Insteon Universal Application

[Teken]

Another mile stone for Insteon support via 3rd party hardware manufacture Toshiba:

 

               Insteon Universal App Brings             Connected Home Control to Toshiba Laptops

 

Out-of-the-Box Experience Allows Toshiba Customers to tap into their Insteon-enabled Home from Anywhere

IRVINE, California – August 10, 2015 – Insteon®, creators of the world’s premier home automation and control technology, today announced that the Insteon universal app will be included on new Toshiba laptops shipping at the end of the month. Insteon will be the first built-in IoT application shipping to the masses, giving customers with the Insteon Hub easy, intuitive control of their connected home from their Toshiba laptop.

 

The Insteon universal app will give Toshiba laptop owners even easier access to their connected home. Once Insteon users log-in to their account, they can connect to their Insteon Hub and manage their Insteon devices enabling the abundance of home control possibilities that Insteon provides, including automated lighting, thermostats, motion, leak and smoke sensors, and more. On a Toshiba laptop, it doesn’t matter if you’re looking to build out your automated dream home or just starting to play with home connectivity, it’s easier than ever to tap into the Insteon ecosystem. 

 

“Thanks to the collaboration with Toshiba, we’re one step closer to providing a streamlined, reliable home automation solution where all of your devices work together in perfect harmony,” said Joe Dada, CEO of Insteon. “This integration adds another component to the connected home, where you can intuitively manage and monitor your home, simply by turning on your laptop.”

 

With a uniform and user-friendly interface, the Insteon universal app allows users to control their Insteon devices from any Windows 10 device including computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones, wearables and more. The Insteon universal app will be available on a majority of the Toshiba consumer laptops powered by Windows 10 that will begin shipping this August.

 

About Insteon®

Insteon® transforms the "connected home" from a buzzword into reality. We make life simple by connecting you to the things that matter. Control your lights, alarms, thermostats – all your things – from wherever you are in the world. Insteon's patented technology is simple and reliable, powering the most fail-safe connected home on the market. With more than 200 Insteon products available today and thousands of developers, we bring all of the things in your home into elegant command. It’s your house, turn it on.

 

For more information about Insteon, please visit www.insteon.com, or connect with Insteon on Facebook (www.facebook.com/insteon) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/insteon).

 

[paulbates]

Thanks Teken.

 

I'm thinking this is alljoyn based since windows 10 is so prominently mentioned as the endpoint? 

[Teken]

Thanks Teken.

 

I'm thinking this is alljoyn based since windows 10 is so prominently mentioned as the endpoint? 

 

Hello Paulbates,

 

I'm unsure what engine runs this *Universal Insteon Application* but your previous thread about AllJoyn seems logical for such a large maker of wares to use and apply.

 

There are several things that come to mind in that *A Typically* any sort of Windows Application is easily developed and crafted by third party vendors.

 

This alone drives adoption and integration because its available, pervasive, and extensible. The fact its something that can be easily ported over to multi hardware platforms like PC's, Tablets, Phones, etc makes this even more attractive to hardware makers.

 

Everyone is getting on the HA bandwagon and if some of them can tout native support for one this is good for sales. Everyone knows I am probably one of the most vocal and critical user of Insteon products. Save a few other souls who are more direct then I LOL.

 

But the point I am trying to make is this is a great step and direction where I have always bagged on Smartlabs about. That is not having enough 3rd party vendors supporting the Insteon protocol. With this sort of software integration it will allow those hardware vendors who normally sit on the fence about such things take a jump with out (almost) no loss.

 

Having said this (come on you all know I was going to offer a counter point ha) my personal belief is that Smartlabs still needs to either offer the Insteon chips for free or at extremely discounted prices to all vendors willing to take it on. Super saturating the market in all hardware markets will drive adoption, awareness, and long term sales growth.

 

The above topic has been discussed by me and others for many years and this is the critical juncture that I truly believe will turn the tide in the ever growing HA market place.

 

The reality is these Insteon chips cost pennies to build so handing out thousands of them is money well spent. I can only imagine the following appliances or devices having native Insteon control and awareness.

