(Mirror Daily, United States) – Simplicity has been the ultimate target for all of Nest Labs’ products, ever since the first unveiling of its first Internet-connected thermostat in 2011.
The company’s range of products – a variety of Internet-connected home appliances controllable via smartphone – has often been marketed to create the so-called “the thoughtful home.”
After it was purchased by Google, the company that gave us the “Internet of Things” is trying to convince more people of the benefits of owning a fully-connected home. With that in mind, Nest announced that Weave – its proprietary connection software – will be publicly released for other manufacturers to use it in their devices.
Considering that Apple is a worthy rival in any domain, Nest’s move of partnering with device manufacturers is a great counter-response to Apple’s HomeKit, the connected-home software launched in 2014.
According to the market research firm Gartner, there are around 5 billion Internet of Things devices currently in the hands – or on the walls – of users, but Nest’s ambition is that even more would speak the same language.
Impressively enough, Weave won’t necessary require a wireless connection in order to connect to appliances, a feature aimed to decrease the devices’ latency to – wait for it – less than 100 milliseconds! You might as well call that instant, because you won’t be able to count them passing.
Security will also be improved with this feature, the company says. If a Yale door lock has its Internet-connection cut in an attempted burglary, its functionality will remain in place, thanks to the smartphone access offered by Nest App.
And the explanation is not very complicated; Weave is what makes all of it possible via a connection to the Nest data cloud. Therefore, even if devices like the Yale lock lose their Internet connection, they will still be able to connect with other devices in the home even. Security is also easier to manage with the 10 days of history that are stored, with a log of how it was used.
Developers will be able to get their hands on Weave and use its cloud-based service beginning in early 2016. They will be able to integrate other devices into Nest’s app by accessing the Works with Nest store.
In spite of the company’s enthusiastic marketing, there are plenty of experts doubting that the introduction of Weave will have a revolutionary impact. According to Alex Pentland, a computer science professor at the Massachusetts of Institute of Technology, the protocol still has a long way to go in addressing fundamental privacy and security concerns.
Image Source: Venture Beat