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Google Buys Home Automation Company Nest

Posted by Unknown on from the google+-account-required-to-turn-on-lights dept.

JDG1980 writes "Google just announced that they will be purchasing Nest, a company best known for their 'smart' thermostats and smoke detectors, for $3.2 billion in cash. What will this mean for Nest devices going forward — greater integration with Android, perhaps?"

13 of 257 comments (clear)

  1. Track your every move by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What they'll do is track when you're home, what temperature you like your house, whether you're cold at night, etc, and then use it to advertise at you. Isn't that what Google does with everything?

    1. Re:Track your every move by DaHat · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You forgot "requiring Google+ integration for managing your NEST".

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      Help Brendan pay off his student loans
    2. Re:Track your every move by phrostie · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Remember when it wasn't Google's fault that their street view cars intercepted your emails?

      Nest uses your home network.
      now it won't matter if you're on gmail or not.

    3. Re:Track your every move by tlhIngan · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If they had plans to keep Nest's data away from Google after the acquisition, they'd have said it plainly as they have with everything else they say. The fact that they aren't doing that here makes it pretty clear what their intent is.

      Well, all it takes is for Google to "unify" the privacy policy of Nest with the rest of the Google privacy policy.

      And yes, they probably give you an opt-out, in which case your Nest becomes a dumb thermostat because access via the (now-defunct iOS version) smartphone apps and web access require accepting G+ and the new privacy policy.

      (And note to Apple, Google and Microsoft - please, can you stop buying up companies that make apps and discontinuing the competing versions? I know it's probably good for business, but c'mon now. There's nothing wrong with seeing Google and Microsoft in the Apple App Store, Apple and Microsoft in Google Play and Apple and Google in Microsoft Store...).

    4. Re:Track your every move by tlhIngan · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Slashdot 2015: Google announces end of life for Nest products, citing low advertising revenue from the platform.

      And yet, Nest has a nice screen on it (not touch). Which can display ads while the thermostat is otherwise idle... what possible use could the homeover have to seeing the set temperature all day? Why not just use that idle screen space to display ads?

    5. Re:Track your every move by icebike · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Nor would the under $20 fully programmable, been around since dirt, standard as the day is long, conventional wall thermostat.

      Come on for pete sake, turning on the heat when its cold is the job of a thermostat. They've been doing it since the 30s, and became programmable since the late 70s. Don't act so impressed that your thermostat actually worked.

      You've paid in excess of 15 times what you needed to pay for program-ability, only to have it be totally dependent on the internet!

      There's one born every minute.

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    6. Re:Track your every move by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Insightful

      We have a Nest and love it.

      I would buy one if there was a mode to "ignore any adjustment by 15 year old daughter."

    7. Re:Track your every move by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I would buy one if there was a mode to "ignore any adjustment by 15 year old daughter."

      lock the thermostat and adjust it via your phone or computer. Then she can't do a thing.

      She probably has a key logger on my computer. But if not, she will just tape an ice pack to the thermostat.

  2. No, it means... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    They'll all get bricked in a year and a half when the service doesn't see the adoption Google wants and shuts it down.

  3. In Soviet Googlestan--- by ackthpt · · Score: 2, Insightful

    TV watches itself for YOU!

    it also orders stuff on line you might like.

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    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  4. $3.2B by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ridiculous sum of money for Nest. Google is starting to look like a has been trying to buy their way to relevance like Microsoft.

  5. Re:I'll be keeping mine by Trashcan+Romeo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That assurance should last as long as "We won't track your data across services" did.

  6. What's with the Doom and Gloom? by retroworks · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I own a warehouse and have to pay a security firm to receive emergency signals for freezing (pipes!) and smoke or overheating. I'd like to be able to monitor it myself. I'd live with ads if i can reduce what I pay the security company. Seems kind of obvious.

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