Energy Management in Home Assistant

TL; DR: We’re adding energy management and it’s awesome. Created two products to read out electricity meters: SlimmeLezer for P1 ports & Home Assistant Glow for activity LEDs. Upgraded most of the existing energy integrations to be compatible.

The world is in a climate crisis. Global warming is a reality and the weather is getting unpredictable. Our way of living needs to change, at all levels. I am worried that the climate crisis is something that the world is going to try to solve too late and after irreversible damages have already been done.

So with Home Assistant we want to do our part to help take on the climate crisis, and help you do the same. One part of fighting the climate crisis is making sure our homes are energy efficient and use low-carbon energy sources.

Starting today, Home Assistant is adding official support for home energy management. Our energy management will help users monitor the energy usage, transition to sustainable energy and save money.

Diagram how both home automation and energy management use the same data.
Home automation and energy management are built on top of knowing what devices are doing

Energy management and Home Assistant in context

Bill Gates was recently interviewed by Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) and talked about how intelligent homes are needed to make smart cities. And how all of this starts with energy management in the home. The interview is 3 minutes and worth watching:

Home Assistant won’t have all the answers when it comes to energy management, at least not right away. But we have two key things going for us that makes us the perfect platform to choose for your energy management:

The first is that we’re completely open. This means that with Home Assistant, anyone can use the source or its collected data and build anything with it. We already see this happening: the European federation of citizen energy cooperatives is using Home Assistant to build energy management software tailored for communities. We are part of a rich ecosystem with many different approaches, all connected with Home Assistant.

The second thing is that we have a passionate and global community that wants to make their homes the best it can be. A community that revolves around building and sharing their own hardware and software to be able to achieve their goals. Through experimentation and iteration we will be able to improve energy management over time to fit our needs – there are no investors to satisfy.

When it comes to your home, Home Assistant is the best platform to manage it and figure out what works and what doesn’t.

Copy-of-FreePower-Top

Wireless charging firm Aira raises $12M

Founded in 2017, Arizona-based Aira didn’t waste any time proving out its technology. We’ve written about the company’s wireless charging a few times over the years, including the “FreePower” technology it has baked into Nomad’s charging pads, which brings a more streamlined version of the Apple’s abandoned AirPower. The tech allows for users to charge up to three objects at once, without having to futz with their precise placement on the pad.

Nomad’s new Base Station Pro offers a taste of what Apple’s AirPower had promised

Today, the startup announced that it has raised a $12 million seed round, primarily led by private investors, including Jawad Ahsan, Lori Greiner and Robert Herjavec.  The funding will go toward expanding the company’s reach beyond consumer device charging, into the worlds of enterprise, automotive and hospitality, as well as the development of a 2.0 version of its charging tech.

“This new round of funding is a game changer when it comes to accelerating our capacity for innovation,” co-founder and CEO Jake Slatnick said in a release. “With so many partnerships in our pipeline, a 2.0 version of FreePower on the horizon, and Jawad having just joined our board, this is an inflection point for Aira.”

Image Credits: Aira

As we noted late last year, Aira has already made some headway in automotive. Late last year, it announced funding from auto parts supply giant Motherson, which is also part of this round. The deal was a pretty clear indication that the firm was pushing into integrating its wireless modules into cars — a welcome addition, as many automakers have traditionally lacked consumer electronics-friendly amenities.

Neither party announced any specific car partners at the time — or now, for that matter. But Aira notes that it and Motherson are teaming up to create automotive-grade FreePower modules.

Image Credits: Aira

“Current wireless charging technology is not built for moving environments, leaving consumers and automakers underwhelmed,” Aira says in a release issued today. “In-car charging surfaces with FreePower, on the other hand, are able to support devices shifting around while driving, multi-device charging, surfaces of any size, and firmware updates for future enhancements and compatibility. They can also deliver high-power charging while maintaining stringent safety and regulatory standards.”

The news also sees Axon  CFO Jawad Ahsan joining Aira’s board of directors.

Aira takes key investment to build its fantastic smartphone wireless charging pad into vehicles

Sara-Spangelo-headshot

Swarm debuts $499 Evaluation Kit for consumers and tinkerers

Satellite connectivity company Swarm’s new product will give anyone the ability to create a messaging or Internet of Things (IoT) device, whether that be a hiker looking to stay connected off the grid or a hobbyist wanting to track the weather.

The Swarm Evaluation Kit is an all-in-one product that includes a Swarm Tile, the company’s flagship modem device, a VHF antenna, a small solar panel, a tripod, a Feather S2 development board and an OLED from Adafruit. The entire kit comes in at less than 6 pounds and costs $499. The package may sound intimidatingly technical, but Swarm CEO Sara Spangelo explained to TechCrunch that it was designed to be user-friendly, from the most novice consumer all the way through to more advanced users.

It “was super intentional to call it an evaluation kit because it’s not a finished product,” Spangelo explained. “It serves two different kinds of groups. The first group is people that want to be able to do messaging anywhere that they are on the planet for a really low cost. … The second group of people will be the tinkerers and the hobbyists and educational folks.”

Image Credits: Swarm. CEO and co-founder Sara Spangelo 

This is the second consumer product for Swarm — it went commercially live with its flagship Swarm Tile earlier this year. The Swarm Tile is a key part of the company’s ecosystem, which includes a few different components: the Tile, a kind of modem that can be embedded in different things and what the customer interfaces with; the satellite network; and a ground station network, which is how the company downlinks data. The Tile is designed for maximum compatibility, so Swarm serves customers across sectors including shipping, logistics and agriculture.

“One of the cool things about Swarm is that we’re infrastructure,” she said. “We’re like cellphone towers, so anyone can use us across any vertical.” Some of the use cases she highlighted included customers using Tile in soil moisture sensors, or in asset tracking in the trucking industry.

Swarm’s low-cost satellite data network is now available to commercial clients

A major part of Swarm’s business model is its low cost, with a Swarm Tile costing $119 and the connectivity service available for only $5 per month per connected device. Spangelo credits not only the engineering innovations in the tiny devices and satellites, but the gains in launch economics, especially for small satellite developers like Swarm. The company also sells direct, which further reduces overhead.

