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Speaker 1: Welcome to tex Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host,

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Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with iHeart Radio and

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Speaker 1: I love all things tech, and today it is time

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Speaker 1: for a classic episode of tech Stuff. This episode originally

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Speaker 1: published way back on January twenty second, two thousand and fourteen.

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Speaker 1: It is titled text Stuff builds a Nest Enjoy. So

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Speaker 1: we're gonna talk today about the Nest Labs company and

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Speaker 1: UH and the products they make. And I, like Lauren

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Speaker 1: was saying, Google has made a really incredible move in

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Speaker 1: offering to purchase Nest for a what some might call

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Speaker 1: a ridiculous sum of money. I think that three point

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Speaker 1: two billion accounts as pretty ridiculous. I mean, I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's a company that makes two things so far, yes,

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Speaker 1: and it's only existed since so and they've only been

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Speaker 1: having stuff that they could sell since So anyway, let's

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Speaker 1: let's talk about this. If you had told me ten

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Speaker 1: years ago that I'd be sitting down and talking into

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Speaker 1: a microphone to record a show about a company that's

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Speaker 1: big product is a thermostat first, I would say who

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Speaker 1: are you and why are you? In this consulting firm

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Speaker 1: because that's where I was ten years ago. But moreover,

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Speaker 1: I just said no, I wouldn't. Who who would want

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Speaker 1: to listen to that? Well, okay, there has been a

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Speaker 1: lot of buzz about Nest over the past couple of

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Speaker 1: years that it has existed because they make these these

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Speaker 1: smart devices, smart thermostats and smart smoke detector carbon monoxide exactly, um.

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Speaker 1: And and you know, with the Internet of Things becoming

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Speaker 1: more of a real thing, people have been excited about.

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Speaker 1: This is one of the leading companies that's creating the

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Speaker 1: kind of hardware that you can use to to make

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Speaker 1: your home and Internet of things. Yeah, and also the

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Speaker 1: design aesthetic right, gorgeous it is and and and it

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Speaker 1: works with your smartphone and that's all terrific. And I

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Speaker 1: did want to mention that for the record, thermostats are

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Speaker 1: kind of a big business. There's some ten million sold

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Speaker 1: in the US every year, and they control some half

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Speaker 1: of the energy used in US homes, right, so this

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Speaker 1: is not insignificant. Yeah, if you talk, if you look

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Speaker 1: at your energy bill and you divide it by two,

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Speaker 1: that amount of money is going straight to your system. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So if you are able to make an impact on that.

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Speaker 1: It will reflect in the amount of money you have

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Speaker 1: to spend on energy bills, particularly if you live in

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Speaker 1: a place where you have a fairly extreme climate, so

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Speaker 1: that you're HVA system has to work extra hard to

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Speaker 1: make sure your living space is a comfortable one. And uh.

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Speaker 1: And in fact, what this all comes back to a

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Speaker 1: guy named Tony Fidel, who once upon a time worked

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Speaker 1: for a little company called Apple. Yeah, by work, do

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Speaker 1: we mean it? He kind of led the iPod and

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Speaker 1: kind of that the iPhone teams for a while, for

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Speaker 1: multiple generations for iPod and I think three generations of

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Speaker 1: iPhone he was overseeing that. He was senior vice president

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Speaker 1: of those departments. And uh. And so yeah, we're talking

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Speaker 1: about someone who definitely knew about designing for a particular aesthetic, uh,

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Speaker 1: and to create something that is attractive for consumers. Because

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Speaker 1: it's easy for us to forget this and I know

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Speaker 1: we say it on tech stuff all the time, so

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Speaker 1: maybe it's not easy for you to forget because we

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Speaker 1: say it so frequently. But before the iPod, you know,

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Speaker 1: MP three players existed, there were, but no one had

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Speaker 1: really designed one that really cut the public's attention like

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Speaker 1: there were there was no one that was a dominant

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Speaker 1: player at the time, and then the iPods design really

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Speaker 1: started to kind of dominate to the point where you

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Speaker 1: started seeing other companies designs look more iPod ish. Not

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Speaker 1: to Ryan Stirrup any patent, you know, wars again, but

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Speaker 1: but people realized that. I mean, previous to that, I

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Speaker 1: think that most MP three players looked like they were functional, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: like bricks. I had one. I mean I had one

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Speaker 1: that I loved because it was probably about the price

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Speaker 1: of an iPod, but it had twice the capacity. But

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Speaker 1: it looked like a brick and it felt like one too.

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Speaker 1: It was heavy. But the uh, you know, and the

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Speaker 1: iPhone another great example. We've talked about that before too,

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Speaker 1: about how in the United States smartphones were pretty much

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Speaker 1: the realm of executives, right like BlackBerry was king in

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Speaker 1: the US. Now in Europe and in Japan that was

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Speaker 1: a different story, but not here in the US. It

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Speaker 1: wasn't until the iPhone came out that you started seeing

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Speaker 1: the consumer market move toward it. So this is a

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Speaker 1: guy who was right there on the forefront. He knew

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Speaker 1: a thing or two about, you know, making sure you

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Speaker 1: had an attractive product. But that's not exactly what got

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Speaker 1: him excited about this. First of all, he retired. He

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Speaker 1: retired in two thousand eight from Bowl. He was he

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Speaker 1: was like, okay, I have made my mark. I I

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Speaker 1: have helped bring to really influential products to the market.

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Speaker 1: I may rest, but apparently things just weren't always you know,

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Speaker 1: the most comfortable temperature at the Fidel house. Maybe he

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Speaker 1: just got up to change the thermostat one too many times,

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Speaker 1: and he started thinking about this fact, the fact that

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Speaker 1: half of your energy is spent controlling the climate of

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Speaker 1: your home, and that, according to at least some study

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Speaker 1: that he was aware of, because it's in a blog

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Speaker 1: post on the Nest web page, that the average person

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Speaker 1: adjusts his or her thermostat hundred times a year, and

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Speaker 1: so and and and Furthermore, he was, you know, he

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Speaker 1: was trying to update his home to he he was like,

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Speaker 1: we've got these gorgeous products for our music and for communication.

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Speaker 1: Why can't we have that kind of thing for everything?

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Speaker 1: Why does why does this control for my climate? Where

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Speaker 1: apparently I'm getting up to do it multiple times a day,

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Speaker 1: Because if it's times a year, that's you know, that's

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Speaker 1: a bunch. Why is it so boxy and ugly, and

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Speaker 1: because the almost thermostats not really aesthetically pleasing, they're they're functional, right,

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Speaker 1: So that's why Yeah. Yeah, According to another guy that

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Speaker 1: we're going to be talking about in just a couple

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Speaker 1: of seconds, the design, the basic design on thermostats has

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Speaker 1: not really changed since the nineties. Yeah. You either have

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Speaker 1: the digital kind or you have the old kind that

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Speaker 1: has sort of a coiled thermometer in it. If you

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Speaker 1: want to know more, you can actually go back. We

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Speaker 1: did a tech Stuff episode about how thermostats work back

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Speaker 1: in the day where we talk about the actual the

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Speaker 1: actual mechanics of a thermostat, both the I think we

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Speaker 1: mainly focused on the old, the old mercury switch kind,

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Speaker 1: but there are various other types as well. Um. And

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Speaker 1: another thing that Fiddel was thinking about was the fact

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Speaker 1: that he, you know, we we live in the incredible future.

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Speaker 1: Why can't I control my thermostat from my smart phone? Right?

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Speaker 1: And and and there were some products out there that

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Speaker 1: would let you do that, but they cost like five

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Speaker 1: dollars a unit, right, And you had to you know,

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Speaker 1: you you essentially had to go to some sort of

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Speaker 1: home automation specialist and then have that installed forum then

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Speaker 1: why are why are these things in for you? It

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Speaker 1: wasn't like something where you could go to a warehouse

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Speaker 1: in or or is some major store Hony People or

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Speaker 1: Lows or something like that and say show me where

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Speaker 1: the automated or the remote thermostats are, because it was

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Speaker 1: all packages that you had to go through contractors to get,

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Speaker 1: so not the not the most accessible, certainly. And he

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Speaker 1: also realized that we were getting to a point as

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Speaker 1: far as computer software is concerned, where you could create

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Speaker 1: very sophisticated algorithms that could have quote unquote learning behavior right,

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Speaker 1: they could start to recognize patterns and then respond to

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Speaker 1: those patterns in a predetermined way. So the big example

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Speaker 1: that we would have with nest is that if no

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Speaker 1: one's in the house, there's no need to have the

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Speaker 1: heat cranked up or the a C cranked up to

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Speaker 1: keep the house at the regular comfortable temperature. And if

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Speaker 1: you know when people are coming home, all right, if

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Speaker 1: it notices that you come home at six thirty every night,

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Speaker 1: then it can start working the house towards that temperature

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Speaker 1: whenever it needs to in order to have it ready

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Speaker 1: for you to get home. Yeah, so when you walk

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Speaker 1: through the door. It feels as if your house has

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Speaker 1: stayed that temperature all day long, whereas the reality is

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Speaker 1: between the hours of whatever and whatever, it was not

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Speaker 1: you know, either the system wasn't working at all, or

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Speaker 1: it wasn't working nearly at full capacity, it was working

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Speaker 1: enough so that it wouldn't take too much work to Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: you don't want to. I mean, obviously you don't want

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Speaker 1: to shut everything down. Like if it's if it's the

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Speaker 1: the what was what do they call it the polar vortex?

