CES 2019: all the announcements and news from Google during the show

Google took the opportunity of CES 2019 to make announcements and present new products. As these are particularly numerous, we have condensed them for you.

Google, through its parent company, Alphabet, is much more than a search engine. The American giant is present in many fields from smartphones to artificial intelligence. The mastodon also has several laboratories conducting advanced research on new technologies. While some are subsequently abandoned, others find a commercial future. Alphabet therefore took advantage of the technology fair to make numerous announcements and present new products. An update on the statements made during the exhibition.

Mass artificial intelligence for Google

The search engine giant is at the forefront of artificial intelligence, particularly voice-activated intelligence. The American firm has been working hard on its AI-doped personal assistant, Google Assistant. According to figures provided by the search engine, by the end of the month 1 billion devices worldwide will be equipped with the voice-activated PDA.

This personal assistant is widely distributed through the mobile operating system, Android but also Google Home. The American giant has just announced that its Assistant will also be launched in Google Maps on Android and iOS in an upcoming update.

Google Assistant will also soon be able to control Sonos brand speakers. Although promised for a long time, this function would now be imminent. The latest Samsung brand televisions will also be compatible with the search engine's personal assistant and it will even be able to display instructions on the TV screen.

Google Assistant becomes an interpreter

Another big innovation announced by the search engine giant for Google Assistant is that artificial intelligence can soon be used as an interpreter. No less than 27 languages can be translated (including French). When launching the function, each interlocutor will have their sentences translated into the other's language and vice versa. It will not even be necessary to indicate which language your interlocutor speaks since it will automatically be detected by artificial intelligence.

A smart wake-up call in partnership with Lenovo

Google has also partnered with Lenovo to develop an intelligent alarm clock to compete with Amazon's but with its own personal assistant. Of course, this intelligent alarm clock is used to give the time and wake up, and offers many other features. You can launch a scenario before going to sleep, such as turning off all the lights and closing the shutters, but also playing music or recharging a smartphone. This smart alarm clock will be sold for $80 and will be available in the spring.

Accessories with Anker and JBL for the car

Google also discussed its collaboration with car accessories manufacturers Anker and JBL. These accessories use the car's 12-volt socket (also known as a cigarette lighter socket). The PDA will be able to take advantage of a noise cancellation and echo cancellation function. It will also be possible to use Google Assistant without having to unlock the phone.

50 MILLION DOLLARS: TADO RECEIVES GRANTS FROM AMAZON, E.ON & CO.

The Tado brand is known above all for its smart heating thermostats. Now the company is receiving a financial injection from large companies and the European Investment Bank. With the new 50 million US dollars, the Munich-based company wants to strengthen its market position.

Amazon, E.ON, Total Energy Ventures, Energy Innovation Capital, Inven Capital, the European Investment Bank and other companies have invested in the Munich-based manufacturer of smart electronics. With the financial injection of 50 million US Dollar the enterprise comes up-to-date on a total financing of 89 million euro according to current press release.

Tado belongs to the large ones

About one third (30 percent) of the energy used worldwide is used for heating and cooling buildings. The German manufacturer Tado sees a correspondingly strong market here, in which one can still grow considerably. The company is right: an annual growth rate of 54 percent for smart heating is forecast until the end of 2022.

How the technology works

The smart thermostats from Tado connect heaters and air conditioners to the Internet. An app on the smartphone detects as soon as the residents leave the home or approach it again or a window is open and sets the temperature accordingly efficiently. In addition, weather forecasts and self-learning algorithms help to save up to 31 percent on heating costs and at the same time improve comfort and well-being - says the company.

More about Tado

We are invited to Tado on November 02, 2018 and will take a closer look at the products and philosophy of the company. A corresponding assessment by our editorial team will follow.

If you can't wait any longer, you'll find the manufacturer's current products here.

Smarten up your fan

Since connecting your home is now done from floor to ceiling, from light to lock, plug, air purifier and thermostat, why not also connect our fans?

The fans also have the right to be smart

Today we are on the way to connecting all our lives: our clothes, our food, our interiors. But if there is one thing we have never really paid attention to, or even abandoned, it is our fan. Yes, this object that you all know, especially when you don't have air conditioning and summers are often too hot to be tolerated. By integrating intelligent sensors and other information gathering systems, it has never been easier to connect our windmakers.

Hunter and Haiku, your allies against the heat wave

Hunter is an innovative and beautiful product. Presented at the last CES in Las Vegas, USA, it was developed to work with the Apple HomeKit, and is obviously available on iOS operating systems. It will, we hope very soon, be available to the general public.

The Apple HomeKit, in case you land straight from a spatiotemporal flaw, allows you to control your home with Apple's famous voice command: Siri.