Swarm was founded by Spangelo, a pilot and aerospace engineering Ph.D. who spent time at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab and at Google on its drone delivery project, Wing. She told TechCrunch that Swarm started as a hobby project between her and co-founder Ben Longmier, who had previously founded a company called Aether Industries that made high-altitude balloon platforms.

“Then [we] realized that we could do communications at speeds that were similar to what the legacy players are doing today,” Spangelo said. “There was a lot of buzz around connectivity,” she added, noting that initiatives like Project Loon were garnering a lot of funding. But instead of trying to match the size and scale of some of these multi-year projects, they decided to go small.

In the four and a half years since the company’s founding, Swarm has put up a network of 120 sandwich-sized satellites into low Earth orbit and grown its workforce to 32 people. They’ve also been busy onboarding customers that use the Tile. One hope is that the kit will be an additional way to draw customers to Swarm’s service.

Spangelo said the kit is for “everybody in between, that likes to just play with things. And it’s not just playing — the playing leads to innovations and ideas, and then it gets deployed out into the world.”

As China shakes up regulations, tech companies suffer

FTC puts hardware makers on warning for potential ‘unlawful repair restrictions’

As phones and other consumer devices have gained feature after feature, they have also declined in how easily they can be repaired, with Apple at the head of this ignoble pack. The FTC has taken note, admitting that the agency has been lax on this front but that going forward it will prioritize what could be illegal restrictions by companies as to how consumers can repair, repurpose and reuse their own property.

Devices are often built today with no concessions made toward easy repair or refurbishment, or even once-routine upgrades like adding RAM or swapping out an ailing battery. While companies like Apple do often support hardware for a long time in some respects, the trade-off seems to be that if you crack your screen, the maker is your only real option to fix it.

That’s a problem for many reasons, as right-to-repair activist and iFixit founder Kyle Wiens has argued indefatigably for years (the company posted proudly about the statement on its blog). The FTC sought comment on this topic back in 2019, issued a report on the state of things a few months ago, and now (perhaps emboldened by new chair Lina Khan’s green light to all things fearful to Big Tech companies) has issued a policy statement.

The gist of the unanimously approved statement is that they found that the practice of deliberately restricting repairs may have serious repercussions, especially among people who don’t have the cash to pay the Apple tax for what ought to be (and once was) a simple repair.

The Commission’s report on repair restrictions explores and discusses a number of these issues and describes the hardships repair restrictions create for families and businesses. The Commission is concerned that this burden is borne more heavily by underserved communities, including communities of color and lower-income Americans. The pandemic exacerbated these effects as consumers relied more heavily on technology than ever before.

While unlawful repair restrictions have generally not been an enforcement priority for the Commission for a number of years, the Commission has determined that it will devote more enforcement resources to combat these practices. Accordingly, the Commission will now prioritize investigations into unlawful repair restrictions under relevant statutes…

The statement then makes four basic points. First, it reiterates the need for consumers and other public organizations to report and characterize what they perceive as unfair or problematic repair restrictions. The FTC doesn’t go out and spontaneously investigate companies, it generally needs a complaint to set the wheels in motion, such as people alleging that Facebook is misusing their data.

Second is a surprising antitrust tie-in, where the FTC says it will look at said restrictions aiming to answer whether monopolistic practices like tying and exclusionary design are in play. This could be something like refusing to allow upgrades, then charging an order of magnitude higher than market price for something like a few extra gigs of storage or RAM, or designing products in such a way that it moots competition. Or perhaps arbitrary warranty violations for doing things like removing screws or taking the device to a third party for repairs. (Of course, these would depend on establishing monopoly status or market power for the company, something the FTC has had trouble doing.)

More in line with the FTC’s usual commercial regulations, it will assess whether the restrictions are “unfair acts or practices,” which is a much broader and easier to meet requirement. You don’t need a monopoly to make claims of an “open standard” to be misleading, or for a hidden setting to slow the operations of third-party apps or peripherals, for instance.

And lastly the agency mentions that it will be working with states in its push to establish new regulations and laws. This is perhaps a reference to the pioneering “right to repair” bills like the one passed by Massachusetts last year. Successes and failures along those lines will be taken into account and the feds and state policymakers will be comparing notes.

Apple expands its independent repair program to Mac, after US antitrust investigation examined company’s repair policies

This isn’t the first movement in this direction by a long shot, but it is one of the plainest. Tech companies have seen the writing on the wall, and done things like expand independent repair programs — but it’s arguable that these actions were taken in anticipation of the FTC’s expected shift toward establishing hard lines on the topic.

The FTC isn’t showing its full hand here, but it’s certainly hinting that it’s ready to play if the companies involved want to push their luck. We’ll probably know more soon once it starts ingesting consumer complaints and builds a picture of the repair landscape.

Nothing founder Carl Pei on Ear (1) and building a hardware startup from scratch

elipsa-review-2

Kobo Elipsa review: A sized-up e-reading companion with clever note taking

Kobo’s Elipsa is the latest in the Amazon rival’s e-reading line, and it’s a big one. The 10.3-inch e-paper display brings it up to iPad dimensions and puts it in direct competition with the reMarkable and Boox’s e-reader tablets. It excels on reading experience, gets by on note taking and drawing, but falls a bit short on versatility.

Kobo has been creeping upmarket for a few years now, and though the cheaper Clara HD is still the pick of the litter in my opinion, the Forma and Libra H2O are worthy competitors to the Kindle lines. The $400 Elipsa represents a big step up in size, function and price, and it does justify itself — though there are a few important caveats.