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Speaker 1: When uh, it was when I was at ce S,

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Speaker 1: so I missed it. I wasn't here in Atlanta, and

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Speaker 1: that's what they called it. Nine degrees here. There's some

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Speaker 1: kind of science about it that I think that we

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Speaker 1: have actually written and stuff about on how stuff works

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Speaker 1: at this point, but I have no idea. I just

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Speaker 1: saw tweets that said polar vort text. I was like,

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Speaker 1: I don't know what it is it the day after

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Speaker 1: tomorrow back in Atlanta, I don't know nine degrees it

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Speaker 1: was basically yeah, in that case, you wouldn't want the

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Speaker 1: house to get all the way down to you know,

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Speaker 1: below freezing obviously not. But but at the same time,

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Speaker 1: you wouldn't want it to be at you know, seventy

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Speaker 1: five degrees because you'd be using a lot of energy

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Speaker 1: while you're not actually there. So it needed he solve

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Speaker 1: the problem. It was an engineering problem. You had to

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Speaker 1: build a device that could monitor the temperature, keep it

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Speaker 1: within a certain range, and then be flexible enough so

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Speaker 1: that that range changes based upon the parameters that are present.

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Speaker 1: And also if you happen to like it warm in

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Speaker 1: the morning but cold at night, then if you had

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Speaker 1: a thermostat that could learn these patterns, it could start

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Speaker 1: to anticipate it and change them for you proactively, so

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Speaker 1: you don't have to be the one to go up

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Speaker 1: there and say like, oh, you know, I like it

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Speaker 1: cold when I go to bed, but when I wake up,

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Speaker 1: it's it's my body temperature so low. I need to

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Speaker 1: get my temperature up. I needed to be warmer. So

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Speaker 1: this was a great opportunity he saw. So he ended

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Speaker 1: up contacting a couple of other folks and working on

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Speaker 1: an idea for a learning thermostat. Yeah, and these were

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Speaker 1: mostly other ex Apple folks or perhaps folks that were

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Speaker 1: maybe at the time still working for Apple. Exactly the

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Speaker 1: date lines of these there's certainly ex Apple folks now yes, um,

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Speaker 1: and and one of them, Mr Matt Rogers, he would

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Speaker 1: wind up co founding this company, Nest with yep. So

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Speaker 1: twenty ten is when Nest Labs officially forms May specifically,

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Speaker 1: and they their strategy was to be kind of quiet

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Speaker 1: about what they were doing. They didn't talk about their products,

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Speaker 1: I didn't talk about their lines of research really, and

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Speaker 1: so it kind of took the world by surprise when

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Speaker 1: in October of twenty eleven, Fidel essentially announces, Hey, here's

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Speaker 1: this thing we've been working on. Is this little, round,

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Speaker 1: gorgeous looking device. It's actually a thermostat and it's smart

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Speaker 1: and it can connect to WiFi and you can adjust

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Speaker 1: it with your phone and it learns what you like.

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Speaker 1: And people were just thinking, you are saying too many things,

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Speaker 1: Mr man, I don't know what you're what's going on.

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Speaker 1: I think that they owe so much of their um

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Speaker 1: just general corporate feel from Apple. Uh. You know. Matt

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Speaker 1: Rogers strikes me as kind of an Apple fanboy who

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Speaker 1: who became eventually one of the iPod software developers there. Um.

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Speaker 1: But he has said that his first computer, when he

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Speaker 1: was like three years old, was a Macintosh Plus and that, um,

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Speaker 1: a lot of the you know, design, sensibility and just

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Speaker 1: just concepts of how to run a business are definitely

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Speaker 1: deeply owed to Apple in general and Steve Jobs very

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Speaker 1: particularly sure, and you can certainly see elements of that

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Speaker 1: when you look at both the company and its products.

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Speaker 1: So Fidel wrote a blog post that when up on

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Speaker 1: thermostat because that was you know that you had two

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Speaker 1: big reactions from people when this was first announced. People

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Speaker 1: would say, uh huh, like what, what's what's your game?

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Speaker 1: Why would you even do this? And the other were

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Speaker 1: like where when and where can I buy one of these?

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Speaker 1: Because it looks beautiful? And I mean, I remember when

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Speaker 1: this came out because I remember, you know, I was

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Speaker 1: a big fan of shows like c Nets Buzz Out Loud,

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Speaker 1: and I remember people like Tom Merritt and Molly would going, uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, kind of bonkers over this thing. They were

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Speaker 1: they were like this, yeah, and at the same time

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Speaker 1: when I started looking into it and my gosh, I

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Speaker 1: kind of want one of those two. Well, he in

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Speaker 1: that blog post laid out what it was they wanted.

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Speaker 1: The thermostat to be able to do. He said he

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Speaker 1: wanted to design the thermostat to learn your preferred temperature

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Speaker 1: and schedule since when you left the house or when

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Speaker 1: you came home, to give you tips and feedback on

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Speaker 1: your energy use. To be able to connect to WiFi

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Speaker 1: so you can control it from anywhere, for it to

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Speaker 1: look beautiful, and for you to feel proud to actually

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Speaker 1: be an owner of it, which it's very Steve jobs

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Speaker 1: ish kind of thing, right right, and also to have

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Speaker 1: a positive impact on the world. And you know, I

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Speaker 1: honestly think based upon the work that this company has done,

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Speaker 1: they're being they're being sincere about that. It's not that

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Speaker 1: you know, it's obviously it's a business, but it's not

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Speaker 1: something where I don't think that's just lip service, like

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Speaker 1: let's make the world a better place. I haven't heard

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Speaker 1: any numbers from outside sources, but according to the company

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Speaker 1: UM as of as of only February, they had already

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Speaker 1: helped energy efficiency to the tune of saving like two

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Speaker 1: million kill a lot hours of energy. So I'm like

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Speaker 1: twenty nine million dollars worth and in US, yeah, convergion,

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Speaker 1: so you're saving money and you're also by by taking

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Speaker 1: down some of that demand, we don't have to produce

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Speaker 1: as much energy and we're not wasting it on on

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Speaker 1: heating an empty house, or we're not burned, we're not

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Speaker 1: burning even more coal or or using up more natural

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Speaker 1: gas or whatever it happens to be that has provided

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Speaker 1: the heat and or a c for those homes. And um,

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Speaker 1: it's interesting. They started taking pre orders for the Nest thermostat,

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Speaker 1: and I think that was at a price point of two,

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Speaker 1: which I believe is what still is today. Two, So

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Speaker 1: you know, not a small amount of money for something

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Speaker 1: like that, but still cheaper than any I mean by half,

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Speaker 1: cheaper than any relatively similar products in the market. Yeah. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and also it would ultimately save you money, assuming that

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Speaker 1: you're using it properly. So at any rate, pre orders

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Speaker 1: pre orders within three days of of them talking about this,

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Speaker 1: that within that blog post going up, they had sold

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Speaker 1: out of all of their stock that they had planned

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Speaker 1: on producing in the short term. So after three days

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Speaker 1: of the store being opened, they shut it. They closed

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Speaker 1: the store after three days with the explanation of guys,

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Speaker 1: this had way more of a demand than we had anticipated.

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Speaker 1: We knew that we had something potentially big on our hands.

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Speaker 1: We didn't know that all of you would agree with us.

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Speaker 1: And so they closed the store and they started working

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Speaker 1: very hard on meeting the demands of the initial pre

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Speaker 1: orders as well as figuring out how were they going

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Speaker 1: to meet the expanded demand. And it wouldn't be until

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Speaker 1: uh later in UH I think it was March two

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Speaker 1: thousand and twelve. So they shut the store down November

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Speaker 1: two thleven. It's not until March two thousand twelve that

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Speaker 1: they're able to open the store back up again. I'm

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Speaker 1: sure that most of that time was devoted to um

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Speaker 1: to investment related issues and sure and maybe like uh

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Speaker 1: streamlining manufacturing process and he's getting the supply chain in order,

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Speaker 1: you know, lots of stuff that the background stuff. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's not terribly exciting to talk about. It's pretty important.

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Speaker 1: It turns out that that's a big deal. We'll be

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Speaker 1: back with more about tech stuff explaining how Nest works

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Speaker 1: after this quick break. So, starting in May two twelve,

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Speaker 1: the Nest Thermostat became available in other places besides their

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Speaker 1: online store. You could get it at Lowe's Hardware stores.

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Speaker 1: By June, you can get it on Amazon. By a

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Speaker 1: little bit later in the year. I think of by

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Speaker 1: October that year you could get it best Buy. You

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Speaker 1: can't even get it at the Apple online store. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so you know, that's obviously the relation. And I don't know,

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Speaker 1: I'll be right now, I don't know if that's going

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Speaker 1: to be be the same now that Google has is

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Speaker 1: acquiring Nest. Yeah, that's a con question. They have affirmed

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Speaker 1: that they are going to um continue supporting I I

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Speaker 1: O S product exactly. Yeah. It's not gonna be like

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Speaker 1: suddenly your iPhone is unable to adjust the temperature of

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Speaker 1: your home, right that would be that would be a

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Speaker 1: pretty ridiculously poor business decision. And I think I think

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Speaker 1: the Google and Apple have both learned their lesson on

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Speaker 1: that kind of I mean, you even had for a while,

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Speaker 1: you had one person, like you had the CEO of

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Speaker 1: Google sitting on the board of directors of Apple for

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Speaker 1: a while, that was Eric Schmidt. That that didn't last forever.

