Amazon now has a say in the development of a commonly used smart home standard, giving the company more power as it continues to push smart speakers, cameras, doorbells, and all other kinds of gadgets into its customers’ homes.

As of today, Amazon has a seat on the board of the Zigbee Alliance, which oversees implementation of the Zigbee wireless protocol. Zigbee isn’t nearly as popular as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, but you can think of it a lot like them – it’s a wireless protocol for letting gadgets communicate. But unlike Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, Zigbee is particularly useful for low-power devices and can travel longer distances, making it ideal for simple smart gadgets like a light switch.

Amazon introduced a version of the Echo, called Echo Plus, with Zigbee support more than a year ago. That support allowed the speaker to directly connect to a new world of smart home gadgets, like light bulbs, power outlets, and tiny sensors that it otherwise couldn’t have reached. The home alarm system for Ring, which Amazon owns, also connects to Zigbee.

It’s a slow start, but Amazon’s ascension to Zigbee’s board suggests the company will want to make more use of the protocol in the future. Other companies on Zigbee’s board include: 1) Samsung-owned SmartThings, which makes a smart home hub; 2) Signify, the company behind the popular Philips Hue smart lights; and 3) Comcast, which uses Zigbee on its Xfinity Home security solution.

Getting onto Zigbee’s board isn’t exactly a feat for Amazon, but it is an obvious and deliberate decision. Getting on the board means becoming one of the Alliance’s highest-paying members – $75,000 per year – and it gives those companies an significant advantage: they’re able to “drive specification development, requirements, and test plans.” Or basically, define where Zigbee goes next.
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If Amazon is paying that money, it means the company wants a say in what future versions of Zigbee can do and how different Zigbee devices work together. It also shows Amazon taking an opinion on which smart home standard it’d like to see win out. Zigbee’s most direct competitor is an alternative called Z-Wave, which hardware makers have criticized for relying on proprietary chips from a single company. Amazon is likely among the many companies in the smart home industry that would rather avoid dealing with the pricey parts that could come along with that if Z-Wave were to grow in popularity.

Since we’re early in the year, this might be a good time to propose some predictions for tomorrow’s smart home.

Video Kills the Telephone Call. The proliferation of smart speakers has continued unabated nearly since their inception, but recently we’ve seen a new feature taking center stage on these do-it-all devices – video. 

Amazon kicked off the trend, as it often does, with its Echo Show, a variant of the popular Amazon Echo series that featured a forward-facing camera and a tablet-like touchscreen attached to a smart speaker base. It followed up that effort with its reimagining of the alarm clock, the Echo Spot, a smaller orb-shaped smart speaker that includes a circular touchscreen face and similarly positioned camera. 

Google soon followed suit, adding the Google Home Hub, an upgrade of its Google Home smart speaker that, like the Show, featured a touchscreen tablet. Now Facebook has gotten in on the action with the release of Portal, a smart speaker/touchscreen, powered by Amazon’s A.I. assistant Alexa, with a strong focus on video-calling. 

While the merits of video functionality are readily apparent for smart speakers – users can follow recipes with hands-free commands, check the weather or map routes, or just catch up on shows while multi-tasking around the house – there seems to be a real push for these video-equipped hubs to replace the phone as the communication device of choice in homes. 

For Facebook Portal, this is expressly the case, with all other smart speaker features coming almost as afterthoughts to its prime purpose of visual-based communications. So committed to the cause of video chatting is the Portal that the Portal+ device can recognize users as they move and automatically rotate to follow them, allowing chat participants to remain on screen as they move from kitchen to couch. 

While Apple has not announced plans for a video element for its HomePod, the company has recently upgraded the capabilities of its iOS-based video chatting app, FaceTime, allowing users to communicate with up to 32 people on a call at one time. 

It remains to be seen if a rise in video communication-capable devices leads to a growth in video-chatting – consumers often don’t use products in the ways manufacturers intended. But even if an explosion of video-equipped smart speakers doesn’t lead to a golden age of people looking each other in the eye while communicating, at least everyone will be able to watch “The Great British Bake-Off” while making breakfast.
Smart Services. Throughout their history, smart homes have been defined by the intelligent devices they house. Voice-controlled lighting, thermostats that automatically adjust with the weather, coffee pots that begin brewing when they recognize you’re awake – products that save labor, money or time via automation and connectivity. 

But what about those tasks for which no single device will suffice? The chores – laundry, grocery shopping, home maintenance – that, short of a robotic butler, will require some manual labor on the part of the homeowner? 

Brace for the rise of smart services – automated fulfillment of the daily tasks that make an uninterrupted life possible. 