Haiku, on the other hand, works with the company's technology at the head of "Big Ass Fans", designed to cool large industrial spaces. Equipped with "Sense Me" technology, this fan will become smart. It has WiFi connectivity, as well as motion, temperature and air sensors. This way, you can control and program it directly through its application.

Also compatible with the Apple HomeKit, you will also have the Haiku application from your Nest thermostat or your Amazon Echo or Alexa virtual assistant thanks to Android.

The problem with Haiku is that it will become more of an ally of cost than of price. Do not expect to pay less than 400 dollars or even up to almost 1000 dollars. If this price is an obstacle to the purchase of the latter, you can always buy the wall switch of the same brand which is worth the coquettish sum of 110 dollars. All this being worth no less than 360 dollars and more, it is certainly expensive to connect your house, but useful in view of the savings that can be achieved.

An application with multiple functionalities

Easy to use, the features of the smart fan will be divided into 5 tabs.

The first one controls the speed of your fan, as well as its brightness, because it necessarily offers the advantages of a luminaire. The second tab will allow you to customize the reactions of your object according to the movements it detects in the room or the temperature it makes in the room. The third tab will allow you to program the fan and light at specific times determined in advance. The 4th function allows you to determine the actions of your object during your sleep. Finally, the 5th feature will offer you the possibility to activate "Whoosh", which will adjust the ventilation speed of your object as a game.

Do you need a smart teapot?

Tea is one of those drinks that can be enjoyed for a long time, a very long time. Methods have improved and our habits have changed. Is there a new stage? It is in any case the idea of Teamosa, a smart teapot present on Kickstarter.

Make some tea? Easy, isn't it? However, a simple search on the Internet reveals dozens of different methods, each of which is explained with a lot of photos and details. So what's the best one? Each of us will have our own answers to this question. Teamosa, a smart teapot now wants to claim this title.

The ambition to produce the best tea

Are you satisfied with the way you make tea or do you feel it could be better? If you are in the second category, then it's time to take a look at Teamosa. This smart teapot promises to make the best possible tea every time and better than any other machine.

How does it work? The object is composed of two parts. A reserve located at the top where you can put a capsule designed by the company or classic sheets. Below, a water tank But rather than just running the machine, you will then have to open the application and adjust the settings to your convenience. These include temperature, maceration time, tea hardness or the quantity you want to make (up to 250 ml). These settings can be saved to make the tea the way you like it every time.

The device uses ultrasound technology for the operation to extract as many antioxidants as possible. The company cites several scientific studies to demonstrate the effectiveness of this technique even if the real impact is probably still something very personal.

Teamosa already funded on Kickstarter

Presented on the Kickstarter participative financing platform on September 13, Teamosa has already reached its goal of $100,000 thanks to the support of more than 350 backers. If you purchase Teamosa, the first available price is $239, the machine then comes with 10 capsules. The next one is $279 with 20 capsules. Be careful, however, you will not have to be in a hurry since deliveries are scheduled for September 2018 to destinations all over the world.

As always, it is necessary to be careful when you support a project on Kickstarter. On paper, Teamosa seems to be very interesting. But, it is still difficult to know if Teamosa will fall into the category of really useful DIY projects like Yomee for example or totally useless ones like Juicero. The possibility of using sheets instead of capsules is surprising.

Hector: the connected cube test

Have you ever looked at the weather, prepared according to its forecasts, and realized that the weather is completely different from what was predicted? This is very frustrating and yet quite common. The solution? Have your own weather station. This is what Hector offers, the 100% French multi-functional connected cube.

A connected cube that can predict the weather is the main idea behind the Hector. In theory, this small machine should allow you to avoid the usual inconveniences when organizing an outing. A blue sky is announced? You can be sure it will rain. Thus, this product is intended to handle the forecasts itself. While he sometimes manages to surprise, it can be said that he does not keep all his promises, far from it.

• Brand: Hector
• Category: weather station, hydrometer and thermometer
• Connection: Bluetooth
• Compatibility: iOS and Android
• Price: 49€90
• Tested with: iPad

Unboxing of the Hector

This unboxing is intended to be temporary. Indeed, we were able to meet the creators of the small connected cube: Morgan Lavaux and Valentin Roy. They told us that they were rethinking the communication around their product. Indeed, rather than selling it as a weather station, they now plan to call it: a multi-functional connected cube.

The difference? The object is not only used to give weather forecasts, but also to manage places where the temperature is important, such as a cellar, a refrigerator or a baby's room for example.

As a result, the packaging will have to change, we have had exclusive access to the visuals of the next packaging.

