Podcasts about nest thermostat

Timestamps: 0:00 eyes on the prize 0:12 Wii Homebrew Channel 'shuts down' 1:21 Spain, Portugal power outage 2:42 Two wacky AI studies 4:34 Ground News! 5:40 QUICK BITS INTRO 5:46 Nest Thermostat argument 6:26 Meta's chatbots are inappropriate 7:18 RTX 5080 Super, 5070 Super 7:53 Should we send seniors to space? NEWS SOURCES: https://lmg.gg/cQHdc Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In questo episodio, Edo discute vari temi, tra cui la sua partecipazione ai PHP Day, un blackout in Spagna e Portogallo, controversie riguardanti Wikipedia e il suo status di non-profit, una campagna anti-pirateria che ha utilizzato un font rubato, multe a Meta e Apple per violazioni del DMA, il processo a Google e la possibile vendita di Chrome, e aggiornamenti su Gemini e i termostati Nest.Chapters00:00 Intro02:10 Governo USA vs Wikipedia08:56 Non ruberesti un font12:09 Meta e Apple multate dalla EU14:33 Chi vuole comprare Chrome?18:07 DHH in difesa di Google21:46 I numeri di Gemini23:35 Fine dei Nest Thermostat in Europa25:29 OutroKeywordsPHP, Wikipedia, Open Source, Outage, Google, Chrome, Meta, Apple, DMA, Pirateria, Termostati Nest

Vasektomie - Epic Gamestore back in EU - Aus Apple ID wird Apple Account - Pixel Wanze - Schutzschild zum Laufen - Logitech Maus Abo Rückzug - Nest Thermostat neu - Google Streamer - Pixel 9 - Mac Mini neu - Google Zoom Enhance - KI denunziert - Google Monopol - Geekbench Ai Score - Autoradio Nachrüstset für alte Karren - Partnership - Teeny Car - Fiat mit Kabel - Mazda EV - BYD Supercar - Xiaomi Verkaufszahlen - Steam Deck Review (Dauertest) - EP-1320 Medieval - Fly like a bird - MacOS auf iPad - Solar Sombrero - Raspberry PI - Quicksharemethoden - If Elon bought a restaurant - Ukrainian soldiers are leaving reviews of Russian businesses in Kursk - DinoBlade - Apple Gatekeeper - Macdown - Gürtelrose gegen Demenz - GenZ und Facebook - You can't sue Disney

  Google: 1:44 - Nest Learning Thermostat - Google TV Streamer - Death to Chromecast   Apple: 32:35 - iPhone 17 rumors   General Tech: 40:57 - AMD's Risen 9600X and 9700X - Intel's microcode fix - The Friend you don't want   Gaming: 57:16 - Borderlands movie     https://www.patreon.com/callingallplatforms    T-Shirts!   Contact: podcast@callingallplatforms.com Social: Facebook Twitter YouTube   Apple Podcasts Spotify Android  

Google released a new version of its Nest Learning Thermostat. Google is also looking to enhance the Google smart home experience with Gemini intelligence. A look into the coming that's gathering 'human data' for every major AI company. Mark Gurman reports that the Mac Mini will be updated with the M4 chip and a design change later this year. Jennifer Pattison Tuohy joins Mikah this week to talk about the latest iteration of Google's Nest Thermostat and the new design and features of the device. Jennifer also talks about how Google is bringing its Gemini intelligence to Google Home to join the market of other smart home systems using AI. Reed Albergotti of Semafor stops by to talk about Turing, the company helping major AI companies gather 'human data' for their AI systems. And Mikah talks about a Mark Gurman report that we may see an update to the Mac Mini with M4 chips and a design change later this year. Host: Mikah Sargent Guests: Jennifer Pattison Tuohy and Reed Albergotti Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/tech-news-weekly. Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsor: 1password.com/twit

Google released a new version of its Nest Learning Thermostat. Google is also looking to enhance the Google smart home experience with Gemini intelligence. A look into the coming that's gathering 'human data' for every major AI company. Mark Gurman reports that the Mac Mini will be updated with the M4 chip and a design change later this year. Jennifer Pattison Tuohy joins Mikah this week to talk about the latest iteration of Google's Nest Thermostat and the new design and features of the device. Jennifer also talks about how Google is bringing its Gemini intelligence to Google Home to join the market of other smart home systems using AI. Reed Albergotti of Semafor stops by to talk about Turing, the company helping major AI companies gather 'human data' for their AI systems. And Mikah talks about a Mark Gurman report that we may see an update to the Mac Mini with M4 chips and a design change later this year. Host: Mikah Sargent Guests: Jennifer Pattison Tuohy and Reed Albergotti Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/tech-news-weekly. Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsor: 1password.com/twit

Google released a new version of its Nest Learning Thermostat. Google is also looking to enhance the Google smart home experience with Gemini intelligence. A look into the coming that's gathering 'human data' for every major AI company. Mark Gurman reports that the Mac Mini will be updated with the M4 chip and a design change later this year. Jennifer Pattison Tuohy joins Mikah this week to talk about the latest iteration of Google's Nest Thermostat and the new design and features of the device. Jennifer also talks about how Google is bringing its Gemini intelligence to Google Home to join the market of other smart home systems using AI. Reed Albergotti of Semafor stops by to talk about Turing, the company helping major AI companies gather 'human data' for their AI systems. And Mikah talks about a Mark Gurman report that we may see an update to the Mac Mini with M4 chips and a design change later this year. Host: Mikah Sargent Guests: Jennifer Pattison Tuohy and Reed Albergotti Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/tech-news-weekly. Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsor: 1password.com/twit

Google released a new version of its Nest Learning Thermostat. Google is also looking to enhance the Google smart home experience with Gemini intelligence. A look into the coming that's gathering 'human data' for every major AI company. Mark Gurman reports that the Mac Mini will be updated with the M4 chip and a design change later this year. Jennifer Pattison Tuohy joins Mikah this week to talk about the latest iteration of Google's Nest Thermostat and the new design and features of the device. Jennifer also talks about how Google is bringing its Gemini intelligence to Google Home to join the market of other smart home systems using AI. Reed Albergotti of Semafor stops by to talk about Turing, the company helping major AI companies gather 'human data' for their AI systems. And Mikah talks about a Mark Gurman report that we may see an update to the Mac Mini with M4 chips and a design change later this year. Host: Mikah Sargent Guests: Jennifer Pattison Tuohy and Reed Albergotti Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/tech-news-weekly. Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsor: 1password.com/twit

Google released a new version of its Nest Learning Thermostat. Google is also looking to enhance the Google smart home experience with Gemini intelligence. A look into the coming that's gathering 'human data' for every major AI company. Mark Gurman reports that the Mac Mini will be updated with the M4 chip and a design change later this year. Jennifer Pattison Tuohy joins Mikah this week to talk about the latest iteration of Google's Nest Thermostat and the new design and features of the device. Jennifer also talks about how Google is bringing its Gemini intelligence to Google Home to join the market of other smart home systems using AI. Reed Albergotti of Semafor stops by to talk about Turing, the company helping major AI companies gather 'human data' for their AI systems. And Mikah talks about a Mark Gurman report that we may see an update to the Mac Mini with M4 chips and a design change later this year. Host: Mikah Sargent Guests: Jennifer Pattison Tuohy and Reed Albergotti Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/tech-news-weekly. Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsor: 1password.com/twit

Google released a new version of its Nest Learning Thermostat. Google is also looking to enhance the Google smart home experience with Gemini intelligence. A look into the coming that's gathering 'human data' for every major AI company. Mark Gurman reports that the Mac Mini will be updated with the M4 chip and a design change later this year. Jennifer Pattison Tuohy joins Mikah this week to talk about the latest iteration of Google's Nest Thermostat and the new design and features of the device. Jennifer also talks about how Google is bringing its Gemini intelligence to Google Home to join the market of other smart home systems using AI. Reed Albergotti of Semafor stops by to talk about Turing, the company helping major AI companies gather 'human data' for their AI systems. And Mikah talks about a Mark Gurman report that we may see an update to the Mac Mini with M4 chips and a design change later this year. Host: Mikah Sargent Guests: Jennifer Pattison Tuohy and Reed Albergotti Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/tech-news-weekly. Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsor: 1password.com/twit

Google released a new version of its Nest Learning Thermostat. Google is also looking to enhance the Google smart home experience with Gemini intelligence. A look into the coming that's gathering 'human data' for every major AI company. Mark Gurman reports that the Mac Mini will be updated with the M4 chip and a design change later this year. Jennifer Pattison Tuohy joins Mikah this week to talk about the latest iteration of Google's Nest Thermostat and the new design and features of the device. Jennifer also talks about how Google is bringing its Gemini intelligence to Google Home to join the market of other smart home systems using AI. Reed Albergotti of Semafor stops by to talk about Turing, the company helping major AI companies gather 'human data' for their AI systems. And Mikah talks about a Mark Gurman report that we may see an update to the Mac Mini with M4 chips and a design change later this year. Host: Mikah Sargent Guests: Jennifer Pattison Tuohy and Reed Albergotti Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/tech-news-weekly. Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsor: 1password.com/twit

Google released a new version of its Nest Learning Thermostat. Google is also looking to enhance the Google smart home experience with Gemini intelligence. A look into the coming that's gathering 'human data' for every major AI company. Mark Gurman reports that the Mac Mini will be updated with the M4 chip and a design change later this year. Jennifer Pattison Tuohy joins Mikah this week to talk about the latest iteration of Google's Nest Thermostat and the new design and features of the device. Jennifer also talks about how Google is bringing its Gemini intelligence to Google Home to join the market of other smart home systems using AI. Reed Albergotti of Semafor stops by to talk about Turing, the company helping major AI companies gather 'human data' for their AI systems. And Mikah talks about a Mark Gurman report that we may see an update to the Mac Mini with M4 chips and a design change later this year. Host: Mikah Sargent Guests: Jennifer Pattison Tuohy and Reed Albergotti Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/tech-news-weekly. Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsor: 1password.com/twit

This week on HomeKit Insider we cover the latest smart home news including the leaked Nest Learning Thermostat Gen 4 and its new wireless sensors, some Deadpool MagSafe-compatible chargers, Google's new streaming box, and the new update to the Sonos app.Send us your HomeKit questions and recommendations with the hashtag homekitinsider. Tweet and follow our hosts at:@andrew_osu on Twitter@andrewohara941 on ThreadsEmail us hereSponsored by:Shopify: Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at: shopify.com/homekitHomeKit Insider YouTube ChannelSubscribe to the HomeKit Insider YouTube Channel and watch our episodes every week! Click here to subscribe.Links from the showNest Learning Thermostat Gen 4 leakedGoogle TV Streaming boxRoomba with MatterPaid Alexa incomingD-Link OmnaSonos app updateCasetifyColgate Hum toothbrushHome+ 6Controller for HomeKitThose interested in sponsoring the show can reach out to us at: andrew@appleinsider.com

There are many forces that could hold back AI in the power system: computing infrastructure, power availability, regulation, and corporate inertia. The biggest one? Good data.  Utilities and grid operators are awash in data. But getting access to it – or making sense of it – is very difficult.  For a better understanding of how to change that, we turn to someone who spends a lot of his time in the so-called data cloud: Tititaan Palazzi, the head of power and utilities at Snowflake. “Data naturally ends up in different boxes, in different silos. And when you then want to ask questions of the data, it becomes really hard. You can't ask questions across the enterprise,” he explained. In 2018, Palazzi co-founded Myst AI with Pieter Verhoeven, an engineer who built critical demand response applications for the Nest Thermostat. Myst was focused on AI-driven time-series forecasting for the grid.  “In the energy industry, there is a lot of time-series data coming from the grid. At the same time, using AI for forecasting is quite challenging because every time you need to create a new prediction, you need to have the latest data. And so from an engineering perspective, it was quite complicated to do,” said Palazzi. Palazzi and Verhoeven arrived at Snowflake after Myst was acquired by the company last year.  This week, we feature a conversation with Snowflake's Titiaan Palazzi on busting data silos, some early wins for AI in the power sector, and what phase of the transition we're in.  This episode is brought to you by The Big Switch. In a new 5-episode season, we're digging into the ways batteries are made and asking: what gets mined, traded, and consumed on the road to decarbonization? Listen on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your shows.

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Our old thermostat was breaking down to the point that we could not change the temperature, so it was time for a change. And since smart thermostats have gotten pretty good I decided that I wanted to install one and take more control of my environment. Links: https://www.consumerreports.org/smart-thermostats/google-nest-thermostat-review-a9480620820/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHKD-9uI24I https://www.electronicshub.org/thermostat-wire-colors/ https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/9452748?hl=en#zippy=%2Ccommon-thermostat-wires https://www.palain.com/miscellaneous-technical-notes/installing-a-google-nest-thermostat/

The HomeKit news cycle tends to ebb and flow throughout the year, but with Matter's release and a large portion of the smart home industry testing the waters, it does seem we have slightly more things to talk about… especially if your podcast host has been sleeping a bit.Save up to 35% off your order of Ekster's smart wallets and accessories during their Father's Day event: https://shop.ekster.com/myhomekithome

Apple's latest HomePod software update that enables the device's smoke alarm recognition capabilities, Nest's forthcoming Matter compatibility, and we discuss the US launch of the Aqara Presence Sensor FP2!Send us your HomeKit questions and recommendations with the hashtag homekitinsider. Tweet and follow our hosts at:@andrew_osu on Twitter@stephenrobles on TwitterStephen on MastodonEmail us hereSponsored by:Kolide: Kolide ensures only secure devices can access your cloud apps. Plus, it's Zero Trust, tailor-made for Okta. Book a demo today when you visit: kolide.com/homekitHomeKit Insider YouTube ChannelSubscribe to the HomeKit Insider YouTube Channel and watch our episodes every week! Click here to subscribe.Links from the showHome Intercom Shortcut!2023 Jeep Grand Cherokee Uconnect 5 review: Finally wireless CarPlayHomePod Could Save Your Life! How to Detect Smoke & CO Alerts with Sound Recognition! - YouTubeApple turns on HomePod's smoke alarm recognitionOne Nest thermostat is finally getting Matter, others aren'tVelox Series for MagSafe Compatible iPhones - iOttieAqara Presence Sensor FP2Netatmo Weather Station, Rain GaugeSubscribe and listen to our AppleInsider Daily podcast for the latest Apple news Monday through Friday. You can find it on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, or anywhere you listen to podcasts.Those interested in sponsoring the show can reach out to us at: andrew@appleinsider.com

