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Ecobee
ecobee is a Canadian home automation company that makes smart thermostats, temperature and occupancy sensors, smart light switches, smart cameras, and contact sensors. The thermostats are controlled by using the built-in touchscreen, web portal, or app available for iOS, Android, and the Apple Watch. Other devices are controlled solely through the app or web portal. The thermostat or camera acts as a hub for their other devices. The light switches do not require a thermostat or camera but do not provide hub functionality. Additionally, ecobee provides a set of subscription services to complement its product line. History ecobee was founded in 2007. It has been recognized with a number of awards, including the Deloitte Technology Green 15 Award for Canadian green technology companies, and the 2011 AHR Expo Innovation Award in the category of building automation. In March 2018, ecobee raised a CA$80 million series C round of funding. In November 2021, ecobee announced that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smart Thermostat
Smart thermostats are Wi-Fi thermostats that can be used with home automation and are responsible for controlling a home's heating, ventilation, and air conditioning. They perform similar functions as a Programmable thermostat as they allow the user to control the temperature of their home throughout the day using a schedule, but also contain additional features, such as sensors and Wi-Fi connectivity, that improve upon the issues with programmable thermostats. Like other Wi-Fi thermostats, they are connected to the Internet via a Wi-Fi network. They allow users to adjust heating settings from other internet-connected devices, such as a laptop or smartphones. This allows users to control the thermostat remotely. This ease of use is essential for ensuring energy savings: studies have shown that households with programmable thermostats actually have higher energy consumption than those with simple thermostats because residents program them incorrectly or disable them completely. Smar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amazon Alexa
Amazon Alexa, also known simply as Alexa, is a virtual assistant technology largely based on a Polish speech synthesiser named Ivona, bought by Amazon in 2013. It was first used in the Amazon Echo smart speaker and the Echo Dot, Echo Studio and Amazon Tap speakers developed by Amazon Lab126. It is capable of voice interaction, music playback, making to-do lists, setting alarms, streaming podcasts, playing audiobooks, and providing weather, traffic, sports, and other real-time information, such as news. Alexa can also control several smart devices using itself as a home automation system. Users are able to extend the Alexa capabilities by installing "skills" (additional functionality developed by third-party vendors, in other settings more commonly called apps) such as weather programs and audio features. It uses automatic speech recognition, natural language processing, and other forms of weak AI to perform these tasks. Most devices with Alexa allow users to activate the devi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cortana (virtual Assistant)
Cortana is a virtual assistant developed by Microsoft that uses the Bing search engine to perform tasks such as setting reminders and answering questions for the user. Cortana is currently available in English, Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese language editions, depending on the software platform and region in which it is used. Microsoft began reducing the prevalence of Cortana and converting it from an assistant into different software integrations in 2019. It was split from the Windows 10 search bar in April 2019. In January 2020, the Cortana mobile app was removed from certain markets, and on March 31, 2021, the Cortana mobile app was shut down globally. History Cortana was demonstrated for the first time at the Microsoft Build developer conference in San Francisco in April 2014. It was launched as a key ingredient of Microsoft's planned "makeover" of future operating systems for Windows Phone and Windows. It is named after Cortana, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Private Corporation
A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in the respective listed markets, but rather the company's stock is offered, owned, traded, exchanged privately, or over-the-counter. In the case of a closed corporation, there are a relatively small number of shareholders or company members. Related terms are closely-held corporation, unquoted company, and unlisted company. Though less visible than their publicly traded counterparts, private companies have major importance in the world's economy. In 2008, the 441 largest private companies in the United States accounted for ($1.8 trillion) in revenues and employed 6.2 million people, according to ''Forbes''. In 2005, using a substantially smaller pool size (22.7%) for comparison, the 339 companies on ''Forbes'' survey of closely held U.S. businesses sold a trillion dollars' worth of goods and services (4 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
CNBC
CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk shows, investigative reports, documentaries, infomercials, reality shows, and other programs at all other times. Along with Fox Business and Bloomberg Television, it is one of the three major business news channels. It also operates a website and mobile apps, whereby users can watch the channel via streaming media, and which provide some content that is only accessible to paid subscribers. CNBC content is available on demand on smart speakers including Amazon Echo devices with Amazon Alexa, Google Home and app devices with Google Assistant, and on Apple Siri voice interfaces including iPhones. Many CNBC TV shows are available as podcasts for on-demand listening. Graphics are designed by Sweden-based Magoo 3D studios. CNBC is a divisi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Control4
Control4 is a provider of automation and networking systems for homes and businesses, offering a personalized and unified smart home system to automate and control connected devices including lighting, audio, video, climate control, intercom, and security. The Control4 platform interoperates with more than 13,500 third-party products and is available in over 100 countries. As of August 2018, it manages 370,000 homes. The company is based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Control4 was a publicly traded company (on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the stock symbol CTRL) from 2013 until 2019, when it merged with SnapAV. History Founded in 2003 by Eric Smith, Will West, and Mark Morgan, Control4 debuted at the 2004 CEDIA Expo home technology trade show and released its first products later that year, as an early entrant in the home automation market. Smith and West had previously created PHAST, an early home control system that was acquired by AMX in 1997; and STSN, a provider of Internet ser ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Logitech Harmony