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Speaker 1: He did a step down for the board of directors eventually.

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Speaker 1: But the relationship between Google and Apple is not always contentious,

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Speaker 1: even though they are direct competitors, at least in the

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Speaker 1: mobile space and arguably in the computer space. But I

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Speaker 1: don't think chromebooks are really that big of a competitor

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Speaker 1: against at any rate. Yeah, at any rate. Getting back

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Speaker 1: to Nest, So by October, remember this is just one year,

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Speaker 1: not even a full year since they had announced it,

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Speaker 1: because they they announced it late in October two eleven.

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Speaker 1: But in October twelve, the second generation of Nest Thermostat

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Speaker 1: debuted and um, this one was you know, a little

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Speaker 1: sexy er, even it was thinner. So they were able

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Speaker 1: to miniaturize some of the components make it even more compact,

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Speaker 1: which is kind of astounding because they even increased the

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Speaker 1: capabilities of the second generation. So the first generation worked

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Speaker 1: with oh, I don't know, it was something like fIF

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Speaker 1: HVAC systems out there, and you had to check to

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Speaker 1: make sure before you know, they stressed check to make

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Speaker 1: sure that the one that you have, the system you

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Speaker 1: have is uh is compatible with the system UH. Well,

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Speaker 1: they were able to open that up to a much

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Speaker 1: larger percentage of the market. They also were able to

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Speaker 1: create a device that could work with uh H VAC

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Speaker 1: systems that had two different capacities for cooling down your house,

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Speaker 1: so some of them would work at a percent sometime

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Speaker 1: and then knock it down to for just maintaining a temperature,

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Speaker 1: or if it didn't need to, like if you're getting

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Speaker 1: starting to approach the temperature, then they might might power

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Speaker 1: down a little bit, but not turn all the way off. Well,

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Speaker 1: those systems have two dedicated wires for that. There's one

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Speaker 1: dedicated for there's one decadent, and the original Nest did

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Speaker 1: not have the capability. Yeah, you couldn't. It didn't have

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Speaker 1: a place to plug both of those in the second

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Speaker 1: Nest did, so you could do that. It also works

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Speaker 1: with multi stage heating systems. That works with systems that

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Speaker 1: have humidifiers or de humidifiers, and and across all energy modes.

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Speaker 1: I mean if you've got gas or propane or electricity

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Speaker 1: or etcetera. Yeah, So, so it definitely opened up the

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Speaker 1: market a lot wider than the initial Nest did. And

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Speaker 1: again it was smaller too, so um or at least

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Speaker 1: it was thinner, it didn't project out as far from

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Speaker 1: the wall. So yeah. They say that three out of

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Speaker 1: four of their Nest customers opt to install it themselves

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Speaker 1: and that it can be installed within thirty minutes. They

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Speaker 1: also have the Nest Concierge service, so if you feel

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Speaker 1: like you are one of those one of who would

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Speaker 1: likely electrocute him or herself were you to attempt to

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Speaker 1: install it, such as, I don't know yours truly, uh,

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Speaker 1: not that I haven't nest, but if I did, I

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Speaker 1: would totally. I'm tech savvy, which means I also know

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Speaker 1: it can kill me. Um. But yeah, you can actually

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Speaker 1: opt for an additional fee to have someone come out

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Speaker 1: and help you. So then made two thousand thirteen, Nest

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Speaker 1: made its first acquisition. It was a company called my Energy,

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Speaker 1: which specifically builds products that let users track energy usage

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Speaker 1: and savings. So the idea is by getting some more

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Speaker 1: analytic data and some more collective uh products, they can

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Speaker 1: make the Nest even more effective and make products further

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Speaker 1: down the line that are able to incorporate some of

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Speaker 1: this analysis so that you get an even more granular

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Speaker 1: idea of what's going on and how you can save energy. Now,

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Speaker 1: as we've seen in the past, there's a huge market

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Speaker 1: for stuff that collects data and then analyzes it and

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Speaker 1: presents it to you in an understandable way. Oh sure,

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Speaker 1: and and basically any time that you allow these days, um,

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Speaker 1: you know, nerds, which are most of us. Let's be

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Speaker 1: honest and um to to min max their surroundings. You're

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Speaker 1: going to yeah, fitness trackers perfect example, right, being able

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Speaker 1: to sit there and say, like, now I'm able to

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Speaker 1: attract every single calorie that I intake and burn. I

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Speaker 1: don't mean to make you check your force while you're

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Speaker 1: doing that, but it's a little bit over a thousand today,

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna work out. Okay, that's good. So yeah, I don't.

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Speaker 1: I'm not wearing any of my accouchramal today, not even

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Speaker 1: my pebble. I feel a little lost without it, to

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Speaker 1: be honest. But anyway, so clearly there's a market there,

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Speaker 1: so it makes sense to bring that in and incorporate

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Speaker 1: that in the Nest family. But then, uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: we get over. Towards the end of two thirteen, they

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Speaker 1: also introduced a brand new product, and that's the Nest Protect.

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Speaker 1: That's their smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector. Now, this

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Speaker 1: was obviously a departure and some people again we're thinking,

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Speaker 1: why why would you would I need one of those

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Speaker 1: to be smart? Doesn't the thing on the ceiling that

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Speaker 1: beeps do just as well. But this one, again is

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Speaker 1: WiFi enabled. It can can neck to an app so

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Speaker 1: that that way you can get an alert on your

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Speaker 1: phone if your smoke detector goes off, which obviously could

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Speaker 1: be you know that could be monumentally important. Oh sure,

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Speaker 1: sure it can. It will wirelessly connect to other smoke

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Speaker 1: detectors in your house, so that if, for example, there's

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Speaker 1: a fire in the kitchen, then all of them when

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Speaker 1: they go off, can say, hey, there's a fire in

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Speaker 1: the kitchen. Right, it can specifically tell you where the

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Speaker 1: alarm was triggered. A lot of smoke detector systems are

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Speaker 1: wired together so that if one alarm is triggered trip

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Speaker 1: they all they all beat, but they don't tell you

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Speaker 1: which one it was that was set off. Right, So

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Speaker 1: you have the information that you need in order to

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Speaker 1: get out, but you might not have the information you

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Speaker 1: need to maybe to get out very safely, or or

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Speaker 1: to or to actually diffuse a situation before it gets

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Speaker 1: you know, unmanageable, because it may be that there's something

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Speaker 1: smoking that you can actually take care of and minimize

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Speaker 1: the damage. But if you don't know where in the

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Speaker 1: house that's singing place, obviously the most important thing for

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Speaker 1: you to do is to get out safely, right clearly.

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Speaker 1: So this would give you more information about that, and also,

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Speaker 1: of course the carbon monoxide monitor, which is also very important. UM.

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Speaker 1: It also will work wirelessly with Nest thermostats, so if

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Speaker 1: the carbon monoxide A sensor picks up a concentration, it'll

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Speaker 1: send a message to the Nest thermostat to say, hey,

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Speaker 1: shut off the furnace because we have a leak somewhere

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Speaker 1: or something's going on. Yeah, yeah, I really need stuff.

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Speaker 1: And um these are less expensive than the Nest thermostats.

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Speaker 1: The thermostats are two fifty. The smoke detectors are about

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Speaker 1: I think one thirty to one fifty. As I recall,

430
00:23:36,480 --> 00:23:37,720
Speaker 1: I didn't write it down in front of me, but

431
00:23:37,720 --> 00:23:39,080
Speaker 1: I know it's right in that range because I was

432
00:23:39,119 --> 00:23:43,680
Speaker 1: actually looking at it to um possibly replace my smoke detectors.

433
00:23:44,119 --> 00:23:45,680
Speaker 1: But if I do that, I will have to buy

434
00:23:45,760 --> 00:23:48,480
Speaker 1: five of them because I have five smoke detectors in

435
00:23:48,520 --> 00:23:51,280
Speaker 1: my house. Anyone who follows me on Twitter saw that

436
00:23:51,280 --> 00:23:54,000
Speaker 1: that terrible day when I got home and one of

437
00:23:54,000 --> 00:23:56,000
Speaker 1: them was chirping, and the way my house is laid out,

438
00:23:56,040 --> 00:23:58,240
Speaker 1: I could not tell which one it was, so I

439
00:23:58,280 --> 00:24:00,719
Speaker 1: had to go out and get new batteries for all

440
00:24:00,720 --> 00:24:03,560
Speaker 1: of my smoke detectors, but you should do anyway, but well, yeah, yeah,

441
00:24:03,720 --> 00:24:06,359
Speaker 1: but this would actually tell me what's going on. Also,

442
00:24:06,520 --> 00:24:12,160
Speaker 1: it's designed to be very uh, very careful with power

443
00:24:12,240 --> 00:24:14,840
Speaker 1: consumption and and the and it even says you wouldn't

444
00:24:14,880 --> 00:24:17,480
Speaker 1: have to replace the batteries every single year, but it

445
00:24:17,480 --> 00:24:19,480
Speaker 1: would give you an alert when it has to. In fact,

446
00:24:19,480 --> 00:24:22,080
Speaker 1: it would send you a message on your phone so

447
00:24:22,119 --> 00:24:23,879
Speaker 1: that you wouldn't have to sit there and listen to

448
00:24:24,280 --> 00:24:27,240
Speaker 1: that chirp forever trying to figure out right. And if

449
00:24:27,240 --> 00:24:29,840
Speaker 1: you're away from your house and you get that message,

450
00:24:29,880 --> 00:24:31,560
Speaker 1: then you actually have the opportunity to go and buy

451
00:24:31,560 --> 00:24:34,080
Speaker 1: a battery before you get back and realize that you

452
00:24:34,119 --> 00:24:37,480
Speaker 1: need to go back out again. So very clever and

453
00:24:37,680 --> 00:24:41,040
Speaker 1: uh yeah, it's it looks like it's a pretty neat product.