Panic at Google: Samsung considers dumping search for Bing and ChatGPT. Samsung can't dump Google for Bing as the default search engine on its phones. Why Samsung Doesn't Want You to Use Google Apps. AI could cause a mass-extinction of languages — and ways of thinking. AI science search engines are exploding in number — are they any good? 'Overemployed' Hustlers Exploit ChatGPT To Take On Even More Full-Time Jobs. Google Devising Radical Search Changes to Beat Back A.I. Rivals. Google's Rush to Win in AI Led to Ethical Lapses, Employees Say. '60 Minutes' Made a Shockingly Wrong Claim About a Google AI. Google to launch its first foldable phone, the 'Pixel Fold,' in June. Sources: Pixel Tablet will have 8GB of RAM, four colors, and this included dock. Report: Pixel 7a will cost $499, Pixel 6a will continue at a reduced price. Nilay Patel's devastating interview with Chris Best. Bluesky is my favorite Twitter clone yet. Bluesky's CEO wants to build a Musk-proof, decentralized version of Twitter. Thousands fled to Mastodon after Musk bought Twitter. Are they still 'tooting'? NPR quits Twitter after being falsely labeled as 'state-affiliated media'. AI makes up a duet with Drake & The Weeknd (nobody to complain about taking it down but publishers want to block AI). Reddit Wants to Get Paid for Helping to Teach Big A.I. Systems. Amazon releases photo dataset to program robots to replace crappy pick-and-pack Amazon jobs. Bainbridge ferry: "Abandon ship!". It's now 'Google Fi Wireless' with redesigned app, icon, and more smartwatches. You can now redeem Play Points for Google shirts, socks, water bottles, and more. Nest Thermostat gets Matter support today, including Apple Home compatibility. Google Chat rolling out Material You web redesign. This College Football Program Mined Fanatics Consumer Data to Fuel a $1 Million Boost in Ticket Sales. Will smart medicine drive privacy legislation? It should. Picks: Stacey - Era 300: The Stereo Speaker With Dolby Atmos. Jeff - Americans mostly believe the news they hear on podcasts. Jeff - Last two computer magazines are dead. Ant - LumaTouch Adds Multicam Support. Ant - Shout Out To Mr. Terrell. Jason - Under Pressure: Confronting the Epidemic of Stress and Anxiety in Girls by Lisa Damour Ph.D. Hosts: Jason Howell, Jeff Jarvis, Stacey Higginbotham, and Ant Pruitt Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-google. Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: meraki.cisco.com/twit GO.ACILEARNING.COM/TWIT

Panic at Google: Samsung considers dumping search for Bing and ChatGPT. Samsung can't dump Google for Bing as the default search engine on its phones. Why Samsung Doesn't Want You to Use Google Apps. AI could cause a mass-extinction of languages — and ways of thinking. AI science search engines are exploding in number — are they any good? 'Overemployed' Hustlers Exploit ChatGPT To Take On Even More Full-Time Jobs. Google Devising Radical Search Changes to Beat Back A.I. Rivals. Google's Rush to Win in AI Led to Ethical Lapses, Employees Say. '60 Minutes' Made a Shockingly Wrong Claim About a Google AI. Google to launch its first foldable phone, the 'Pixel Fold,' in June. Sources: Pixel Tablet will have 8GB of RAM, four colors, and this included dock. Report: Pixel 7a will cost $499, Pixel 6a will continue at a reduced price. Nilay Patel's devastating interview with Chris Best. Bluesky is my favorite Twitter clone yet. Bluesky's CEO wants to build a Musk-proof, decentralized version of Twitter. Thousands fled to Mastodon after Musk bought Twitter. Are they still 'tooting'? NPR quits Twitter after being falsely labeled as 'state-affiliated media'. AI makes up a duet with Drake & The Weeknd (nobody to complain about taking it down but publishers want to block AI). Reddit Wants to Get Paid for Helping to Teach Big A.I. Systems. Amazon releases photo dataset to program robots to replace crappy pick-and-pack Amazon jobs. Bainbridge ferry: "Abandon ship!". It's now 'Google Fi Wireless' with redesigned app, icon, and more smartwatches. You can now redeem Play Points for Google shirts, socks, water bottles, and more. Nest Thermostat gets Matter support today, including Apple Home compatibility. Google Chat rolling out Material You web redesign. This College Football Program Mined Fanatics Consumer Data to Fuel a $1 Million Boost in Ticket Sales. Will smart medicine drive privacy legislation? It should. Picks: Stacey - Era 300: The Stereo Speaker With Dolby Atmos. Jeff - Americans mostly believe the news they hear on podcasts. Jeff - Last two computer magazines are dead. Ant - LumaTouch Adds Multicam Support. Ant - Shout Out To Mr. Terrell. Jason - Under Pressure: Confronting the Epidemic of Stress and Anxiety in Girls by Lisa Damour Ph.D. Hosts: Jason Howell, Jeff Jarvis, Stacey Higginbotham, and Ant Pruitt Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-google. Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: meraki.cisco.com/twit GO.ACILEARNING.COM/TWIT

Panic at Google: Samsung considers dumping search for Bing and ChatGPT. Samsung can't dump Google for Bing as the default search engine on its phones. Why Samsung Doesn't Want You to Use Google Apps. AI could cause a mass-extinction of languages — and ways of thinking. AI science search engines are exploding in number — are they any good? 'Overemployed' Hustlers Exploit ChatGPT To Take On Even More Full-Time Jobs. Google Devising Radical Search Changes to Beat Back A.I. Rivals. Google's Rush to Win in AI Led to Ethical Lapses, Employees Say. '60 Minutes' Made a Shockingly Wrong Claim About a Google AI. Google to launch its first foldable phone, the 'Pixel Fold,' in June. Sources: Pixel Tablet will have 8GB of RAM, four colors, and this included dock. Report: Pixel 7a will cost $499, Pixel 6a will continue at a reduced price. Nilay Patel's devastating interview with Chris Best. Bluesky is my favorite Twitter clone yet. Bluesky's CEO wants to build a Musk-proof, decentralized version of Twitter. Thousands fled to Mastodon after Musk bought Twitter. Are they still 'tooting'? NPR quits Twitter after being falsely labeled as 'state-affiliated media'. AI makes up a duet with Drake & The Weeknd (nobody to complain about taking it down but publishers want to block AI). Reddit Wants to Get Paid for Helping to Teach Big A.I. Systems. Amazon releases photo dataset to program robots to replace crappy pick-and-pack Amazon jobs. Bainbridge ferry: "Abandon ship!". It's now 'Google Fi Wireless' with redesigned app, icon, and more smartwatches. You can now redeem Play Points for Google shirts, socks, water bottles, and more. Nest Thermostat gets Matter support today, including Apple Home compatibility. Google Chat rolling out Material You web redesign. This College Football Program Mined Fanatics Consumer Data to Fuel a $1 Million Boost in Ticket Sales. Will smart medicine drive privacy legislation? It should. Picks: Stacey - Era 300: The Stereo Speaker With Dolby Atmos. Jeff - Americans mostly believe the news they hear on podcasts. Jeff - Last two computer magazines are dead. Ant - LumaTouch Adds Multicam Support. Ant - Shout Out To Mr. Terrell. Jason - Under Pressure: Confronting the Epidemic of Stress and Anxiety in Girls by Lisa Damour Ph.D. Hosts: Jason Howell, Jeff Jarvis, Stacey Higginbotham, and Ant Pruitt Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-google. Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: meraki.cisco.com/twit GO.ACILEARNING.COM/TWIT

Panic at Google: Samsung considers dumping search for Bing and ChatGPT. Samsung can't dump Google for Bing as the default search engine on its phones. Why Samsung Doesn't Want You to Use Google Apps. AI could cause a mass-extinction of languages — and ways of thinking. AI science search engines are exploding in number — are they any good? 'Overemployed' Hustlers Exploit ChatGPT To Take On Even More Full-Time Jobs. Google Devising Radical Search Changes to Beat Back A.I. Rivals. Google's Rush to Win in AI Led to Ethical Lapses, Employees Say. '60 Minutes' Made a Shockingly Wrong Claim About a Google AI. Google to launch its first foldable phone, the 'Pixel Fold,' in June. Sources: Pixel Tablet will have 8GB of RAM, four colors, and this included dock. Report: Pixel 7a will cost $499, Pixel 6a will continue at a reduced price. Nilay Patel's devastating interview with Chris Best. Bluesky is my favorite Twitter clone yet. Bluesky's CEO wants to build a Musk-proof, decentralized version of Twitter. Thousands fled to Mastodon after Musk bought Twitter. Are they still 'tooting'? NPR quits Twitter after being falsely labeled as 'state-affiliated media'. AI makes up a duet with Drake & The Weeknd (nobody to complain about taking it down but publishers want to block AI). Reddit Wants to Get Paid for Helping to Teach Big A.I. Systems. Amazon releases photo dataset to program robots to replace crappy pick-and-pack Amazon jobs. Bainbridge ferry: "Abandon ship!". It's now 'Google Fi Wireless' with redesigned app, icon, and more smartwatches. You can now redeem Play Points for Google shirts, socks, water bottles, and more. Nest Thermostat gets Matter support today, including Apple Home compatibility. Google Chat rolling out Material You web redesign. This College Football Program Mined Fanatics Consumer Data to Fuel a $1 Million Boost in Ticket Sales. Will smart medicine drive privacy legislation? It should. Picks: Stacey - Era 300: The Stereo Speaker With Dolby Atmos. Jeff - Americans mostly believe the news they hear on podcasts. Jeff - Last two computer magazines are dead. Ant - LumaTouch Adds Multicam Support. Ant - Shout Out To Mr. Terrell. Jason - Under Pressure: Confronting the Epidemic of Stress and Anxiety in Girls by Lisa Damour Ph.D. Hosts: Jason Howell, Jeff Jarvis, Stacey Higginbotham, and Ant Pruitt Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-google. Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: meraki.cisco.com/twit GO.ACILEARNING.COM/TWIT

Panic at Google: Samsung considers dumping search for Bing and ChatGPT. Samsung can't dump Google for Bing as the default search engine on its phones. Why Samsung Doesn't Want You to Use Google Apps. AI could cause a mass-extinction of languages — and ways of thinking. AI science search engines are exploding in number — are they any good? 'Overemployed' Hustlers Exploit ChatGPT To Take On Even More Full-Time Jobs. Google Devising Radical Search Changes to Beat Back A.I. Rivals. Google's Rush to Win in AI Led to Ethical Lapses, Employees Say. '60 Minutes' Made a Shockingly Wrong Claim About a Google AI. Google to launch its first foldable phone, the 'Pixel Fold,' in June. Sources: Pixel Tablet will have 8GB of RAM, four colors, and this included dock. Report: Pixel 7a will cost $499, Pixel 6a will continue at a reduced price. Nilay Patel's devastating interview with Chris Best. Bluesky is my favorite Twitter clone yet. Bluesky's CEO wants to build a Musk-proof, decentralized version of Twitter. Thousands fled to Mastodon after Musk bought Twitter. Are they still 'tooting'? NPR quits Twitter after being falsely labeled as 'state-affiliated media'. AI makes up a duet with Drake & The Weeknd (nobody to complain about taking it down but publishers want to block AI). Reddit Wants to Get Paid for Helping to Teach Big A.I. Systems. Amazon releases photo dataset to program robots to replace crappy pick-and-pack Amazon jobs. Bainbridge ferry: "Abandon ship!". It's now 'Google Fi Wireless' with redesigned app, icon, and more smartwatches. You can now redeem Play Points for Google shirts, socks, water bottles, and more. Nest Thermostat gets Matter support today, including Apple Home compatibility. Google Chat rolling out Material You web redesign. This College Football Program Mined Fanatics Consumer Data to Fuel a $1 Million Boost in Ticket Sales. Will smart medicine drive privacy legislation? It should. Picks: Stacey - Era 300: The Stereo Speaker With Dolby Atmos. Jeff - Americans mostly believe the news they hear on podcasts. Jeff - Last two computer magazines are dead. Ant - LumaTouch Adds Multicam Support. Ant - Shout Out To Mr. Terrell. Jason - Under Pressure: Confronting the Epidemic of Stress and Anxiety in Girls by Lisa Damour Ph.D. Hosts: Jason Howell, Jeff Jarvis, Stacey Higginbotham, and Ant Pruitt Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-google. Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: meraki.cisco.com/twit GO.ACILEARNING.COM/TWIT

Panic at Google: Samsung considers dumping search for Bing and ChatGPT. Samsung can't dump Google for Bing as the default search engine on its phones. Why Samsung Doesn't Want You to Use Google Apps. AI could cause a mass-extinction of languages — and ways of thinking. AI science search engines are exploding in number — are they any good? 'Overemployed' Hustlers Exploit ChatGPT To Take On Even More Full-Time Jobs. Google Devising Radical Search Changes to Beat Back A.I. Rivals. Google's Rush to Win in AI Led to Ethical Lapses, Employees Say. '60 Minutes' Made a Shockingly Wrong Claim About a Google AI. Google to launch its first foldable phone, the 'Pixel Fold,' in June. Sources: Pixel Tablet will have 8GB of RAM, four colors, and this included dock. Report: Pixel 7a will cost $499, Pixel 6a will continue at a reduced price. Nilay Patel's devastating interview with Chris Best. Bluesky is my favorite Twitter clone yet. Bluesky's CEO wants to build a Musk-proof, decentralized version of Twitter. Thousands fled to Mastodon after Musk bought Twitter. Are they still 'tooting'? NPR quits Twitter after being falsely labeled as 'state-affiliated media'. AI makes up a duet with Drake & The Weeknd (nobody to complain about taking it down but publishers want to block AI). Reddit Wants to Get Paid for Helping to Teach Big A.I. Systems. Amazon releases photo dataset to program robots to replace crappy pick-and-pack Amazon jobs. Bainbridge ferry: "Abandon ship!". It's now 'Google Fi Wireless' with redesigned app, icon, and more smartwatches. You can now redeem Play Points for Google shirts, socks, water bottles, and more. Nest Thermostat gets Matter support today, including Apple Home compatibility. Google Chat rolling out Material You web redesign. This College Football Program Mined Fanatics Consumer Data to Fuel a $1 Million Boost in Ticket Sales. Will smart medicine drive privacy legislation? It should. Picks: Stacey - Era 300: The Stereo Speaker With Dolby Atmos. Jeff - Americans mostly believe the news they hear on podcasts. Jeff - Last two computer magazines are dead. Ant - LumaTouch Adds Multicam Support. Ant - Shout Out To Mr. Terrell. Jason - Under Pressure: Confronting the Epidemic of Stress and Anxiety in Girls by Lisa Damour Ph.D. Hosts: Jason Howell, Jeff Jarvis, Stacey Higginbotham, and Ant Pruitt Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-google. Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: meraki.cisco.com/twit GO.ACILEARNING.COM/TWIT

Tony Fadell is an amazing and successful engineer, entrepreneur, and investor. He is the father of the iPod, co-creator of the iPhone, founder and former CEO of Nest Thermostat, and the founder of Future Shape, a global investment and advisory company.In 2014, Tony Fadell was one of the Time Magazine's 100 most influential people in the world. He is also a NY Times bestselling author with his book Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Work.It's a true pleasure to have Tony on our show and hear how he searched and found his excellence!(00:24) Leaving the Silicon valley and inventing Nest ThermostatA trip around the world with his familyDesigning a new home on Lake TahoeRealized there were no good thermostats to remotely controlNest Thermostat was born in ParisThere is no need for Silicon Valley anymore, the game has changed(05:35) Money as a motivation to start a companyIt was never about making money, it was about solving a problemFocus on the inventions that fix real problemsYour success drastically changed the lives of your employees(10:14) Steve Jobs and when is the time to quitBook mention: Tony Fadell, Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things WorkWorking for Steve – one of the most important things in his lifeRumors about Steve Jobs are just rumorsSteve cared about customers and products, he demanded excellence, and he wasn't going after people for no reasonWhen is the time to quit? (When you don't grow anymore, when you work for someone you don't respect, and when you work in a team with serious flaws)If you're working for an jerk, do you quit?(18:32) The importance of Extreme PreparationWhat is Extreme Preparation for Tony?VC pitch meetingsTED talks(21:10) The importance of mentors in search of excellenceEveryone needs a mentor (even Steve Jobs)The best mentors know human natureCoaches are something different(24:25) Fill in the blank to ExcellenceWhen I started my career I wish I had known – more about understanding the customerThe biggest lesson I learned in my life – when to say no and say it more oftenNo. 1 professional goal – to help people and mentor themThe greatest innovation in the next 50 years – Artificial IntelligenceResources Mentioned:Nest Thermostat: https://store.google.com/us/product/nest_thermostatApple: https://www.apple.com/Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making, Tony Fadell: https://www.amazon.com/Build-Unorthodox-Guide-Making-Things/dp/0063046067Sponsors:Sandee – https://sandee.com/Bliss: Beaches – https://www.amazon.com/Bliss-Beaches-Randall-Kaplan/dp/1951836170/Want to Connect? Reach out to us online!Website – https://insearchofexcellencepodcast.comInstagram – https://www.instagram.com/randallkaplan/LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/randall-kaplan-05858340/