“Replenishment” is one area where these smart services are already established, and we should expect to see further growth. Beyond services like Peapod, you may have noticed that nearly every grocery chain of substantial size is offering some manner of automated ordering – and reordering – and delivery, either via an app or website. This process allows customers with a good grasp of their consumption habits to ensure that their homes are never out of their favorite foods, with specific items in specific quantities being automatically delivered at regular intervals. 

But expect producers to take thinking even further out of the process. Leveraging technologies like Amazon Dash, developers will start programming the household devices to recognize when they are running low on supply and automatically reorder the goods. Like WePlenish, a smart coffee pod container that keeps track of inventory levels and automatically orders more java when needed, so you never have to experience a caffeine-less existence. Will we see the refrigerator that automatically orders tomatoes? Or the soap dispenser that refills itself? The possibilities are endless – and likely, as automated reordering is an activity manufacturers can firmly get behind. 
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Task Oriented. But what about the tasks that keep your house running that require some measure of manual labor, like cleaning and maintenance? Here, too, we should expect to see app- and device-based solutions that call in reinforcements with some measure of regular automation when the chores need to get done. Like Cleanly, an app that allows users to schedule pickup and drop-off of their laundry, fresh and folded, within 24 hours. The latest version of certain home standards, like washers and dryers, can run their own diagnostic programs, identifying errors when they arise – how long before these machines can request their own maintenance when need? How long before a pool probe can send out a call when it needs cleaning? Or gutters can identify when they need to cleared? 

In addition to the rise of these automated services, we should expect to see growth of the technologies that help facilitate them. Technologies like Ring video doorbells or August smart locks, which can allow homeowners to identify who is at their door – like the Cleanly delivery person – and grant them temporary access to your abode. 

That is if a human even delivers your goods anymore. 

Delivery Improvements. Walmart recently announced a pilot programwith Ford and Postmates to examine the automated delivery of groceries via autonomous self-driving vehicles. Likewise, grocery chain Kroger announced a partnershipwith Nuro to tackle the most challenging task of ordering online, “last-mile delivery” – that is, getting the requested goods from the store to the customer’s home, a feat they also hope to accomplish with robotic drivers. 
The result of the endless automation of anything approaching “difficult” should enable individuals to lead lives unhampered in pursuit of their goals – be it increased productivity in matters personal or professional, or the much more noble pursuit of binge-watching Netflix while moving as little as possible.

Installing solar panels in your home can lower your environmental footprint and your monthly bills, but there are also some disadvantages you should know. Here are seven issues to consider.

1 Solar Panels Don’t Require Maintenance.Despite what solar panel makers may tell you, maintenance of the panels is not a problem once you have them installed. Solar panel manufacturers try to get people to lease solar panels, insisting that then the homeowner won’t have to worry about maintenance. Don’t let this get to you! The only thing you have to do is keep the panels clear of debris, by using a garden hose, out of direct sunlight, a few times a year.

2 SRECs and Tax Credits Aren’t Forever.Solar panel manufacturers will push you to invest in their product for many reasons, including the promise of SRECs (Solar Renewable Energy Credit) and tax credits. Every Megawatt-hour of electricity produced by your solar panels results in an SREC. In some states, SRECs are sold to utility companies, who then pay homeowners for each SREC they purchase. While such credits are a great incentive, they’re not a forever promise. For example, the Federal Solar Tax Credit will end for home solar in 2021.

3 The Effectiveness of Your Solar Panels Drops Each Year.It’s not a significant drop, but solar panel manufacturers aren’t going to be quick to disclose that efficiency of panels drops each year slightly. For panels manufactured after 2000, a 20-year-old panel will produce around 92% of its original power. 

4 You Should Be Careful of Your Warranty.It’s essential you do research on the solar panel manufacturers out there and hone in on which one has the best warranty. Most warranties last for 20 to 25 years, but for them to follow through, the manufacturer must still be in business. As always, choose a manufacturer with a solid reputation.

5 The Production of Solar Panels Creates Pollution.Solar is held up as an energy-saving, environmentally-friendly powerhouse. And while that’s undoubtedly true in many cases, the transportation and installation of solar energy systems are linked with the emission of greenhouse gases. Toxic materials and hazardous products have also been associated with the manufacturing process.