Logitech Harmony is a line of remote controls and home automation products produced by Logitech. The line includes universal remote products designed for controlling the components of home theater systems (including televisions, set-top boxes, DVD and Blu-ray players, video game consoles) and other devices that can be controlled via infrared, as well as newer smart home hub products that can be used to additionally control supported Internet of things (IoT) and Smart home products, and allow the use of mobile apps to control devices. On April 10, 2021, Logitech announced that they would discontinue Harmony Remote manufacturing. History The Harmony remote control was originally created in 2001 by Easy Zapper, a Canadian company, and first sold in November 2001. The company later changed its name to Intrigue Technologies and was located in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. Computer peripheral manufacturer Logitech acquired it in May 2004 for US$29 million, turning Harmony remotes in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
IFTTT
IFTTT (, an acronym of If This Then That) is a private commercial company that runs online digital automation platforms which it offers as a service. Their platforms provide a visual interface for making cross-platform if statements to its users, which, , numbered 18 million people. IFTTT has partnerships with different providers of everyday services as well as using public APIs to integrate them with each other through its platform. They supply event notifications to IFTTT and execute commands that implement the responses. History On December 14, 2010, Linden Tibbets, the co-founder of IFTTT, posted a blog post titled “ifttt the beginning...” on the IFTTT website, announcing the new project. The first IFTTT applications were designed and developed by Linden with co-founders Jesse Tane and Alexander Tibbets. The product was officially launched on September 7, 2011. By April 2012, users had created one million tasks. In June 2012, the service entered the Internet of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Big Ass Solutions
Big Ass Fans is an American company that manufactures fans, evaporative coolers, and controls for industrial, agricultural, commercial and residential use. The company's headquarters is in Lexington, Kentucky, with additional offices in Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and Canada. History Carey Smith incorporated the Delta T. Corporation in 1994 Lexington, Kentucky, to manufacture and install cooling systems for industrial spaces and warehouses. In 1999, Smith signed an exclusive distribution agreement with a California manufacturer of "high-volume, low-speed" (HVLS) ceiling fans, which were sold to farmers for cooling cattle. The company's focus shifted almost exclusively to fan sales, and the company started doing business under the name HVLS Fan Company. In 2000, the company initiated a marketing campaign with mailers depicting their fans with a picture of the rear of a donkey and the caption "Big Ass Fan". The campaign was successful enough that the company started doing b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wink (platform)
Wink is an American brand of software and hardware products that connects with and controls smart home devices from a consolidated user interface. Wink, Labs Inc., which develops and markets Wink, was founded in 2014 as a spin-off from invention incubator Quirky. After Quirky went through bankruptcy proceedings, it sold Wink to Flex in 2015. As of 2016, the Wink software is connected to 1.3 million devices. In July 2017, Flex sold Wink to i.am+ for $59M. Corporate history Wink, Labs Inc. was founded at Quirky, an incubator program for inventions that relies on crowd-sourced product ideas. Wink, Labs was originally created as part of a collaboration with General Electric to control co-branded smart home products like air-conditioners. It was founded by current CTO Nathan Smith and received about $20 million in funding. The company spent twelve months working with fifteen electronics manufacturing companies to offer about 60 Wink-compatible products by July 2014. Wink was spun-off ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SmartThings
SmartThings Inc. is an American home automation company headquartered in Mountain View, California with a software development center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Founded in 2012, it focuses on the development of eponymous automation software and an associated array of client applications and cloud platforms for smart homes and the consumer Internet of things. Since August 2014 SmartThings has been a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics. SmartThings cites its platform as having 62 million active users, a number it claims increased 70% through 2019 and 2020. History SmartThings was conceived by co-founder and once-CEO Alex Hawkinson in the winter of 2011. Hawkinson tells that his family's unoccupied mountain house in Colorado was extensively damaged by water pipes that first froze and subsequently burst resulting in some $80,000 worth of damage. Hawkinson noted that he could have prevented the damages had he known what was happening inside the house. Through 2011 and 2012, Hawkinson a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Google Assistant
Google Assistant is a virtual assistant software application developed by Google that is primarily available on mobile and home automation devices. Based on artificial intelligence, Google Assistant can engage in two-way conversations, unlike the company's previous virtual assistant, Google Now. Google Assistant debuted in May 2016 as part of Google's messaging app Allo, and its voice-activated speaker Google Home. After a period of exclusivity on the Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones, it was deployed on other Android devices starting in February 2017, including third-party smartphones and Android Wear (now Wear OS), and was released as a standalone app on the iOS operating system in May 2017. Alongside the announcement of a software development kit in April 2017, Assistant has been further extended to support a large variety of devices, including cars and third-party smart home appliances. The functionality of the Assistant can also be enhanced by third-party developers. User ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