The device is well designed but lacks any flourishes. The tilted “side chin” of the Forma and Libra is flattened out into a simple wide bezel on the right side. The lopsided appearance doesn’t bother me much, and much of the competition has it as well. (Though my favorite is Boox’s ultracompact, flush-fronted Poke 3)

The Boox Poke 3 is my new favorite e-reader

The 10.3″ screen has a resolution of 1404 x 1872, giving it 227 pixels per inch. That’s well below the 300 PPI of the Clara and Forma, and the typography suffers from noticeably more aliasing if you look closely. Of course, you won’t be looking that closely, since as a larger device you’ll probably be giving the Elipsa a bit more distance and perhaps using a larger type size. I found it perfectly comfortable to read on — 227 PPI isn’t bad, just not the best.

There is a front light, which is easily adjustable by sliding your finger up and down the left side of the screen, but unlike other Kobo devices there is no way to change the color temperature. I’ve been spoiled by other devices and now the default cool grey I lived with for years doesn’t feel right, especially with a warmer light shining on your surroundings. The important part is that it is consistent across the full display and adjustable down to a faint glow, something my eyes have thanked me for many times.

Image Credits: Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch

It’s hard to consider the Elipsa independent from the accessories it’s bundled with, and in fact there’s no way to buy one right now without the “sleep cover” and stylus. The truth is they really complete the package, though they do add considerably to its weight and bulk. What when naked is lighter and feels smaller than a standard iPad is heavier and larger once you put its case on and stash the surprisingly weighty stylus at the top.

Image Credits: Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch

The cover is nicely designed, if a bit stiff, and will definitely protect your device from harm. The cover, secured by magnets at the bottom, flips off like a sheet on a legal pad and folds flat behind the device, attaching itself with the same magnets from the other direction. A couple folds in it also stiffen up with further magnetic arrangement into a nice, sturdy little stand. The outside is a grippy faux leather and the inside is soft microfiber.

You can wake and turn off the device by opening and closing the cover, but the whole thing comes with a small catch: you have to have the power button, charging port and big bezel on the right. When out of its case the Elipsa can, like the others of its lopsided type, be inverted and your content instantly flips. But once you put it in the case, you’re locked in to a semi-right-handed mode. This may or may not bother people but it’s worth mentioning.

The Elipsa, center, with the Forma and reMarkable 2 to its left and right. Image Credits: Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch

The reading experience is otherwise very similar to that on Kobo’s other devices. A relatively clean interface that surfaces your most recently accessed content and a not overwhelming but still unwelcome amount of promotional stuff (“Find your next great read”). E-books free and paid for display well, though it’s never been my preference to read on a large screen like this. I truly wish one of these large e-readers would make a landscape mode with facing pages. Isn’t that more booklike?

Articles from the web, synced via Pocket, look great and are a pleasure to read in this format. It feels more like a magazine page, which is great when you’re reading an online version of one. It’s simple, foolproof and well integrated.

Kobo’s new note-taking prowess

What’s new on the bottom row, though, is “Notebooks,” where unsurprisingly you can create notebooks for scribbling down lists, doodles, notes of course, and generally use the stylus.

The writing experience is adequate. Here I am spoiled by the reMarkable 2, which boasts extremely low lag and high accuracy, as well as much more expression in the line. Kobo doesn’t approach that, and the writing experience is fairly basic, with a noticeable amount of lag, but admirable accuracy.

There are five pen tips, five line widths and five line shades, and they’re all fine. The stylus has a nice heft to it, though I’d like a grippier material. Two buttons on it let you quickly switch from the current pen style to a highlighter or eraser, where you have stroke-deleting or brush modes. The normal notebooks have the usual gridded, dotted, lined and blank styles, and unlimited pages, but you can’t zoom in or out (not so good for artists).

Then there are the “advanced” notebooks, which you must use if you want handwriting recognition and other features. These have indelible lines on which you can write, and a double tap captures your words into type very quickly. You can also put in drawings and equations in their own sections.

Close enough. Image Credits: Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch

The handwriting recognition is fast and good enough for rough notes, but don’t expect to send these directly to your team without any editing. Likewise the diagram tool that turns gestural sketches of shapes and labels into finalized flowcharts and the like — better than the original wobbly art but still a rough draft. There are a few clever shortcuts and gestures to add or subtract spaces and other common tasks, something you’ll probably get used to fairly quick if you use the Elipsa regularly.

The notebook interface is snappy enough going from page to page or up and down on the “smart” notebooks but nothing like the fluidity of a design program or an art-focused one on an iPad. But it’s also unobtrusive, has good palm blocking, and feels nice in action. The lag on the line is definitely a con, but something you can get used to if you don’t mind the resulting product being a little sloppy.

Image Credits: Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch

You can also mark up e-books, which is nice for highlights but ultimately not that much better than simply selecting the text. And there’s no way you’re writing in the margins with the limitations of this stylus.

Exporting notepads can be done via a linked Dropbox account or over USB connection. Again the reMarkable has a leg up here, for even if its app is a bit restrictive, the live syncing means you don’t ever have to worry about what version of what is where, as long as it’s in the system. On the Kobo it’s more traditional.

Compared to the reMarkable, the Kobo is really just an easier platform for everyday reading, so if you’re looking for a device that focuses on that and has the option of doodling or note taking on the side, it’s a much better deal. On the other hand, those just looking for an improvement to that stylus-focused tablet should look elsewhere — writing and sketching still feels way better on a reMarkable than almost anything on the market. Compared with something like a Boox tablet, the Elipsa is more simple and focused, but doesn’t allow the opportunity of adding Android apps and games.

At $400 — though this includes a case and stylus — the Elipsa is a considerable investment and comparably priced to an iPad, which is certainly a more versatile device. But I don’t particularly enjoy reading articles or books on my iPad, and the simplicity of an e-reader in general helps me focus when I’m making notes on a paper or something. It’s a different device for a different purpose, but not for everyone.

It is however probably the best way right now to step into the shallow end of the “big e-reader” pool, with more complex or expensive options available should you desire them.

Extra Crunch members get unlimited access to 12M stock images for $99 per year

Raylo nabs $11.5M to get more mobile users to lease and reuse

UK-based smartphone subscription startup Raylo has tucked $11.5 million in Series A funding into its top pocket, led by Octopus Ventures.