6 You Might Not Want Solar If You Have Low Electricity Costs.Solar is enticing for many reasons, most notably for financial and environmental sustainability. But if you don’t have substantial electricity costs, to begin with, you might want to reconsider investing in solar, since, if your electricity costs are low, your solar savings will be as well. Along with the size of your home and your usage, where you live also has an impact on your energy costs. For instance, in Louisiana, the cost of electricity is 27% lower than the national average.
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7 You May Not Be a Good Candidate for Solar Energy. Along with living in a state with low electricity costs, there are other things to consider regarding solar energy. For instance, you might need to cut down trees that shade and beautify your home, and that can be very expensive. You may not even have the right roof to support solar panels structurally. These aren’t topics that solar panel companies are going to put right out there, but you should think of all of these things as you consider your options. Are you a good candidate for solar? Here’s what you need to know.

No doorman? No problem. Amazon introduced a new delivery solution for apartment complexes that promises to deliver both convenience and safety (alongside your actual package, of course). Meet Hub by Amazon, a container that allows for the storage of packages so that they’re not just strewn about a lobby, or worse yet, potentially stolen. The Hubs look just like traditional Amazon lockers, but instead of being installed in public spaces and businesses, they’re instead located in apartment and condominium complexes.

Best of all, the Hub isn’t just for Amazon deliveries – instead, if your mother wants to FedEx a care package to you while you live your big city dreams, the package can reside safely in Hub until you have finished with your 12-hour workday. Neither senders nor recipients have to make any specifications when it comes to getting their packages delivered – you still input your regular shipping address, and the Hub merely serves as a temporary stopover until you return home. When you’re ready to pick up, use a personalized pickup code to open the corresponding door and access your delivery.

“We’re always striving to make things easier for our customers. Building on Amazon’s expertise in locker solutions, the Hub addresses frustrations from property owners, carriers, and residents concerning package delivery,” Patrick Supanc, director, Amazon Worldwide Lockers and Pickup, said in a statement. “Now half a million residents in some of the premier properties in the country have access to the Hub, Amazon’s latest delivery solution. The Hub simplifies delivery for residents, offering quick and secure access to packages, day or night. For delivery providers, it offers a single, convenient location for package drop-off and gives property managers time and resources back to focus on other priorities.”

This could serve as a huge help to folks who live in buildings with tricky delivery schedules. You will no longer have to worry about staying home to wait on a package to arrive, nor will you have to remember to ask your building staff about that delivery that was supposed to come last week. Building managers will likely also appreciate the convenience offered by Hub – rather than requiring property staff to declutter a lobby or send packages to the proper apartment unit; everything can be centralized in Hub.
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Already, Amazon says that several of the largest residential property owners in the U.S. have signed up for Hub and that more than 500,000 apartment dwellers already have access to the amenity. If you’re interested in petitioning your building to include one of these handy lockers, you can request Hub by Amazon at the newly dedicated homepage.

Since Microsoft and Amazon announced plans to integrate their respective personal digital assistantslast summer, there's been almost no official update on the status of the partnership.

It seems, however, like there's finally movement happening.

An April 27 update to the Cortana support page actually mentions Alexa. "Cortana and Alexa are still getting to know each other. Soon you'll be able to ask Alexa to buy things, add items to your shopping list, access your Alexa skills, and more," says the brief update on the page. Yes, "soon" is vague. But it's something.

Typing "Alexa" into the search box in Windows 10 (on the Fall Creators Update version, at least) yields a message saying "I'll be able to connect you to Alexa soon. Stay tuned!"

Last summer, Amazon and Microsoft announced that their respective personal assistants would be able to talk to one another, so customers could opt to use the assistant most suited to a particular task. Amazon and Microsoft officials said last year that they'd make Cortana-Alexa integration available before the end of calendar 2017. Since then, there's been no update on when this might arrive.

In early March 2018, Cortana team members told Windows Insiders that the Cortana-Alexa integration was in "internal self-hosting" at Microsoftat the moment. Microsoft is working to "make sure it's (the integration) a great experience," the team said, noting that bringing together the two different speech stacks is "non-trivial."

Recently, Cortana's new boss, Javier Soltero, admitted that "skills for the sake of skills won't fly." He told PC World that skills usage isn't "quite as deep as most people think it is." He also acknowledged Microsoft's in total catch-up mode on this front. (That's for sure, with Alexa at 40,000-plus third-party skillsat last count.)
Given Cortana is set to access Alexa skills via this integration partnership, maybe Cortana's skills shortage is less horrible than meets the eye.
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Soltero also declined to say whether there are any other Cortana-powered speakers in the works. Currently, there's one from Harman-Kardon. I think speakers might not be where Microsoft is focusing; perhaps it's more about conferencing systems, microphones or other more business-centric peripherals.

If there's one downside to powerful computers, it's that they're too big.
Luckily, that's about to change. At least, if IBM has anything to say about it.