Tony Fadell is an amazing and successful engineer, entrepreneur, and investor. He is the father of the iPod, co-creator of the iPhone, founder and former CEO of Nest Thermostat, and the founder of Future Shape, a global investment and advisory company.In 2014, Tony Fadell was one of the Time Magazine's 100 most influential people in the world. He is also a NY Times bestselling author with his book Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Work.It's a true pleasure to have Tony on our show and hear how he searched and found his excellence!(00:28) IntroductionLearning from his dad about building trust in business (relationships, not transactions build trust)50% is what you know and the other 50% is who you knowWhen rejected for a job, don't take it personally (send follow-ups, keep the line open create the conversation, ask how to improve)(10:18) Tony's childhoodSelling eggs to neighbors as a young kid (money = freedom)Degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science studiesAs a sophomore, made an improved processor for Apple 2 – offered it to Apple and Apple bought it!(16:44) The value of cold calling skillsThe first job in Silicon Valley – got it through cold calling (overcome the fear of cold calling)Know how to tell your story to engage people – what value you can bring?(21:13) Is education worth it?Most people attend college in the wrong wayTony's mantra "Do, Fail, Learn"The importance of internships (do a lot of things to know what you don't want to do)After college, go and learn from experts(28:30) Turning disappointments into opportunitiesGeneral Magic – failed6 years in Silicon Valley of failureIn 2000 Internets stocks tanked, the market frozeCalled to work for Apple when the company was about to bankruptApple was developing a new generation of WalkmanRandall's experience with Apple(40:25) Tony at Apple6-week contract to research and design the iPodThe importance of constant improvementInnovation must never stop, even if you're #1 (you must be ahead your competition)(48:59) What is an entrepreneur?Someone who disrupts the marketResonate with people in the first 30 secondsStart with a pain and offer the painkiller (the development of iPhone – solved the issue of taking three devices with you)Resources Mentioned:Nest Thermostat: https://store.google.com/us/product/nest_thermostatApple: https://www.apple.com/Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making, Tony Fadell: https://www.amazon.com/Build-Unorthodox-Guide-Making-Things/dp/0063046067Sponsors:Sandee – https://sandee.com/Bliss: Beaches – https://www.amazon.com/Bliss-Beaches-Randall-Kaplan/dp/1951836170/Want to Connect? Reach out to us online!Website – https://insearchofexcellencepodcast.comInstagram – https://www.instagram.com/randallkaplan/LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/randall-kaplan-05858340/

This week's conversation is with Tony Fadell, an entrepreneur, designer, engineer, and investor with a 30+ year history of founding companies and designing some of the most influential products of the 20th century. Over his remarkable career, Tony has become best known as the inventor of the iPod, the iPhone, and the Nest Thermostat (which eventually sold to Google for $3.2B). Tony has authored more than 300 patents and was named one of Time's "100 Most Influential People in the World". In 2016, Time also named the iPod, the iPhone, and the Nest Learning Thermostat as three of the “50 Most Influential Gadgets of All Time".Tony also recently published his first book, Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making, which quickly topped charts as a bestseller. Tony is a legend, and it was a joy to learn from him in this conversation. I think everyone will find significant value from the insights Tony shares as he outlines his journey from devastating failure to unbelievable success, and some of the lessons he learned along the way.-----You can also watch this - and every - conversation on our YouTube channel.Connect with us on our Instagram.For more information and shownotes from every episode, head to findingmastery.net.-----Please support our partners!We're able to keep growing and creating content for YOU because of their support. We believe in their mission and would appreciate you supporting them in return!!To take advantage of deals from our partners, head to http://www.findingmastery.net/partners where you'll find all discount links and codes mentioned in the podcast.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This episode is sponsored by Spatial, the immersive audio software that gives a new dimension to sound. Spatial gives creators the tools to create interactive soundscapes using our powerful 3D authoring tool, Spatial Studio. Their software modernises traditional channel-based audio; by rethinking how we hear and feel immersive experiences, anywhere. To find more go to https://www.spatialinc.com. In this episode of the Immersive Audio Podcast, Oliver Kadel and Monica Bolles are joined by the Co-Founder and Co-Der of SPATIAL - Michael Plitkins, from Los Angeles, California. Before founding Spatial, Michael was a founding engineer at Nest which was ultimately acquired by Google. Michael helped develop a set of groundbreaking smart consumer products for the home like the Nest Thermostat and helped define the category we know as Home IoT today. Prior to Nest, he was a founding engineer at Tellme Networks, which was acquired by Microsoft. He also has experience in developing tools and technologies for 3D modelling, animation, VR and graphics. Michael has over 35 patents in UI design, streaming audio, smart home optimization and more. Michael co-founded Spatial with the amazing idea that sound should not always be linear or channel based, where he patented the Spatial Reality technology; the Spatial audio rendering platform that allows sound to move, using object-based audio and acoustic physics. Michael also developed key integrations within Spatial's platform that allows new tools to take advantage of Spatial IP. Michael shares the story of the creation of SPATIAL as a company which subsequently developed into a multifaceted platform for sound designers. We look at the key elements of software architecture, discuss the most recent case studies featuring Spatial technology and a newly launched educational 101 course for new users. This episode was produced by Oliver Kadel and Emma Rees and included music by Rhythm Scott. For extended show notes and more information on this episode go to https://immersiveaudiopodcast.com/episode-70-michael-plitkins-spatial/ If you enjoy the podcast and would like to show your support please consider becoming a Patreon. Not only are you supporting us, but you will also get special access to bonus content and much more. Find out more on our official Patreon page - www.patreon.com/immersiveaudiopodcast We thank you kindly in advance! We want to hear from you! We value our community and would appreciate it if you would take our very quick survey and help us make the Immersive Audio Podcast even better: surveymonkey.co.uk/r/3Y9B2MJ Thank you! You can follow the podcast on Twitter @IAudioPodcast for regular updates and content or get in touch via podcast@1618digital.com immersiveaudiopodcast.com

Listen to a recap of the best deals and news from 9to5Toys each day at noon. 9to5Toys Daily is available on iTunes and Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or through our dedicated RSS feed. New episodes of 9to5Toys Daily are recorded every weekday. Subscribe to our podcast in iTunes/Apple Podcast or your favorite podcast player to guarantee new episodes are delivered as soon as they are available. Apple's Alpine Loop band works with Apple Watch Ultra and Series 8 with first sale to $90Apple's original AirPods Pro with MagSafe charging case hit $140 in Grade A refurb saleGoogle's popular Nest Thermostat regulates fall temps with Assistant at $100 (Save $30) Host Rikka Altland  Links: Subscribe to our YouTube channel!Follow us on Twitter!Like our Facebook page!Download the 9to5Toys app!Subscribe to our newsletter!

As a Latina in the C-Suite, Ana Corrales challenges herself to think big and to always contribute. She was an early entrepreneur—selling her handmade scrunchies to her classmates. And although she grew up in a STEM home, she found herself continuing to be interested in sales, so she shadowed a few sales people and realized the field wasn't as easy as she thought. But, that didn't stop her. Ana loves learning. As she describes, she finds a subject that interests her and she just “clicks, clicks, and clicks” online to find more information. Management observing Ana noticed that she could do a lot of things, and so they decided to move her into a management position herself. She has continued to work her way up to her current role as Chief Operating Officer for Google Consumer Hardware. In this role, a few mindsets makes her successful. First, she believes you need to be undeterred when pursuing your goals. Second, you need to be willing to be uncomfortable and do the things other people refuse to do because of fear. Her older sister once told her to consider, “What's the worst that can happen?” She has taken that advice to heart and sometimes just fakes it until she makes it. Finally, Ana describes for us the importance of finding “white space,” which are those quiet moments when you can just allow yourself to think. She believes these moments have made her a better leader. For Ana, gardening gives her these moments. She savors any time she can get away from her devices and has also learned to say no and draw boundaries around her personal time. Ana has learned a lot through all of her experiences, and she shares those insights with us in this podcast. Visit https://www.iambeyondbarriers.com where you will find show notes and links to all the resources in this episode, including the best way to get in touch with Ana. Highlights:  [03:33] Ana's journey [05:54] Gaining clarity through a love of learning [09:54] Making opportunities happen [12:41] Overcoming fear and limiting beliefs [17:57] Creating your own narrative [24:08] Ana's success habits [30:03] Asking for help from your community [32:32] Dreaming big   Quotes: “If you are passionate about what you do and you are contributing and really good, people will come to you and say, ‘Do you want to be part of my team?''” – Ana Corrales “No one shows up looking amazing and totally relaxed all the time. There's a lot of grit and you really need to want it.” - Ana Corrales “Get comfortable with the fact that you're going to be uncomfortable.” - Ana Corrales “If you don't have the narrative out there, there's going to be a narrative about you.” – Ana Corrales About Ana Corrales: Ana Corrales is the Chief Operating Officer for Google's Consumer Hardware business. As COO, Ana leads the development process for Made by Google hardware and Nest products --phones, laptops, Google Home, Chromecast, Nest Thermostat --and manages getting those products into the hands of customers. Ana also drives the end-to-end IT efforts and customer experience work across the Google Hardware business. Ana previously led Google Hardware's first-party retail efforts, including driving the growth of e-commerce channel, Google Store.  Previously, Ana served as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer at Nest. She also served as Senior Vice President of Product Operations at Cisco Systems. In 2006, Ana co-founded a startup solar company. As the acting CEO, Ana sold the company in 2010. Ana serves as a member of the Women@Google board and is an executive sponsor for HOLA, Google's Latino Employee Resource Group. Ana serves on the board of directors for Watermark, the Bay Area's largest women leadership organization, as an advisor to Roli, a company reinventing instruments that extend the joy of music-making to everyone. Ana has been recognized by Forbes as one of the 50 Most Powerful Latinas in Business, and as one of the most powerful Latinas by the Association of Latino Professionals For America (ALPFA). HITEC (Hispanic Information Technology Executive Council) has recognized her as a top technology executive. She is known in the industry as a seasoned leader who can successfully grow startup businesses into multi-billion dollar companies. Ana is a native of Costa Rica and earned a Masters of Engineering from Stanford University. She lives in the Bay Area with her husband and two children. Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anacorrales/ 

Tony Fadell, often referred to as the father of the iPod is one of the leading product thinkers of the last 30 years as one of the makers of some of the most revolutionary products in society from the iPhone and iPod to more recently founding Nest, creating the Nest Thermostat, leading to their $3.2BN acquisition by Google. Tony recently released Build, a masterclass taking 30 years of product and company building lessons and packaging them for you, check it out here. In Today's Episode with Tony Fadell: New York Times' 36 Questions of Love 1.) On reflection, what would Tony most like to change about his childhood? How did moving so much as a child change who Tony was as a person? How can parents instill that same grit and desire in their kids today? What does Tony think is the biggest problem with modern parenting? 2.) As a leader, should the company you are building be a family or a team? What does Tony believe are the 3 hats of being a great CEO? What is the biggest challenge in the transition between hats? Where does Tony see many founders make the biggest mistake? Which hat was Tony strongest with? What was he weakest with? 3.) How to solve the loneliness of being a solo founder? Why does Tony believe that everyone needs a co-founder? Why does Tony not like to invest in teams with a solo founder or more than 4 founders? For Tony, what is the ideal composition of that founding team? How does he test for these skills and traits pre-investing? 4.) How to think differently in the face of adversity? Tony has made bold bets when everyone says he is crazy, how does he not question himself and remain strong in the face of criticism? How does Tony know when to change his mind? When to accept that the bold idea was not right? Is Tony concerned in the face of macro challenges today, investment and commitment to climate change will be cut heavily?

Tony Fadell led the incredibly successful teams that built the iPod, the iPhone, and the Nest Thermostat. He also led or was part of other teams that failed just as big. So his new book Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making is now one of my new favorites for building meaningful products. A great product management and UX book review to check out. Book: Build by Tony FadellDon't forget to subscribe at productthinking.ccWeekly newsletter: Build by Tony Fadell: Book ReviewOr just want to leave a tip: buy me a coffee?Twitter: @kylelarryevans and @producthinking ★ Support this podcast ★

Alison Steinberg of OAN is being threatened by a NEST Thermostat, RINO Hunting campaign ad, and the Host of “The Late Show” on CBS is explained the Capitol situation when his production team and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog got indicted at the US Capitol last week. Plus, a “Rock Your Body” parody about reflexive verbs for Spanish class students. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Tony Fadell is an engineer and designer, co-creator of the iPod, iPhone, Nest Thermostat, and author of the new book Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: – Mailgun: https://lexfridman.com/mailgun – Scale: https://scale.com/lex – NetSuite: http://netsuite.com/lex to get free product tour – SimpliSafe: https://simplisafe.com/lex and use code LEX – Eight Sleep: https://www.eightsleep.com/lex and use code LEX to get special savings EPISODE LINKS: Tony's Twitter: https://twitter.com/tfadell Tony's Website: https://tonyfadell.com Build (book): https://amzn.to/3xSReee Story (book): https://amzn.to/3Olzqhv PODCAST INFO: Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ YouTube Full Episodes:

Tony Fadell is one of the great engineers, designers, and business leaders of our time, responsible for creating the iPod, iPhone, and Nest Thermostat. He runs the investment firm Future Shape and recently released his memoir titled “Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making." In this episode, he discusses the lessons he learned at General Magic (which was building the iPhone 15 years too early) and Philips Electronics that paved the way for building some of the world's most popular devices at Apple. He explains why self-imposed constraints are essential to creating exceptional products and reveals where engineers and designers often go wrong. His passion for building is inspiring and informative for both business and everyday life.