The equity round follows a debt raise last year — and brings Raylo’s total raised since being founded back in 2019 to $40M (in equity and debt). Its roster of investors to date also includes the Macquarie Group, Guy Johnson of Carphone Warehouse and the co-founders of Funding Circle.

The new funding will be used to charge up a subscription smartphone play that nudges consumers never to own their own mobile device — but just pay a monthly fee to lease a new or refurbished SIM-free device instead.

Raylo says it’s seen 10x YoY growth of customers and revenues, and plans to plough the Series A into accelerating its growth in the UK — including by doubling its headcount and further developing its tech. And while it suggests it’s entertaining the idea of a future global rollout it remains firmly UK focused for now.

Back Market raises $335M for its refurbished device marketplace, now valued at $3.2B

Consumers opting to get the latest smartphone hardware through Raylo will pay a lower cost than the full RRP for a device since they won’t actually own the hardware at the end of the contract.

Environmental considerations aside, that may be an increasingly important consideration, given the inflating price of premium handsets like the top-of-the-range iPhone which has broken $1,000 for a few years now.

Plus the fact that most consumers simply won’t shell out so much for a handset. Leasing and returning offers an alternative way for people to get to use such expensive high-end devices.

With Raylo, the leased mobile is typically returned after the end of the 12 or 24-month contract — with the returned device refurbished for reuse via a second (or third) leased life with another user.

End of life devices are recycled (by partners), per Raylo. So it’s touting a circular model that promotes sustainability via device usage longevity vs the more typical upgrade scenario, via a carrier, where a consumer may just toss their old unused handset into a drawer, wasting its further potential utility.

Albeit, many people do pass on old devices to other family members or even sell or trade them in. But Raylo claims there are an estimated 125M smartphones in unused ‘hibernation’ across the UK. So, the suggestion is, plenty of smartphone users don’t bother ensure their old handset gets a second life.

Raylo reckons each of its subscription leased device can be used by a total of three customers over 6-7 years – which, if achieved, would mean a lifespan that it says is almost 2x longer than the UK average (of 2.31 years).

To further the longevity goal, all the phones it supplies come with a free case and screen protector.

Users also need to weigh up whether they want to shell out for insurance too, though, since they need to make sure they don’t damage the leased handset or risk having to shell out for expensive repairs or a non-return fee. (Raylo sells its own flavor of device insurance to users as an optional extra which slightly bumps up the monthly cost.)

Raylo competes with carriers’ own device subscription plans, of course. But again the claim is it’s cheaper to lease its way — although that’s as it should be since the consumer doesn’t own the hardware at the end of the contract (so won’t automatically have anything of value they could sell or trade in elsewhere).

If a user doesn’t want (or fails) to return a device at the end of the contract they have to pay a non-return fee — which varies depending on the handset hardware and how long they’ve been paying for it. But the fee can stretch to over £600 at the premium end — after 12 months of use of a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G with 512GB of storage or an iPhone 12 Pro Max, for example.

While consumers that want to continue using the same device rather than upgrading after their contract ends can opt to continue paying their usual monthly fees — with payments continuing up to a maximum of 36 months, after which the non-return fee drops to a token £1.

All Raylo’s leased devices come with a 24 month warranty, under which it says it will freely repair faults not related to user damage or accidents, or else supply a replacement device if the handset can’t be fixed.

Commenting on Raylo’s Series A in a statement, Tosin Agbabiaka, early-stage fintech investor at Octopus Ventures, said: “The subscription economy is rapidly transforming the way we access products and services — yet the smartphone, an individual’s most valuable device, is still locked behind a bundled, ownership-based model. This means most people are trapped in a buy-and-dispose cycle, with a steep financial and environmental costs.

“Raylo solves these problems by offering access to premium consumer devices at lower, subscription-based prices, helping to widen access to the latest technology. By repurposing its devices at the end of their cycle, Raylo is also the sustainable choice in this market and has built a product loved by its customers — the opportunity here is massive, and we believe that [co-founders] Karl [Gilbert], Richard [Fulton], and Jinden [Badesha] have the vision and depth of expertise to transform the way we all access our devices.”

A number of refurbished electronics businesses have been attracting investor attention in Europe in recent years where lawmakers are also considering right to repair legislation.

Recent fundings in the space include a 5M round for French refurbished device marketplace startup Back Market; a m round for Berlin-based Grover‘s subscription electronics business; and a .6M round for Finland-based Swappie, which refurbishes and sells secondhand iPhones, to name a few.

European lawmakers propose a ‘right to repair’ for mobiles and laptops

Fairphone’s new flagship, the 3+, costs just €70 as a modular upgrade

Refurbished electronics startup Refurbed raises $17M round, led by Evli Growth Partners

2021.7: A new entity, trigger IDs and script debugging

Happy July, which means Home Assistant Core 2021.7!

An interesting release, with a bunch of little goodies to make things easier in
creating automations, scripts and doing templating. Those are things that in
general, make me very happy. Mainly because, well, I use Home Assistant to
automate 😁

Also, we are saying “hi!” 👋 to a new type of entity, which is really exciting
and I can’t wait to see how that is being put to use in the future.

Lastly, I want to give a shout-out to @klaasnicolaas! He has been an intern
with Nabu Casa for the last months. Besides doing the community highlights, he
has been working on some awesome stuff that will land in upcoming Home Assistant
releases.

His internship is now over, and he passed with a nice grade. Yet, he could not
leave without a little present as it seems. He contributed the
Forecast.Solar integration, bringing in energy production
forecasting for your solar panels. Really cool!

Alright, that’s it! Enjoy the release!

../Frenck

New entity: Select

In this release, we welcome the select entity to the Home Assistant family. The
select entity is a close relative of the dropdown helper (also known as
input_select).

The difference is that while the input select is configured and managed by you,
the select entities are provided by integrations.

This means integrations can now provide entities that give a choice.
Either in the Lovelace UI, but also via automations using services,
and via the Google Assistant.

