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Google Nest Rumored To Be Moving Into Audio

Posted by samzenpus on from the spread-the-music dept.

CIStud writes Google's Nest, best known for its innovated smart Nest thermostats and Nest Protect smoke detectors, has posted several new job positions for "Nest Audio" including a leadership position to handle "acoustics, audio electronics, audio SW, audio test and validation for all Nest Products." From the TechCrunch article: "This is a new frontier for Nest. The company has so far utilized little audio in its products. Instead, Nest has so far recruited a couple of audio companies to join Nest’s world of Internet of Things through the 'Works With Nest' developer program. 'Google will help us fully realize our vision of the conscious home and allow us to change the world faster than we ever could if we continued to go it alone. We’ve had great momentum, but [Google] is a rocket ship,' said co-founder Tony Fadell when Google bought the company."

3 of 37 comments (clear)

  1. Squeezeplay by fluffernutter · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So it is going to be like Squeezeplay, but connected to proprietary products instead of a server that runs on almost any hardware and free clients/controllers that you can install on windows/linux/android at will?

    We'll see how it does. If it was Apple, I would say people would almost certainly buy it.

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    1. Re:Squeezeplay by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I stumbled onto the whole home automation market by accident recently, and am really frustrated. So much potential wasted by people trying to monopolize your money, when they'd all make money by being more open [libre].

      Here's my rules:

      1. Any home automation product should not depend on external servers. E.g., if I want to know the status of my thermostat, or humidity sensor, I should be able to access that information and communicate with the units from the LAN without going outside the home. As a corollary, I should have absolute control over access to products in my home.

      2. Every product should support an open industry standard for wireless communication. Zwave or zigbee, or some better version, or both, or something like that. No idiosyncratic or proprietary protocols. I should be able to buy a zigbee temperature and humidity sensor and Ecobee should recognize it.

      I don't see this field really taking off until both of those things happen. When it does, it will really revolutionize home, and we'll see the IoT. Until then, it's a hyped pipe dream. You *can* do all this now, buying zwave and zigbee units, and buying a hub that supports these things, but it will cost an arm and a leg. The stuff that's affordable now basically involves you getting locked into the cloud or whatever. And no, I won't take any company's word that they'll still be around in 10 years and offering their servers for free.

  2. Great news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Google found a way to place always-on microphones in everyone's homes. Fuck this company.