Google, Apple, and Amazon on cooperating!! Could someone call Satan and see if Hell has frozen over?
Google, Amazon, Apple, and other technology companies have teamed up to develop a smart home connectivity standard that makes it easier for software and devices to play ball across the smart home ecosystem. From a report:
Connected Home Over IP, as the new working group is called, will be spearheaded by the Zigbee Alliance, a group of companies that develop and maintain the ZigBee standard, which enables close-proximity devices (e.g light switches, smart speakers, locks) to talk to each other in the home. Smart home devices can use any number of protocols, such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Wireless USB, Z-Wave, and ZigBee. Google also develops two open source protocols -- called Weave and Thread. All of these various protocols have inherent benefits and may appeal to equipment manufacturers and IoT system makers for different reasons, but manufacturers have to invest considerable resources to ensure their devices will work with all the others. So the working group is setting out to achieve a common standard for the smart home, based on internet protocol (IP). |