For this test, we will unbox the current product packaging. It is a transparent plastic box through which the cardboard box containing the Hector can be distinguished. On the plastic box, information about the product's features is displayed on two sides.

The cardboard packaging, on the other hand, summarizes its contents, as well as the available connections and product compatibility. It contains the Hector, the suction cup to attach it where you plan to use it, a flat battery to operate it, and the user manual.

This is a very classic packaging for a product that is placed in an average price range. It will be necessary to see how the next packaging transforms the identity of the product and what quality it offers.

Design and ergonomics of the Hector

The Hector offers a very efficient design that stands out from the competition. It is a black and white cube pierced through and through on its white faces. The name of the product is written in white on one of the black faces with the typography of the product, which imitates handwritten writing.

It is a beautiful product that will perfectly fit into any interior. It is also very ergonomic. Its small size, coupled with the hole that runs through it, makes it easy to handle. In addition, it allows you to intelligently conceal the trapdoor that contains the battery.

The suction cup allows the product to be placed exactly as you wish (as long as the surface is suitable, of course). It will hold perfectly, even on the side. So if you don't have a place to put the Hector, you can always put it horizontally on a fridge or glass.

Unfortunately, these good points are not worth much when faced with a major problem: long-term use. And when we say "long-term", we are actually talking about a few months, or at least less than a year. Indeed, the device deteriorates quickly and a battery change does not solve the problem. So we quickly find ourselves with a non-functional machine, which is already not very resistant to rain. Thus, despite the promise of "being able to install it where you want", there is no waterproof protection. All it takes is one shower for the cube to be completely unusable.

Conclusion

The Hector has plenty of ideas: a small cube for forecasting the weather is a useful gadget. Its application is easy to access and its minimalist design is quite pleasant to the eye. In practice, however, the product is not convincing. Its construction is very unreliable and the device fails within a year of purchase. Far from resisting water, it deteriorates very quickly. In addition, there are real connection and usage problems that further affect the experience. Finally, the application, which offers little content, has an unfortunate tendency to close regularly for no reason. All these problems make an attractive price at the base too high, adding another black spot to the Hector.

Guide: Smart fridge for smart living

Having appeared early in the early 2000s, smart fridges have made a comeback and are an integral part of the smart home universe. While this market has developed, the supply remains relatively limited, although more varied. Smart fridges can save you time, entertain you in the kitchen, and ensure the optimal preservation of your food. Find out how to choose a smart fridge, and our selection of the best models on the market.

What is a smart fridge?

The concept of a smart fridge refers, for simplicity, to a fridge smart to the Internet via WiFi or another communication protocol such as Bluetooth. This connectivity allows you to interact with the fridge using your smartphone, for example to control the temperature.

However, it would be more accurate to talk about smart fridges to refer to the devices we are talking about here. Most of these household appliances carry a processor, RAM, and a touch screen, just like a computer.

Through this screen, it is possible to access multimedia content, browse the Internet, but also to access functionalities directly related to cooking and food preservation. The smart fridges allow you to monitor the condition of your food, food stocks, or to consult recipes directly and write shopping lists. Many features to be discovered in more detail in the following paragraph.

What is the purpose of a smart fridge?

The smart fridges offer many features. While they retain common characteristics, the offer is more varied than before and each one has its own qualities. As a general rule, smart fridges allow you to establish a shopping list based on the contents of the fridge.

This content can be automatically analyzed in different ways. Some models have a camera on board that scans the different products in the fridge. Others require manual listing of products to enter them into the device's internal memory. Subsequently, the user can sometimes send his list automatically to a partner store in order to place his order directly from his kitchen. It is also possible to consult the shopping list from the fridge on your smartphone once in the store.

Another typical feature is the ability to view recipes from the smart screen of the fridge. These recipes can be filtered automatically according to your desires, of course, but also according to the content of the fridge. Once again, once the recipe has been chosen, it is often possible to order the ingredients directly or add them to the shopping list on the smartphone.

In addition, smart refrigerators are also excellent tools for monitoring the condition of food. The cameras embedded inside these devices allow you to monitor the contents of the fridge at any time from your smartphone or computer. So, if you are no longer sure you have enough specific ingredients in stock, you can check directly on your phone from the store.

These smart devices also offer, for the most part, multimedia features dedicated to entertainment. While in the kitchen, the user can watch television, listen to music, or even surf the Internet.

Another, less obvious strength of smart fridges is the potential to save energy. Since the 1970s, the energy consumption of refrigerators has been limited. Today, an average refrigerator consumes about 498 kilowatt-hours per year, compared to 1278 in the 1980s. However, these household appliances still account for 30% of the energy costs of a typical household. However, the temperature of the smart fridges can be controlled in real time. In this way, energy consumption can be significantly reduced.