454
00:24:41,080 --> 00:24:44,320
Speaker 1: You do have to replace it every seven years or

455
00:24:44,359 --> 00:24:47,080
Speaker 1: so because the detectors will eventually wear out. It's a

456
00:24:47,160 --> 00:24:51,320
Speaker 1: chemical based thing, I specifically the carbon monoxide sensors in particular,

457
00:24:51,359 --> 00:24:53,480
Speaker 1: and that's that's that's typical. By the way, if you

458
00:24:53,520 --> 00:24:56,040
Speaker 1: think that that's unusual, no, that's not unusual. For carbon

459
00:24:56,040 --> 00:25:00,320
Speaker 1: monoxide detectors. You do have to replace those regularly because

460
00:25:00,600 --> 00:25:04,080
Speaker 1: the sensors do wear out over time. UM, smoke detectors

461
00:25:04,119 --> 00:25:07,399
Speaker 1: didn't last a little bit longer, but carbon monoxide and

462
00:25:07,520 --> 00:25:10,160
Speaker 1: I think it's still recommended to replace your your smoke

463
00:25:10,200 --> 00:25:13,040
Speaker 1: detectors once every ten years or so. Yeah, I'm I

464
00:25:13,040 --> 00:25:14,359
Speaker 1: don't have the number in front of me, but I

465
00:25:14,400 --> 00:25:18,160
Speaker 1: feel like UM. And all of these devices, by the way,

466
00:25:18,240 --> 00:25:21,400
Speaker 1: do have activity detection like like motion and light sensors

467
00:25:21,400 --> 00:25:23,760
Speaker 1: on them so that they know when you're coming to

468
00:25:23,880 --> 00:25:27,320
Speaker 1: and fro rooms, so that they can all link up

469
00:25:27,400 --> 00:25:30,679
Speaker 1: and decide, you know, figure out when someone is in

470
00:25:30,720 --> 00:25:32,639
Speaker 1: there and whether or not they need to be activated

471
00:25:32,680 --> 00:25:36,560
Speaker 1: for for the for the thermstat's sake, although the carbon

472
00:25:36,560 --> 00:25:39,520
Speaker 1: monoxide and smoke detectors work together with the thermstats to

473
00:25:39,560 --> 00:25:42,760
Speaker 1: help them cover more area. And they also have lights

474
00:25:42,800 --> 00:25:45,119
Speaker 1: in them and will light up if you want them to,

475
00:25:45,560 --> 00:25:47,639
Speaker 1: so that when you you can set it so like

476
00:25:47,760 --> 00:25:49,639
Speaker 1: if it's in bedroom mode, it won't do that. So

477
00:25:49,680 --> 00:25:51,400
Speaker 1: if it detects motion, it won't light up and wake

478
00:25:51,440 --> 00:25:53,320
Speaker 1: you up, But if it's in a hallway and you

479
00:25:53,359 --> 00:25:55,200
Speaker 1: walk out, it will end up acting like a little

480
00:25:55,240 --> 00:25:57,680
Speaker 1: night light, which I thought was kind of cute too.

481
00:25:57,720 --> 00:26:00,600
Speaker 1: And and the light changes color and we'll give you

482
00:26:00,640 --> 00:26:02,800
Speaker 1: a warning. This is probably the thing I like the

483
00:26:02,840 --> 00:26:05,840
Speaker 1: most about the smoke detector. So let's say it starts

484
00:26:05,880 --> 00:26:08,320
Speaker 1: detecting a little bit of smoke and it's not enough

485
00:26:08,359 --> 00:26:10,040
Speaker 1: for it to trigger a full warning yet, but it

486
00:26:10,080 --> 00:26:12,440
Speaker 1: wants to alert you to this fact. It will give

487
00:26:12,480 --> 00:26:17,720
Speaker 1: you an actual human voice, uh warning saying that there

488
00:26:17,840 --> 00:26:21,199
Speaker 1: is detecting some smoke, and the little blue ring of

489
00:26:21,320 --> 00:26:24,280
Speaker 1: light on the device will turn to yellow. And then

490
00:26:24,320 --> 00:26:26,600
Speaker 1: if you go to it, and let's say you are

491
00:26:26,680 --> 00:26:29,800
Speaker 1: like me and you're attempting to roast some veggies and

492
00:26:29,840 --> 00:26:31,959
Speaker 1: you did not realize that you had a little bit

493
00:26:31,960 --> 00:26:34,960
Speaker 1: of minced garlic on the burner or whatever, and that's

494
00:26:34,960 --> 00:26:37,639
Speaker 1: the only reason there's any smoke at all. Uh. You

495
00:26:37,680 --> 00:26:42,640
Speaker 1: can wave physically at the smoke detector and it will say, oh,

496
00:26:42,840 --> 00:26:45,640
Speaker 1: false alarm. Well then never mind. It will shut itself off.

497
00:26:45,840 --> 00:26:49,560
Speaker 1: It will never do the full blast alarm. So my

498
00:26:49,680 --> 00:26:53,280
Speaker 1: dog would be so excited about that. Yes, yes, my

499
00:26:53,440 --> 00:26:56,159
Speaker 1: dog too. Yeah. So the idea of being able to

500
00:26:57,080 --> 00:27:01,440
Speaker 1: uh not have the typical response in the Strickland household

501
00:27:01,720 --> 00:27:05,600
Speaker 1: where the alarm goes off and then the other person

502
00:27:05,640 --> 00:27:09,000
Speaker 1: in the house helpfully chimes out, dinner must be ready.

503
00:27:10,000 --> 00:27:13,639
Speaker 1: That would be nice. That's my life. We've got a

504
00:27:13,640 --> 00:27:16,000
Speaker 1: bit more to say about the Nest, but first let's

505
00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:28,280
Speaker 1: take another quick break. Okay, So it's and uh in

506
00:27:29,640 --> 00:27:32,680
Speaker 1: there was some really big news, especially like we're recording

507
00:27:32,680 --> 00:27:37,560
Speaker 1: this podcast on January. It was not very long ago

508
00:27:37,720 --> 00:27:41,800
Speaker 1: at all when we heard the news that Google was

509
00:27:41,880 --> 00:27:46,159
Speaker 1: acquiring Nest for the some of around three it depends

510
00:27:46,240 --> 00:27:49,280
Speaker 1: upon who you ask. Some say three point two billions,

511
00:27:49,280 --> 00:27:51,480
Speaker 1: some say three point one, some say three point five.

512
00:27:51,800 --> 00:27:55,800
Speaker 1: But in excess of right, yeah, and I think that

513
00:27:55,880 --> 00:28:00,000
Speaker 1: the official news might have broken on thet of January

514
00:28:00,040 --> 00:28:04,520
Speaker 1: wearing that's yeah, not long at all, right, And and

515
00:28:04,560 --> 00:28:06,680
Speaker 1: the thing is, the thing is that Fidel had had

516
00:28:06,720 --> 00:28:09,520
Speaker 1: a meeting with them before Nest even launched. Um and

517
00:28:09,560 --> 00:28:14,960
Speaker 1: then at the TED conference, uh he and Sergey Bryan

518
00:28:15,600 --> 00:28:19,280
Speaker 1: had a big pow wow and they showed him a

519
00:28:19,359 --> 00:28:22,320
Speaker 1: video and a prototype of the Nest and kind of

520
00:28:22,400 --> 00:28:24,679
Speaker 1: got them pretty excited about it, like excited enough that

521
00:28:24,720 --> 00:28:27,359
Speaker 1: in May of that year, Google led their first round

522
00:28:27,400 --> 00:28:29,879
Speaker 1: of financing. I guess it was their second round of financing,

523
00:28:29,920 --> 00:28:33,400
Speaker 1: but um and and would also lead their next round

524
00:28:33,400 --> 00:28:36,879
Speaker 1: of financing the next year. So Google was involved early

525
00:28:36,960 --> 00:28:38,920
Speaker 1: on and making sure that this company was going to

526
00:28:39,040 --> 00:28:41,320
Speaker 1: get the funding it needed to do the work they

527
00:28:41,320 --> 00:28:43,479
Speaker 1: were doing. And I mean, if you look at some

528
00:28:43,520 --> 00:28:47,240
Speaker 1: of Google's other stuff that they're doing with the automos,

529
00:28:47,360 --> 00:28:50,680
Speaker 1: driving is probably the easiest example, right, you can you

530
00:28:50,680 --> 00:28:53,560
Speaker 1: can see that this sort of these algorithms and these

531
00:28:53,600 --> 00:28:58,440
Speaker 1: products fit very well into this kind of integrated uh

532
00:28:58,480 --> 00:29:04,600
Speaker 1: you know, using information in an actual, real world physical way. Yeah.