Tony Fadell, often referred to as the father of the iPod is one of the leading product thinkers of the last 30 years as one of the makers of some of the most game-changing products in society from the iPhone and iPod to more recently founding Nest, creating the Nest Thermostat, leading to their $3.2BN acquisition by Google. Tony recently released Build, this is a masterclass taking 30 years of product and company building lessons and packaging them for you, check it out here. In Today's Episode with Tony Fadell: 1.) Everything Great Starts Small: How did Tony make his way into the world of product in the early days? What were his biggest takeaways from the massive flop of General Magic? How did Tony come to Apple and what were the early creation days of iPod and iPhone? 2.) Data and Brand: Does Tony believe great product building is art or science? When should teams listen to their gut vs the data? When was a time that Tony listened to his gut? When was a time Tony listened to the data? How did each situation evolve and turn out? How does Tony think about creating a truly special first mile experience? Where do so many companies go wrong in the first mile today? How does Tony balance between business decisions (COGs etc) and product decisions that will delight customers? 3.) Lessons from Steve Jobs on Product Marketing: How does Tony define great product management? Why do so many people get it wrong? What are Tony's biggest lessons from working with Steve Jobs on what makes great product marketing? Where does Tony see so many companies make the biggest mistakes when it comes to messaging? What is the difference between messaging, marketing and communications? 4.) Hiring Product Teams: What are the clearest signals of the best product talent when interviewing them? What questions does Tony always ask product people to determine quality? How do great product teams remain upbeat when launches fail and remain modest when they are wildly successful? 5.) Apple Watch, iPod and Apple HiFi: Why was the product messaging for the Apple Watch wrong in the early days? How did it change? Why was the iPod a bad business until the 3rd Generation? What changed? Why did the Apple HiFi fail? How did that impact Tony's mindset? Mentioned in Today's Episode with Tony Fadell: Tony's Favourite Book: Only the Paranoid Survive

In this episode we discuss the 25th anniversary of the first DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) and why this cybersecurity threat is a tricky one to solve.  00:00 to 2:00 Intro to Pankaj Gupta (@PankajOnCloud,CITRIX) Pankaj leads product and solutions marketing and go to market strategy for cloud, application delivery and security solutions at Citrix. He advises CIOs and business leaders for technology and business model transitions. In prior roles at Cisco, he led networking, cybersecurity and software solution marketing. 2:20 The 25th anniversary of the first Denial of Service attack against Panix, an Internet Service Provider (1996) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial-of-service_attack#Distributed_attack) 25 years later, the largest DDoS attack ever recorded targeted  Russian ISP Yandex (https://www.cpomagazine.com/cyber-security/russian-internet-giant-yandex-wards-off-the-largest-botnet-ddos-attack-in-history/). Pankaj notes how this was exactly 25 years later to the month. 3:15 What is a DDoS Attack? 1) Connection overload 2) Volumetric like ICMP flood 3) Application Layer  5:20 Coinminer as an example of Denial of Service when CPU is exhausted 6:00 Why are we still talking about DDoS 25 years later? Pankaj states that they are now easier than ever to perform.  7:00 Larry asks about the connection between ransomware and DDoS 9:00 Pankaj describes how the motivation for DDoS has shifted from hacktivism to financial motivation  9:30 Joe asks how much it costs for an attacker to operate  10:00 Pankaj explains that unskilled attackers with access to the Dark web can orchestrate attacks 11:45 Joe discusses how many attackers target healthcare despite how this hurts people 12:45 Pankaj discusses that while federal laws exist, very few are prosecuted for DDoS attacks. 13:50 Larry asks whether businesses are paying the ransom  14:15 Pankaj says paying the ransom is never recommended. Instead, Pankaj recommends investing in DDoS protection solutions 15:25 Joe asks whether tools exist to quantify costs for downtime to justify the expense of DDoS prevention solutions.  16:30 Pankaj explains how it is not just the economic impact of downtime that is to be factored into the equation but also the damage to reputation by losing customer's trust.  17:30 Pankaj describes three trends that will cause DDoS attacks to increase in the future (things will get worse rather than better). This is due to increased bandwidth for 5G, exponential growth of IoT devices, and the improved computation power.  18:30 What is IoT? (Internet of Things). This is any device that has an internet connection such as a Nanny Camera, home router, or NEST Thermostat. Bad actors exploits vulnerabilities to transform these devices into a “BOT Network” that the attackers can then use in mass quantity against a single target. This forms the source for the DDoS attacks. All of these devices combined will send packets to the victim website.  20:50 What solutions exist for DDoS? Joe explains how he has solved DDoS historically using services from CloudFlare.  22:00 Joe explains how he configured DDoS protection by configuring DNS, and the weakness when attackers discover the direct IP using OSINT 23:15 Joe asks Pankaj how does Citrix compare with competitors  23:35 Pankaj describes four key criteria when selecting a DDoS solution. 1) The solution should protect against a variety of types of DDoS attacks 2) Can the solution scale? As DDoS attacks increase in size 20% Year over Year (it's expected to be 3 terabits). 3) The advantage of a cloud-based solution is that it can auto-scale in bandwidth whereas an on-premises DDoS solution cannot guard against bandwidth saturation.  25:50 Joe asks Pankaj if Citrix uses its own data centers (does it have exposures if data centers like Google, Amazon or Microsoft). Pankaj describes the Citrix solution as having the scale to handle 12 terabits of scrubbing across multiple points of presence (pop).  29:00 Pankaj describes two types of DDoS solutions, Always-ON, or On-Demand.  If you are an e-commerce website then Always-on may make more sense even though it costs more than on-demand because every minute that you cannot sell your products will lose money.  31:00 DDoS attacks can be a diversion tactic to distract IT and SECOPS teams so that the attackers can perform other types of attacks such as financial fraud (Wire Fraud, SWIFT, etc) 32:40 Larry asks: What is the difference between a buffer overflow and DDoS? Pankaj explains that a buffer overflow could be used as a type of DDoS since it could impact the availability of the service. 34:00 Joe describes how DDoS strikes at the heart of one of the three components of the CIA Triad “Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability.”  35:00 For businesses interested in learning more about Citrix solutions, Pankaj recommends using this contact form on the Citrix website: https://www.citrix.com/contact/form/inquiry/ 36:30 Joe asks what market is Citrix chasing: Small Business, Mid-Market or Enterprise? Pankaj responds that all businesses need DDoS protection, and how cloud-based solutions are easier to implement.   

(2:08) - President Biden and President Jinping will meet virtually later this year in what will be the first meeting between the two world leaders. Will this meeting help to cool tensions between the two powerful countries?(16:04) - Apple plans to have its car equipped with technology that will allow drivers to use their iPhone to control the air conditioning and the seats in the vehicle. (22:36) - Google has introduced new features for its smart Nest thermostat, specifically a feature that would allow people to curb fossil fuel emissions in their home. This leads into a spirited debate between the guys as to whether or not the Nest thermostat is worth owning, from both a safety standpoint and a privacy standpoint. (38:04) - Stack roulette.

Listen to a recap of the best deals and news from 9to5Toys each day at noon. 9to5Toys Daily is available on iTunes and Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or through our dedicated RSS feed. New episodes of 9to5Toys Daily are recorded every weekday. Subscribe to our podcast in iTunes/Apple Podcast or your favorite podcast player to guarantee new episodes are delivered as soon as they're available. Save $100 on AirPods Max and finally try out Apple's flagship ANC headphonesApple AirTags see rare discount down to $24 each when you buy fourSave up to 38% on Google Nest bundles: Nest Hub 2nd Gen, Nest Thermostat, more from $129 Host Blair Altland  Links: Subscribe to our YouTube channel!Follow us on Twitter!Like our Facebook page!Download the 9to5Toys app!Subscribe to our newsletter!

Smart home fatigue, untrustworthy thermostats, Alexa reads to kids The Smart Home Isn't Worth It IoT has a long ways to go to be trustworthy The Lenovo Smart Clock 2 gives Google Assistant a new look Google Will Warn Users When Search Results May Be Unreliable Google promises at least 5 years of support for Nest devices Amazon's latest Alexa trick is helping kids read Xbox Game Pass browser, iOS streaming arrives today Apple Gaming Controller Arrives in Unexpected Way Apple Watch International Collection bands show the love of country Portraits on watchOS 8 is a clever and delightful take on featuring photos with Apple Watch Apple execs address Apple Watch as the modern wallet Apple products to keep away from medical devices: Basically all of them Roundup: Here's everything new with Siri in iOS 15 Hunter Douglas PowerView shades review: The most luxe experience a HomeKit user could ask for Picks of the week Matthew: AirPods Max Mikah: eero Pro 6 Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Matthew Cassinelli Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/smart-tech-today Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Show notes and links for this episode are available at: https://twit.tv/shows/smart-tech-today/episodes/85

Smart home fatigue, untrustworthy thermostats, Alexa reads to kids The Smart Home Isn't Worth It IoT has a long ways to go to be trustworthy The Lenovo Smart Clock 2 gives Google Assistant a new look Google Will Warn Users When Search Results May Be Unreliable Google promises at least 5 years of support for Nest devices Amazon's latest Alexa trick is helping kids read Xbox Game Pass browser, iOS streaming arrives today Apple Gaming Controller Arrives in Unexpected Way Apple Watch International Collection bands show the love of country Portraits on watchOS 8 is a clever and delightful take on featuring photos with Apple Watch Apple execs address Apple Watch as the modern wallet Apple products to keep away from medical devices: Basically all of them Roundup: Here's everything new with Siri in iOS 15 Hunter Douglas PowerView shades review: The most luxe experience a HomeKit user could ask for Picks of the week Matthew: AirPods Max Mikah: eero Pro 6 Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Matthew Cassinelli Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/smart-tech-today Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Show notes and links for this episode are available at: https://twit.tv/shows/smart-tech-today/episodes/85

We are REC – a podcast series produced in partnership with Rappahannock Electric Cooperative. We recorded today's episode via Zoom with Casey Hollins, Director of Communications and Public Relations for Rappahannock Electric Cooperative to learn about smart thermostats. Casey explained that heating and cooling can equal half of a consumer's electric bill and that you can get the most impact for lowering those costs by programming your thermostat. She walked us through some things to consider when choosing a smart thermostat for your home and compared the two most popular options: Nest & ecobee. The Nest Learning Thermostat (or Nest Thermostat) is a smart thermostat developed by Nest Labs. It is an electronic, programmable, and self-learning Wi-Fi-enabled thermostat that optimizes heating and cooling of homes and businesses to conserve energy. The device is based on a machine learning algorithm: for the first weeks users have to regulate the thermostat in order to provide the reference data set. The thermostat can then learn people's schedule, at which temperature they are used to and when. Using built-in sensors and phones' locations, it can shift into energy saving mode when it realizes nobody is at home. ecobee created the world's first smart thermostat, the ecobee Smart, in 2008. The thermostats incorporate a touchscreen and work with up to 32 remote temperature/occupancy sensors which can adjust the temperature based on where you are. The ecobee4 and ecobee Smart Thermostat also include Amazon Alexa support. All thermostats since the ecobee3 allow the user to set different schedules each day for various activities (called comfort settings). By default these include home, away, and sleep. The remote temperature/occupancy sensors can engage a Smart Away mode if no movement is detected or a Follow Me mode to selectively control the thermostat based on where people are within the home. All remote sensors which are designated as "participating" in a comfort setting take the average of their temperatures and use that as the building's "overall" temperature. Additionally, users can set convenient reminders for HVAC maintenance, furnace filter replacement, or UV Lamp replacement, as well as alerts for high/low temperature and high/low humidity. To hear more podcasts in the We Are REC podcast series, click here: https://theriver953.com/wearerec/ REC provides electric service to over 170,000 connections in parts of 22 Virginia counties. With its general office in Fredericksburg, VA, the Cooperative operates and maintains more than 17,000 miles of power lines through its service area, which ranges from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the tidal waters of the Chesapeake Bay. For more information about REC, please visit www.myrec.coop. Follow REC on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