Earlier this month, IBM held its flagship conference, Think 2018, where the company unveiled what it claims is the world's smallest computer. They're not kidding: It's smaller than a grain of salt.

But don't let the size fool you: This little fella has the computing power of the x86 chip from 1990. Okay, so that's not great compared to what we have today but cut it some slack — you need a microscope to see it.

The computer will cost less than ten cents to manufacture, and will also pack "several hundred thousand transistors," according to the company. These will allow it to "monitor, analyze, communicate, and even act on data."

It even works with blockchain. Specifically, this computer will be a data source for blockchain applications. It's intended to help track the shipment of goods and detect theft, fraud, and non-compliance. It can also do basic AI tasks, such as sorting the data it's given.

According to IBM, this is only the beginning. "Within the next five years, cryptographic anchors — such as ink dots or tiny computers smaller than a grain of salt — will be embedded in everyday objects and devices," says IBM head of research Arvind Krishna. If he's correct, we'll see way more of these tiny systems in objects and devices in the years to come.
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It's not clear yet when this thing will be released — IBM researchers are currently testing its first prototype. But one thing's for sure: The future is here. You just might need a microscope to see it.

You know that you need to replace your smoke detector’s batteries when they run out, but you might not realize that you should also replace the smoke detector itself every 10 years as the sensors wear down. Yes, even your fancy Nest detector falls under this guideline. 

This might sound like a ploy to get you to shell out for a new alarm every decade, but you’re better off doing it for several reasons:

•  Peace of mind: You’ll know that your home has a working system to alert you in case of fire. You should make sure there’s alarms on each level of your home as well as one within earshot of your bed (many fires start when you’re asleep). Ideally, they’re interlinked so that when one goes off, they all go off so you get as early a warning as possible.

•  Limiting effects to your insurance: If you have a homeowner’s or rental insurance policy, you likely have a section on protections your home must have to qualify for the policy. This often includes having working, non-expired smoke detectors. Even if your policy doesn’t have a section on this, alerting your agent that you have non-expired alarms can sometimes lower your rate or work in your favor during insurance investigations after a fire.

•  Following other regulations: If you’re a landlord, you’re likely required to make sure your rental properties all have working, non-expired smoke detectors.
Consumer Reports points out that you can test your smoke alarm’s sensors using a test spray that simulates smoke, but that the best thing is to just replace an alarm that has passed its expiration date. Check for the date by looking for the manufacture date on the underside of your alarm (the part that typically faces the ceiling). Add ten years to that date and you have your expiration date. You might want to write this date on a piece of painter’s tape or on the outside of the alarm so it’s easy for you to see when to pick up a new one.

A few years ago, researchers at MIT developed a new technology that could detect movement by measuring changes to wireless signals. This device, called Radio Frequency (RF) Capture, could in effect "see through walls" by detecting ripples in Wi-Fi or other wireless signals anywhere in a house. Now, the company Cognitive Systems has harnessed this technology to build a new kind of home security system called Aura. Instead of using cameras or motion sensors, Aura can detect home intruders by looking at how movement affects wireless signal.

At its most basic, Aura is a base station and a companion unit placed on opposite sides of a house. It can tell you, via a smartphone app, if there is movement in your house and how much. It can't, however, tell you what is making that movement, unless it's a person who has already registered their phone with the device. Aura can also automatically tell when you leave your home by detecting that you phone is no longer present. Then, it automatically arms itself though you can do that manually as well. When movement is detected, Aura will send an alert to your phone or set off an alarm.

Aura is programmed to recognize the differences in movements made by a pet or a human, or ambient movement like a fan blowing a curtain. Humans in a space change the wireless spectrum much more dramatically than other sources of movement.

A device like Aura may appeal to some people who are concerned about security but don't like the idea of pointing a camera at your bedroom. Aura, on the other hand, doesn't record or even "see" what is happening in your house—it only detects movement.

"There's no sense of privacy invasion," Cognitive Systems CEO Hugh Hind ssaid.

To make Aura, Cognitive Systems built a new kind of microchip, one that can detect a broad spectrum of frequencies, from 80 MHz to 4 Ghz. This novel technology could be very useful for manufacturers of other gadgets, and it's possible that Cognitive Systems' chip will outdo the security system it powers.

But that success has yet to be determined, since Aura has just started shipping to customers. But it's not hard to imagine that a device that can see movement through solid walls , all without using a camera, could change the landscape of surveillance and security.
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Aura is available at the company’s website at $499/each.

We are all experiencing the increasingly invasive robocall phenomenon. Sometimes robocallers disguise themselves with allegedly valid caller IDs and other times they don’t. Whatever they do, it’s a constant plague on our privacy.