533
00:29:04,720 --> 00:29:06,760
Speaker 1: And it's been such a big year for Google in

534
00:29:06,880 --> 00:29:10,120
Speaker 1: terms of hardware. Um, you know, they they acquired Motorola

535
00:29:10,240 --> 00:29:13,520
Speaker 1: for what like twelve point five billion dollars. They've been

536
00:29:13,520 --> 00:29:16,960
Speaker 1: working so much with Chromebook. Uh. They they've been working

537
00:29:16,960 --> 00:29:20,600
Speaker 1: with Glass. They've got a rumored smart watch project that

538
00:29:20,600 --> 00:29:24,480
Speaker 1: that could be coming out this year. Although although rumored

539
00:29:24,520 --> 00:29:28,959
Speaker 1: smart watch projects are pretty bountiful, three more watches on

540
00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:32,840
Speaker 1: the way to me, So I'll get excited about that

541
00:29:32,880 --> 00:29:36,360
Speaker 1: when I see a picture. I've got to watch problem, okay,

542
00:29:36,600 --> 00:29:39,560
Speaker 1: I And I imagine that CS did not help that

543
00:29:39,640 --> 00:29:42,880
Speaker 1: at all. It was okay, Yeah, I saw a lot

544
00:29:42,920 --> 00:29:44,720
Speaker 1: of watches, but I thought, no, I think I've got

545
00:29:44,720 --> 00:29:47,520
Speaker 1: that one covered with one exception, but we'll talk about

546
00:29:47,520 --> 00:29:49,520
Speaker 1: that and to see it. Well, we have already talked

547
00:29:49,560 --> 00:29:52,360
Speaker 1: about that the ce S podcast, we just haven't recorded

548
00:29:52,400 --> 00:29:55,680
Speaker 1: it yet. Yes, they're publishing in opposite order. I think.

549
00:29:55,920 --> 00:29:58,880
Speaker 1: So you guys out there have already heard me talk

550
00:29:58,920 --> 00:30:02,080
Speaker 1: about it, but I have not, will have already talked

551
00:30:02,080 --> 00:30:05,840
Speaker 1: about it yet. I think I need a diagram that

552
00:30:05,880 --> 00:30:09,640
Speaker 1: sentence go on. Yes, um okay, and so so, both

553
00:30:09,640 --> 00:30:12,240
Speaker 1: Google and Nest have have indicated that Nest is going

554
00:30:12,280 --> 00:30:14,840
Speaker 1: to remain its own sort of independent thing, which you

555
00:30:14,920 --> 00:30:17,280
Speaker 1: know that was that was one of the big concerns,

556
00:30:17,400 --> 00:30:20,080
Speaker 1: right people where those knee jerk reactions as Google is

557
00:30:20,080 --> 00:30:23,360
Speaker 1: going to purchase this company that does smoke detectors, does

558
00:30:23,440 --> 00:30:26,320
Speaker 1: that mean that Google is going to change it in

559
00:30:26,400 --> 00:30:28,440
Speaker 1: some way? Like is it going to no longer be

560
00:30:28,560 --> 00:30:30,920
Speaker 1: the thing that we got excited about, right or are

561
00:30:30,920 --> 00:30:33,920
Speaker 1: they going to make them work on some other projects

562
00:30:33,920 --> 00:30:36,840
Speaker 1: instead of what they were originally created for? And they've

563
00:30:36,840 --> 00:30:39,360
Speaker 1: said nope, that Google is mostly going to be providing

564
00:30:39,400 --> 00:30:41,760
Speaker 1: you know the kind of money and infrastructure and marketing

565
00:30:41,800 --> 00:30:44,880
Speaker 1: teams and tech resources that will let Nest be more

566
00:30:44,960 --> 00:30:48,440
Speaker 1: themselves than they ever have been before. And other concerns

567
00:30:48,480 --> 00:30:51,480
Speaker 1: like The other big one is that you could conceive

568
00:30:51,680 --> 00:30:57,200
Speaker 1: of Nest devices gathering lots of different information like well,

569
00:30:57,240 --> 00:30:59,719
Speaker 1: I mean, they do gather lots of different information. Um,

570
00:30:59,720 --> 00:31:01,560
Speaker 1: and how that is going to be put to use

571
00:31:01,840 --> 00:31:04,160
Speaker 1: is a pretty big and pretty fair, I think concern

572
00:31:04,240 --> 00:31:06,719
Speaker 1: from the sectors right now. And Nest has already come

573
00:31:06,720 --> 00:31:08,800
Speaker 1: out and said that they don't they don't plan on

574
00:31:08,920 --> 00:31:13,680
Speaker 1: changing their privacy uh statements. Well, they said, and I

575
00:31:13,760 --> 00:31:17,320
Speaker 1: quote from their blog, our privacy policy clearly limits the

576
00:31:17,400 --> 00:31:21,680
Speaker 1: use of customer information to providing and improving Nests products

577
00:31:21,680 --> 00:31:25,440
Speaker 1: and services. We've always taken privacy seriously and this will

578
00:31:25,480 --> 00:31:28,720
Speaker 1: not change. Right, So the fact that they take privacy

579
00:31:28,800 --> 00:31:31,840
Speaker 1: seriously won't change. They haven't said that their privacy policies

580
00:31:31,880 --> 00:31:35,280
Speaker 1: won't change. Okay, fair enough if you're going to parse

581
00:31:35,360 --> 00:31:38,040
Speaker 1: it to that level. But I think I think the

582
00:31:38,040 --> 00:31:40,320
Speaker 1: main concern people had was, all right, so does this

583
00:31:40,360 --> 00:31:42,680
Speaker 1: mean you're gonna send Google all this information about when

584
00:31:42,720 --> 00:31:44,800
Speaker 1: I'm home, when I'm not home, how active I am,

585
00:31:45,120 --> 00:31:47,400
Speaker 1: what I you know, whether or not you know how

586
00:31:47,400 --> 00:31:49,360
Speaker 1: many people tend to be in my house and rooms

587
00:31:49,400 --> 00:31:51,479
Speaker 1: I spend the most time in. It's all the information

588
00:31:51,480 --> 00:31:52,600
Speaker 1: is going to go to Google and then I'm going

589
00:31:52,640 --> 00:31:56,320
Speaker 1: to get directed advertising or worse because of this. And

590
00:31:56,360 --> 00:31:59,320
Speaker 1: I think that was them saying like, that's not gonna happen.

591
00:31:59,360 --> 00:32:01,480
Speaker 1: You're not gonna You're not going to have your your

592
00:32:01,480 --> 00:32:05,600
Speaker 1: smoke detector and your thermostat tattling on you. Well, I mean,

593
00:32:05,640 --> 00:32:07,840
Speaker 1: you know, I could. I could certainly see One of

594
00:32:07,880 --> 00:32:10,000
Speaker 1: the concerns that I that I've read about was that

595
00:32:10,360 --> 00:32:14,080
Speaker 1: Google could sell your your energy usage data to providers

596
00:32:14,160 --> 00:32:17,360
Speaker 1: to let them advertise to you more sadly. Um. And

597
00:32:17,440 --> 00:32:22,600
Speaker 1: I can totally picture Google doing that. I mean maybe, yeah,

598
00:32:22,720 --> 00:32:25,960
Speaker 1: kind of, I can see it happening. I mean, if

599
00:32:26,200 --> 00:32:27,880
Speaker 1: let me put it to you this way, if that

600
00:32:27,880 --> 00:32:29,680
Speaker 1: would mean at the end of the day that I

601
00:32:29,760 --> 00:32:35,440
Speaker 1: actually had the opportunity to take advantage of genuinely good deals,

602
00:32:35,520 --> 00:32:38,160
Speaker 1: I wouldn't necessarily be upset about that. Yeah. And and

603
00:32:38,200 --> 00:32:40,600
Speaker 1: to be fair, and Nest already does have partnerships with

604
00:32:40,720 --> 00:32:44,280
Speaker 1: energy providers. Um, I mean they are opt in, and

605
00:32:44,680 --> 00:32:47,120
Speaker 1: but it's for you know, either free or discounted equipment

606
00:32:47,240 --> 00:32:50,040
Speaker 1: or rates on energies. And I would hope they would

607
00:32:50,040 --> 00:32:53,160
Speaker 1: remain an opt in approach. That would I always prefer

608
00:32:53,160 --> 00:32:56,600
Speaker 1: opt in to opt out, because when you know that

609
00:32:56,680 --> 00:32:59,000
Speaker 1: you can take advantage of the stuff, but you don't

610
00:32:59,040 --> 00:33:01,960
Speaker 1: feel like that's a appropriate then you don't have to

