Jeff Robbin and Tony Fadell were the co-leads behind the development of the original iPod. Now, 10 years past the iPod's introduction, Jeff Robbin is reportedly in charge of Apple's effort to remake the television. But what of Tony Fadell? He promised Steve Jobs that he wouldn't make anything that would compete with Apple products and instead started a new company, Nest Labs, to remake the thermostat.
From TechCrunch's post introducing Nest's Learning Thermostat:
Fadell got the idea designing his green home in Tahoe. He was shocked there wasn’t a single attractive thermostat on the market so he decided to build his own. The size of the market and the potential impact on the planet convinced him it was a great business. And if he didn’t do it, who would? The unit uses the guts of a smart phone and required someone who knows how to build drop-dead-easy user experiences.
The Nest Learning Thermostat is connected to Wi-Fi and can be remotely controlled by a iPhone app or a laptop. The thermostat will retail for $249 when it goes on sale in mid-November.
Top Rated Comments
Come on people think a little bigger - how about home-devices combined with the [presently hypothetical] Siri third party API?
"Siri, it's a little warm in here"
"Siri, set the living room to 70 degrees whenever I'm home."
"Siri, when I leave for work set the house to 78 degrees for 6 hours."
Right, but it also learns via presence when you are not there, and turns the heat down. So the point is to make it comfortable when you want it, and then to save energy when you are not there. All automatically.