“Blocking robocalls on a home landline is like trying to stop a star athlete,” says Bob Bentz, president of Advanced Telecom Services and adjunct professor of communications at the University of Denver. “Most coaches will say they are just trying to control the superstar because they know they can't truly stop him or her completely. There is no sure-fire way to stop unwanted calls completely, so the best thing to do is simply try to limit them.”

Don’t Answer. As rudimentary as it seems, one the most effective deterrents is to screen your calls. “If no one ever picked up the phone when it rang, robocalls would stop,” says Alex Quilici, CEO of YouMail, a visual voicemail and robocall blocking service. “If I’m going to scam you to buy a fake cruise or install fake virus software, I need you to answer the phone so that I can pitch you.”

Quilici said he turned his landline ringer off altogether, and all calls go through an answering machine with caller ID. If the caller doesn’t leave a message, he doesn’t worry about it. If they do, he can still grab the phone while the caller is talking, or call him or her back. “These aren’t perfect solutions, it’s like bringing back the 80’s and 90’s, but it goes a long way to solving the problem.” He also told me that he convinced his mom to do this, too (and it’s working).

Call Blocking Boxes. Then there are "robocall blocker" boxes. I have a friend who swears by the $100 CPR V5000 Call Blocker he picked up for his aging father. He said his parent's phone went from ringing more than ten times a day with political polls, solar panel and security system sales, to remaining blissfully quiet unless a “whitelisted” number comes through. The boxes range anywhere from $30-$150 dollars.

The blocking box does contribute to one concern. One of the biggest reasons people keep landlines is for emergencies. The boxes “could present problems in emergency situations or when it comes to "legitimate" robocalls (school snow days, product recalls, etc.),” says Tim Prugar, who sits on the Communication Fraud Control Association’s consumer education committee.

Free Solutions. An app called Nomorobo is one of the top recommendations for stopping robocalls on your smartphone, and it's just as good for blocking bad callers on your home phone. On mobile, it’s a paid subscription, but it's free for landlines. It automatically blocks almost 500,000 confirmed robocallers and doesn't use ads or any other goofy tricks to get money out of you — it's just plain free.

The catch is that it only works with VoIP phone service, so if you get your phone through an internet or cable provider like Charter, AT&T U-Verse, Verizon Fios, Comcast Xfinity, Vonage, or several others, you're good to go. It does not work, however, on traditional "analog copper" phone lines. If you’re not sure what you have, call your phone company.

Another freebie helper for ridding robocalls is anonymous call rejection. To enable it, just pick up your phone and press "*77.” You should hear three short beeps to let you know it's activated, and then you can hang up. After that, all calls that come in as Anonymous, Private (a favorite of robocallers), or Blocked won’t get through. You can turn the feature off whenever you want by pressing "*87.” Virtually every phone company has this feature built right into your service, and it’s just sitting there waiting for you.

None of these solutions are perfect because it turns out, blocking robocalls on home phones is much more complicated than blocking them on smartphones.

The best way to limit all these unwanted calls is to follow a few simple guidelines:

• Never interact with a robocall.
• Don’t press a button, wait for an agent, or even speak.
• Anything you do that shows your number is real and active will just make you an even bigger target for promotions, actual or fake, in the future. Seriously, just hang up! (Or better yet, don’t answer at all.)

It’s a super complicated problem, and right now there’s just no one solution. But with the right tools and a bit of common sense, you can avoid scams and hurt the annoying callers right where it hurts the most: Their ability to rob us blind.

A new kind of attack is targeting unsecured Internet of Things devices by scrambling their software and rendering them useless.

Security firm Radware first spotted the newly-found "BrickerBot" malware last month after it started hitting its own devices, logging hundreds of infection attempts over a few days. When the malware connects to a device with their default usernames and passwords – often easily found on the internet – the malware corrupts the device's storage, leading to a state of permanent denial-of-service (PDoS) attack, known as "bricking."

In other words, this attack, "damages a system so badly that it requires replacement or reinstallation of hardware," said Radware.

Like the Mirai botnet, most famous for bringing down wide swathes of the US internet last year in a massive distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, the BrickerBot also uses "the same exploit vector" by brute-forcing telnet accounts with lists of available usernames and passwords.

The researchers say that the attackers also have an affinity for targeting devices on Ubiquiti networks. Once inside, the malware runs a sequence of commands, which "try to remove the default gateway and disable TCP timestamps as well as limiting the max number of kernel threads to one," which would scramble the device's memory.
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"Unfortunately, even after performing the factory reset, the camera device was not recovered and hence it was effectively bricked," said Radware.