611
00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:05,480
Speaker 1: do anything. I hate systems where it just assumes that

612
00:33:05,520 --> 00:33:08,240
Speaker 1: you are in whole hog and then you have to

613
00:33:08,320 --> 00:33:12,320
Speaker 1: hunt through this labyrinthian system to find the one checkbox

614
00:33:12,360 --> 00:33:15,000
Speaker 1: two un check so that you are looking at you

615
00:33:15,080 --> 00:33:18,360
Speaker 1: Facebook so that you can so that you can get

616
00:33:18,400 --> 00:33:20,840
Speaker 1: out of that system. So as long as it remains

617
00:33:20,840 --> 00:33:22,920
Speaker 1: opt in, and of course that's a big if, right,

618
00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:26,080
Speaker 1: I mean that's I like to wear rose colored glasses

619
00:33:26,080 --> 00:33:28,400
Speaker 1: for this sort of stuff. But I am aware that

620
00:33:28,520 --> 00:33:30,560
Speaker 1: sometimes companies make these changes. But as long as it

621
00:33:30,600 --> 00:33:34,040
Speaker 1: remains opt in, I'm perfectly fine with us. But at

622
00:33:34,040 --> 00:33:36,200
Speaker 1: any rate, anytime you're talking about any kind of ice

623
00:33:36,240 --> 00:33:39,480
Speaker 1: that's collecting information in one way or another, how that

624
00:33:39,560 --> 00:33:42,080
Speaker 1: data could eventually be used is always going to be

625
00:33:42,120 --> 00:33:47,040
Speaker 1: a concern, exactly. Yeah. Um. One one other Google's Sway

626
00:33:47,200 --> 00:33:51,320
Speaker 1: kind of concern is that it's going to is that

627
00:33:51,360 --> 00:33:54,600
Speaker 1: it may become difficult to not have a nest installed

628
00:33:54,600 --> 00:33:57,120
Speaker 1: in your house if they get enough contracts with enough

629
00:33:57,720 --> 00:34:01,520
Speaker 1: HVACT providers and which you know they certainly have the

630
00:34:01,520 --> 00:34:04,560
Speaker 1: the money and the marketing power to do then, um,

631
00:34:04,600 --> 00:34:07,760
Speaker 1: you know, having having these providers, say, because you can

632
00:34:07,800 --> 00:34:09,440
Speaker 1: buy a Nest retail, but you can also get it

633
00:34:09,480 --> 00:34:12,479
Speaker 1: through whatever company you use to to heat and cool

634
00:34:12,520 --> 00:34:16,919
Speaker 1: your home. And so people have expressed a concern that

635
00:34:17,960 --> 00:34:21,960
Speaker 1: that it will be harder and harder to have a

636
00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:26,000
Speaker 1: non smart thermostat in your house once these things really

637
00:34:26,040 --> 00:34:28,960
Speaker 1: catch on and people figure out how much money and

638
00:34:29,000 --> 00:34:32,399
Speaker 1: equipment wear and tear can be saved by installing them. Oh, sure,

639
00:34:32,440 --> 00:34:35,480
Speaker 1: if you have a system that is dependent upon Nest thermostat.

640
00:34:35,520 --> 00:34:38,480
Speaker 1: Not that there are such systems right now, because right

641
00:34:38,520 --> 00:34:41,080
Speaker 1: now Nest is designed to work with anything to work

642
00:34:41,120 --> 00:34:43,919
Speaker 1: with the pre existing systems. But down the line, let's

643
00:34:43,920 --> 00:34:46,520
Speaker 1: say we go down five ten years, I could see

644
00:34:46,520 --> 00:34:49,719
Speaker 1: that being a real issue, especially you're talking several generations

645
00:34:49,840 --> 00:34:52,759
Speaker 1: down in the Nest product line. You could end up

646
00:34:52,800 --> 00:34:55,279
Speaker 1: with a system that was optimized for a Nest and

647
00:34:55,320 --> 00:34:59,400
Speaker 1: then yeah, you know, you might in theory be able

648
00:34:59,440 --> 00:35:02,960
Speaker 1: to disc nect it and then put in a generic thermostat,

649
00:35:03,400 --> 00:35:06,160
Speaker 1: but it might not work very well, kind of like

650
00:35:06,200 --> 00:35:10,600
Speaker 1: the way Nest wasn't always compatible with everything that existed.

651
00:35:10,680 --> 00:35:14,560
Speaker 1: Pregeneration too and yeah, I think that that's another another

652
00:35:15,040 --> 00:35:16,799
Speaker 1: area where people are like, well, what if I don't

653
00:35:16,840 --> 00:35:19,120
Speaker 1: want that much data collected about me? And what if

654
00:35:19,160 --> 00:35:22,520
Speaker 1: I want a dumb thermostat and I and I don't

655
00:35:22,520 --> 00:35:24,759
Speaker 1: think that. I mean, I think it's going to be

656
00:35:24,840 --> 00:35:27,760
Speaker 1: at least a couple of minutes before anyone is forcing

657
00:35:27,840 --> 00:35:31,040
Speaker 1: us all to have smart thermostats. But that when the

658
00:35:31,120 --> 00:35:33,359
Speaker 1: day comes, you'll be used to it, so don't worry

659
00:35:33,400 --> 00:35:36,040
Speaker 1: about it. And by then all of your data will

660
00:35:36,040 --> 00:35:39,239
Speaker 1: be out already from everything else that we interact with,

661
00:35:39,320 --> 00:35:41,400
Speaker 1: so our thermostat will be you know, it will mean nothing.

662
00:35:41,440 --> 00:35:43,680
Speaker 1: But then, um, so let's talk a little bit about

663
00:35:43,719 --> 00:35:46,960
Speaker 1: what actually makes it tick. Not that they tick, they

664
00:35:46,960 --> 00:35:49,560
Speaker 1: don't tick. If if your nest is ticking, you might

665
00:35:49,600 --> 00:35:52,520
Speaker 1: want to have that checked out. Now, the nest thermostat

666
00:35:52,600 --> 00:35:55,279
Speaker 1: has multiple temperature sensors inside of it, and this is

667
00:35:55,400 --> 00:35:57,840
Speaker 1: the idea of the multiple sensors is in order to

668
00:35:57,880 --> 00:36:01,959
Speaker 1: get the most accurate reading on the temperature of the room, right,

669
00:36:02,280 --> 00:36:06,640
Speaker 1: So these sensors are are designed so that they can

670
00:36:06,880 --> 00:36:11,400
Speaker 1: very carefully calibrate the climate system so it meets exactly

671
00:36:11,480 --> 00:36:15,160
Speaker 1: what it is that the thermostat has learned you like.

672
00:36:15,560 --> 00:36:17,960
Speaker 1: So if it knows that I like the temperature of

673
00:36:18,040 --> 00:36:21,359
Speaker 1: my house, especially say in my bedroom to be right

674
00:36:21,400 --> 00:36:25,120
Speaker 1: around seventy degrees when I go to bed, it can

675
00:36:25,920 --> 00:36:28,520
Speaker 1: uh start that up when it gets close to bedtime,

676
00:36:28,640 --> 00:36:30,160
Speaker 1: and the rest of the time it may just be

677
00:36:30,320 --> 00:36:33,480
Speaker 1: you know, kind of a warmer temperature or colder depending

678
00:36:33,520 --> 00:36:37,839
Speaker 1: upon what time of year it is. Um and then uh.

679
00:36:38,120 --> 00:36:40,840
Speaker 1: So that's the main sensor obviously for heat, but it

680
00:36:40,880 --> 00:36:44,480
Speaker 1: also contains motion and light sensors, so it can detect

681
00:36:44,480 --> 00:36:47,400
Speaker 1: when people are home, because if no one's home, then

682
00:36:47,440 --> 00:36:51,520
Speaker 1: it can go into away mode right and Ottawa Way

683
00:36:51,560 --> 00:36:53,560
Speaker 1: I think is what they call it. But anyway, the

684
00:36:53,560 --> 00:36:56,280
Speaker 1: the idea is that it can then start to ramp

685
00:36:56,400 --> 00:37:00,680
Speaker 1: down the the system so they're not putting out so

686
00:37:00,880 --> 00:37:03,839
Speaker 1: not consuming so much energy. And it used to be

687
00:37:03,880 --> 00:37:07,040
Speaker 1: that it would wait I think it was it was

688
00:37:07,080 --> 00:37:10,719
Speaker 1: more than an hour or an hour plus something to

689
00:37:11,160 --> 00:37:13,439
Speaker 1: before I would go into auta away. Now it's half

690
00:37:13,440 --> 00:37:16,360
Speaker 1: an hour. Um they did a software update, so I

691
00:37:16,400 --> 00:37:18,279
Speaker 1: think even generation one will do it in half an

692
00:37:18,280 --> 00:37:21,040
Speaker 1: hour now. So if it doesn't detect any movement, and

693
00:37:21,160 --> 00:37:24,239
Speaker 1: if especially if you have a pattern of leaving at

694
00:37:24,520 --> 00:37:27,200
Speaker 1: around a certain time each day, it will go ahead

695
00:37:27,280 --> 00:37:29,640
Speaker 1: and get and go into that away mode so that

696
00:37:29,680 --> 00:37:33,960
Speaker 1: it doesn't waste energy. And then there are all these

697
00:37:34,000 --> 00:37:37,200
Speaker 1: algorithms that has that uses an onboard computer. It's actually

698
00:37:37,239 --> 00:37:41,160
Speaker 1: got a microprocessor. It's an arm based microprocessor, so similar

699
00:37:41,200 --> 00:37:42,880
Speaker 1: to what you would find in a mobile phone or

700
00:37:42,880 --> 00:37:45,840
Speaker 1: a tablet, uh. And it would run those algorithms to

701
00:37:46,640 --> 00:37:49,960
Speaker 1: create those those patterns and the responses to the patterns

702
00:37:50,239 --> 00:37:52,520
Speaker 1: so that it would start to control the system and

703
00:37:52,560 --> 00:37:54,600
Speaker 1: make sure it was the most comfortable whenever you happen

704
00:37:54,640 --> 00:37:57,080
Speaker 1: to be coming home. Um, and that would be and

705
00:37:57,120 --> 00:38:00,680
Speaker 1: that's that learning behavior kind of thing that active change.