 

Automotive, Fridge, Toaster, Coffee Machine, HVAC, Heaters, Motors, Stove, Microwave, etc.

 

The biggest window of opportunity I see for the next product cycle is energy management and tracking. The ZigBee / Z-Wave camp is already way ahead of Insteon in this aspect. The difference which I suggest is offer the real thing and not just a wannabe product that is cheap and toy like.

 

Its 2015 the technology is cheap and available to allow energy to be measured *accurately* just do it! My hope and expectation is the next generation of Insteon hardware will offer some kind of Energy Monitoring in all of their hardwired solutions. This would not only allow instant power (watts) awareness but allow tracking of how many KWH this device has used.

 

It should offer the ability to see how many amps / current the device also consumes while operating. Along with indicating low, medium, and high values encountered for the device. It goes with out saying having a time stamp of when a device was turned on/off and the duration of such is key.

 

All of these things not only add value but real insight along with control.

 

The current offerings from other vendors provide a fraction of the insight and the data provided in terms of watts, KWH. The level of accuracy is also suspect based on some of the devices I had to play with for a short period.

 

Like Apple who typically offers a full solution instead of half baked product like many others. This is why people will pay a premium if its known the product offers true accuracy and value given the price point being asked.

 

We all know its easy to copy, follow, and mimic others. Its much harder to lead the way and be company that blazes a trail which others wish to emulate.

 

I challenge Joe Dadda and his engineers to take this on and show everyone once and for all who is the true HA Leader in 2015 and beyond.  

[paulbates]

Agreed its a quandary. AFAIK, Toshiba is not part of alljoyn. And if it was MS related to alljoyn, why not just put the app in the store, like the "Insteon for Hub" app?

 

I'm trying to figure out this statement from the release: Once Insteon users log-in to their account, they can connect to their Insteon Hub and manage their Insteon devices enabling the abundance of home control possibilities that Insteon provides, including automated lighting, thermostats, motion, leak and smoke sensors, and more. That sounds exactly like Insteon for Hub, a visual touchscreen remote control kind of app. 

 

To your point, some product opportunities for them on the horizon. 

[AngelArs]

 

“Thanks to the collaboration with Toshiba, we’re one step closer to providing a streamlined, reliable home automation solution where all of your devices work together in perfect harmony,” said Joe Dada, CEO of Insteon. 

 

 

 

Wow, thanks Toshiba for saving me a minute in not having to download an app. Too bad their newest app only works with the Hub Pro, which is currently non-existent. 

[paulbates]

Yes, agreed... I'm not getting the value add stickiness with toshiba. I make personal computing choices, and i make HA choices. I didn't expect the latter to drive the former.

 

I'm guessing the hub pro has some additional "middleware", for lack of a better term, that provides additional capabilities. If its the right design, we shouldn't care what brand (toshiba, dell, ...) or type (Windows, Mac, Linux,..) the endpoint is.

[Teken]

Agreed its a quandary. AFAIK, Toshiba is not part of alljoyn. And if it was MS related to alljoyn, why not just put the app in the store, like the "Insteon for Hub" app?

 

I'm trying to figure out this statement from the release: Once Insteon users log-in to their account, they can connect to their Insteon Hub and manage their Insteon devices enabling the abundance of home control possibilities that Insteon provides, including automated lighting, thermostats, motion, leak and smoke sensors, and more. That sounds exactly like Insteon for Hub, a visual touchscreen remote control kind of app. 

 

To your point, some product opportunities for them on the horizon. 

 

To me this sound more like they have enabled a web site which can be tailored to a company with their own branding etc. Not so much a App per say but simply a web portal which in the big picture is all the HUB is.

 

Its a data server which offers services to a connected grid of users.

 

The reality is this sort of web based access should be made native for all end users with a HUB II / HUB Pro. The fact its being shelled out by 3rd party hardware which of course you must purchase to have the privilege to obtain and use said web based interface.

 

So, yeah . . .

 

This is something I call a red flag on because its a service that should be available to everyone, period.