Items tagged with smartthings
Samsung is upgrading its SmartThings family with the addition of some newly upgraded products. Samsung has been working to bolster its smart home credentials ever since its purchased the SmartThings home automation platform four years ago, and today we're seeing the release of the all-new SmartThings WiFi mesh network system. As its name implies, this is a wireless router that leverages mesh technology to blanket a home or office with high-speed internet coverage. This isn't Samsung's first mesh WiFi router, as it currently sells the Connect Home Mesh WiFi system. However, the new SmartThings WiFi mesh network system leverages technology from Plume. It's probably a good idea that Samsung looked...
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If you're a frequent reader of HotHardware, then you're well aware that we've been quite impressed with the NVIDIA SHIELD TV. Not only is the pint-sized device a competent Android gaming console, but it also serves as an Android TV hub, a media streamer (for services like Netflix and Hulu), and can even function as a Plex Media Server. Finally, it can serve all this gaming and video content with the help of Google Assistant to search and provide key information all via voice command. Today, NVIDIA SHIELD TV is also gaining the ability to be the focal point for your smart home efforts now, thanks to new compatibility with the Samsung SmartThings ecosystem. The support isn't integrated directly...
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Buying into the Internet of Things (IoT) movement that's emerging means putting a great deal of trust into the cloud. It's a double-edged sword, because on the one hand the cloud is key to smart conveniences offered by IoT devices, but it also introduces risk. In case we need reminding of the latter, cybersecurity researchers at the University of Michigan showcased a series of proof-of-concept attacks targeting Samsung's popular SmartThings platform. One of their creations is a lock-pick malware app. What it does is eavesdrop on someone setting up a new PIN code for a door lock and then sends the PIN in a text message to a hacker. The researchers disguised the malware as a smart battery monitor,...
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It's been a pretty big year for the Internet of Things (IoT) movement and it's posed to grow even bigger in 2016. With that in mind, Samsung has decided to make its entire 2016 lineup of smart TVs IoT ready with support for SmartThings, an open platform that allows users to connect and control smart devices. All of Samsung's upcoming smart TVs will feature IoT hub technology, allowing the TVs to act as the sort of control center for the entire smart home. It's not a just a matter of mashing technologies together and hoping for cohesiveness, either -- Samsung developed its own IoT hub technology in collaboration with SmartThings for its 2016 smart TV roll out. The upcoming TVs will be able to...
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Amazon's been working hard to improve Alexa, the cloud-based voice service that makes its Echo gadget more than just an ordinary Bluetooth speaker. Back in June, Amazon made available its Alexa Skills Kit (ASK), a collection of self-service APIs and tools that make it easy for developers to improve Alexa's skill set. Now Amazon is launching a Lighting API for Alexa with the Samsung-owned SmartThings platform jumping on board. It takes just a few hours for developers who can code in Java or JavaScript to use the Lighting API to teach Alexa how to control their cloud-controlled devices, Amazon claims. Doing so doesn't require any experience with speech recognition or natural language understanding...
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The Internet, as you know, is increasingly becoming intertwined in just about everything. From phones to coffee makers to automobiles, if there's a way to add a connection, it's being added. The next frontier seems to be the home. Automating an abode isn't entirely novel, but doing so on a consumer level has become quite a popular goal of late. A few years back, SmartThings launched to harmonize ZigBee and Z-Wave products, while producing apps that would enable homeowners to unify various smart products. Today, SmartThings is being added to Samsung's portfolio. In an effort to keep pace with its primary rivals, Samsung has acquired the start-up for a reported $200 million, giving itself a shot...
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When you're dealing with a name such as SmartThings, it's hard to disregard it as something that won't make an impact in the world, right? This week, the company just mentioned made a big announcement by opening up a new platform to enable the "Internet of Things." Essentially, they're rolling out a Developer and Inventor toolkit to the public. Put simply, SmartThings helps turn your smartphone into the remote control for your everyday life. With the toolkit, developers can now build applications for the physical world that solve real problems and inventors can create new types of connected devices that integrate with the SmartThings platform. The SmartThings platform can already help solve practical...
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