Geoff Thatcher is the CEO of Creative principals, providing creative leadership for brand experiences, museums, visitor centres and attractions. He is the author of the CEO's Time Machine and a TEDx Speaker. In this show, discover: The power of experience through story The correlation between stories and leadership What the CEO's Time Machine can do for you How note taking can lead to creating great stories Follow us and explore our social media tribe from our Website: https://leadership-hacker.com   Music: " Upbeat Party " by Scott Holmes courtesy of the Free Music Archive FMA   Transcript: Thanks to Jermaine Pinto at JRP Transcribing for being our Partner. Contact Jermaine via LinkedIn or via his site JRP Transcribing Services   Learn more about Geoff Thatcher here: Instagram: @geoffthatcher   Geoff on LinkedIn Twitter: @geoffthatcher The Book web site is www.ceotimemachine.com  Creative Principles: https://www.creativeprincipals.com   Full Podcast Transcript Below.   ----more----    Steve Rush: Some call me Steve, dad, husband or friend. Others might call me boss, coach or mentor. Today you can call me The Leadership Hacker.   Thanks for listening in. I really appreciate it. My job as the leadership hacker is to hack into the minds, experiences, habits and learning of great leaders, C-Suite executives, authors and development experts so that I can assist you developing your understanding and awareness of leadership. I am Steve Rush and I am your host today. I am the author of Leadership Cake. I am a transformation consultant and leadership coach. I cannot wait to start sharing all things leadership with you.   Today's special guest is Geoff Thatcher. He is an experienced creative director who excelled at leading projects from concept to reality. He is the CEO of Creative Principles and he is the author of The CEO's Time Machine. But before we get a chance to speak with Geoff, it is The Leadership Hacker News.   The Leadership Hacker News   Steve Rush: Ever wondered why you can get captivated listening to a leader who tells a great story? The history of storytelling dates back many thousands of years ago when we lived in caves where we used to use pigment to paint on our walls with our hands before we could speak. Then when we could start to communicate using our verbal communication; we used to create stories and myths while sitting around campfires in order to inspire people and let people know what was going on in our world. The ancient Greeks then carved their language into walls to tell how history was evolving for them. Generations and cultures grew and developed. Routines and rituals were turned into stories. Legends were created, and legacies were left behind for generations to pass on.   English writer and actor William Shakespeare wrote 37 plays in the 16th century. Shakespeare was a huge influence on storytelling because of his ability to really transform our language into stuff that we even use today. So how can stories help us as leaders? Well, storytelling is a key leadership technique because of its quick, powerful, energizing, and collaborative approach to persuading and entertaining people. It also helps us make an emotional connection. Yeah, of course, stories have to be authentic and make sense because if not, they become fables and folklore, then you also don't get buy in.   If through story you create that emotional connectivity, you will also create buy-in with your audience. So we may have replaced our medium of campfires with social media and high tech video conferencing, so the next time you are communicating a key message, think about how stories can bring it to life. There is an old Native American proverb I love and want to share with you: Tell me the facts and I will learn, tell me the truth and I will believe, but tell me a story and it will live in my heart forever. That has been our Leadership Hacker News. If you have any insights, information or stuff that, you would just like our listeners to hear, get in touch with us.   Start of Podcast   Steve Rush: I am joined on today show by Geoff Thatcher. Geoff is the founder and CEO of Creative Principles. He is a TEDx speaker and the author of The CEO's Time Machine. Geoff, welcome to the show.   Geoff Thatcher: Thank you, Steve.   Steve Rush: Our pleasure indeed.   Geoff Thatcher: It is great to be here.   Steve Rush: So before we get into the concept of The CEO's Time Machine and some of the work you do at the moment with Creative Principles, tell us a little bit about your journey into becoming a CEO yourself?   Geoff Thatcher: Well, I have been very lucky to have basically grown up in the industry that I still work in, so I started as a 14 year old clean-up boy, and that was the actual title of the job. I was a clean-up boy at an amusement park.   Steve Rush: Right.   Geoff Thatcher: And worked all my way through high school and college, and then after a brief flirtation with journalism have been back working in theme parks, museums, visitor's centres, brand experiences, and experiences for a long time. It is very rewarding to have been basically working in the same industry since I was 14. I just love the fact that what was part of my childhood is also part of my career now as a 52-year-old guy.   Steve Rush: So what has been the draw to theme parks and the world of themes and entertainment for you? What has been the draw?   Geoff Thatcher: That is a really good question and you know, on the surface of it is that it is fun and you bring smiles to people and it's about creating experiences. On a deeper level though. It is really about storytelling. Now, when I was, you know…train engineer at an amusement park. You know choo-choo, try having a steam engine around a Lake and, you know, looking at zoo animals. I did not think much about story, but you know, after college and you know, studying journalism and actually working as a reporter and then coming back into this industry. You really begin to realize that the best experiences, the ones that are most memorable are those experiences that are based upon a powerful story. So Steve you're in the UK and we certainly have a great love for Harry Potter here in the United States, and so when you go to Universal Studios and you immerse yourself at Hogwarts and that wonderful story. It really is quite a memorable experience, and so that is to me, what is most precious is, I love telling stories.   Steve Rush: Telling stories, not just through the written word, but through the experiences that you now create on behalf of the organization you lead. So tell us a little bit about Creative Principles, and what it is you do right now?   Geoff Thatcher: Well, that is right. I mean, if you are going to tell a story and an experience, the first thing you have to do is actually write that story. And so what we do at creative principles is we are, as the name would imply creative leaders and we work on high level creative concepts for theme parks and museums and visitor centres and corporate brand experiences. And so we started the company about three years ago. I mean, obviously I have been doing this my whole career, but three years ago, went out on our own and started the company. And since then we've worked on everything from the grand opening of Warner Bros World Abu Dhabi, which was just fantastic to work with those amazing brands. I mean, you have Batman and the joker and, you know, bugs bunny and, you know, the Flintstones. To an amazing corporate brand experience in Singapore and in Boston of all things and insurance company, FM Global. But they had a great story to tell and, you know, don't have to get into the details, of what story an insurance company might have to tell, but needless to say. We all have, I think appreciated the value of insurance here, as we faced a pandemic and other challenges before us. It is nice to have a little bit of ability to be resilient, and so the company that we work for in creating these experiences, FM Global, their motto. Their tagline is resilience and the power of resilience, and so it is important, especially in challenging times that; we learn how to be resilient.   Steve Rush: Story telling as a principle is not new of course; when we were living in caves 50,000 years ago, it was the only way that we were able to really communicate and that's where storytelling kind of got its early grounding if you like. In gathering insights, and gathering people and gathering audiences, what do you notice is the direct correlation between storytelling and the leaders that you have worked with when you are creating those things experiences?   Geoff Thatcher: Well, the best leaders tell great stories and they tell those great stories over and over and over again. I am sure if we were to talk about our childhoods we would be able to talk about those stories that our parents told us over and over and over again, to the point where you almost begin to roll your eyes and go, oh, not that story again, please no. But that's actually a good thing. I mean, if you are in the workplace and you are the CEO and if your employees start to roll their eyes and go, please don't tell us the story about note taking again. Well, maybe you are actually starting to make a difference in getting that story ingrained into the culture of your company. So I would always encourage CEOs to tell stories and tell the same story and tell it over and over again, because those stories become part of your culture and part of who you are.   Steve Rush: I observe that too when I particularly coach leaders. I make a direct correlation with those who are more effective in terms of engagement, by their ability to tell better stories than those who are aren't. Would you noticed that too?   Geoff Thatcher: Absolutely, I mean the challenge, I think sometimes with leaders is almost all of us can tell a great story, but can you tell a great story that makes a point? I mean, for example, you know. I talk about how I got my job in the first place as a 14 year old, I wanted to work at this amusement park and I wanted what I thought to be the best job at this amusement park, which was working in their swimming pool, which we didn't have water parks back then. It was a big, you know, million gallon swimming pool with diving boards and, you know old water slides, which are much different than today's water slides. But I wanted, what I thought was the best job. I did not want to work, you know, in food service; I did not want to take tickets. I wanted to work at the swimming pool as a clean-up boy, because I knew that would lead to the being a lifeguard, which is kind of a sexy job. And you know, that would lead to other opportunities, and so the way I got that job was politely bugging the manager, the swim pole for three weeks straight, almost single day. I would find that manager walking around the swimming pool because I was a regular; I had been a regular at that pool since I was five years old and I would just simply, you know, smile and ask her, you know, hey, I applied for the position. Is anything available? You know, hey, have you heard anything? Hey, have you checked with your manager? Hey, is there a chance for me to have a job? I mean, I always did it with a smile, but I politely bugged her.   And after about three weeks, she finally said, well, no, there's still not a position open, but fine. Why don't you come in and we will get you on staff. And you know, you may not work for many hours, but you're hired, and that I think is an important lesson that any leader could teach their employees is you need to politely bug people. If you want to get stuff done, whether you are in sales or in management, or leadership or human resources or anything else. Politely bugging gets results, and so I tell that story all the time. I have told that story to my kids so many times they are probably sick of it, but it is important to teach those lessons. And too many leaders not only are afraid to tell stories because it makes them vulnerable, but they're afraid to tell stories that make a powerful point.   Steve Rush: And a powerful point hits that emotional connection, which creates an action shift in people, doesn't it?   Geoff Thatcher: Absolutely.   Steve Rush: So, as you were growing through your leadership career, Geoff. Where did you take your leadership inspiration from or who even?   Geoff Thatcher: Well, I have been fortunate in my career to have both really good leaders and really bad leaders. And so we can learn from both, you know, I remember being a very young leader, so I was 17 years old and I got a job as an area supervisor at Lagoon Amusement Park and went through a management training course as a 17 year old. And so you can learn so much by taking those courses. I remember this is going to really date me. I remember going to a, you know, the Franklin Planner, you know, the old Franklin Planner. I think they are still around. Right, and I went to a Franklin Planner, you know, time management seminar as like a 19 year old. And it was fascinating to experience that but if I were to probably pick one leader. His name would be Boyd Clark and he was the CEO of the Tom Peters Company. And if you're in leadership or, you know, business gurus, you know who Tom Peters is.   Steve Rush: Sure, Yeah. He is a guru in learning and development for sure.   Geoff Thatcher: Oh, absolutely. I mean wrote In Search of Excellence in the eighties, which was like the big, big, big management, you know, business book of that era and still speaks today. I, I believe, but Boyd was the CEO of the Tom Peters company. He was in leadership training and development and, you know, Boyd taught me so many lessons and he was kind and just a really, really great guy. And unfortunately Boyd died of cancer, but you know, he was really a mentor to me and I remember there was just so many little things he taught you along the way. And I remember one of my favourite lessons was. We were having a meeting and the company was, you know, debating its future. And there were several leaders in the company that wanted it to shift from being a training and leadership Development Company to a Consulting Company.   And Boyd patiently listened to the different leaders in the company debate and argue whether it should be a consulting company or a training and development company, and then finally he stood up at the end and he asked a question of the people that were arguing at for it to be a consulting company. And he said, how much do we charge for a day of consulting? And they said $2,500 a day. He goes, that is our day rate for day of consulting is $2,500, and then he turned to the people arguing for the leadership side, and he said. How much do we charge for a day of leadership training and development? And at the time they said $9,500 and he goes $9,500, and then he looked around the room and he said, we're a training and development company! And then sat down. Everybody got the message, you know. Yes, you know, consulting is nice, but when it comes time to supporting the company and being a business that it is about making money.   Steve Rush: Lots of organizations make the mistake of trying to become too diverse or to pivot away from their core proposition and in doing so often and lose that key focus that they were so successful in building their business with.   Geoff Thatcher: Yeah, it is funny, isn't it? You know, I have had other experiences where I just don't understand why a company's changed when they don't need to change. I mean, there is so many examples. You know, it is really interesting, you know, look at history and, you know, certainly when we talk about The CEO's Time Machine and the book part of that is traveling back in time. There is so many examples of companies who did not change when they needed to and also examples of companies that changed when there was no reason to.   Steve Rush: And there is no right or wrong answer is there? I think it is very much around timing and opportunity. And if you think about some of the evolution and innovation that we experienced today, that is because somebody said, “let's do this and let's be creative and let's do these left of field things that we never even envisaged before”. And sometimes that creative thinking can create the motivation and indeed the business opportunity that follows.   Geoff Thatcher: What you should never ever stop creating and I mean, since Steve you're in the UK and I love my history, one of my favourite examples in history of somebody simply trying to do something new, but it leading to something far beyond his imaginations is Abraham Darby and the invention of the Blast Furnace. Now the Blast Furnace really ushered in the industrial revolution, which has changed the world in so many ways. And you would think, Oh wow, Abraham Darby, I can't, you know. You must have had this amazing vision for the future of the world, with the industrial revolution and creating the blast furnace. But it was actually just a guy trying to figure out a better way to make an iron pot, that is it.   Steve Rush: Yep.   Geoff Thatcher: He was trying to make a cheap iron pot. That is such a simple ambition and yet in trying to achieve that very simple ambition, he ended up changing the world. And so, you know, no matter what business you're in, I hope you're trying to improve what you're doing because through those incremental improvements, you may just stumble upon something that will transform the world.   Steve Rush: I love that principle of just letting creativity take over and see what happens also.   Geoff Thatcher: Yeah, I mean, it is really true. I mean, we did, this was a long time ago, but we did at the 150th anniversary of the Smithsonian, which is a big museum complex, if you will. In the United States, in DC. At the a hundred 50th anniversary of the Smithsonian. They took all of their artefacts on tour and Intel was a sponsor, and so we created a theatre an immersive experiential theatre for Intel and it was called more than you ever imagined theatre. That was the name of the theatre, more than you ever imagined. And the whole point of it was throughout time. All great inventors, never truly realized what people would do with their invention and Intel of course, was talking about the, you know, the chip and, you know, the semiconductor and that people are doing way more than the inventors of the semiconductor ever thought possible. And it was the same was true with Gutenberg, Edison, Ford, Darby, all great inventors, never truly understood the amazing things people would do with their inventions.   Steve Rush: Right, and therefore it is imperative, isn't it? That we are also scanning for new ideation because whilst somebody else might have the idea, I might be able to evolve it.   Geoff Thatcher: Exactly and can I just say for a moment that I love talking to someone from the UK, because you say whilst, and I've never been able to do it and do it properly. It is all, you know, it is always, wow. While we do this, while we do that, but it is whilst, and it just, I can't even say it right.   Steve Rush: It is a really Interesting word that I forgot I use because while I was writing my book, my editor who was American, used to say Steve, you've got to stop saying whilst, please, can you say, while. Cause nobody in America will understand what you mean, anyway.   Geoff Thatcher: He should have let you be English, right? I mean, you did invent the language for goodness sakes.   Steve Rush: Well, apparently so, so Geoff, it is no surprise that being creative director will really immerse you into the mind-set of storytelling and thinking about stuff differently. And the book, The CEO's Time Machine was one that you evolved over a period of time. Right? Tell us a little bit about that.   Geoff Thatcher: I actually wrote the book in 2016 when I was traveling back and forth between Cincinnati, Ohio and Riyadh Saudi Arabia. And we were working on a traveling exhibition for the King Abdullah foundation and King Abdulla had just died and his foundation, which is basically his family had really wanted to kind of honour his legacy. And I don't want to get into geopolitics, Steve, but there's no doubt that a lot of the changes that you're seeing in Saudi Arabia, a lot of the reforms, and it has changed so much since 2016 when I first started working over there. But those changes are doing large part to the fact that King Abdullah introduced a scholarship program that sent hundreds of thousands of students to the United Kingdom, to Canada, to the United States, to France and other countries to get an education, to get a college degree.   And then they came home and they want to change and the crown Prince is simply responding to the demands of his people for that change, and so that's exciting and when we were working on this traveling exhibition, I started thinking about time travel. And I was talking to Bruce Weindruch from the history factory who were working with on the project. And he had this philosophy and this book called Start With the Future and Work Back, which is that we all need to start with the future. Where do we want to go? But we need to look back in our own life and our own company's history and the own history of our country at those milestones to help us get to where we need to be. As I was thinking about all of these things, I started thinking about; wouldn't it be interesting if there was a CEO who had a time machine?   So we wrote a book about a kind of Elon Musk, Steve jobs type of CEO, who is always inventing the future, creating new markets. And the rumour is, is that he has a time machine in his secret R&D garage as if he's like Tony stark, right, with his secret, you know, R&D lab in the basement of his house. But this time it's a garage behind his company headquarters, and he's turning over the reins of his company to a much younger protégé. And the last thing he has to do before he turns things over and leaves the company is to introduce her to his time machine and that's what the book is about.   Steve Rush: And it is a neat, really neat idea, but the whole philosophy of being innovative and forward thinking versus looking back, splits the camps and somewhat, doesn't it? Speak about innovation, lots of people I speak to say yeah, yeah - we just need to leave the past behind and head into the future versus learn from the past and head into the future. Where do you sit with that?   Geoff Thatcher: I think that too many leaders today are focused on so much on the future as they should be, but they're focused so much on the future that they abandoned their own past. And they forget that there are amazing things that they can learn from their past. One of the examples that I give and certainly they were a client and while I was not involved in industrial designers and like that. I do know that, you know, when I worked for Honeywell, they were passionate about only really caring about the future. You know, they really did not want to talk about the past at all and then I find it ironic then. That in this obsession for the future, they missed one of the greatest inventions of the last decade, which was the Nest Thermostat. And it's hard not to argue that the Nest Thermostat wasn't based upon a very simple, innovative design that Honeywell innovated, which is the Circular Thermostat. It was the Honeywell classic, iconic, Circular Thermostat is an iconic classic design. And I think in the obsession to focus on the future, they miss that inspiration. They missed that connection to their past that could have truly brought them forward into a new future, and instead Nest saw that Circular Thermostat for what it was, which is an incredible innovation that should be repurposed and redesigned for digital age.   Steve Rush: Part of the story that you tell through The CEO's Time Machine is where your CEO is handing over the reins to the protégé. They have a walk through the garage and there is this range of seamlessly useless kit and Nintendo's and other artefacts that this individual CEO has collected over time. But there's a story behind each of those that sets out these principles for some leadership behaviours. Just tell us a little bit about a few of those?   Geoff Thatcher: Sure, one of the cool things I think about the book is it's written like a theme park attraction. And that's what we do at my company is I'm an experienced designer. And so in the queue, if you will, in that windy path, that leads from the entrance of the garage to the time machine itself. The CEO has collected a bunch of artefacts and these artefacts are all about important lessons that we can learn in business. So for example, you know, he keeps a spark plug of a Delco spark plug, and you are like, why, why on earth would you want to keep a Delco spark plug? But the Delco spark plug is there because it reminds him of Charles Kettering invention of the electric starter, which changed automobile history forever and introduced and made the automobiles safer, not just men to drive, but really safe women to drive because they don't even have to crank the car to start it up.   And so that was an incredible adventure and it was invented right in Dayton, Ohio. And then of course at the same time, Charles Kettering was inventing the electric starter. You had the Wright brothers and keeps some artefacts and some books of the Wright brothers on hand as well, because there is one lesson you can learn from the Wright brothers is that you should always focus on innovation rather than litigation. They spent so much time suing people over patent infringement that they have failed and missed this amazing, you know, window to invent the future of aviation. And they seeded their leadership position to, you know, Lockheed and Northrop and Martin and others that we still see in Boeing, if you will. And others that we still see you know, leading the industry today and it's really, really sad. And so one thing that I think a lot of companies miss when they look at their own history is they focus on important milestones.   Like we introduced the new, you know, XY-5000 model, and who cares? what you need to focus on is lessons that were learned and why those lessons are important for us today and sometimes that's very hard to curate and very hard to figure out, but, you know, it's fascinating to me that, you know, here you had in Dayton Ohio. National cash register, which became NCR, you had AC Delco, which was purchased and really became the R&D lab for General Motors, and the Wright Brothers, here you had this amazing innovation happening at Dayton Ohio at the turn of the 19th into the 20th century. And there are so many lessons to be learned, including why they didn't maintain that leadership position. There is a reason why Silicon Valley is not in Dayton, Ohio today and yet it was in 1910.   Steve Rush: And those stories that you talked about before. Is a way to bring those lessons to life, isn't it?   Geoff Thatcher: Absolutely, and if you don't know your Genesis story of your company and how you came to be. It is very important that those stories be curated and those stories be told. So everyone in the company understands those important lessons that they can take away from things. I mean, this pandemic introduced, I think, an important lesson for my career, if you will and my little company. In our life, which is, you know, when that pandemic hit like everybody else, we looked around and we were like, oh crap. I mean, we had project after project going on hold. It is impossible to do business development in March and April is people are dying and, you know, the sickness is spreading. I mean, what are you going to do? And I turned to Zoey, who's our designer and also happens to be my daughter. And I said, you know that book, we've been talking about? That book that we have been toying around with, I said, let's do it and we just had this intense desire to get it done, and so, while I had written the story in 2016, it just sat on a shelf. So Zoey cranked out 43 illustrations in three weeks, we called a publisher. We called a copy editor. We called the graphic designer and we were able to get the book published and on Amazon in less than five weeks.   Steve Rush: Wow.   Geoff Thatcher: And it was a rewarding time to pivot and everybody is pivoting right now because of the pandemic. And I guess one of the lessons we all need to learn from this is, you know, maybe next time we shouldn't wait for there to be a pandemic before we pivot. Maybe we should, instead of treating projects in their spare time, we should actually, you know. Slot them into the project line-up. There is a guy named Jim Coudal in Chicago, who's a designer. And he likes to say, you know, the problem with doing project in your spare time is there's never any spare time. And so his philosophy was always. If they had a cool idea, they would just treat it like a regular client. And they would give it a job number and they would just slot it into their schedule and get it done and I think, you know, one lesson I hope all of us can learn from this pandemic is we shouldn't wait for the next pandemic to pivot.   Steve Rush: This is super, yeah.   Geoff Thatcher: We should constantly be looking for ways to pivot.   Steve Rush: Ah, wholly agree with that. Whole principle of strategic thinking is just that it is the stories we need to tell ourselves for the future. “What if”, scenarios, aren't they? The wildcards?   Geoff Thatcher: Absolutely. Absolutely.   Steve Rush: What lessons are you hoping for that folks are going to take from the book Geoff?   Geoff Thatcher: Well, more than anything else, you know, I hope people really take the story to heart. And I hope at the end of the day, they care more about the history of their own company. At the end of the day. I hope they care more about the future of their company and they realize that no matter whether you travel back in time or travel to the future, you still have to be decisive in the moment. I mean you and I could travel back in time and talk to Abraham Darby and we could probably learn a lot of interesting things about the birthplace of the industrial revolution and lessons he learned in inventing the Blast Furnace, but we still have to come back to this moment in time. We still have to come back to the present and make a decision. I mean, if you and I were to go back to 1919 and talk to people about the Spanish flu, we could learn a lot, but we would still have to come back to 2020 and we would have to make a decision.   Steve Rush: Right.   Geoff Thatcher: And so that's, that is what I hope people take from this book is connecting the past to the future by being decisive today.   Steve Rush: Really great principles and thank you for sharing them as well, Geoff, by the way.   Geoff Thatcher: Hey, anytime, thank you for having me.   Steve Rush: Leadership is what you do as well as what you inspire. So this is part of the show where we turn that leadership lens on you and I hack into your leadership mind, and we're going to explore a couple of things. First thing we want to explore with you is. What your top leadership hacks or ideas would be that you would share with our listeners?   Geoff Thatcher: Number one is to write, we have forgotten the importance of writing because most leaders don't require their people to write for them because they're too busy and don't want to read. And so if you are a leader, make sure that you tell your people that you would like to read what they write and then take that extra time to read what they put together. And the reason why that's important is because you can't get to the depth of thought by simply talking about it and putting together a few PowerPoint slides. You miss the connective tissue between bullet points. If you don't actually take the time to write. And so if you're a young person in an organization, even if your boss won't read what you write, that doesn't mean you shouldn't write because your presentations, your PowerPoints, your proposals will have more depth of thought and more logic and more meaning. If you take the time to write, so number one, I would say, don't forget to read and write, which sounds very remedial and basic, but based on my experience, it's woefully missing in many, many organizations today.   Steve Rush: Right?   Geoff Thatcher: It is just so much easier.   Steve Rush: It is often the context that is missing in the communication as well, isn't it? Geoff Thatcher: Right, I mean, I was just working on a project where all they wanted to do was sit around the table and talk about it and talk about it and talk about it and talk about it. And, you know, at some point one smart person has to go away and write about it. So sure, talk about it, but it realized that at some point, you know, somebody actually has to go away and create a narrative. I can tell you from experience. I know what it is like, and I am sure, you know, it is like Steve. You wrote a book to be sitting there and you have this idea in your head of where you want the chapter to go, but as you are writing it, you realize that does not make any sense. That is not going to work. Well, I thought it was going to work. I had it in my head. I talked about it with my colleagues. Why isn't it working? Well because you are actually having to sit down and do it. You are actually having to sit down and write, and so, you know, someone might have an amazing business plan, but if you don't sit down and write it out, you're never going to know if it actually makes sense. So that is my number one leadership hack is to write.   My number two, leadership hack is to take great notes. If you know anything about The CEO's Time Machine. The book that I wrote, you know, that note taking is also a very important part of that, of that story. And note taking to me is perceived by most young people as being remedial. And we need to change and shift perception about note taking because the people that take really, really, really good notes, what they're actually doing is managing the intellectual of their company. And so that's a kind of job that you should have, and if you establish yourself as being somebody who can really manage intellectual property and take amazing notes, you'll be invited to the most important meetings. If you are a 24-year-old young person in an organization. That is where you want to be is in those important meetings, managing that intellectual property.   And I guess the third leadership hack I would say is manage expectations. There are so many unrealistic expectations in the workplace today, and we need to constantly manage those expectations, whether its things like how to deliver ideas. People think sometimes that there is coming up with great ideas is just all fun and games, and it is not. There can be serious arguments, and debate and clashes of opinions, so you need to match expectations. And I just think there's too many people today that have unrealistic expectations about the workplace. Whether it is about how much money they should make. About the relationships, they should have in the workplace. About the loyalty that accompany should or should not have. If you don't manage those expectations, you're going to have employees who are constantly disappointed because their unrealistic expectations are not being met.   Steve Rush: And ironically managing expectations comes from telling great stories as well.   Geoff Thatcher: It does.   Steve Rush: Yeah.   Geoff Thatcher: It does, I mean, you know. One of the stories I tell when it comes to managing expectations is I talk about a colleague of mine named Todd Hall. And Todd and I after a very long day in Dubai, came back to the hotel and we were standing in the lobby and he looked at me and he said, I don't want to have dinner with you. And I looked back at him and I said, I don't want to have dinner with you either, and he looked at me and he said, good night. And I said, good night, and we turned and walked away. And people like, what, how rude. Our point is this; Todd Hall is not my friend. Todd Hall is an amazing colleague, a talented man. I love working with him, but Todd Hall is not my friend. I have never done anything socially with him. I have never hung out with he and his wife. I don't want to hang out with he and his wife and that's okay.   He is a colleague. We have mutual interests. We want to make sure that both of us do a really good job and make each other look really good, but we do not have to be friends, and so too many people come into the workplace and they think they have to be best friends with everybody on the job and that's just not true. That is what I mean by managing expectations.   Steve Rush: Super wise words Geoff. Thank you.   Geoff Thatcher: I am really a nice guy though, by the way, I believe in being friendly, to be clear. You should be friendly, but you don't have to be friends.   Steve Rush: Yeah, I get that, so we want to explore with you now. What we affectionately call Hack to Attack, and this is a time in your work or your life where something hasn't worked out as you were intending it to. So maybe it is not worked out well, or indeed, we have screwed up, but we have now used that experience and we learned from it and we use it as a lesson in our life now. What would be your Hack to Attack?   Geoff Thatcher: Well, I got fired twice. Both times, it was initially quite devastating but in the end, it was the best thing that ever happened to me, both times. And so I would say that if you haven't had a bad experience, whether it be being fired or getting yelled at or you know having a big disappointment at work. That you are probably just not trying hard enough, so learn from your mistakes, but don't be afraid of making mistakes. I am really, really glad I got fired. So don't fret about those types of things, because it'll be all right,   Steve Rush: And lessons can be learned from each of those experiences as well. Right?   Geoff Thatcher: Absolutely.   Steve Rush: So now as the author of The CEO's Time Machine, I'm going to get you to do some time travel. And I'm going to ask you to travel back in your time machine and bump into Geoff at 21, and you have an opportunity to tell him a story and give him some advice. What would it be?   Geoff Thatcher: 21, so when I was 21 years old, I was a missionary for my church. Full time volunteer missionary for my church in rural Kentucky called Paris Kentucky. It was towards the end of my six months there and I was getting my haircut from a local man who was also a member of our church. And he was talking to me and asking me questions just about my life and my family and in the course of that discussion, it came out that I have a black brother, a black sister, three Korean sisters. I come from a multiracial family, adopted. I have five biological siblings and five adopted siblings and he stopped cutting my hair. And he said, well that explains it. And I said, what do you mean? And he goes, now I know why the Lord sent you here, and I said, what do you mean?   And he said, the Lord sent you here because we needed you to help change us. And I looked at him a little surprised, and it is true. When we first came to that congregation as young 21-year-old missionaries that was a white congregation. There was not really any black members, or there wasn't any racial diversity in the congregation. We worked really hard in the African American community there in Paris, Kentucky and we baptized and brought in several members of the church from the African American community, and didn't really think anything about it. I mean, I was a kid, I just did not think at all about it at all. But this barber just was very blunt with me and he said, you know, he goes, really appreciate what you've done because you're changing us and I was still kind of a young idiot.   I said, what do you mean? And he said, well, kind of looked at me very nonchalant. And he's like, well, I'm racist and you've helped us to see we should change. And what's ironic about this whole story is that in the end, this barber became best friends with Mama Cosette, who was the matriarch of one of the families that we brought into the church. And they're still friends to this day. I saw them several years ago and saw Mama Cosette and she and his barber are still very close. So I guess what I would say to my 21 year old self is not anything that I would say. I think I would want my 21-year-old self to say back to me. To look at the challenges we face today with the innocence of a young person. Because honestly, when we went into that town, I did not even notice that there was a black section of town and a white section of town.   You know what I mean? We just started teaching people and just starting to serve and to help people. I think a beauty in not seeing colour, there is a beauty and not seeing race and there is a beauty in doing what Martin Luther King said is to, judge people by the content of their character instead of the colour of their skin. And so I think it would actually be me today as a 52 year old man learning something from my 21 year old self, rather than me trying to teach my 21 year old self  anything. Because that was a powerful experience for me to have this barber talk about the power of change and his self-awareness and understanding his own personal history and the way he was raised and knowing that he needed to change and then the love that allowed him to change. Cause Mama Cosette loved him and he ended up loving her right back, so that is probably what I would learn more than anything else.   Steve Rush: Really profound story and parents can learn as much from their kids. Right?   Geoff Thatcher: Absolutely and in fact, the reality is if you are a leader in an organization today and you want to travel to the future, all you have to do is walk down the hallway and talk to a 21-year-old working in your company because they are the future of your company. We can learn a lot from our younger selves.   Steve Rush: Super words. Thank you, Geoff. So as folks are listening to this. They are probably thinking, how can I get a hold a copy of The CEO's Time Machine, but more importantly, how can they find out a little bit more about the work that you do? Where would you like them to go?   Geoff Thatcher: Probably the easiest way to find us as ceotimemachine.com that is ceotimemachine.com but sorry, just a little joke with the advertising voice there. Of course, you can Google us you know, Geoff Thatcher, you know, on LinkedIn. Creative Principles has a website, our company, but probably the quickest and easiest way is just to go to ceotimemachine.com and the book is for sale on Amazon and everywhere else. Steve Rush: Also, make sure we put the details of the book and indeed your LinkedIn profile and websites in the show notes too.   Geoff Thatcher: Thank you so much.   Steve Rush: Geoff it just goes for me to say I have had a real ball listening to the stories and the anecdotes you shared, and it has been a real pleasure in listening to some of those stories with you. And I just wanted to say on behalf of our listeners, thanks for being on The Leadership Hacker Podcast.   Geoff Thatcher: Thanks for listening to my stories. I appreciate it.   Closing   Steve Rush: I genuinely want to say heartfelt thanks for taking time out of your day to listen in too. We do this in the service of helping others, and spreading the word of leadership. Without you listening in, there would be no show. So please subscribe now if you have not done so already. Share this podcast with your communities, network, and help us develop a community and a tribe of leadership hackers.   Finally, if you would like me to work with your senior team, your leadership community, keynote an event, or you would like to sponsor an episode. Please connect with us, by our social media. And you can do that by following and liking our pages on Twitter and Facebook our handler their @leadershiphacker. Instagram you can find us there @the_leadership_hacker and at YouTube, we are just Leadership Hacker, so that is me signing off. I am Steve Rush and I have been the leadership hacker    

