Episode 426: Our take on Apple’s Vision Pro and fixes for bad air

Episode 426: Our take on Apple’s Vision Pro and fixes for bad air

Author: Stacey Higginbotham, tech journalist June 8, 2023 Duration: 1:04:18

It may not surprise anyone, but Kevin and I have thoughts on Apple’s Vision Pro mixed reality headset that we’re sharing with y’all. We also lay out some details about changes to Apple’s various operating systems and services that relate to Siri and the smart home. Google also added Matter support for its Home app on Apple devices, which is another means for chipping away at the challenges of deploying Matter across a variety of ecosystems. As we head into wildfire season, and with Kevin’s home wreathed in smoke, we talk about measuring air quality and addressing poor air quality in your home using connected and unconnected devices. Then we celebrate some recent settlements and fines from the Federal Trade Commission that involve Amazon storing children’s data and Ring compromising users’ privacy when it comes to their face data.  Then we speculate on whether Fitbit might release a new sleep-tracking device based on a patent it has filed. Finally, we close by answering a listener question about a smart lock for a HomeKit user with a mobile home.

Apple’s Vision Pro headset has 12 cameras, several sensors, and a special chip to process all that incoming data.  Image courtesy of Apple.

Our guest this week is Micha Anthenor Benoliel, the CEO and co-founder of Nodle, a decentralized wireless network created using Bluetooth. He’s on the show to talk about the newly launched app that will let folks turn any old Android phone into a Nodle hotspot. If you’re wondering about the value of a dedicated device for a short-range Bluetooth hotspot, Benoliel explains why companies or consumers might want to run this network, even if their device isn’t traveling out in the world. We also talk about enterprise customers on the Nodle network and why those customers ditched LPWANs or cellular for BLE. He also talks about the role of cryptocurrency in decentralized wireless and discusses how the crypto winter affected Nodle. It’s a good show.

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guest: Micha Anthenor Benoliel, CEO and co-founder of Nodle
Sponsors: Particle and Kudelski IoT

  • The Apple Vision Pro isn’t for all-day or even mobile computing
  • Apple also updated Siri and some home control widgets
  • How to prepare for wildfire and smoke season
  • Why the world needs a decentralized Bluetooth network
  • Will the crypto winter stop Nodle’s blockchain-based decentralized network?

The post Episode 426: Our take on Apple’s Vision Pro and fixes for bad air appeared first on IoT Podcast - Internet of Things.


For anyone trying to make sense of a world where everything from your thermostat to a factory floor is getting smarter, The Internet of Things Podcast-Stacey On IoT offers essential context. Veteran tech journalist Stacey Higginbotham, who brings her experience from Fortune, and co-host Kevin Tofel break down the weekly flood of news, separating genuine innovation from mere hype. Their analysis spans the entire connected ecosystem, diving into the gadgets in our homes, the sensors transforming industrial workspaces, and the complex enterprise systems tying it all together. This isn't just theoretical; it's a practical guide to the business and technology decisions shaping our networked future. You'll hear from a range of voices that have built and critiqued this landscape, including pioneers like Vint Cerf, insightful commentators like Om Malik, and practitioners from companies such as Amazon, AT&T, and IBM Watson. Listening to this podcast provides a crucial framework for understanding the real-world implications of connectivity, whether you're an industry professional, a curious developer, or simply someone wondering how all these "smart" things actually work-and what they mean for privacy, security, and daily life. It's the clear-eyed conversation you need to navigate the ever-expanding Internet of Things.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 100

The Internet of Things Podcast - Stacey On IoT
Podcast Episodes
Episode 406: Return of the HomePod [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:02:23
This week’s show kicks off with a discussion of Apple’s new HomePod, which has some cool machine learning capabilities and new sensors built into it, plus a higher price tag than most smart speakers. Then we talk about a…
Episode 405: More CES trends including wireless power [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:00:37
Want to bring an IoT company back from the dead? Or understand the technical and business challenges associated with building an IoT product? Then this story by Kevin Chung is for you. Kevin and I have left CES 2023 behi…
Episode 404: CES has more Matter and many voices [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 57:55
Kevin and I are at CES 2023 this week and eager for the show floor to open to see all of the new and crazy gear. But before we see the show floor, we had to slog through the planned news and media events, which we’re tal…
Episode 403: Matter upgrades aren’t ready for prime time [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:03:03
We tried Matter for the first time late last week, and have a lot to share with our listeners about what we and other journalists learned through the process. The early verdict is that most people should not update for a…
Episode 402: Google begins its Matter roll out [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:01:29
This week’s show is a celebration of Matter actually hitting devices, with Google announcing its Matter roll out and Eve allowing users to update its devices to Matter as well. We’re super excited to play with Matter, an…
Episode 401: Two big smart home deals explained [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 54:24
The end of the year is a busy time for M&A as companies rush to get deals done before the start of a new tax year, and this week the smart home sector saw Assa Abloy sell its Yale and August smart lock and some other bra…
Episode 400: How to pronounce IKEA’s Dirigera hub [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:06:35
This week’s show starts off with a review of news from AWS Re:Invent which is happening now in LAs Vegas. We cover the general availability of support for the latest version of the MQTT messaging protocol, the launch of…
Episode 399: Alexa’s drama and our holiday gift guide [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:01:39
The biggest news in the internet of things this week was the staggering story about Amazon’s Alexa business being responsible for the majority of an estimated $10 billion loss in the year ahead. So Kevin and I discuss wh…
Episode 398: Bluetooth bets on 6 GHz and TP-Link hops on Wi-Fi 7 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:54
Amazon has started laying off workers, including some working on Alexa and in Amazon’s devices business. We discuss this as well as IBM following in Google’s footsteps and shutting down its IoT cloud business. We move fr…
Episode 397: Arduino Opta adds a little IT to the OT [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 58:29
This week’s show kicks off with a discussion of the lawsuit between Arm and Qualcomm amid accusations that Arm is changing its licensing model. We cover what has been said, and what it might mean for the IoT before headi…