How to choose a smart fridge?

There are several criteria to consider when choosing a smart fridge. First of all, it is of course necessary to review the features specific to these smart devices. Multimedia content distribution, food monitoring, recipe consultation, online ordering... it is important to evaluate the possibilities offered by each model, and choose those that meet your expectations.

The second criterion to be taken into account concerns the traditional characteristics of fridges. The energy consumption, dimensions, capacity or design of the chosen appliance must correspond to your needs and integrate harmoniously into your home.

Ubiwizz PIR motion detector

While most Enocean sensors and detectors are mainly "battery-free", here is one that announces a 5-year battery life with its CR123A battery.

The "Ubiwizz PIR motion detector" by ID-RF, detects any movement to directly trigger actuators (Micro SmartPlug, recessed lighting module,...) or scenarios through an Enocean compatible hub or gateway. "Associate this detector with a lighting module, and your lights turn on automatically when you go to the garage.

Characteristics of the motion detector

• Power supply: CR123A 3V battery
• Life expectancy: 5 years
• Indoor use
• Mounting: adhesives (included) fixing hooks (included)
• Wireless range: Up to 30 meters
• Detection range: Up to 5 meters
• Sensitivity: from 0 to 1000Lux
• Radio: EnOcean® Protocol
• EEP: A5-07-03
• Dimensions: 65*65*39mm

Installation and configuration of the motion detector

Thanks to its multiple mounting options, you can place it anywhere in your home and customize its settings according to the lighting environment to fully enjoy its use.

Delivered with all accessories, you can place it directly on a flat surface such as a table or piece of furniture, or on a wall with double sided supplied. It will allow you to detect any movement at an angle of 120° and a zone of 5m.

Even more interesting, the detector comes with two metal tabs for ceiling mounting. Just drill a 45mm hole in the plate, and embed the motion sensor as a spot. And if you have a concrete ceiling, you can still fix it with dowels and screws.

The big advantage of this ceiling mounting is that you will get a detection zone from 3m to 2.30m high. Ideal for automatic lighting in areas such as toilets or garages.

Once attached to the desired location, you can pair it in "Standalone" or "Controller" mode. The first mode consists in pairing (associating) your detector with a compatible actuator such as a flush-mounted module, smartplug,...

For the example, here is how to proceed with a Ubiwizz built-in lighting module. Put the module in pairing mode, by clicking 3 times on the "Press" button so that the LED starts to flash.

Depending on the result you want to achieve with your lighting, because the status of the receiver before entering "Learning" mode will define its status when motion is detected. When no movement is detected, the receiver will be in the opposite state.

To validate the association of your detector with the actuator, click on the "Pairing" button. The LED on the light receiver will confirm the pairing by turning off.

When the product is turned on for the first time (or after changing the battery), the detector will enter "Walk Test Mode". For 3 minutes, the LED will blink every time a
movement will be detected. Use this function to check that your lighting turns on when detected and off when you stop moving.

To pair the motion detector with an Enocean controller, USB300/310 key, eedomus, jeedomus, jeedom, or the WizzBox from Ubiwizz, simply listen to it (see instructions for your gateway or compatible App) and press the "Pairing" button so that it is recognized and associated by your gateway.

The PIR Motion Sensor also incorporates a brightness sensor, allowing it to trigger only when a certain brightness threshold is reached. If the ambient light is below the limit set by the potentiometer, an ON or OFF frame will be sent if motion is detected. This function can be disabled by setting the potentiometer to the OFF position. (Default position: OFF).

In use, this motion detector can alert you if movement is detected in a room, or as a trigger for a scenario that will be used for automatic lighting, for example.

In Standalone Mode (directly paired with a receiver), the PIR Motion Detector is able to turn a receiver on or off when motion is detected, it is also able to turn a receiver off or on when no motion is detected.

Typically, if no motion is detected for a certain time, the PIR Motion Detector will automatically send an ON or OFF frame (depending on how it has been paired - see "Learning Procedure"). This time is neither challenging nor "Auto-Off".

Please note that the counter is reset each time a movement is detected.
To set the Auto-Off mode, press the "Pairing" button for 3 sec. The LED will flicker to inform you that you are in "Setup Mode".

Once in the "Setup Mode", press the button once to select the desired Auto-OFF time. Each time the LED is pressed, it will blink a number of times or to confirm the current setting (see table below for details).

An excellent Enocean product that combines all the options useful for your connected home. With an autonomy of about 5 years, and a possibility of recessed ceiling mounting, it will quickly be forgotten while providing you with valuable services on a daily basis.