CES2019 - Voxtok and Napster revolutionize music with the RCA Smart Soundbar

2019/09/24 10:58

With the upcoming opening of CES 2019, a shower of high-tech novelties is approaching. Some brands have already started to present their flagship product at the show. This is the case with RCA's Smart Soundbar. With enhanced features thanks to a partnership with Voxtok and Napster, this new TV sound bar offers an innovative experience...

Voxtok launches Music Avenue for Smart Soundbar RCA
Voxtok, the audio division of the group Netgem has just launched its music service called Music Avenue. It is the latter who will animate the RCA Smart Soundbar. With this system, the sound bar is equipped with a very practical asset for its users. Music Avenue then provides access to customized music video channels. Add to that the access to playlists, unlimited music thanks to Napster and even the delivery of vinyls.

Music Avenue, or how to revolutionize our musical approach
As announced by Voxtok's General Manager, Joël Reboul, the purpose of this sound bar is to offer a new "personalized and original" service. It will aim to create "a natural and simple link between the musical world and[the world] video".

The Smart Soundbar, announced for CES 2019, will therefore be the first sound bar in the world equipped with Music Avenue. In addition, with the integration of the Alexa vocal assistant, this new sound bar is intended to be in line with current technological advances. As Claire Villeneuve, Director of Brand Licensing at Technicolor (owners of the RCA brand), announces, "The Smart Soundbar RCA is the result of years of innovation since the advent of the digital age.

CES 2019 as a launch pad
A preview of the Smart Soundbar will be available at CES 2019. Placed in the Netgem suite, 29-320 at the Venetian, visitors to the show will be able to try it out. The first Smart Soundbar units deployed in Europe would also be available at several stands, such as those of Technicolor, Amazon and Voxtok.

Finally, regarding the deployment in Europe, Music Avenue should be available for the second quarter of 2019.

Yeelight lamps work now with HomeKit

2019/08/25 21:47

Anyone who wants to can now easily fill their entire home with Chinese smart home technology. Privacy remains a tricky issue, because most products need a direct ‘line’ with China. Including the products of Xiaomi, a name that as an economical smart home user you can hardly ignore. The Chinese market all kinds of products under different brand names, the design of which is often surprisingly similar to their much more expensive western counterparts. A problem is that sometimes it is hard to see what exactly works with which device or protocol. An update of the Yeelight app brings some more order into the chaos: Yeelight has made it easier to add all kinds of products from the Xiaomi universe to HomeKit. This applies to the Yeelight lamps, for example, but also to the Mi Desk Lamp.

Yeelight also available in the Netherlands
Yeelight will be an unknown name for many, but the products are simply on the shelves of Bol.com’s partners. They are not supplied by Bol.com itself, but by numerous partner companies that respond to the need for cheap smart home technology. If you are a fan of these products, you will soon be able to walk into the Xiaomi Mi Stores, which are already to be found everywhere in cities such as London and Paris. Amsterdam and Rotterdam will receive the first Mi Stores in the Netherlands. You’ll find the Mi Desk Lamp, bedside lamps and lamps that seem to have been produced by Philips, but are part of the ‘Xiaomi ecosystem’.

Yeelight is a Chinese startup that started in 2012 and was taken over by Xiaomi after the first production round. Since then, Yeelight has been operating largely independently for a number of years, although it is part of Xiaomi. Initially, the lamps were only for sale in Asia, but are increasingly finding their way to Europe, thanks to smart importers.

New in the update of the Yeelight app (version 3.1.75) is that now HomeKit is supported for the first time. This gives you the opportunity to add HomeKit devices to your smart home, as was already possible with the Mi Home and Aqara apps. If you have devices such as a Mi Lamp or Aqara Hub, you can add them immediately in the Yeelight app. For example, it’s about the:

Mi Desk Lamp Pro
Mi Desk Lamp 1S
Mi Bedside Lamp 2

These products are immediately suitable for HomeKit from the box. The app also automatically recognizes Yeelight’s own smart lamps, like this one:

Yeelight Colour Bulb (2nd generation)
Yeelight Tunable White Bulb (2nd generation)
Yeelight Light Strip Plus
Mi (Smart) Colour Bulb

Yeelight lamps work via WiFi
Previously, you could only add them via the Mi Home app, but that required an account for Mi Home. The Yeelight lamps did not require a bridge or hub because the Wi-Fi is already built in. Early this month, Yeelight released a HomeKit update for the Light Strip Plus and a few days later a similar update for the Mi Smart Colour Bulb and the Tunable White Smart Bulb. The manufacturer has promised that more HomeKit updates will be released in the third quarter of 2019, so that the complete range will eventually be suitable.

You don’t need a HomeKit code to add the bulbs, but that means you have to add them to Mi Home or the Yeelight app first. Then you can easily add them to HomeKit. In the event of any problems, you can close the app just as hard after installing the firmware update. After that, a pop-up will pop up asking you if you want to add the lamp to HomeKit.

Source:

http://blogscat.com/a/bookmarks/smart-home-bookmarks-list/
http://blogscat.com/a/bookmarks/story-share-bookmarks/
http://blogscat.com/a/bookmarks/news-bookmarks/

iot weekly reading

2018/11/30 16:55

Xiaomi Products That You Don’t Know

Xiaomi is a very popular brand that offers more and more top quality stuff. Some of the Xiaomi products such as the Redmi Note 4 or the Mi Band 2 have been true international hits that have been on the best-selling lists for a long time. However, in today’s article we’re going to talk about some products that stay more in the shade and that you probably (or almost certainly) didn’t know about.

