Moore, the cofounder of NinjaBlocks
Today’s episode is brought to you by Freshbooks and Fracture (use the coupon code “THINGS”).

Google says it’s buying Nest for $3.2 billion and Kevin thinks this is great news
The Google/Nest deal should jumpstart a conversation about privacy and data ownership for the internet of things
Meet NinjaSphere a smart hub that has gesture controls!
Building an open hardware ecosystem for the smart home and the pros and cons of the MQTT protocol

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