Screenshot of a select entity, providing a choice from a list of options
Screenshot of a select entity, providing a choice from a list of options.

Some integrations started implementing the first select entities as of this
release. MQTT & KNX made it available for use, WLED uses it to provide
controls on selecting and activating a user preset, and with Rituals Perfume
Genie you can now change the room size for your diffuser.

Trigger conditions and trigger IDs

If you are creating some complex automations in YAML, you might be familiar with
this. Consider a big automation, with a whole bunch of triggers. But how
would you know which of those triggers actually triggered the automation?

You can now assign an id to your triggers that is passed into automation when
triggered, allowing you to make decisions on it.

automation:
  - alias: "Trigger IDs!"
    trigger:
      - platform: state
        id: "normal"
        entity_id: binary_sensor.gate
        state: "on"
      - platform: state
        id: "forgotten"
        entity_id: binary_sensor.gate
        state: "on"
        for:
          minutes: 10
    ...

The above example triggers the same automation twice, when the gate opens
and when the gate is left open for 10 minutes (probably forgotten). Each
trigger has its own ID.

Now introducing the new trigger condition! So you can add a condition on which
trigger fired the automation.

automation:
  - alias: "Trigger IDs!"
    ...
    action:
      ...
      - condition: trigger
        id: "forgotten"
      - service: notify.frenck_iphone
        data:
          message: "Someone left the gate open..."

You can use the trigger condition in all places where all the other conditions
work as well, including things like
choose from a group of actions.

Rather use the UI to create and manage your automations? No problem! These new
features have been added to the automation editor as well!

Screenshot of using a trigger condition in the automation editor
Screenshot of using a trigger condition in the automation editor.

Script debugging

In Home Assistant Core 2021.4,
we added the ability to debug automations. In this release, we’ve made these
same powerful tools available for scripts!

So, this helps for the next time you are wondering: Why didn’t that script work?
Or why did it behave as it did? What the script is going on here?

Screenshot of using the new script debugger on my office announce script
Screenshot of using the new script debugger on my office announce script.

The above screenshot shows a previous run of a script, using an interactive
graph for each step in this script; with the path it took highlighted.
Each node in the graph can be clicked to view the details of what happened
on each step in the script sequence.

Referencing other entities in triggers and conditions

A small, but possibly helpful, change to our script and automations.
You can now reference other entities for the above/below values of numeric
state triggers and conditions. Both sensors and number entities can be used.

For example, you can now trigger an automation if the outside temperature
is higher than the temperature inside.

automation:
  - alias: "Notify to close the window"
    trigger:
      - platform: numeric_state
        entity_id: sensor.outside_temperature
        above: sensor.inside_temperature
    action:
      - service: notify.frenck_iphone
        data:
          message: "Close all windows, it is warm outside!"

The numeric state conditions supports the same.

Additionally, the time conditions now support a similar thing using other
sensors that provide a time in the before and after options. Time triggers
added support for that already in a previous release.

Working with dates in templates

If you ever tried to work with dates in templates, you probably know that that
is hard. And honestly, that will never go away, times, dates and timezones are
complex little beasts.

However, we realized that the hardest part of using date & times with templates
is converting the state of a sensor or text to a datetime. This
release adds a small template method to help with that: as_datetime.

It can be used as a filter or as a method. Here is an example of
calculating the number of days until my drivers’ license expires:

{{ (states('sensor.drivers_license') | as_datetime - now()).days }} days

Series version tags for Docker containers

If you are using the Home Assistant Container installation method,
we recommend using a specific version tag; however, that means
you need to update the version tag each time we release a new patch version
of Home Assistant.

Thanks to @kmdm, as of this release, we also provide a series version tag
that always points to the latest patch version of that release, in addition
to all existing tags we already provide.

docker pull ghcr.io/home-assistant/home-assistant:2021.7

The 2021.7, will contain the latest July release, even if that is
actually version 2021.7.2.

Other noteworthy changes

There is much more juice in this release; here are some of the other
noteworthy changes this release:

  • Z-Wave JS got quite a few updates this release:
    • A new zwave_js.multicast_set_value is available, allowing to issue
      a set value command via multicast. Thanks, @raman325!
    • Each node now has a status sensor available and can be pinged using the
      new zwave_js.ping service. Added by @raman325.
    • The Z-Wave JS configuration panel now has a “Heal Network” button,
      thanks @cgarwood!
    • Z-Wave JS Server connection can now be re-configured from the Z-Wave JS
      configuration panel, added by @MartinHjelmare.
    • Z-Wave JS logs can now be downloaded, thanks @raman325!
  • The Google Assistant integration now has support for fan speed percentages and
    preset modes. Thanks, @jbouwh!
  • @jbouwh didn’t stop there and added fan preset mode support to Alexa too!
  • The Philips TV integration now supports Ambilights, added by @elupus.
  • Yamaha MusicCast integration now supports grouping services, thanks @micha91!
  • @raman325 added a whole bunch of sensors to the ClimaCell integration!
  • WLED now supports local push. Updates are now instantly both ways. Also,
    the master light can be kept and added support for controlling user presets.
  • Setting up Xiaomi devices has gotten way easier! There is no need to do
    difficult things to get the tokens. Instead, Home Assistant can now extract
    the tokens from a Xiaomi Cloud account. Thanks, @starkillerOG!
  • More Xiaomi updates, @jbouwh added support for fan percentage-based speeds
    and preset modes.
  • @RenierM26 added a lot of new services to the Ezviz integration, thanks!
  • Tibber had quite a few improvements and now provides a power factor sensor,
    added by @Danielhiversen!
  • Google Translate TTS now supports the Bulgarian language,
    thanks @hristo-atanasov!
  • If you have a SmartTube, you can now reset your reminders, thanks @mdz!
  • KNX had quite a lot of updates and added support for XY-color lights,
    thanks @farmio.
  • @OttoWinter added support for presets, custom presets and custom fan modes
    for climate controls in ESPHome. Awesome!
  • Nuki now has a service to enable/disable continuous mode, thanks @anaisbetts!
  • @cgomesu added quantiles to Statistics integration, thanks!
  • The Home Assistant login page now better support password manager,
    thanks, @rianadon!

