Best Buy integrates interior design and the latest smart home technology at National Home Show

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Toronto - The 2016 National Home Show kicks off this weekend and while the cavernous halls of the Enercare Centre  at the Exhibition Place in Toronto were packed with furnishings, appliances and all types of home and garden related products, Best Buy Canada's Smart Home drew a lot of attention.

Simulating a typical home, Best Buy Canada collaborated with interior designer Christine Dovey who integrated tasteful and comfortable home interiors with the latest in wireless technology, smart appliances, wireless lighting and control and even a Samsung smart fridge which had a built-in touchscreen.

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Microsoft, Intel, Samsung team up for smart home alliance

One of the biggest hurdles for a truly smart home is that your appliances and devices don't really talk to each other, so to speak. There are competing protocols and proprietary ecosystems by different companies, which make it hard for the devices to communicate, if they aren't from the same brand. But some big tech brands are banding together to hopefully solve this issue. The Open Connectivity Foundation includes members like Microsoft, Intel, Samsung, Qualcomm, Cisco, and GE Digital, to name a few. They want to create open-source protocols that can be implemented by any manufacturer, regardless of chipset or operating system. So, in an ideal world your different appliances from different brands can talk to each other.

A big challenge for the alliance though is that key players in the industry like Apple, Google, WeMo, and Philips are not members. Apple is pushing its own HomeKit system, which, of course, only works for iOS devices. Google hasn't gotten Brillo off the ground yet but it has its own implementation, too. We can't really say if these companies will even be willing to consider to partner up with OCF, it would be quite helpful though if they do.

Source: Engadget

CES 2016: Sleep tracking gets high-tech with new low-cost it bed

Sleep Number has a new “smart bed” made just for the millennials. Called the it bed (styled in lowercase), it’s designed to track and improve your sleep and perhaps help make you a better human. It comes with the company’s “SleepIQ” technology, which makes use of biometric sensors in the bed to monitor your heart rate, breathing rate, and relative restfulness. It even comes with its own API that you can integrate with existing health and fitness apps.

The it bed’s companion app takes information from those sources to give you recommendations on when you should be sleeping. It will even tell you what setting to use during the night to get maximum relaxation. Sleep Number beds are designed with dual air chambers so firmness can be adjusted. It doesn’t even cost as much as the US$8,000 X12 bed they showed off last year. This will retail for around $1,000 later this year.

Source: itbed.com | Via: The Verge

Best Buy brings together smart home and IOT partners

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Best Buy recently outfitted a four story townhouse in downtown Toronto with various connected home and Internet of Things appliances designed around security, monitoring, remote-control and convenience. Bringing together various vendors like Nest, Canary, Piper, Swann, Arlo, Myfox, Philips, Playbulb, August, Chamberlain, Rachio and others, the big box retailer demoed how these smart home devices work independently and together.

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