Show DescriptionOn this episode of the iACast, Aleeha, Jason, Michael, and Sarah discuss the Google IO Event.News U.S. Supreme Court rules that the lawsuit regarding the app store can proceed. The lawsuit claims that Apple has a monopoly and their 30% commission is inflating prices.Google pulls the Android License for Huawei!Google responded to concerns, although some news sources report that this is not a surprise. However, consumers who have Huawei devices should not fear being able to update their security due to an extension by Google of the Android License. This 90-day extension comes after the U.S. relaxed some trade restrictions.Google IO You may not be able to control your Nest Thermostat with your Echo. Google has rebranded the Home Hub as the Nest Hub, and there are concerns as to how this integration and brand will allow consumers to use their Alexa enabled devices to control current Nest gadgets.Duplex is expanding to the web.In Assistant news, you are now able to simply say “Stop” for an alarm or timer rather than “Hey Google, Stop”.PicksSarah: iHeart Radio skill for Alexa as well as Google devices.Jason: Netflix.Aleeha: Anker Lightning to USBC Dongle.Michael: The Secure Shelfish AppProviding FeedbackWe love hearing from you, so feel free to send an email to feedback@iaccessibility.net. You can follow us on Facebook, and Twitter. You can also find us on Reddit, and all around the web. Also, don't forget to check out our YouTube page, and for all things iACast, check out our iACast page. If you'd like to help support us, you can do so via our Paypal and Patreon pages. If you wish to interact with us during our podcasts live then please do join us on our Slack channel.

I got a Nest Thermostat over the weekend. It's my first foray into smart thermostats and my initial impressions are really positive.