New Integrations

We welcome the following new integrations this release:

New Platforms

The following integration got support for a new platform:

Integrations now available to set up from the UI

The following integrations are now available via the Home Assistant UI:

Release 2021.7.1 – July 8

  • Fix service registration typo in Nuki integration (@anaisbetts – #52631) (nuki docs)
  • Fix Fritz default consider home value (@chemelli74 – #52648) (fritz docs)
  • Handle KeyError when accessing device information (@ludeeus – #52650) (ecovacs docs)
  • Warn if interface_addr remains in Sonos configuration (@jjlawren – #52652) (sonos docs)
  • Ignore unused keys from Sonos device properties callback (@jjlawren – #52660) (sonos docs)
  • Ensure Forecast.Solar returns an iso formatted timestamp (@frenck – #52669) (forecast_solar docs)
  • Use iso-formatted times in MetOffice weather forecast (@avee87 – #52672) (metoffice docs)
  • Fix precipitation calculation for hourly forecast (@agners – #52676) (openweathermap docs)
  • Move recorder.py import to runtime (@uvjustin – #52682) (stream docs)
  • Bump simplisafe-python to 11.0.1 (@bachya – #52684) (simplisafe docs)
  • pyWeMo version bump (0.6.5) (@esev – #52701) (wemo docs)
  • Bump pylutron to 0.2.8 fixing python 3.9 incompatibility (@JonGilmore – #52702) (lutron docs)
  • Add check for _client existence in modbus (@janiversen – #52719) (modbus docs)
  • Fix KNX Fan features (@Tommatheussen – #52732) (fan docs)
  • Esphome fix camera image (@jesserockz – #52738) (esphome docs)

Release 2021.7.2 – July 12

  • Ignore Sonos Boost devices during discovery (@jjlawren – #52845) (sonos docs)
  • Add zeroconf discovery to Sonos (@bdraco – #52655) (sonos docs)
  • Remove scale calculation for climacell cloud cover (@apaperclip – #52752) (climacell docs)
  • Fix homebridge devices becoming unavailable frequently (@Jc2k – #52753) (homekit_controller docs)
  • Fix nexia thermostats humidify without dehumidify support (@bdraco – #52758) (nexia docs)
  • Support certain homekit devices that emit invalid JSON (@Jc2k – #52759) (homekit_controller docs)
  • Send ssdp requests to ipv4 broadcast as well (@bdraco – #52760) (ssdp docs)
  • Bump dependency to properly handle current and voltage not being reported on some zhapower endpoints (@Kane610 – #52764) (deconz docs)
  • Upgrade pymazda to 0.2.0 (@bdr99 – #52775)
  • Fix ESPHome Camera not merging image packets (@OttoWinter – #52783) (esphome docs)
  • Fix Neato parameter for token refresh (@chemelli74 – #52785) (neato docs)
  • Add the Trane brand to nexia (@bdraco – #52805) (nexia docs)
  • Bump python-fireservicerota to 0.0.42 (@cyberjunky – #52807) (fireservicerota docs)
  • Bump up ZHA depdencies (@Adminiuga – #52818) (zha docs)
  • Update arcam lib to 0.7.0 (@elupus – #52829) (arcam_fmj docs)
  • Bump aiohomekit to 0.5.1 to solve performance regression (@bdraco – #52878) (homekit_controller docs)
  • Bump pyhaversion to 21.7.0 (@ludeeus – #52880) (version docs)
  • Prefer using xy over hs when supported by light (@Kane610 – #52883) (deconz docs)
  • Bump zwave-js-server-python to 0.27.1 (@raman325 – #52885) (zwave_js docs)
  • Surepetcare, fix set_lock_state (@Danielhiversen – #52912) (surepetcare docs)
  • Bump pyinsteon to 1.0.11 (@teharris1 – #52927) (insteon docs)
  • Fix recorder purge with sqlite3 < 3.32.0 (@bdraco – #52929)
  • Bump pysonos to 0.0.52 (@jjlawren – #52934) (sonos docs)

Release 2021.7.3 – July 16

  • Update ZHA to support zigpy 0.34.0 device initialization (@puddly – #52610) (zha docs)
  • copy() –> deepcopy(). (@janiversen – #52794) (modbus docs)
  • only allow one active call in each platform. (@janiversen – #52823) (modbus docs)
  • Bump pyatv to 0.8.1 (@doug-hoffman – #52849) (apple_tv docs)
  • Handle dhcp packets without a hostname (@bdraco – #52882) (dhcp docs)
  • Add OUIs for legacy samsungtv (@bdraco – #52928) (samsungtv docs)
  • Bump python-fireservicerota to 0.0.43 (@cyberjunky – #52966) (fireservicerota docs)
  • More graceful exception handling in Plex library sensors (@jjlawren – #52969) (plex docs)
  • Fix issue connecting to Insteon Hub v2 (@teharris1 – #52970) (insteon docs)
  • Bump pysma to 0.6.4 (@rklomp – #52973) (sma docs)
  • Update pyrainbird to 0.4.3 (@peternijssen – #52990) (rainbird docs)
  • Bump pypck to 0.7.10 (@alengwenus – #53013) (lcn docs)
  • fix for timestamp not present in SIA (@eavanvalkenburg – #53015) (sia docs)
  • Co2signal, set SCAN_INTERVAL (@Danielhiversen – #53023) (co2signal docs)
  • Another SIA fix for timestamp not present. (@eavanvalkenburg – #53045)
  • Fix knx expose feature not correctly falling back to default value (@da-anda – #53046) (knx docs)
  • Expose Spotify as a service (@balloob – #53063)
  • Increase polling interval to prevent reaching daily limit (@vlebourl – #53066) (home_plus_control docs)
  • Add light white parameter to light/services.yaml (@emontnemery – #53075) (light docs)

