Nest, the company founded by the former Apple designer Tony Fadell, has a new version of its self-learning thermostat coming out this month. The company said on Tuesday that it had upgraded both the hardware and software of the device to make it thinner, smarter and more compatible with different types of heating and cooling systems.
On the outside, the main difference is that the body is about 20 percent slimmer than its predecessor?s. Inside, the components have been slightly rejiggered so that the thermostat will work with 95 percent of low-voltage heating and cooling systems in the United States, the company said.
The device includes the latest Nest software, version 3.0, which has improved algorithms that use statistical analysis to make the thermostat adapt to your system and environment. For example, a feature called auto-away uses motion detection to know when nobody is in the house and turns off a heater or air-conditioner after a certain amount of time. The older software waited two hours before shutting down the system, but now it can take just half an hour because it does statistical analysis of your daily patterns to know when you?re unlikely to be home ? like between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. on a Sunday, when you?re at the gym, perhaps.
The improved algorithms should also help the Nest learn about the nuances of your particular system, the company says. For example, in a house with old pipes that takes longer to heat up to a certain temperature, the Nest will learn what time to turn on the heat to get your house to a set temperature by a certain hour, said Maxime Veron, a product manager of Nest.
The company, based in Palo Alto, Calif., has about 130 employees, many from Apple, Google, Microsoft, Twitter and Logitech. Since releasing the first Nest last October, sales have been ?in the mid-hundreds of thousands? of units, according to the company.
Mr. Fadell, the company?s chief executive, said the company hoped one day to branch out into other markets with different types of products, but for now, it?s focused on thermostats.
?It took us six, seven years to get to the iPhone from the iPod,? Mr. Fadell said of his time working at Apple. ?So for a little tiny company to go only one year to our next product, that?s a lot of work. ?
The new Nest costs $250, the same as its predecessor; it goes on sale at nest.com on Tuesday and will begin shipping in mid-October. Later it will be sold on Amazon, Apple?s online store and 1,700 Lowe?s locations.
The software upgrade will be a free download for owners of the previous Nest. Very much unlike a new iPod or iPhone, the goal with the new Nest is to expand to brand-new customers with its improved compatibility, not to lure current Nest owners into an upgrade, Mr. Veron said.
Source: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/02/nest-second-generation/
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