Aqara vibration sensor

I’ll start as always with the box. It is unusually large for such devices. Framed in the traditions of the genre, except that the list of parameters of the sensor moved from the back side of the box to one of the ends. The sensor works on the ZigBee protocol, has an autonomous power supply on the element CR2032 and size 36 * 36 * 9 mm.

Xiaomi Aqara Smart Curtain

Xiaomi has launched a lot of products in the last 10 days, even more than we are used to, practically every other day. First we went to the AmazFit Health, a sports bracelet, for two days later to see the Xiaomi Weloopp Hey 3S sports smartwatch. One day later, an external battery for mobile and laptop, followed by a bicycle for children.

AQARA AIR CONDITIONING COMPANION

Gaming room: My little paradise

It's the dream of many of us, it's in case one of mine: to have a Gaming room. For the less English-speaking among you, a Gaming room is a room dedicated to the pleasure of video games. Gradually, the term has evolved to include the "cinema" part of the same room, we are also talking about the Media room.

Koogeek KH01CN Wi-Fi Lighti Switch

Xiaomi Mi Box 4 et Mi Box 4c

Xiaomi today introduced two new TV Boxes in China, the Xiaomi Mi Box 4 and Xiaomi Mi Box 4c. These fourth-generation TV Boxes are the successors to the Xiaomi Mi Box 3 and Mi Box 3c launched in November 2016. The Xiaomi Mi Box 4 has the same design as Xiaomi’s TV Boxes, in a square shape. The color for this version is uniformly white. It is 1.6 cm thick and weighs 145 grams. It has a 64-bit quad-core processor and a GPU, but we don’t have more details about the manufacturer of this processor yet.

Xiaomi Soocare X3

Xiaomi has just unveiled its new product! And no, you're not dreaming! An electric toothbrush with Bluetooth connection. The Xiaomi Soocare X3 is born! The so-called Soocare X3 toothbrush is manufactured by an innovative Chinese Chinese Start-up company Soocare Cassels. This pocket toothbrush uses a magnetic levitation acoustic wave motor with a rotation speed of up to 37200 times per minute, which rotates the bristles. The motor of this toothbrush also has a torque output of 220 gf.cm.

Smart home and Cybersecurity

Smart Home and Cybersecurity on the agenda today. This article aims to raise awareness among private individuals who are "self-installers" of solutions around the connected home. For others, this subject may be useful, rough or complementary. In "modern home automation" (Internet of things, Smart Home, Connected Home, Connected Objects) we often forget to talk about security, that's why for some time now I've been trying to tackle this subject, which is a little complex and vast enough to get lost in. After weeks of bibliographic collection necessary to perfect my global vision of this subject, I am presenting you with a non-exhaustive, but fairly representative file of the situation, as well as a set of measures to limit the risks of exposure of your residential digital infrastructure.

Control your Enocean home automation with a Logitech Harmony

A few months ago, the "Google Home" voice assistant found its place in our home to interact with some of our connected objects. The opportunity to come back to my Logitech Harmony Hub that I have been using for several years with an Enocean IR/RF converter... and this time the possibility to interact with my "Google Home" voice assistant.

If I also have an Enocean "WizzBox" home automation gateway, you can of course use the same interactions without necessarily having a home automation box.

Autoconsumption Photovoltaic and Smart Home

Photovoltaic self-consumption and smart home are on the menu of celebrations. As you will have understood, I propose today to deal with an issue that is essential for French households: Energy or at least its cost. In this article we will try to see more clearly about some of the shadows around the sun, energy and photovoltaics. As we are passionate about smart home, we will necessarily refer to what our modern devices for counting and controlling devices can bring to our homes.

How to create an SMS gateway in your smart home

We will see in this article how to send/receive SMS messages via a GSM/GPRS gateway installed on a Raspberry Pi (RPi). We will describe step by step, the installation and configuration necessary to make your platform operational.

Revogi Bluetooth MeterPlug Test

Hello everyone, in this article you will find a test of the MeterPlug module produced by Revogi. This is an ordered socket with consumption tracking, very easy to use and can be used for very useful daily uses. This module allows you to transform any of your electrical equipment into connected equipment. The module uses Bluetooth for this purpose.

Ubiwizz: Interoperable solution for smart home

In the connected home sector, there are a large number of more or less well-known solutions, Somfy, Delta Dore, Fibaro, Jeedom, Eedomus, Zipabox,... All have their advantages and disadvantages, open systems or proprietary, cloud or local server, protocols, wired or wireless... Each can choose according to their needs and preferences... But here is a new home automation and interoperability solution proposed by UBIWIZZ, the brand for connected homes of the French manufacturer Decelect.

Foscam FI9928P

Well known in the video surveillance industry with its consumer IP cameras, Foscam continues its renewal of the range with this time a motorized Dome for the outdoors and rather oriented high-end... The Foscam FI9928P outdoor surveillance camera is a jewel of technology, compact and discreet it is also waterproof and designed to resist bad weather. It will fit perfectly into your exterior and you can fix it against the wall with its bracket and the included mounting kit.

XIAOMI SMART 1080P CAMERA

Xiaomi completes its range of IP cameras with this rather friendly, powerful and feature-rich model. Bi-directional audio, night vision, 1080P video quality, wide angle, motion detection and audio alarms etc… You will find on the market another model of the ISmart Alarm brand which is exactly the same as the Xiaomi Smart without the brand branding. After some research on the WEB it seems that Xiaomi made it well and sold it with an exclusivity to ISmart Alarm. The comparison stops there because the price is not at all the same and each one remains faithful to its application.

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