Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google to Acquire Nest

investor.google.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

251–260 of 590 posts

Re: Google to Acquire Nest

#251

Post by vdaniuk »

MartinCron wrote: post #209
belgianguy wrote: post #170

smart phone > smart car > smart house > ... ? ... > smart human I for one see great areas of improvement and possibilities inside the common house. Not that I'd wire up every appliance with a Wi-Fi sensor, but some data can be useful, if only for safety (falling asleep with the oven on: here a sensor could cut the power at a certain condition, or trigger the fire alarm, or ring up the firefighters). Or you left the h…

I know this makes me sound like a terrible luddite or hipster or both, but I've been thinking about all of these smart devices and services and how they may have a somewhat infantalizing impact on people. I recently met with some people behind a startup built entirely around generating meal plans for you. I understand that it's a useful service (for some types of people). But I worry about the implication that we are…

Please educate yourself on choice paralysis and its implications, learn about the fundamental reasons (cognitive capacity, cognitive bias, etc) and only then worry about our wonderful, adapting, intelligent species.

Re: Google to Acquire Nest

#252

Post by dangrossman »

cbr wrote: post #238
dangrossman wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet that's what I believe it does. Every few seconds, Nest sends an HTTP POST to their servers with its serial number. If there are any commands waiting for that thermostat (change temperature initiated from an app for example), they get sent in response, otherwise the connection is closed.

That's the client pulling, not the server pushing. Pushing would be "when the owner makes a change on the website, notify the appropriate thermostat to change its settings". This would be way more efficient, but too many Nests aren't going to have suitable internet connections.

Perhaps you misread "yet" as "yes". I'm curious if there's a power issue as well. I don't know how fast wifi can turn on/off and reconnect to a network. Nest has to be low-power as its only power source is one of the tiny wires from the HVAC system and that doesn't supply enough to run the device offline, let alone online. It uses that wire to charge an internal battery instead.

Re: Google to Acquire Nest

#254

Post by bentcorner »

tadfisher wrote: post #17
tghw wrote: post #3

Given Google's history with acquisitions, as a Nest owner, I'm not thrilled to hear this. Hopefully they let it run as independently as possible.

On the other hand, Android, Inc. was an acquisition with a similar purpose–to break into a new product space–and it grew into a fully-supported division. I don't think Google will treat this as an acquihire situation.

Sure, but do you think the probable future lifespan of a Nest v1 has gotten better or worse after this acquisition?

Re: Google to Acquire Nest

#255

Post by jyz »

3.2 billion is an insanely large number. But then when you step back and see Snapchat being offered the similar amount, you kind of feel sorry for Nest for selling.

Re: Google to Acquire Nest

#256

Post by joelrunyon »

macspoofing wrote: post #128
MrZongle2 wrote: post #11

Am I the only one who thought "well, good for the Nest guys" followed by "too bad, it looked like a good product"?

I thought "Good for the Nest gu...HOLY CRAP GOOGLE PAID $3.2 BILLION FOR A THERMOSTAT COMPANY"

Considering they have revenue & a business model - it's more palatable than snapchat getting offered 3B by FB in cash & turning it down.

Re: Google to Acquire Nest

#257

Post by jfb »

jader201 wrote: post #139
MrZongle2 wrote: post #11

Am I the only one who thought "well, good for the Nest guys" followed by "too bad, it looked like a good product"?

I'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?

Apple buying NeXT.

Re: Google to Acquire Nest

#258

Post by MartinCron »

vdaniuk wrote: post #251
MartinCron wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know this makes me sound like a terrible luddite or hipster or both, but I've been thinking about all of these smart devices and services and how they may have a somewhat infantalizing impact on people. I recently met with some people behind a startup built entirely around generating meal plans for you. I understand that it's a useful service (for some types of people). But I worry about the implication that we are…

Please educate yourself on choice paralysis and its implications, learn about the fundamental reasons (cognitive capacity, cognitive bias, etc) and only then worry about our wonderful, adapting, intelligent species.

I know you're trying to be helpful, but "please educate yourself" is almost never a constructive or helpful phrase.

We can do better than that here.

Re: Google to Acquire Nest

#259

Post by DominikR »

wyager wrote: post #91
chrisrhoden wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about the ability to know when someone is in your home and when someone is not? If Google records that data (say, to be able to provide you with a handy chart of your energy use and some ways to improve it), the potential I am more worried about is the fact that the data exists makes it possible to subpoena.

Exactly. I don't care if the government knows when I'm home (they can already figure that out), but imagine if Google's database of Nest info got leaked. Burglars could look at the database and say "Oh hey, look, no one's home right now."

I guess that the threat of being abducted by aliens is higher than burglars successfully hacking Google to get information on when you are not at home.

Re: Google to Acquire Nest

#260

Post by nknighthb »

cbr wrote: post #230
nknighthb wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely the updates are sent via some form of push. Polling on that scale would be obscene.

Nope; if you have a device in people's houses you basically have to configure them to pull. NATs and other connectivity tricks mean they can reliably initiate communication with you but not the other way around.

I'm intimately familiar with the relevant issues. That the client initiates the connection does not make it "pull", you're confusing distinct issues. Push is almost always implemented with long-lived connections initiated by the client side which remain idle save for periodic keepalives until there is actual data to transmit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Push_technology

Post reply on HN