Release 2021.7.4 – July 21

  • Allow pymodbus to reconnect in running system (not startup) (@janiversen – #53020) (modbus docs)
  • Fix groups reporting incorrect supported color modes (@Kane610 – #53088) (deconz docs)
  • Handle all WeMo ensure_long_press_virtual_device exceptions (@esev – #53094) (wemo docs)
  • Fix remote rpi gpio input type (@jgriff2 – #53108) (remote_rpi_gpio docs)
  • More restrictive state updates of UniFi uptime sensor (@Kane610 – #53111) (unifi docs)
  • Bump simplisafe-python to 11.0.2 (@bachya – #53121) (simplisafe docs)
  • Bump nexia to 0.9.10 to fix asair login (@bdraco – #53122) (nexia docs)
  • Bump surepy to 0.7.0 (@benleb – #53123) (surepetcare docs)
  • Upgrade pysonos to 0.0.53 (@amelchio – #53137) (sonos docs)
  • Correctly detect is not home (@balloob – #53279) (device_tracker docs)
  • Upgrade to async-upnp-client==0.19.1 (@StevenLooman – #53288) (dlna_dmr docs) (ssdp docs) (upnp docs)
  • Fix homekit locks not being created from when setup from the UI (@bdraco – #53301) (homekit docs)

If you need help…

…don’t hesitate to use our very active forums or join us for a little chat.

Experiencing issues introduced by this release? Please report them in our issue tracker. Make sure to fill in all fields of the issue template.

Nothing founder Carl Pei on Ear (1) and building a hardware startup from scratch

On July 27, hardware maker Nothing will debut its first product, wireless earbuds dubbed Ear (1). Despite releasing almost no tangible information about the product, the company has managed to generate substantial buzz around the launch — especially for an entry into the already-crowded wireless earbud market.

The hype, however, is real — and somewhat understandable. Nothing founder Carl Pei has a good track record in the industry — he was just 24 when he co-founded OnePlus in 2013. The company has done a canny job capitalizing on heightened expectations, meting out information about the product like pieces in a puzzle.

We spoke to Pei ahead of the upcoming launch to get some insight into Ear (1) and the story behind Nothing.

TC: I know there was a timing delay with the launch. Was that related to COVID-19 and supply chain issues?

CP: Actually, it was due to our design. Maybe you’ve seen the concept image of this transparent design. It turns out there’s a reason why there aren’t many transparent consumer tech products out there. It’s really, really hard to make it high quality. You need to ensure that everything inside looks just as good as the outside. So that’s where the team has been iterating, [but] you probably wouldn’t notice the differences between each iteration.

It could be getting the right magnets — as magnets are usually designed to go inside of a product and not be seen by the consumer — to figuring out the best type of gluing. You never have to solve that problem if you have a non-transparent product, but what kind of glue will keep the industrial design intact? I think the main issue has been getting the design ready. And we’re super, super close. Hopefully, it will be a product that people are really excited about when we launch.

So, there were no major supply chain issues?

Not for this product category. With true wireless earbuds, I think we’re pretty fine. No major issues. I mean, we had the issue that we started from zero — so no team and no partners. But step by step, we finally got here.

That seems to imply that you’re at least thinking ahead toward the other products. Have you already started developing them?

We have a lot of products in the pipeline. Earlier this year, we did a community crowdfunding round where we allocated $1.5 million to our community. That got bought up really quickly. But as part of that funding round, we had a deck with some of the products in development. Our products are code-named as Pokémon, so there are a lot of Pokémon on that slide [Ed note: The Ear (1) was “Aipom.”]. We have multiple categories that we’re looking at, but we haven’t really announced what those are.

Why were earbuds the right first step?

I think this market is really screaming for differentiation. If you look at true wireless today, I think after Apple came out with the AirPods, the entire market kind of followed. Everybody wears different clothes. This is something we wear for a large part of the day. Why wouldn’t people want different designs?

We’re working with Teenage Engineering — they’re super, super strong designers. I think true wireless is a place where we can really leverage that strength. Also, from a more rational business perspective, wireless earbuds is a super-fast-growing product category. I think we’re going to reach 300 million units shipped worldwide this year for this category. And your first product category should be one with good business potential.

“Screaming for differentiation” is an interesting way to put it. When you look at AirPods and the rest of the industry, are aesthetics what the market primarily lacks? Is it features or is it purely stylistic?

If we take a take a step back and think about it from a consumer perspective, we feel like, as a whole, consumer tech is quite, quite boring. Kids used to want to become engineers and astronauts and all that. But if you look at what kids want to become today, they want to be TikTokers or YouTubers. Maybe it’s because technology isn’t as inspiring as before. We talked to consumers, and they don’t care as much as a couple of years ago either. If you look at what what brands are doing in their communication, it’s all about features and specs.

Apple just released the first iOS 15 beta to everyone

This is your opportunity to get a glimpse of the future of iOS, iPadOS and watchOS. Apple just released the first public beta of iOS 15, iPadOS 15 and watchOS 8. Those releases are the next major versions of the operating systems for the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. Unlike developer betas, everyone can download these betas — you don’t need a $99 developer account. But don’t forget, it’s a beta.

The company still plans to release the final version of iOS 15, iPadOS 15 and watchOS 8 this fall. But Apple is going to release betas every few weeks over the summer. It’s a good way to fix as many bugs as possible and gather data from a large group of users.

As always, Apple’s public betas closely follow the release cycle of developer betas. Apple also released the second developer beta of iOS and iPadOS 15 today. So it sounds like the first public beta is more or less the same build as the second developer build.

But remember, you shouldn’t install a beta on your primary iPhone or iPad. The issue is not just bugs — some apps and features won’t work at all. In some rare cases, beta software can also brick your device and make it unusable. You may even lose data on iCloud. Proceed with extreme caution.

But if you have an iPad, iPhone or Apple Watch you don’t need, here’s how to download it. Head over to Apple’s beta website from the device you want to use for the beta and download the configuration profile — do that from your iPhone for the watchOS beta. It’s a tiny file that tells your device to update to public betas like it’s a normal software update.

