Episode 436: Can Alexa (and the smart home) stand on its own?

Episode 436: Can Alexa (and the smart home) stand on its own?

Author: Stacey Higginbotham, tech journalist August 17, 2023 Duration: 58:03

Amazon’s head of devices, David Limp, plans to retire as part of a wave of executives that have been leaving Amazon in the last year. Also, next year Alexa and the Amazon Echo will be 10 years old, which prompted us to take a look at the role Alexa and the Amazon Echo have played in the smart home, along with what has and hasn’t changed. Our concerns about the state of the smart home are perfectly illustrated by this review of the Mill composting system created by Nest co-founder Matt Rodgers, and the news that Masonite is now selling its expensive smart door at Home Depot. There’s positive news as well, as the FCC releases its Notice of Proposed Rule Making for the IoT cybersecurity label. Y’all have 30 days to comment, so get on it. Then we talk about Microsoft’s discovery of a new set of vulnerabilities affecting industrial equipment, and a new company that will become a secondary source of Z-Wave chips. Kevin also shared his review of the Homey Pro smart home hub, which is expensive but allows users to control their devices locally. Finally, we answer a listener question about what light bulb a woodworker should use in a lamp he’s trying to build.

The Masonite smart door is on sale at Home Depot. Image courtesy of Masonite.

Our guest this week is Mariusz Malkowski, founder and CTO of Trident IoT, who tells us about the company’s origin and what it means for the Z-Wave community. He also explains how Matter will work with Z-Wave, and the importance of bridging between the two standards. We discuss the future of Z-Wave, including the plans for Z-Wave Long Range and planned security upgrades. We then cover how Trident is going to build Z-Wave chips, but also how it will focus on building or integrating other smart home radio protocols into devices, and will act as a Z-Wave certification house as well. Enjoy the show.

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guests: Mariusz Malkowski, founder and CTO of Trident IoT
SponsorsSkyhawk

  • David Limp’s departure from Amazon inspires a smart home reckoning
  • Are expensive doors and compost services the future of the connected devices?
  • The Homey Pro is an expensive hub with privacy in mind
  • Why a new chipmaker could boost the Z-Wave standard
  • Trident IoT is building a new type of chip company

The post Episode 436: Can Alexa (and the smart home) stand on its own? 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 356: Smart home improvement is now a thing [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:00:34
This week’s show starts with a healthy portion of chips, with the main course being Nvidia’s reported acceptance that its deal to acquire ARM isn’t likely to happen. We then turn to the U.S. Commerce Department’s plans t…
Episode 354: Google’s Soli pivot and Amazon’s Sidewalk news [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:05:01
This week Google reminded us that we don’t actually own our connected products when it removed functionality from grouped Nest speakers after losing a patent case filed by Sonos. Amazon’s Sidewalk network is getting a bo…
Episode 353: Virtual CES extravaganza [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:00:00
It’s CES week, and neither Kevin nor I are physically there for the second year running. That makes it really tough to get a macro sense of cool tech and upcoming trends outside of press releases and product launches. No…
Episode 352: As Alexa goes, so does the smart home? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:08:05
We’re back after a one-week break in the Internet of Things Podcast, and we didn’t miss too much. The biggest stories of this show are the slow collapse of CES 2022 and a Bloomberg article that uses internal Amazon docum…
Episode 351: Smart homes in the metaverse [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 58:40
What happens when the smart home meets the metaverse? We talk about the potential for better user interfaces and home mapping if we build digital twins of the home in a metaverse, while also discussing the potential of U…
Episode 349: AWS overload and Libelium embraces the cloud [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:12
This week’s show kicks off with a bunch of IoT-related news from Amazon’s re:Invent conference happening this week in Las Vegas. We cover the launch of a fleet management service, a digital twin service, an easy way to s…
Episode 348: We’re thankful for smart cows [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 54:07
Heading into the holiday weekend, Kevin and I share what we’re thankful for (mostly y’all, our sponsors, each other, and Thread), while also talking about the sad sale of Tile to Life360. We also discuss Clevr, Qeexo, an…
Episode 347: McKinsey reevaluates IoT’s impact [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:02:42
This week’s show has a lot of big numbers starting with $12.6 trillion, which is at the upper end of what McKinsey believes the economic impact from IoT will be by 2030. We cover the latest report, which is a reassessmen…