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Am I the only one who thought "well, good for the Nest guys" followed by "too bad, it looked like a good product"?
by MrZongle2 13y ago
Am I the only one who thought "well, good for the Nest guys" followed by "too bad, it looked like a good product"?
- ams6110 13y agoI agree with "good for the Nest guys" but not "looked like a good product" and I don't mean that in a bad way, it may be a very well executed product but I cannot by any stretch of the imagination think why I would want my thermostat or smoke detector to be anything but stand-alone, dumb devices that do the one thing they were designed to do, and do it faultlessly.
- vasilipupkin 13y agoyeah, the last thing I need is my Nest thermostat and my Nest smoke alarm sending data about my house to Google / NSA
- matmann2001 13y agoGreat. Now I'll have to listen to an ad before my fire alarm goes off.
- ericcumbee 13y agofrom http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/13/google-just-bought-connected-device-company-nest-for-3-2b-in-cash/ http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/13/google-just-bought-connecte... Will Nest customer data be shared with Google? Our privacy policy clearly limits the use of customer information to providing and improving Nest’s products and services. We’ve always taken privacy seriously and this will not change. ----- is it just me or is that a non denial?
- MrZongle2 13y agoIt just means that the privacy policy will be revised.
- ericcumbee 13y agoaccept our TOS or prepare to freeze/burn up.
- forgottenpass 13y agois it just me or is that a non denial? Is it ever. The new owners of Nest can just roll out updates to every Nest app that require an agreement to a new TOS. I expect to see it within 18 months. Shame too, I was already on the fence about buying a Nest, I guess I've got a new microcontroler project to work on.
- azernik 13y ago"Improving our products and services" is standard legalese for "to implement whatever new feature we want".
- smackfu 13y agoIt's a dumb question. There is no such thing as "shared with Google" if Nest is wholly owned by Google. Nest data is Google data.
- matthewmcg 13y agoTheir current policy doesn't permit them to share personal information with other entities or even "affiliates". They would probably need your consent to change this. They could merge Nest Labs, Inc. into another Google company, letting the surviving company use the information. The press release does not disclose the acquisition structure but their statements suggest the company will survive as a separate entity.
- smackfu 13y agoI don't really see what they have access to privacy-wise that is any more intrusive than a smart-phone with a microphone and a GPS chip. And if the NSA can target a huge company like Google, I bet Nest was child's play to infiltrate.
- diydsp 13y agowell, it's one thing to feel insecure knowing that people know where you are (cellphone/mic/GPS). But if you're attacked/ambushed/blackmailed/kidnapped, you can always fight for yourself, scream to attract attention, etc. It's another thing to feel insecure knowing that people know when your home is unoccupied. Just wait until the next big data breach happens. It's especially interesting b/c not only is this a "when are they not home" detector, but the "they" is an indicator for "wealthy enough to afford nice things."
- hippee-lee 13y agoThen we make products like the nest that sit in out houses with cameras in them, tie into facial recognition software and alert the police. Or, even better recognize that intruder is not on a white list and owners are not home and use automated home protection to disable them. Those kinds of situations are the driving force of many thin a: warheads & bunkers and safes & crackers quickly come to mind.
- reinhardt 13y agoIs this about principle or you have actual privacy concerns about leaked thermostat / smoke alarm data? Maybe I am being unimaginative but I can't think of why I should care about the latter.
- antimatter 13y agoNest thermostat can detect whether a home is occupied or not. I imagine this is the biggest cause for concern.
- guyzero 13y agoIf you actually care about the NSA and aren't just being glib, what's stopping them from collecting this data right now?
- sliverstorm 13y agoSame thing went through my mind when I discovered Google acquired Boston Dynamics.
- psbp 13y agoYeah, motorola products have completely gone down the toilet after that acquisition. They were so great before with fast updates and a wonderful skin of android, and now they're either non-innovative or way too overpriced for the value.
- AshleysBrain 13y agoLike the Moto G?
- staticfish 13y agoI think there a lot of things to bash Google on, but the outcome of Motorola is not one of them. The G and X look like great phones and they were all pieces of shit before.