Jason Jaynes: @jasoncjaynes Jeff Wilson: @ProfDumpster Show Notes: 00:53 - “Professor Dumpster” and Founding Kasita 05:33 - The Startup Industry 07:45 - Building the Kasita Team and Creating the Design 12:25 - Integrating Devices 16:33 - Challenges of Building These Ecosystems 24:36 - Controlling the Ecosystem: Will there be third-party developers and applications? 30:16 - Device Cohesion and User Experience 33:23 - Privacy Resources: Data for the People: How to Make Our Post-Privacy Economy Work for You by Andreas Weigend Kasita is hiring! Transcript: CHARLES: Hello, everybody and welcome to The Frontside Podcast, Episode 78. My name is Charles Lowell, a developer here at The Frontside and your podcast host-in-training. With me today are Jeff and Jason from Kasita. Now, Kasita is one of the most exciting products that I think we've gotten to work on here at Frontside in the last five years. We're going to be just talking about it because, I think it touches on a lot of the aspects of what makes software development and startups and just the emerging economy exciting. I'm really thankful that we get to have you all on the podcast. Welcome Jeff and welcome Jason. JEFF: Thanks for having us. JASON: Excited to be here. Thanks, Charles. CHARLES: Now Jeff, you are the founder of Kasita, the CEO and I believe your official title over there is 'Professor Dumpster.' Maybe you could actually unpack for us a little bit of what does that title mean? How did Kasita come about and what is it today? JEFF: A couple of years ago, I did a radical, social experiment around housing. I went and sold everything I own for a dollar an item out of a 3000-square foot house and moved into a 33-square foot used trash dumpster for a year. The idea of that project was to live in 1% the size of an average American home and try to use 1% the energy and water of the average American home. The project took a little bit of a twist, you might say and about part way through it when the dumpster started getting tricked out, I started thinking about the whole nature of housing and how we need to do something different and how that grand future probably would not be a gated community of dumpsters. CHARLES: Now, I assume you cleaned out the dumpster before you actually went to live in it. JEFF: Yeah, it was a fixer-upper. We give it a bit of a scrub and did some testing to make sure there wasn't anything nasty left in there. That went for about a year and a couple of months after that, I actually first set down with Jason because he was the only person that I knew in the entire startup scene, in the entire world. He said, "Wilson, you had some crazy ass ideas like this dumpster thing you told me about. This one might actually work, this Kasita thing." Here we are today, we're working together. CHARLES: Wow. This was something you just did on a lark. You didn't have the idea of starting this business but it was actually through the process of actually living in this dumpster for a year that the idea emerged or was there a master plan going in? JEFF: I don't know, Jason do you remember any kind of master plan when I first told you about the dumpster? JASON: No. When we first met to talk about the dumpster, it was an early morning, I believe in 2010 or 2011 and you're incubating the idea. At that point in time, there was nothing on your mind or you aren't looking towards the future of housing at all. You were just trying to figure out how you were going to move into a dumpster and people thought you would be crazy. Of course, I've validate it and I thought people would think you would be crazy. CHARLES: That is a pretty radical idea, the future of housing being 1% of what it is now. How do you see that playing out? How is that possible? How do you shift people's mindset away from that? JEFF: One of the bigger things we're trying to do with Kasita, there needs to be a massive shift in the wider way that we live in our homes. As everything else is moving towards on demand and as a service and as everything's being sort of productized, those are some of the core ideas behind Kasita. We think about Kasita a lot more like an iPhone or a Tesla than we would think about it as a single family home or an apartment block or even a micro-unit. That's why Jason and I are standing together here today is I represent a lot of ways, a kind of vision and origin story of Kasita but in a lot of ways, Jason represents the future of the software and integrated IoT that's going into these things. CHARLES: There is definitely a lot going into these things. I remember when Jason first started telling me about it because it is like an iPhone or a Tesla but, I think especially the Tesla is a great analogy because you have not just like a normal software or even really a hardware project, you've got architectural concerns. You've got manufacturing concerns. You've got, I assumed geopolitical concerns in terms of the politics around zoning and housing and real estate, all rolled up into a big startup. When I think startup, I think let's get a web application up and running and we're providing some service. This is cross-cutting at least five industries, it feels like if not more. I'm curious, what's been the experience in terms of wrangling that aspect because I think it is very unique in a startup today but it got me wondering is this going to be the normal in five years? JEFF: We've seen a movement recently in the venture community. Even a few years ago when we first started raising money was highly-regulated industries are hard, hardware is hard, "Thank you very much. We're going to go looking for our next two Stanford computer science dropouts to shove into a wee work and not have to deal with all of this kind of stuff." I think I've seen a shift to where people from the individual level up to the folks funding these things, see the massive opportunity in highly-regulated complex problems like housing and you're right. Jason and I are looking out over our shop floor here where we've got guys out there that are plumbers or traditional electricians all the way upstairs here to folks that have been mayor pro tem of large cities with PhDs. Bridging all of those individuals into a startup culture and then looking at the complexity of the landscape from a regulatory standpoint, autonomous cars are a breeze relative to the kind of complexity we're dealing with. CHARLES: Did you know this complexity walking in or was it a classic overoptimism? JEFF: No, it wasn't classic overoptimism. I'm always asked, "Are you a designer? Are you an architect? Are you a real estate developer? Are you a technology guy?" and I think if I would have been any of those besides a guy living in a dumpster, I wouldn't ever been crazy enough to try this. It's one of our core precepts as well. Jason had never worked with IoT stuff before. Our head of manufacturing used to build LEDs for Philips. Our quality guy inspected Cadillacs. Our manufacturing engineer built Boeing jets. The ideas that we're not pulling a lot of people from these traditional industries, we're pulling smart people that are passionate about our mission and to solve this, what is really a Rubik's Cube of a problem. JASON: Yeah, I think the other thing to add to that that Jeff is not getting himself enough credit is that from very early on, Jeff always looked at Kasita as a product that was going to incorporate multiple disciplines. He was very careful in how he orchestrate it and built the team to make sure that he was bringing the right expertise and the right areas together and then forcing those different disciplines to figure out how to meld and work together to build the Kasita. But the Kasita was from the beginning just about building a micro-urban home. It was about building a product of which part of that was a home, where people live obviously, but there's a whole lot more to it that we're working towards. I think even go back and Jeff, it might be relevant for you to talk a little bit about the approach that you took to just create an initial design for Kasita, which I think is revolutionary in itself. JEFF: A big part of our DNA was product from conception. When I was living in the dumpster, I recruited a couple of the top architects in the country really to help me turn that dumpster into a home. The way you're trained in architecture school, I think a lot of folks come in there with Buckminster Fuller kind of dreams and you're told pretty quick that you better bring things up to code and you better make things that sell or you're not going to eat when you get out of here. The idea was that we would start off with a product designer and not design a home. The kind of struggles in the dumpster taught me that we needed to go at a different approach so I went and recruited an industrial designer. One of the requirements for that person that he or she had never designed a home. This person had lived under a staircase and never designed a home so I said, "You're perfect." CHARLES: I like that and I'm curious, Jason from your perspective, what was it like to have gone through this? It sounds like what you're doing is asking people to bring their expertise but not their set of expectations like the industrial designer. What was it like for you coming primarily from the software development world to step into this pan-technological realm and what was that experience like and what were the things that stretched you and you found surprising? JASON: I think early on, I realized that it was going to be a bit more challenging maybe than I thought. Really, what it required was me to think outside of my discipline. Obviously, not only from the perspective of what we were doing on the IoT frontend, how we were melding software and hardware together but then going all the way over to the physical building structure and thinking about on a weekly, daily, hourly basis on how we are interacting with the other disciplines. An early example was, and this is one that I remember that's quite funny is one area that we wanted to make sure that we had covered in our research and understanding from IoT perspective was smart locks and how we were going to provide a smart locks for the data. We went out and did a lot of investigation, brought a number of leading smart lock solutions into the lab and tested them and narrow our list down. Then I recall vividly walking over to the architects to excitedly tell them we had selected our smart lock that we were going to use. They very quickly inform me that that lock wouldn't work because we needed a mortise lock and not a standard door lock. I realized that you can't work in a vacuum and just solve your problems. You have to be working together to make sure the solutions and the products you're selecting at work in accord with the overall design. That's continued to manifest itself. Every day, I'm down on the manufacturing floor, working directly with the electricians and others to make sure that our equipment is placed properly, where are we going to place our equipment, how are we routing around plumbing and pipes and other things that exist there and how are we locating things properly. It's an ongoing experience, which has definitely taken me out of my traditional software role but it's done so in a very exciting way and I've enjoyed it. It's just realizing that you have to actively be communicating across the organization with all groups and really, you can't take anything for granted. CHARLES: The number of different disciplines and technologies is really staggering, even if you limit it to just considering the set of devices that you're integrating. I was actually hoping we could talk a little bit about that. Now inside each Kasita, at least the ones that you're building right now, how many different devices do you have? How do you take all these different devices and turn them into a product or integrate them into something that itself is one product? JASON: If you were just to look at the technology bill of materials, what the products are that we're incorporating into our current Kasita design, there is around 50 different products and product parts that we're bringing together to build out the technology solution. If you narrow that down to what the end user is actually seeing and looking at, there are about seven noticeable products that the end user would see or they would recognize everything from a Sonos connecting amplifier to an Amazon Dot to a Nest Thermostat. Obviously, getting to that list of bill of materials and deciding on that 'subassembly of technology pieces,' took us quite some time in a number of iterations and a lot of outside engagement and talking to experts and trying to decide what were the best devices to bring in. But the other side of the equation was something that we kind of decided very early on in the process and kind of thinking the world of first principles was that, we wanted to make sure that Kasita was the primary interface to the user. We didn't want somebody else sitting between us and the end user. We wanted to be able to work with other products but we still felt at the end of the day that the end user, when they were living inside of a Kasita, when they were controlling the Kasita, when they were changing the state of the Kasita, they needed to go through our interface. With that as an initial first principle, you can begin to imagine that all the other parts of the system architecture and the way that we design things, the way that we select products and built things, it begin to derive themselves. Everything from that, immediately we needed an app and lo and behold. We were able, fortunately to work with you guys, the Frontside, to help us get our initial app concept up and going. It went from there and I can talk more about it. CHARLES: I think I really like that as a first principle. I really just want to inject a vigorous sense of agreement because I think it's so important, especially when this is the place where you're living. You want to imbue that inhabitant with a sense of ownership and control. I don't know if you would be able to do that if there were a bunch of different touch points and it didn't feel integrated under one product. In other words, this is my home, this is my Kasita. Is that the idea behind making sure that there was really only one interface? JEFF: We prefer to say 'Mi Kasita.' CHARLES: I love it. JASON: Absolutely, that's the idea. I think from a consumer perspective, if you've ever personally gone out and ventured through the halls of Home Depot or Best Buy and purchased some smart products off the shelf and brought them into your house and try to get them up and running, you very quickly learn that. It's not only challenging to get these devices connected in a way that you can control them but there's also this notion of there's an app for that. Every physical device you ended up putting in your how, has its own app for control and that becomes very overwhelming in a very short amount of time for the user. We did not want that to be the case with the Kasita. We wanted them to walk in the door from day one and immediately feel at home and feel like they have complete control of the Kasita, in much the same way when you go purchase an iPhone or you purchase a new Garmin watch or you purchase a new Android device, you're up and running with that ecosystem and you're interacting with that interface. We wanted people to be interacting with the Kasita interface to control their home because that's part of the product. CHARLES: I like that. It must present some unique challenges because I think you said it best. Every single device that you have comes with its own ecosystem and that ecosystem has its own APIs, its own web interfaces, its own applications and though there are walls around those ecosystems, what are some of the challenges you encounter in trying to punch holes through those walls so that you can hand information and control from one ecosystem to the other while providing a seamless experience to the user? JEFF: When you're talking about that, Jason one of the things that is often left out of this equation is at this specific point in space-time, it's very difficult to do that. But then to have any sort of semblance of planning for the future and future-proofing the system as developers usually call it, one of the reasons why you don't see a lot of Nest thermostats in multifamily development is because a developer knows that they're not going to ever have to replace a normal light switch. If it's a Lutron switch or if it is a Nest thermostat at some point, it's going to have to be replaced. Not only the physical replacement of the stuff but from a software side, making sure that we can continue to communicate with these devices in the future, I think is a big problem to solve. JASON: That's absolutely right. I think very early on, we recognize and realize that we were going to have to build software and a component that acted, if you will as a gateway for sitting between the end user and the end devices and facilitated the control of the end devices. Obviously, being able to accomplish that, one of the challenges is and I think, Charles you've seen this in your world because I know you've got experience with IoT is this whole proliferation of standards and protocols like if we're going to talk to the lightbulb or we're talking via Z-Wave or ZigBee, or do we have to go through a Philips Hue hub because that's the only way to actually communicate with it. Is there a separate way via Thread or Bluetooth you communicate with this device? In a very quick fashion, you get to this point where you can imagine that you've got a physical hardware controller that has four different radios in talking to four different device types. One for talking to Z-Wave, one for talking to ZigBee and it becomes overwhelming. We did a lot of research across the protocols that were available, mapping them across the devices. Early on, we were excited about the potential of Z-Wave but more recently, where we've shifted our attention quite honestly is looking for devices and device manufacturers who see the opportunity and Wi-Fi enabling their hardware devices and then providing either direct control of those devices in an IP-centric way over a local area network or even through the cloud. What that affords us back to Jeff's future-proofing concept is if you have Wi-Fi up and running and the device can get on the Wi-Fi network and there's a way to communicate with it, then it makes it a lot easier for us to sit between the user and that device and send commands and control that device. The other side of that, which I think continues to be a challenge and will be a challenged for the foreseeable future is a lot of the device manufacturers to the point that you brought up are still forcing you to go through the cloud to communicate with their devices. They don't allow for a local area network communication directly with the device and there's good reasons for doing that. But what that means is if you lose internet connectivity, you no longer have control of that device. CHARLES: Obviously, you've got probably pretty strict criteria about what it takes for a device to be integrated with Kasita. Is that a nonstarter right there? JASON: It's actually not. A nonstarter with be the device communicates via protocol that we can't interface with or the device works over a Wi-Fi network but has no API for controlling cloud or local. The third piece of that equation and fundamentally is the final nonstarter and really probably should be the first one and it's one that we take into consideration every time is that there should be a physical override for the user if internet connectivity is lost. What I mean by that is if we select a smart switch and the smart switch goes offline and there's no more connectivity, the user has still be able to walk to the wall and press the power button and the light should come on. There always has to be an ability for the user to fall back to the same old fashioned physical control in the absence of Internet connectivity or local area network connectivity. But the primary things are ability to fall back to physical control, ability to communicate over Wi-Fi or standard IP-based protocol, then the third one would be some form of API access, either remotely via the cloud or locally via the local area network. CHARLES: Wow, that's actually a great list. It's got me wondering, obviously you've encountered devices that have fallen on both sides of that divide. Do you feel like that's just a blip and we're going to be trending more towards devices that are happily and easily integrated or are we still seeing some moving and jostling as people maybe try and corner little parts of the market and make their device deliberately make it not easy so that you'll try and force people into that ecosystem? JASON: The latter, however we have two guerillas in the market right now that I think are helping drive the other direction in the way of Amazon and Google with Google Home and Amazon Echo. What they're doing is they're saying, "If we sit in the center and one of the interfaces for voice control for the user to control their home, then we're only going to work with devices that we can communicate with and that we can control through the cloud," and quite frankly, what that does is it puts the burden back on the device manufacturer. You could actually say three if you threw Apple in there. I don't want to leave Apple out with HomeKit. But my point is that the device manufacturer now has to find a way that the end device can either communicate via standard TCP/IP network-based connectivity that we all know and love from a developer community perspective or they have to insert a hub into the equation that can handle that form of communication and then communicate over its own proprietary wireless connection, which is in the case of Philips Hue, it's exactly what they do. JEFF: I would draw analogies here to some people get really tired of this, particularly the real estate people of me talking about the iPhone but that kind of leap into and integrated piece of hardware and software. There were certain things happening in 2007 that didn't make the iPhone or something like it, something that might happen but something that had to happen. This kind of cold death to the universe that we could see with all of these walled-off ecosystems, go in their directions and iterating into a space to a nobody owns anything and nothing talks, I think Kasita is a solution to that to where we're looking like combine all this stuff under one roof and build a single user experience, much like not having to pull your Palm Pilot out of one pocket, you're Rio MP3 player out of another and you're your Razor or whatever it was out of the other like integrating into a single experience, rather than a sort of convenience, which is what a lot of the IoT spaces right now in these walled-off ecosystems. CHARLES: That actually makes a lot of sense and clarifies it in my mind quite a bit. It clarifies one thing but then, immediately raises new questions. When the iPhone first came out, you had a set of basic integrations between your MP3 player and your web browsing and your calling and calendaring, so and so forth. Then, I don't know what was it like, a year and a half later, they actually came out with an SDK so that you could actually develop apps -- third-party developers could actually develop. Sell and distribute in apps -- to the iPhone. We're all really happy with the way that worked out. I guess my question is does this analogy carry forward then also for Kasita? Is there a future where you have third-party developers who are actually selling integrations or apps that would run on this integrated IoT product that is Kasita or am I stretching the analogy too far? JASON: I think the analogy is good with the exception that we're not looking to control the entire IoT ecosystem in a way that Apple maybe had look to control the mobile phone ecosystem with providing all of that in one box and the iPhone. We want to work with numerous hardware providers and even from that perspective, numerous folks that want to provide interfaces into our system. As we develop an architected Kasita technology system, we've taken an API-first approach and that's allowed us to build our user application layer right on top of that API but in the future, we see the opportunity to work with third-party developers to extend that, up on that and build their own interfaces to the end user. Then on the other side of the equation, if you think about what's actually controlling the devices, we're architecting that system in a way that a hardware manufacturer could take an SDK and add Kasita support for their product directly in and make it plug and play when it gets to the Kasita. We definitely see the opportunity, Charles to reach out and allow everybody to be part of this. We consider it quite frankly, a necessary thing. But we don't also want to pretend that we would look to control the whole ecosystem because we just don't have that level of scale, if you will. JEFF: And you know -- CHARLES: Not yet. JEFF: Yeah, and we try to keep our ego in the dumpster, so to speak as well. CHARLES: What would a third-party app even look like in the context of Kasita? Have you thought of like what are some things that you might be able to do? JEFF: If you don't want to call it directly an app, I think the first stage -- Jason and I haven't talked about this -- maybe more like an Alexa Skill to where you can have the Kasita do certain sets of tasks around a particular experience, which we're already building into the system the idea of moods but I don't know in terms of apps. JASON: Yeah, it's actually a really good idea. Even though we haven't talked about it, it always scares me a little bit when my boss is coming up with ideas on the fly that we have to implement but -- JEFF: But actually we will have our first -- we're going to call it a skill app, a Kasita skill app. We'll be releasing that say, October 1st. CHARLES: You heard it here first, folks. JASON: To take Jeff's idea a little further, I think that is an interesting concept when you think about the Kasita as being an end product and you provide interfaces whether it's the ability for people to write skills that tie into the Amazon Echo or an IFTTT-type capability. The Kasita, as a whole can be controlled -- all the lighting, the sound, all the different temperature, etcetera -- so now you're asking end users to write skills, to control the entire state of the building or of the home and not just doing it on a one-off basis writing skill to turn this light on and off or set the thermostat to this level. You basically box all of that together and make it much easier for people to get from Point A to Point B through our system. JEFF: Could you say that we're turning the entire Kasita into a board for people to play with, like treat the Kasita as your breadboard? JASON: I think there is some opportunity for that to the degree that will allow the user to have that much flexibility on the hardware side. I think it is still up for question but I think there's a lot of opportunity there, Charles and not only inside of the Kasita but then you can begin to see other applications as Kasita begin to multiply and people use them from many purposes. Let's take a sample of somebody owns 10 Kasitas and they use them as Airbnb properties and they allow users that live in Kasitas to come in for a short period of time into their Kasita and bring their Kasita profile with them. Immediately, they can make the Airbnb Kasita feel exactly like their Kasita feels when they're at home. Those are some interesting opportunities and ways that we see this technology potentially evolving. CHARLES: So it will have the same moods, the same behaviors. Any customizations or third-party extensions would also be in effect provided they were software-based? JASON: Yep. CHARLES: That would actually be quite amazing. I guess the other question I have in terms of hackability of Kasita is we're very interested in the IoT space and very interested in these products and we have some side projects here at Frontside also like I do a bunch of hobby stuff at home, where I try to integrate a bunch of these things. But one of the things that I really like about what you all are doing is that it's very much 'omakase' in the sense of there's an option of 10 smart locks, there's an option of this thermostat, there's an option of a million different devices but what we've done or what you've done is selected ones that we know are going to work well together. We've built the software, the control systems, both computer control systems and human control systems to get them to work together as a cohesive product. I would love to do is say, "I would just like to buy that product for my house," even though my lame tinkerings with smart switches, smart locks and audio controls and lighting, which are fun and gratifying the first few times but they don't really play nice together, give you that super sweet feeling. JEFF: This goes to the overall philosophy of Kasita. We want a turnkey, one-click housing solution. Not only for finding you a place to rent so that you're not fishing around on Craigslist for roommate or having to pay some outrageous fee in New York. You don't have to go mattress shopping. At some point, you should just have to show up with your iPhone and your toothbrush. When you start thinking about the technology inside, it's almost like folks don't really care what kind of Foxconn chip is in their iPhone or even if it was Foxconn that put it there, they just want it to work and they want it to be seamless and turnkey. It sets up a whole philosophy around, not only our smart kid in the Kasitas but it shouldn't even be a smart kid anymore. At some point, it should just be an experience so ultimately, what sort of UX inside of the Kasita are all of these things bringing you. I shouldn't have to really look at a blue glowing dot that lights up every time I walk by it to be at a comfortable temperature in my house. I shouldn't need a black tube over on my desktop that I yell commands at. I just talk or it should anticipate those actions. That's a future that I look forward to in Kasita to where we move away from having to tinker with devices and even knowing what those devices are to a true-like depth of experience. CHARLES: I like that a lot. Now, one thing that we haven't covered. We touched on it a little bit at the very beginning of the show when we talked about people feeling in control and feeling like they're truly the owner of the space is the issue of privacy. Obviously, there's a lot of a user's behavior that's going to be passing through software channels as their intentions move through the devices in the Kasita. Of course, all of these devices, they have their own ecosystems, their own vendors so how do you ensure that people's data is going to be protected, especially as it moves through potentially a bunch of different public clouds. JEFF: Yes, we gave a lot of thoughts to this. Actually, Jason put me on to this book called 'Data for the People' by Andreas Weigend. We took some inspiration on that, from that and set out on what we call it the four cornerstones of this future of the connected home. Those are agency, transparency, security and then the actual benefit that you get from this home. I gave a talk at South by called, 'The final frontier of AI is in your living room.' If that isn't black mirror, creepy enough to attract enough people, I don't know what is. In that talk, I won't take them out of order. First, we need to make sure that we're focused on transparency. Do people know what's actually being collected on them? I've been toting around my iPhone for 10 years. I'm pretty sure they know everywhere that I have been since then. I'm not really all that sure. Second, agency. Can I actually do something about it? Are we allowing people the ability to switch off, switch on, control where that data goes? Then third, security. Are we providing another level of security above what you would get out of the box? I'll let Jason talk about that in a minute. Then, the last is benefit. Am I getting ads? Am I getting a slightly better news feed focused on ads or am I getting my rent subsidized? Am I getting a better user experience, better sleep within the connected home? Those are the ways that we think about that in a bigger level. CHARLES: Is the idea that there's no benefit than it's exploitative? You want to make sure that there's benefit? JASON: Yeah, I think that onus is if you taking individual data and using it, then the onus is on you as a data collector to try to provide benefit back to the end user. If you can't do that, then I think the question should be why are you collecting the data in the first place? our goal is really looking at it from the perspective of if we know when users are turning lights on and off and what they're setting the temperature in their house to and when they're going to sleep at night, when they're waking up because we know when they turn everything off and turn it back on -- JEFF: Or where this things on the floor are from the vacuum robot. JASON: Yeah, exactly. If we have insight into that information, how are we taking that information and combining it in a valuable way that benefits the end user? I think that's the first question that we have to ask when we start looking at the data that we're collecting. But at the same time as Jeff said, that data collection really has to be based on this notion of agency, transparency and privacy or security. An agency is simply I have control over whether my data is collected. Transparency, from the perspective of I understand how my data is being used and where it's being sent and then of course, security, I know that my data is being securely transmitted and stored. When you think about security, we spend a lot of time thinking about not only the data at rest -- once it's been collected is it properly being stored and encrypted and protected -- but then how is that data being transmitted and are we putting the proper fail safes in place to make sure that somebody else can easily gain access and take control of my home and of the things that are important to me by finding back doors into the system and ways to breach them? Those are the cornerstones that we think about and we put first and foremost in our mind as we build out our architecture, build out our system and as we begin to take that data and to turn it back in useful and interesting ways for the end user. CHARLES: I think that's really important. I think it's a great comfort to hear that you all have a framework for thinking about this so that it's going to be integrated into every aspect of it. I think it's just so important, especially when it's something as critical as the space in which you're living. It's good to hear that it's not just an afterthought but that it's something that's been integrated from the start. Well, Jeff, Jason thank you guys so much for coming by and talking with us. I really think that Kasita is an exciting product and I think that it was an exciting project, certainly for us to get to work on, even though we were only seeing a very small sliver of it. We still got to perceive the whole enchilada that you guys were working on and see that just what a unique startup that really is, not just you're moving outside of software, integrating a bunch of different devices, integrating that with a unique home that's going to be designed, architected, manufactured and then thinking, then even rolling it up a degree further about how is this going to be integrated into the urban spaces in which we live. I hope that we see more startups that really engaged all those different disciplines. I think that with the technological changes that are happening, that's more and more a possibility. The price on software, the price on materials, the price on these smart devices is all coming down so it really enables people to take on scopes that might have been just completely impossible, even with someone who's overly optimistic. I hope that people look to it as an inspiration and it really was a great project for us to work on. I also understand that if someone does want to jump into this space and get involved, you all are hiring. JEFF: That's right. We are hiring for a broad range of positions. We're expecting to be doing a lot, more hiring soon. You can go to Kasita.com/Work and at the bottom of the page, you can also see that we have an open house here in Austin every Thursday morning from 9:30 to 11:30. The folks can come in and check out the crib. CHARLES: All right. Fantastic. I certainly really enjoyed getting the tour the space, what was that? Back in March? When you revealed the baby units? JEFF: Yeah, it was March at South by. CHARLES: Yeah, it's really something to see. If you are in Austin or you live here, take the time, go see it. It's really cool. With that, I guess we'll wrap it up. Thank you everybody for listening and as always, you can get in touch with us at @Frontside on Twitter or Frontside.io or send us an email at Contact@Frontside.io. Thank you all and see you next week.

