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 386: We question Nova Labs’ 5G deal [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

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Nova Labs, the company behind the decentralized Helium IoT network, has acquired FreedomFi, a company trying to build a decentralized 5G network. Kevin and I share our doubts about the value of a decentralized 5G network…
Episode 385: Google Cloud kills IoT Core and hearing aids get smart [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

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Episode 384: Here’s why Amazon really bought iRobot [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

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This week’s show kicks off with our discussion of Amazon’s planned acquisition of iRobot, the maker of Roomba robotic vacuums for $1.7 billion. We then talk about a survey from Parks Associates that indicates almost a th…
Episode 383: Meet Insteon’s new CEO [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:02:28
Last week, we kicked off the podcast with a discussion on the Helium peer-to-peer IoT network, and this week we did the same thing. This time we dug into the disclosures that Helium didn’t actually have Lime or Salesforc…
Episode 382: Is Helium full of hot air? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:00:11
We start this week’s show with a deep dive into a popular post from this week about the Helium network. The report pointed out that Helium only made $6,500 in the month of June from data rates. We explain why that’s not…
Episode 381: Alexa and Qualcomm embrace ambient tech [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 53:38
This week’s show kicks off with our discussion of several announcements from Amazon’s Alexa Live developers’ conference held Wednesday. Alexa is getting several features as part of the launch of the Matter smart home int…
Episode 380: Here’s what we think with Wink on the blink [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 58:55
This week’s show comes to y’all from Paris and the English seaside, with Kevin and I wondering exactly what happened to Wink. We also offer options for the few remaining holdouts on the platform. We then discuss Hive’s d…
Episode 379: Lock down your smart home’s data [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:01:47
This week we continue discussing privacy and data protection with a focus on the smart home. I’d like to see a feature that lets us turn on privacy as needed on our devices, but Kevin doesn’t think that’s likely. For tho…
Podcast 378: Welcome to the industrial metaverse [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 58:07
It’s been a minute since we’ve discussed the metaverse, but this week we cover Siemens’ deal with Nvidia to create the metaverse for the industrial IoT. It’s part of several announcements this week from Siemens that incl…
Episode 377: Why there were 56 OT vulnerabilities this week [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 57:32
This week we cover the Ericsson mobility report that offers some stats on cellular IoT connections, including the surprising nugget that we won’t see 4G/5G connections surpass 2G/3G connections until some time next year.…