Once it’s installed, reboot your device, then head over to the Settings (or Watch) app. You should see an update. In September, your device should automatically update to the final version of iOS 15, iPadOS 15 or watchOS 8 and you’ll be able to delete the configuration profile.

The biggest change of iOS 15 is a new Focus mode. In addition to “Do not disturb,” you can configure various modes — you can choose apps and people you want notifications from and change your focus depending on what you’re doing. For instance, you can create a Work mode, a Sleep mode, a Workout mode, etc.

There are many new features across the board, such as a new Weather app, updated maps in Apple Maps, an improved version of FaceTime with SharePlay and more. Safari also has a brand-new look.

Summer Sale: Save 10% on Extra Crunch membership

Apple unveils iOS 15 with new features for FaceTime and better notifications

iPadOS 15 announced at WWDC, features improved multitasking and surprising Swift Playgrounds features

watchOS 8 brings new mindfulness features and respiratory tracking

 

habitat-compare

Facebook and Matterport collaborate on realistic virtual training environments for AI

To train a robot to navigate a house, you either need to give it a lot of real time in a lot of real houses, or a lot of virtual time in a lot of virtual houses. The latter is definitely the better option, and Facebook and Matterport are working together to make thousands of virtual, interactive digital twins of real spaces available for researchers and their voracious young AIs.

On Facebook’s side the big advance is in two parts: the new Habitat 2.0 training environment and the dataset they created to enable it. You may remember Habitat from a couple years back; in the pursuit of what it calls “embodied AI,” which is to say AI models that interact with the real world, Facebook assembled a number of passably photorealistic virtual environments for them to navigate.

Many robots and AIs have learned things like movement and object recognition in idealized, unrealistic spaces that resemble games more than reality. A real-world living room is a very different thing from a reconstructed one. By learning to move about in something that looks like reality, an AI’s knowledge will transfer more readily to real-world applications like home robotics.

But ultimately these environments were only polygon-deep, with minimal interaction and no real physical simulation — if a robot bumps into a table, it doesn’t fall over and spill items everywhere. The robot could go to the kitchen, but it couldn’t open the fridge or pull something out of the sink. Habitat 2.0 and the new ReplicaCAD dataset change that with increased interactivity and 3D objects instead of simply interpreted 3D surfaces.

Simulated robots in these new apartment-scale environments can roll around like before, but when they arrive at an object, they can actually do something with it. For instance if a robot’s task is to pick up a fork from the dining room table and go place it in the sink, a couple years ago picking up and putting down the fork would just be assumed, since you couldn’t actually simulate it effectively. In the new Habitat system the fork is physically simulated, as is the table it’s on, the sink it’s going to, and so on. That makes it more computationally intense, but also way more useful.

They’re not the first to get to this stage by a long shot, but the whole field is moving along at a rapid clip and each time a new system comes out it leapfrogs the others in some ways and points at the next big bottleneck or opportunity. In this case Habitat 2.0’s nearest competition is probably AI2’s ManipulaTHOR, which combines room-scale environments with physical object simulation.

Where Habitat has it beat is in speed: according to the paper describing it, the simulator can run roughly 50-100 times faster, which means a robot can get that much more training done per second of computation. (The comparisons aren’t exact by any means and the systems are distinct in other ways.)

The dataset used for it is called ReplicaCAD, and it’s essentially the original room-level scans recreated with custom 3D models. This is a painstaking manual process, Facebook admitted, and they’re looking into ways of scaling it, but it provides a very useful end product.

The original scanned room, above, and ReplicaCAD 3D recreation, below.

More detail and more types of physical simulation are on the roadmap — basic objects, movements, and robotic presences are supported, but fidelity had to give way for speed at this stage.

Matterport is also making some big moves in partnership with Facebook. After making a huge platform expansion over the last couple years, the company has assembled an enormous collection of 3D-scanned buildings. Though it has worked with researchers before, the company decided it was time to make a larger part of its trove available to the community.

Matterport raises $48M to ramp up its 3D imaging platform

“We’ve Matterported every type of physical structure in existence, or close to it. Homes, high-rises, hospitals, office spaces, cruise ships, jets, Taco Bells, McDonalds… and all the info that is contained in a digital twin is very important to research,” CEO RJ Pittman told me. “We thought for sure this would have implications for everything from doing computer vision to robotics to identifying household objects. Facebook didn’t need any convincing… for Habitat and embodied AI it is right down the center of the fairway.”

To that end it created a dataset, HM3D, of a thousand meticulously 3D-captured interiors, from the home scans that real estate browsers may recognize to businesses and public spaces. It’s the largest such collection that has been made widely available.

Image Credits: Matterport

The environments, which are scanned an interpreted by an AI trained on precise digital twins, are dimensionally accurate to the point where, for example, exact numbers for window surface area or total closet volume can be calculated. It’s a helpfully realistic playground for AI models, and while the resulting dataset isn’t interactive (yet) it is very reflective of the real world in all its variance. (It’s distinct from the Facebook interactive dataset but could form the basis for an expansion.)

“It is specifically a diversified dataset,” said Pittman. “We wanted to be sure we had a rich grouping of different real world environments — you need that diversity of data if you want to get the most mileage out of it training an AI or robot.”

All the data was volunteered by the owners of the spaces, so don’t worry that it’s been sucked up unethically by some small print. Ultimately, Pittman explained, the company wants to create a larger, more parameterized dataset that can be accessed by API — realistic virtual spaces as a service, basically.

“Maybe you’re building a hospitality robot, for bed and breakfasts of a certain style in the U.S — wouldn’t it be great to be able to get a thousand of those?” he mused. “We want to see how far we can push advancements with this first dataset, get those learnings, then continue to work with the research community and our own developers and go from there. This is an important launching point for us.”

Both datasets will be open and available for researchers everywhere to use.

Google research makes for an effortless robotic dog trot

This bathroom cleaning robot is trained in VR to clean up after you