- riggins 13y agothe parent comment was sarcasm. I immediately thought 'google will tie this into your google phone for you. That could be pretty nice.'
- danudey 13y agoI think the concern is that they'll tie it into their data collections practices. An online page to manage your thermostat(s) remotely and grant access to the API, but you have to sign in with your Google+ account to access it.
- corresation 13y agopspb is clearly making an ill-advised attempt at sarcasm.
- Fasebook 13y agoReally? $200 for a predictive thermostat, with a lame excuse to stream energy usage data and proximity data (Nest detects humans) out of your home? Id rather pay $99 to tell health insurance companies how often I exercise, live. You could get the same benefit from a device for $30 of electronics. It's an overpriced gimmick to justify another selling off of your personal data forever in exchange for nothing but some minor convenience. The price doesn't justify the energy savings or by product manufacturing cost. If Google wants to know how much energy I'm using, they can buy the information from the utilities and subsidize my electric forever. I'm not paying to give it to them.
- taylorwc 13y agoDoes that mean you place no value on aesthetics or industrial design of a beautiful device? Don't get me wrong, I agree that it's overpriced, but I do at least place some value on a well-made device.
- Fasebook 13y agoI don't like the aesthetics, no. From a engineering perspective, it is not much of an achievement of R&D, imo. They probably paid more for their Photoshoppers.
- bentcorner 13y agoI'd pay a few dollars more, maybe. At the end of the day as long as it isn't garishly awful I don't particularly care. For example, this one does everything I need and costs 10% of a nest: http://amzn.com/B002RL9BIM http://amzn.com/B002RL9BIM It actually has a backlight which is a step up from what I have today. It's just not important to me. Definitely not $250 important. I could definitely use a smarter thermostat, but my vision of the future is a wireless dumb thermostat paired to a home PC that is connected to other sensors. While those dumb devices could be made to interoperate with a cloud service (this is probably where Google is playing), I'd rather keep that control in-house (haha).
- Ensorceled 13y ago
- davidiach 13y agoSo you are saying that Google bought the Nest guys, not the Nest product?
- MrZongle2 13y agoI'm saying that if you're near the top of the food chain at Nest, 2014 is probably going to be the start of many good years financially. As for the product? Google's Reader product comes to mind.
- napoleond 13y agoI know everyone's still upset about Reader, but your post doesn't make any sense. Google didn't pay $3.2 billion dollars for a bunch of new employees.
- MrZongle2 13y agoYes, it is doubtful that Google would up and kill a product they just paid $3.2B for. But I'm human, and I was a heavy Reader user. That particular debacle -- along with the NSA revelations of last year -- have affected my perception of the company in a negative manner.
- manmal 13y agoThey did not pay $3.2 billion for some employees, but for a company with a proven track record of creating great hardware. Why not let them develop more household hardware for the upcoming internet-of-things revolution (provided it does come), with Google on top?
- addflip 13y agoDamn, I really liked my Nest.
- macspoofing 13y agoI thought "Good for the Nest gu...HOLY CRAP GOOGLE PAID $3.2 BILLION FOR A THERMOSTAT COMPANY"
- 3327 13y agoActually believe it or not but this is a very very expensive acqu-hire. First engineer on the IPhone team? Father of the IPOD? given the size of the smartphone industry and given what apple has become because of the iphone one could argue that the dude is worth half a billion.
- stevewillows 13y agoThis is the most overlooked aspect of this acquisition. My brother works in HVAC, and I've seen some of the automation available - - the trouble is that the systems aren't intuitive to the user and do very little to think on their own outside of if statements from the sensors.
- danudey 13y agoI would have much rather seen this as a technology/algorithm hire from a company like Honeywell or some other established HVAC company, which could have kept selling the Nest (and their new smoke detector, etc.) but also incorporated the technology into higher-tech commercial/industrial systems, where you some companies could probably save millions a year through more intelligent control and management systems.
- lstamour 13y agoI never found my Nest to be all that intelligent beyond "I wonder if he'll notice it's colder now?" "Oh wait, he turned me up, I guess he noticed." It's a game of cat and mouse with that darn auto-away enabled sometimes.
