By way of the New York Times, we learn GE and Quirky have expanded their collaboration on “Wink” – the brand under which they’ll tie together their existing (and downright bizarre) product line and tap into other home automation solutions via the FCC-revealed Wink Hub. The $79 Hub bridges networks, like Z-Wave, and will be displayed at nearly 2,000 Home Depot retail outposts when it launches July 7th. (Take that Lowe’s Iris?) Of course, these guys aren’t the only players in town with the very fine Staples Connect and SmartThings out to early leads with the Apple behemoth now taking interest via HomeKit and healthy Apple TV hub speculation. Not to mention, after like a decade of stagnation, Harmony finally woke up ready to fulfill their home control destiny. The next 12-18 months are going to be huge in this space as the tech expands beyond the affluent digerati and into the mainstream. As for me, my needs are simple…
More than wireless locks, I need wireless blinds. Hope to hit that before the end of the year. Taking couch potato to a whole 'nother level!
— Dave Zatz (@davezatz) June 14, 2014
Doesn’t Lutron offer Z-Waveable blinds? Or was it Somfy? One of them did.
Been eyeing the Lutron blinds, which are compatible with the Staples Connect. Given the Wink Hub lab photo in the NYT, it seems they too will tap into Lutron’s communication protocol. But now I wonder if I should wait out the WiFi window films… hm!
For the sake of completeness, looks like the Wink Hub communicates via WiFi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, Z-Wave. But I’m getting to the point of Hub overload… Glad Sonos is optionally retiring theirs, but how do I get rid of this Hue thing?
Actually, was just thinking that my next Pool heater needs to be remote-controllable. I don’t leave it on all the time since its a huge energy sink and yet when you realize you want to use the pool that afternoon, you have to walk out, click the pump on, walk over to the heater, press “Pool On”, then go back to the pump and return it to off again (to be turned on again by the mechanical timer clicking past on time). Seems ripe for an upgrade the next time my pump core blows out…