706
00:38:00,960 --> 00:38:02,879
Speaker 1: And it has both RAM and ROM, so I mean

707
00:38:02,880 --> 00:38:05,680
Speaker 1: it's it is like a little computer. It's like it's

708
00:38:05,680 --> 00:38:08,560
Speaker 1: a tiny well mounted computer that knows what temperature you

709
00:38:08,600 --> 00:38:10,440
Speaker 1: want it to be. Yep. It's got the Wi Fi

710
00:38:10,560 --> 00:38:13,320
Speaker 1: chip obviously that allows it to connect to your home network.

711
00:38:13,400 --> 00:38:16,439
Speaker 1: This is what allows you to operate it via an app. Right,

712
00:38:16,480 --> 00:38:19,839
Speaker 1: although they also can connect wirelessly directly to each other

713
00:38:19,880 --> 00:38:21,960
Speaker 1: without going through your home networks, so that if your

714
00:38:21,960 --> 00:38:24,279
Speaker 1: power goes out, they can still talk to each other. Yeah,

715
00:38:24,440 --> 00:38:26,879
Speaker 1: they're not obviously if your power goes out, they are

716
00:38:27,000 --> 00:38:31,160
Speaker 1: not going to be able to control system. But it

717
00:38:31,200 --> 00:38:33,920
Speaker 1: means that in the in terms of the carbon, monoxide

718
00:38:33,920 --> 00:38:37,160
Speaker 1: and smell detectors, that they will still operate, Yes, exactly.

719
00:38:37,920 --> 00:38:39,719
Speaker 1: One of the cool things I actually looked at a

720
00:38:39,719 --> 00:38:43,840
Speaker 1: tear down of a Nest thermostat, and there was They

721
00:38:43,880 --> 00:38:47,320
Speaker 1: showed the battery inside the thermostat and a couple of

722
00:38:47,320 --> 00:38:49,480
Speaker 1: cool things about it. One, the battery is there sort

723
00:38:49,520 --> 00:38:52,040
Speaker 1: of to act kind of in the place of a capacitor. Now,

724
00:38:52,040 --> 00:38:54,359
Speaker 1: a capacitor is designed to store energy and then release

725
00:38:54,440 --> 00:38:56,560
Speaker 1: it all at once. The battery is not releasing it

726
00:38:56,640 --> 00:38:58,920
Speaker 1: all at once. What's there to do is to supplement

727
00:38:59,239 --> 00:39:02,279
Speaker 1: the electricity that the Nest dermostatic gets from your home,

728
00:39:02,360 --> 00:39:04,880
Speaker 1: So you hardwire it to your home right so it's

729
00:39:04,920 --> 00:39:08,080
Speaker 1: connected to your HVAC system that way and it draws

730
00:39:08,120 --> 00:39:10,560
Speaker 1: power that way. But that power is not sufficient enough

731
00:39:10,600 --> 00:39:12,840
Speaker 1: for it to do some of the ultra cool things

732
00:39:12,880 --> 00:39:15,680
Speaker 1: the Nest does, like broadcast over WiFi or have that

733
00:39:15,760 --> 00:39:19,799
Speaker 1: beautiful LCD screen which is I think four bit and

734
00:39:19,840 --> 00:39:23,879
Speaker 1: three twenty by three twenty resolution. So you know, most

735
00:39:23,880 --> 00:39:26,240
Speaker 1: thermostats don't have that. They don't need that much power,

736
00:39:26,320 --> 00:39:28,760
Speaker 1: but this one does, so the battery provides that extra power.

737
00:39:29,040 --> 00:39:30,920
Speaker 1: The cool thing about the tear down was they showed

738
00:39:30,920 --> 00:39:34,719
Speaker 1: that not only is it a replaceable battery, but the

739
00:39:34,800 --> 00:39:37,520
Speaker 1: directions on how to replace it are actually on the

740
00:39:38,080 --> 00:39:40,520
Speaker 1: various cables that attached to the battery itself. It says

741
00:39:40,840 --> 00:39:45,560
Speaker 1: pull this, push this, and so. Uh. The the it was,

742
00:39:45,640 --> 00:39:48,040
Speaker 1: I fix it. That's a great website for anyone who

743
00:39:48,080 --> 00:39:50,200
Speaker 1: likes tear downs. You should go check that out, but

744
00:39:50,320 --> 00:39:53,840
Speaker 1: specifically to show how easy or difficult it is to

745
00:39:53,880 --> 00:39:57,000
Speaker 1: take apart various pieces of equipment if you ever have

746
00:39:57,120 --> 00:39:59,919
Speaker 1: to repair it. So it's really meant for repair Phoe.

747
00:40:00,120 --> 00:40:02,120
Speaker 1: You know, it's not necessarily meant for the average person.

748
00:40:02,400 --> 00:40:04,480
Speaker 1: But they said this is remarkable because not only is

749
00:40:04,520 --> 00:40:06,680
Speaker 1: it easy to do, but they even include instructions on

750
00:40:06,719 --> 00:40:08,960
Speaker 1: how to do it. It's very it's very repair friendly,

751
00:40:09,680 --> 00:40:11,960
Speaker 1: which if you think back to the fact this guy's

752
00:40:12,000 --> 00:40:17,319
Speaker 1: from Apple might shock you. That's some commentary. But they

753
00:40:17,360 --> 00:40:20,640
Speaker 1: also have sensors that are humidity sensors, so that it

754
00:40:20,719 --> 00:40:23,480
Speaker 1: can control a humidifier or de humidifier if that's part

755
00:40:23,520 --> 00:40:26,359
Speaker 1: of your climate control system. I do not have one

756
00:40:26,400 --> 00:40:30,000
Speaker 1: of those. Um also it can work with you know,

757
00:40:30,080 --> 00:40:33,320
Speaker 1: you have you ever seen the systems that have uh

758
00:40:33,560 --> 00:40:37,520
Speaker 1: heating elements underneath floors, so it can actually do radiant heating.

759
00:40:37,520 --> 00:40:40,399
Speaker 1: It will heap the floor system they have. They'll work

760
00:40:40,440 --> 00:40:42,719
Speaker 1: with the nest too. They have sensors that will work

761
00:40:42,719 --> 00:40:47,400
Speaker 1: with that as well. Yes, that's pretty awesome and uh

762
00:40:47,160 --> 00:40:50,160
Speaker 1: and it's also important because one of the drawbacks to

763
00:40:50,200 --> 00:40:52,919
Speaker 1: those those systems. One thing is that they are really

764
00:40:52,920 --> 00:40:56,240
Speaker 1: efficient and they're very quiet, but it takes a while

765
00:40:56,920 --> 00:40:59,520
Speaker 1: for it to warm up a room, and they tend

766
00:40:59,600 --> 00:41:03,880
Speaker 1: to kind of muck with regular thermostats. Thermostats really have

767
00:41:04,080 --> 00:41:06,640
Speaker 1: trouble being able to detect whin a room is a

768
00:41:06,640 --> 00:41:10,960
Speaker 1: comfortable temperature using this radiant heat technology. But the next

769
00:41:11,080 --> 00:41:12,880
Speaker 1: one has a mode in it when you if you

770
00:41:12,920 --> 00:41:14,400
Speaker 1: have that kind of system and you hook it up

771
00:41:14,400 --> 00:41:17,560
Speaker 1: into the nest, it can take that into consideration and

772
00:41:17,600 --> 00:41:19,840
Speaker 1: thus not be confused, so you don't end up with

773
00:41:19,960 --> 00:41:22,600
Speaker 1: floors that are too warm to walk on, which would

774
00:41:22,600 --> 00:41:27,640
Speaker 1: be bad. The floor is literally lava floor. Yeah, so

775
00:41:27,680 --> 00:41:30,960
Speaker 1: it also is you know, it's it's got all the

776
00:41:30,960 --> 00:41:33,360
Speaker 1: elements of your basic computer is really what is it?

777
00:41:33,480 --> 00:41:35,879
Speaker 1: And it's a circular circuit board. So if you look

778
00:41:35,880 --> 00:41:38,120
Speaker 1: at those tear downs, it is a thing of beauty.