Ray Super Remote Just like a conductor's baton a good remote control is mandatory to conduct and direct the use of your home theater. We've reviewed so many over the years. Ara has settled on the Simple Control application running on an iPad Mini while Braden uses the Logitech Harmony Remotes around his home. But today we are taking a look at the Ray Super Remote (Buy Now $249) which creators bill as the “the ultimate touchscreen universal remote control”. Features Fast setup, responsive interface, high resolution display Sophisticated recommendation engine Rechargeable battery Support for Hue Lights and Nest Thermostats The Ray Super Remote is a nicely built piece of hardware. The fit and finish remind us of a high quality smartphone. In fact it's about the size of a smartphone of yesterday. It's a bit thicker and heavier. No biggie since you won't be carrying it around with you. Front and back are made of gorilla glass so it should stand up to wear and tear of daily use. And the occasional fall off the coffee table. The charging cradle also feels substantial and will sit firmly on your end table. The remote slides in and out with ease. We have gotten about two days battery use out of one charge with typical usage. But if you really go into the guides and recommendations pages you will probably get less. Fortunately it is simple to place the remote on the cradle every evening and have a fully charged remote in the morning. Setup This is an area where the remote excels. Setup up takes about 10 to 15 minutes. First you connect to Wifi and then let it download updates and codes. Next you tell it how you watch TV.  For this portion you have to be in front of your TV and have it on. In our case we turned on the TV, AV Receiver and Satellite box. The remote asks you tell it what kind of TV you have. Then it tells you that it will perform an action and you need to respond with yes it happened or no it did not. After a few of these it decides on a command set for the device and you are done. You do this for all your devices. You also tell it what input the TV and receiver are on so it can switch them for you. We setup our Blu-ray, AppleTV, DirecTV Genie, Receiver, and TV. The remote does not have FireTV capability. You can request that Ray adds the commands for equipment you have that is not supported through their website. In addition to lack of support for the FireTV there currently is no support for PlayStation, Roku stick, or Chromecast. Plus there is no support for multiple rooms. So if you want to use the remote in another room you will need to buy an additional remote. Use The remote works well! Although it took us a little time to get used to pointing the remote towards the TV. The Simple Control remote works from anywhere and you wouldn't think that is a big deal but it did become a bit annoying to have to remember this. That also means if your equipment is out of sight you will need an IR repeater. But you probably already have one anyway.  The commands went out quickly and the user interface is responsive. The volume control is done via a rocker on the side of the device. Nice tactile buttons to make raising the volume easy without having to look at the screen. There is also a physical mute button as well as a sleep/wake button. To activate an activity you go to the home screen and select it, DVR, Blu-ray, or AppleTV. The remote fires off the appropriate commands and in a few seconds you are watching what you want. The shutdown process is simple to. You hit the power off button and you are given an option to turn off any device that is currently on or all of them at once. We were concerned that a small screen with limited buttons would be difficult to use. We wouldn't call it difficult but it's a bit cumbersome. The main screen for the DVR has the transport controls, which while important are not used as often as changing channels or bringing up the guide and recordings list. For that there are customizable soft keys on the bottom of the screen. There are a few that are always visible but to get to all of them you have to swipe up. We found that the small form factor means you have to hit a few more screens to get to what you want. Still better than using four remotes.   When setting up your remote it asks you questions about what you like to watch and which channels you subscribe to. It then makes recommendations for you. To access these recommendations you hit the TV button on the home screen. You can swipe through your different categories, Movies, News, Sports, Etc, and find something to watch. If the show is currently on pressing the button will tune to that channel. If it's not on you can set a reminder or setup a recording. Note - The remote is capable of controlling Hue lights and the Nest Thermostat. We do not have these devices in our homes so we were not able to test these features. Conclusion You have a lot of choices out there for universal remotes. Some are pretty basic while others not only control your home theater but they also can do home automation. The Ray Super Remote is a great looking and fully featured remote that will indeed make controlling your home theater easier. It's easy to setup and controls almost any device you have. It's a little on the expensive side but like any conductor you need a baton and this device is one cool baton!    

Unlocking Word documents (three options to crack the encryption), DDOS attack in Hong Kong (demonstrates evolving techniques and methods), Bluetooth vs Wi-Fi (use of frequency space, avoiding interference), Profiles in IT (Sebastian Thrun, robotics pioneeer), putting phone into field test mode (tracking cell phone parameters), Tech Invention of the Week (Liftware Spoon, cancels tremors to allow Parkinsons patients to eat), gifts for the smart house (Philips Hue Lux Starter Kit, Logitech Harmony Ultimate Home Remote, Nest Thermostat, Dropcam Video Monitor, Philips Hue Tap, August Smart Lock), and other Tech Gifts (Bluetooth speakers, Headsets, Media Streamers, USB Hard Drives, Fitnes Trackers, Laptops). This show originally aired on Saturday, November 29, 2014, at 9:00 AM EST on WFED (1500 AM).