- foobarian 13y agoI find the learning functionality to be a nuisance. What makes it awesome is the design, the remote control, and the scheduling interface.
- jader201 13y agoI'm trying to think of a tech acquisition that was favorable, or at the very least not unfavorable for the consumer. It seems like tech (maybe all) acquisitions almost always favor the buyer and not the consumer. Does anybody have any good examples?
- randomdata 13y agoAndroid, Inc., also acquired by Google, seemed to work out well for the consumer, I would say.
- droopybuns 13y agoI just don't get why anyone would hold android up as an example of success, given the comments in the following thread. The gap between expectations & execution on android is tremendous. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7053108 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7053108
- potatolicious 13y agoThe comparison isn't between "what Android could be under Google" and "what Android is under Google". The comparison is between "what Android could be as an independent company" and "what Android is under Google". I think ultimately Android is doing a lot better for a lot more people than it would have had it remained independent. I'm also having a hard time imagining anyone else that could've acquired them and achieved substantially better results (see: Microsoft's handling of the Danger acquisition).
- MartinCron 13y agoI don't see the YouTube acquisition as being harmful. Pixar is still making (some) good movies under Disney. I'm sure there are more examples.
- MartinCron 13y agoAnother example: Bungie made some great games under Microsoft.
- stock_toaster 13y agoYou are not alone. I wonder how long it will be until Google+ is required to change the temperature in your house.
- aragot 13y agoYeah that's where the +1 button is.
- jgeorge 13y agoSadly, my exact thinking. I love my Nest. I do not love Google collecting statistical information from it. Which I am certain they will do, regardless of what they say to the contrary.
- Friedduck 13y agoNot precisely my thoughts, but the sentiment's the same. As someone who doesn't trust Google with my information it means Nest isn't a product I'd buy any longer. If, on the other hand, you're a fan of the Google ecosystem I would expect that it will be a nice tie-in and a great acquisition for them. If they could add something along the lines of Belkin's WeMo devices and maybe Dropcam they could put together a nice home automation dashboard suite. They're going to need to honor the legacy of Nest's design, though. No one is going to spend that kind of money and settle for an ad-ridden attempt to coerce you to use Google+.
- jrwoodruff 13y agoNo, my first thought was "wow, good for the Nest guys" followed by "too bad, I really don't want Google Analytics hanging on my wall."
- fotbr 13y agoExactly my thoughts as well. Since I've never been keen on Google's ambitions to rival the various alphabet-soup agencies on what they know about everyone, I guess I can cross that off the list of upgrades I'll be doing when I replace the heater this spring.
- RRWagner 13y agoThe great meta-data bonus here is just "away". Now Google will have a much better idea of when you're not in your house. Why would I want Google to know when I'm not at home? I love the Nest. It's an exemplary work of UI, UX and engineering. But I've just turned off the network connection, and I won't be recommending it to any family or friends.
- MichaelMoser123 13y agoI think it is about the smart grid; the electric grid is supposed to adjust production of electricity to actual demand; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_grid http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_grid http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV_pickup http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV_pickup Here you really need a good analytics engine that combines measurements of quadrillion sensors; (actually my gripe is that all these sensors and the networking that connects them also needs some electricity, so where are the savings?) I guess google is a big public company that has to produce constant growth figures for the stock market, they see the limits that can be squeezed out of adds, so they are looking for different markets; in corporate speak you would say 'leveraging core competences into the utilities market' You can see this diversification in other areas: once upon a time a lot of people thought that Android is about creating demand for adds, nowadays Motorola is actually supposed to sell phones.
- rajacombinator 13y agoPretty much although the exact order was: 1) "holy crap that's a ton of money." 2) "well, good for the Nest guys." 3) "too bad, it looked like a good product." 4) "I wonder why Apple didn't buy them." GOOG's MSFTian sprawl may be what ends up killing them. This would have been a great fit for Apple ages ago when they could have bought it for cheap, especially given the ex-Apple guys and the Store placement. I guess at these lofty prices they can build better from scratch.