779
00:41:38,160 --> 00:41:39,719
Speaker 1: And in fact, I think on the I fix at

780
00:41:39,719 --> 00:41:42,560
Speaker 1: one in particular, they say, you don't seem any circular

781
00:41:42,600 --> 00:41:46,200
Speaker 1: circuit boards. This is pretty cool. That's that's really cute.

782
00:41:46,239 --> 00:41:48,800
Speaker 1: That's that I mean, it's it's an optimization of the space,

783
00:41:48,840 --> 00:41:52,160
Speaker 1: which is wonderful, but just that kind of design detail

784
00:41:52,280 --> 00:41:56,360
Speaker 1: is wonderful. Yep, yep. So it's really an interesting product.

785
00:41:56,680 --> 00:42:00,160
Speaker 1: It's one of those things where maybe eventually I will

786
00:42:00,440 --> 00:42:03,800
Speaker 1: I'll go whole hog and and save up the money

787
00:42:03,840 --> 00:42:07,399
Speaker 1: to refit my house because I would need to share

788
00:42:07,520 --> 00:42:09,920
Speaker 1: I it would be a significant investment. You know, you're

789
00:42:09,920 --> 00:42:13,200
Speaker 1: talking at that point for for me to replace the

790
00:42:13,200 --> 00:42:16,720
Speaker 1: thermostats and the smoke detectors in my house. We're talking

791
00:42:16,760 --> 00:42:19,080
Speaker 1: more than a thousand dollars. So that's not a small

792
00:42:19,120 --> 00:42:21,880
Speaker 1: amount of money. It's certainly not. But you know, some

793
00:42:21,920 --> 00:42:23,960
Speaker 1: of the cool stuff I talked about what some of

794
00:42:23,960 --> 00:42:27,080
Speaker 1: those naysayers are talking about with with this entire Google deal,

795
00:42:27,120 --> 00:42:28,560
Speaker 1: but some of the cool stuff that could go on,

796
00:42:28,680 --> 00:42:31,680
Speaker 1: you know, uh, nest could potentially collaborate with your Google

797
00:42:31,719 --> 00:42:35,960
Speaker 1: apps to automatically detect when you're on vacation or how

798
00:42:36,000 --> 00:42:38,879
Speaker 1: long it takes you to get home from work, and uh,

799
00:42:38,920 --> 00:42:41,799
Speaker 1: and an update its temperature preferences based on that, and

800
00:42:41,840 --> 00:42:44,959
Speaker 1: it's temperature warm up and cool down. Yeah, I didn't

801
00:42:44,960 --> 00:42:48,440
Speaker 1: even mention that the WiFi connectivity allows it to even

802
00:42:49,000 --> 00:42:52,080
Speaker 1: figure out what the temperature is in your region, so

803
00:42:52,120 --> 00:42:55,560
Speaker 1: that it can anticipate how hard it's going to have

804
00:42:55,640 --> 00:42:58,120
Speaker 1: to work or how hard your HVAC system will have

805
00:42:58,160 --> 00:43:01,080
Speaker 1: to work to camera act what and where the outside

806
00:43:01,080 --> 00:43:04,320
Speaker 1: temperature happens to be. So here in Atlanta, for example,

807
00:43:04,400 --> 00:43:07,440
Speaker 1: and say I don't know July, it would know that

808
00:43:07,480 --> 00:43:10,800
Speaker 1: the temperature outside is surface of the sun. And therefore,

809
00:43:11,160 --> 00:43:13,760
Speaker 1: if you are going to be home in forty five minutes,

810
00:43:13,800 --> 00:43:15,640
Speaker 1: it might as well start cranking up the A C now,

811
00:43:15,680 --> 00:43:17,400
Speaker 1: because that's how long it's going to take it for

812
00:43:17,480 --> 00:43:19,839
Speaker 1: your house to be habitable by the time you get there.

813
00:43:20,920 --> 00:43:27,080
Speaker 1: Also some commentary um Also, Nest employees could potentially start

814
00:43:27,160 --> 00:43:30,920
Speaker 1: collaborating with with other Google departments and and working on

815
00:43:30,920 --> 00:43:33,799
Speaker 1: on hardware, maybe maybe that elusive smart watch that we've

816
00:43:33,800 --> 00:43:36,279
Speaker 1: been hearing about, or some of those automated cars or

817
00:43:36,280 --> 00:43:39,560
Speaker 1: are personal robots that Google X has been talking. If

818
00:43:39,600 --> 00:43:43,920
Speaker 1: I find out that the Google automated car gets a

819
00:43:44,040 --> 00:43:46,760
Speaker 1: Nest climate control system in it, I'm just like, just

820
00:43:46,760 --> 00:43:49,800
Speaker 1: just just sell it. Just let me buy one, or

821
00:43:50,080 --> 00:43:53,000
Speaker 1: not even climate control. I mean, these are clearly incredibly

822
00:43:53,280 --> 00:43:56,840
Speaker 1: um smart, savvy people who are working for Nest. They

823
00:43:56,840 --> 00:43:59,160
Speaker 1: could they could work on any number of projects, and

824
00:43:59,200 --> 00:44:01,000
Speaker 1: they could they could be I mean like, could Nest

825
00:44:01,080 --> 00:44:04,279
Speaker 1: be Google's new smart home division? Yeah, no, it totally

826
00:44:04,320 --> 00:44:06,839
Speaker 1: could be that. Now, you know, before we get all

827
00:44:06,840 --> 00:44:09,439
Speaker 1: excited about that, let's keep in mind that Motorola has

828
00:44:09,480 --> 00:44:13,680
Speaker 1: not exactly become Google's you know, mobile division, and in fact,

829
00:44:13,760 --> 00:44:16,919
Speaker 1: there's some talk of Motorola spinning off and becoming its own,

830
00:44:17,120 --> 00:44:22,359
Speaker 1: uh independent sub company. So you know, there's we're not

831
00:44:22,520 --> 00:44:25,920
Speaker 1: we're not ready to prognosticate fully yet. It's too bad.

832
00:44:25,960 --> 00:44:27,960
Speaker 1: I didn't make this one of my two thousand fourteen

833
00:44:27,960 --> 00:44:30,600
Speaker 1: predictions that Google was going to buy Nest. I did

834
00:44:30,640 --> 00:44:33,279
Speaker 1: not see that coming, and I don't think anybody saw

835
00:44:33,320 --> 00:44:37,880
Speaker 1: this one coming, aside from maybe like Larry Page and

836
00:44:38,760 --> 00:44:42,480
Speaker 1: maybe Fidel Yeah. I did make the joke on Twitter

837
00:44:42,640 --> 00:44:44,839
Speaker 1: that if Google wanted, they could pay me three point

838
00:44:44,920 --> 00:44:47,600
Speaker 1: one billion and I'd be happy, to manually change everyone's

839
00:44:47,640 --> 00:44:51,640
Speaker 1: thermostatic for them whenever they liked. But they did not

840
00:44:51,680 --> 00:44:54,200
Speaker 1: take me up on that, I'm sorry, which is too

841
00:44:54,200 --> 00:44:55,840
Speaker 1: bad because then I could have afforded to get the

842
00:44:55,920 --> 00:45:00,400
Speaker 1: Nest once put in my house. All right. Well, anyway,

843
00:45:00,440 --> 00:45:03,840
Speaker 1: that wraps up our our discussion about Nest the company,

844
00:45:03,960 --> 00:45:06,680
Speaker 1: the fact that it has entered into this new era.

845
00:45:07,280 --> 00:45:09,600
Speaker 1: Uh and you know, we don't really know what that

846
00:45:09,640 --> 00:45:12,399
Speaker 1: means yet. It could very well mean that we're going

847
00:45:12,400 --> 00:45:15,880
Speaker 1: into an era where privacy becomes even a larger concern

848
00:45:16,000 --> 00:45:18,520
Speaker 1: and that you know this, this could mean some dark

849
00:45:18,560 --> 00:45:21,240
Speaker 1: stuff in the future. I'm hoping that that's not the case.

850
00:45:21,280 --> 00:45:24,400
Speaker 1: I'm cautiously optimistic that we're going to see some really

851
00:45:24,440 --> 00:45:27,480
Speaker 1: cool collaborations between Nest and Google come out of this,

852
00:45:28,080 --> 00:45:31,080
Speaker 1: and hopefully the kind that will benefit us as consumers

853
00:45:31,760 --> 00:45:35,440
Speaker 1: more so than say, any kind of advertiser. That wraps

854
00:45:35,560 --> 00:45:38,360
Speaker 1: up this classic episode. Hope you guys enjoyed it. I

855
00:45:38,480 --> 00:45:40,480
Speaker 1: look forward to hearing from you if you have any

856
00:45:40,520 --> 00:45:44,279
Speaker 1: suggestions about future topics I should cover in tech Stuff.

857
00:45:44,320 --> 00:45:46,120
Speaker 1: The best way to get in touch with me it's

858
00:45:46,160 --> 00:45:49,160
Speaker 1: over on Twitter. We use the handle text stuff hs

859
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Speaker 1: W and I'll talk to you again really soon. Text

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Speaker 1: Stuff is an I heart Radio production. For more podcasts

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Speaker 1: from I heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app,

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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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Speaker 1: H