Hasta La Gadget!

The Nest thermostat has already gone through a hardware revision or two and found its way onto plenty of physical and virtual store shelves, but parent company Nest Labs is eager to get it into even more households in short order.

The Palo Alto company has just announced that it has teamed up with energy providers from across the country that will see new climate-control services (not to mention some rebates) go live for customers in a handful of markets.

So far, the list of partners includes National Grid, NRG Energy, NRG subsidiaries Reliant and Green Mountain Energy, Austin Energy and Southern California Edison. You can probably guess what markets those last two serve. These newly forged partnerships could see adoption of the household gadget surge — customers who ink deals with National Grid, for instance, can claim a $100 rebate to help defray the costs of a Nest thermostat.

While the others don’t offer much in the way of actual cash back, Nest’s tie-ups emphasize the long-term value of having a Nest over a run-of-the-mill thermostat. The way the folks at Nest look at it, their gadget is only going to become more useful as the days get longer and warmer, and those new services I mentioned earlier should only help matters when it comes to the cost-conscious.

First up is Nest’s so-called Rush Hour Rewards, which are meant to reduce the load on already-strained power stations once it starts getting really hot outside. Rather than cranking the temperature down low and leaving it there as a hapless human might, the Nest instead gets a feel for the sorts of climates its users prefer and will sporadically turn down the temperature to keep things within that preferred range. By occasionally introducing blasts of cold air instead of just leaving things to run at full blast, the Nest can keep your house at about the same temperature as before without much of a corresponding bump on the bill.

Also part of the package is what Nest calls “seasonal savings,” which will see the smart thermostat measure user temperature preferences over the course of the year and make minor modifications over the course of a few weeks. The idea is to reduce a user’s heating bill by carefully acclimating them to a new, more cost-efficient temperature scheme without the residents even noticing.

For now, only customers who select certain plans with those power companies can use these new services, but I very much doubt that team Nest is content to leave things as they are. These sorts of deals will only serve to raise the company’s profile, and buy-in from power partners is a big deal for Nest especially as the company’s rivals have moved to make their own wares smarter. Consider Honeywell: it already filed a lawsuit against Nest last year for supposed acts of copyright infringement, an allegation that Nest Labs vigorously disagrees with. Meanwhile, the conglomerate is gearing up to release a rather handsome smart thermostat of its own, so deals like these could help Nest stay a step ahead of the pack.

During an internal event at Intuit, Intuit chairman and Apple board member Bill Campbell discussed with Intuit CEO Brad Smith his thoughts about the start of a more intimate tech era, as well as his thoughts on a couple of recent events in the tech industry. Campbell is renown in the tech industry as a “chief executive whisperer and corporate adviser,” and hundreds of employees gathered to hear what he had to say.

Campbell told the audience that there are “a lot of things going on with the application of technology to really intimate things.” He referenced to Google Glass to being one such thing. He believes that everyday objects like glasses, or watches are beginning to get a technological revamp, and that this is a start of a new era in technology where objects are becoming very intimate, just like the cell phone.

Campbell references to the company Nest, started by former Apple executive Tony Fadell, which transformed thermostats with the power of technology. Nest created a smart thermostat that learns your daily routines, your favorite temperatures, and adjusts itself accordingly. It changes the temperature while you’re sleeping, when you wake up, and when you leave your house, so that you can conserve as much electricity as possible. It learns what type of heating/cooling system you have, alerts you when you need to change your filter, and is controllable via mobile device.

Technology is advancing faster, and many everyday objects we use, like refrigerators and ovens, are starting to get a technological revamp. Campbell later discussed the recent firing of Ron Johnson, J.C. Penney’s CEO and former Apple executive, after the company saw a 25% drop in sales. He ended the event by telling product managers that they should work closely with engineers and guide them, instead of just commanding them to implement features that products “should” have.

[via Business Week]

Apple board member believes Google Glass is the start of an intimate tech era is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Ivan Zhang and Jeho Yoon have designed what could be the ultimate relaxation tool: an air mattress that can transform into a boat. Thanks to an internal structure of ropes and carabiners, the Nest is a comfy air mattress perfect for lounging about in a pool. But when you disconnect all of the carabiners inside, the mattress changes shape into a boat that’s ideal for a lazy paddle across a lake. More »

We’ve already got quite a lineup unveiled so far, but the fun doesn’t stop now, my friends — if anything, we’ll be ratcheting up the excitement as we get closer and closer to Expand in San Francisco this March 16 and 17th. We’ll have full profiles of all 10 of our Insert Coin Semi-Finalists rolling over the next few days, and your audience vote will determine which top five will also get to demo on our stage — and voting will kick off today at 12:30pm PST / 3:30pm EST! Stay tuned!

But if you still need more reasons to attend Expand, how about 10 of ’em? Followed by four more inspiring speakers you’ll get to see — all for the low, low price of 50 bucks:

• Matt Rogers: Founder & VP of Engineering, Nest
• Dave Icke: CEO, MC10
• Ryan Sullivan: Director of Product Delivery, Sprint
• John Scalzi: President, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America

Read on for the Engadget editors you most want to meet…

And yet there’s a whole other cadre of professionals who will be gracing our event stage, and that is the incredibly hardworking team of Engadget editors. We’ll be bringing out the majority of our crew to make the Expand magic happen — and we ran a ticket giveaway contest last week to see which of them you are most excited to meet. Here is just a short list of some of the editors you’re looking forward to colliding with in the proverbial Real World (and please stay tuned to @EngadgetExpand for more chances to win tickets and other goodies!):

And don’t forget…

• If you’re a company that would like to work with us on an exhibition or sponsorship level, please drop us a line at sponsors at engadget dot com (DIYers and small startups, please ask us about our new Indie Corner option!)
• If you’re interested in speaking at the event, please contact expand at engadget dot com to inquire
• If you’re a member of the media interested in covering Expand, please contact engadget at shiftcomm.com for more information.

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Smart thermostat company Nest has a new challenger hoping to heat your home, with German start-up Tado aiming to put smartphones and tablets in control of your HVAC. Rather than the iPod-educated, display toting wall box Nest is centered around, Tado relies on your mobile device for communication and control, and limits the thermostat to a few simple buttons. And, because you usually have your smartphone on you, Tado knows when to shut off the heating when you’re leaving the house, or when to turn it back on when you’re on your way home.

The app learns from your daily behaviors and tracks your physical position – as well as those of everyone else in the household – to automatically control the heating system. It can also check weather forecasts so that it can accommodate particularly cold or warm days, in addition to learning how the insulation of your home affects overall HVAC system performance.

Like Nest, Tado is pushing the idea of DIY installation, though its wiring system should be compatible with a broader range of HVAC equipment – including gas, oil, pellet, wood chip heating system or heat pump – and both analog and digital BUS interfaces. All of the communications with the smartphone apps – available for iOS and Android – are secured, and there’s integrated ”6LoWPAN” (IPv6 over Low power Wireless Personal Area Networks) internet-of-things connectivity for future support for further home automation. A dongle for your router gets the Tado hub online.

On average, the Tado team claims, the system can save users 27-percent on their energy costs by more efficiently controlling when heating is turned on and off. Those savings can be tracked using the various graphs of performance Tado can produce, and in fact any web-enabled device can be used to log into the system remotely and see how it’s working.

Tado is on sale in Germany from today, with the first 1,000 buyers getting the hardware free; there’s a service charge of €99 ($126) per year, after which it switches to a rolling monthly contract.

Tado takes on Nest with smartphone-controlled intelligent heating is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.