Voice AIs are raising competition concerns, EU finds

The European Union has been digging into the competition implications of AI-powered voice assistants and other Internet of Things (IoT) connected technologies for almost a year. Today it’s put out a first report discussing potential concerns that EU lawmakers say will help inform their wider digital policymaking in the coming years.

playdate-play

Tiny handheld Playdate preorders open next month for $179, with 24 charming monochrome games to start

Playdate, app and game designer Panic’s first shot at hardware, finally has a firm price and ship date, as well as a bunch of surprise features cooked up since its announcement in 2019. The tiny handheld gaming console will cost 9, ship later this year and come with a 24-game “season” doled out over 12 weeks. But now it also has a cute speaker dock and low-code game creation platform.

We first heard about Playdate more than two years ago, were charmed by its clean look, funky crank control, and black and white display, and have been waiting for news ever since. Panic’s impeccable design credentials combined with Teenage Engineering’s creative hardware chops? It’s bound to be a joy to use, but there wasn’t much more than that to go on.

Now the company has revealed all the important details we were hoping for, and many more, to boot.

Image Credits: Panic

Originally we were expecting 12 games to be delivered over 12 weeks, but in the intervening period it seems they’ve collected more titles than planned, and that initial “season” of games has expanded to 24. No one knows exactly what to expect from these games except that they’re exclusive to the Playdate and many use the crank mechanic in what appear to be fun and interesting ways: turning a turntable, opening a little door, doing tricks as a surfer, and so on.

The team hasn’t decided how future games will be distributed, though they seem to have some ideas. Another season? One-off releases? Certainly the presence of a new game by one-man indie hit parade Lucas Pope would sell like hotcakes.

Image Credits: Panic

But the debut of a new lo-fi game development platform called Pulp suggests a future where self-publishing may also be an option. This lovely little web-based tool lets anyone put together a game using presets for things like controls and actions, and may prove to be a sort of tiny Twine in time.

A dock accessory was announced as well, something to keep your Playdate front and center on your desk. The speaker-equipped dock, also a lemony yellow, acts as a magnetic charging cradle for the console, activating a sort of stationary mode with a clock and music player (Poolsuite.fm, apparently, with original relaxing tunes). It even has two holes in which to put your pens (and Panic made a special yellow pen just for the purpose as well).

Image Credits: Panic

The $179 price may cause some to balk — after all, it’s considerably more than a Nintendo 3DS and with the dock probably approaches the price of a Switch. But this isn’t meant to be a competitor with mainstream gaming — instead, it’s a sort of anti-establishment system that embraces weirdness and provides something equally unfamiliar and undeniably fun.

The team says that there will be a week’s warning before orders can be placed, and that they don’t plan to shut orders down if inventory runs out, but simply allow people to preorder and cancel at will until they receive their unit. Shipping will begin in late 2021, and if the 20,000 units in the initial run don’t cover it, they’ll make more and ship as they come in.

We hope to get one ourselves to test and review, but since part of the charm of the whole thing is the timed release and social aspect of discovery and sharing, it’s more than likely we’ll be experiencing it along with everyone else.

(This article originally stated Playdate ships next month, but it will actually ship later — preorders begin next month.)

VCs discuss gaming’s biggest infrastructure investment opportunities in 2021

AAPL_chart-3

Apple releases torrent of updates, and Wall Street yawns

Today’s WWDC keynote from Apple covered a huge range of updates. From a new macOS to a refreshed watchOS to a new iOS, better privacy controls, FaceTime updates, and even iCloud+, there was something for everyone in the laundry list of new code.

Apple’s keynote was essentially what happens when the big tech companies get huge; they have so many projects that they can’t just detail a few items. They have to run down their entire parade of platforms, dropping packets of news concerning each.

But despite the obvious indication that Apple has been hard at work on the critical software side of its business, especially its services-side (more here), Wall Street gave a firm, emphatic shrug.

This is standard but always slightly confusing.

Investors care about future cash flows, at least in theory. Those future cash flows come from anticipated revenues, which are born from product updates, driving growth in sales of services, software, and hardware. Which, apart from the hardware portion of the equation, is precisely what Apple detailed today.

And lo, Wall Street looked upon the drivers of its future earnings estimates, and did sayeth “lol, who really cares.”

Shares of Apple were down a fraction for most of the day, picking up as time passed not thanks to the company’s news dump, but because the Nasdaq largely rose as trading raced to a close.

Here’s the Apple chart, via YCharts:

And here’s the Nasdaq:

Presuming that you are not a ChartMaster, those might not mean much to you. Don’t worry. The charts say very little all-around so you are missing little. Apple was down a bit, and the Nasdaq up a bit. Then the Nasdaq went up more, and Apple’s stock generally followed. Which is good to be clear, but somewhat immaterial.

So after yet another major Apple event that will help determine the health and popularity of every Apple platform — key drivers of lucrative hardware sales! — the markets are betting that all their prior work estimating the True and Correct value of Apple was dead-on and that there is no need for any sort of up-or-down change.

That, or Apple is so big now that investors are simply betting it will grow in keeping with GDP. Which would be a funny diss. Regardless, more from the Apple event here in case you are behind.

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2021.6: A little bit of everything

A little bit of everything. That is probably the best way to describe this
release. It is a packed release, with a lot of small new features everywhere!

Sonos got quite a bit of love, Hue now supports push updates, the UI has
a lot of usability tweaks, MQTT added quite a few attributes, themes can now
support modes… seriously, I can go on forever with this list.

So, no new big features (something might be cooking for the next release…),
but a nice release that has something for everybody. Definitely
worth scanning the all changes section for your favorite integrations.

../Frenck

Support for custom Dark mode themes

Previously, all themes automatically used our light theme as the base to build
on. As of today, themes can be based on our default dark theme as well!

Not only that, @spacegaier added support for themes that can support
both a Dark & Light mode in a single theme! This allows Home Assistant to
select the dark or light mode of your custom theme automatically.

Screenshot of a custom theme supporting both light & dark mode
Screenshot of a custom theme supporting both light & dark mode.

If you are a theme developer, you can find more information on how this works
in the frontend documentation.

Oh, and of course, all your existing themes will still just work as before.

Collapsed attributes

Some entities provide quite a few attributes and those show up in the user
interface. Most of the time, you don’t need to those and often
contain technical data that only confuse or clutter.

To unclutter the more information entity dialog from these attributes a bit,
the attributes will now show up collapsed into a bar and can be revealed with
a click.

Screen recording of the collapsible entity attributes
Screen recording of the collapsible entity attributes.

Time format settings

A couple of releases back, we added the possibility to select the number format
that Home Assistant uses when showing numbers. Awesome! But… what about
the formatting of time?

That question was raised a lot that release and many of you requested the same
feature for time formatting, for example, if one prefers a 24-hour format.

Well, you can thank @spacegaier for this one:

Screenshot of new time format setting
Screenshot of new time format setting.

You can find this new setting in your user profile.

Disable polling updates on any integration

One returning feature request, for many integrations, is adding controls for
tuning the polling interval an integration uses.

For example, if an integration has an API that needs to be paid for and you
don’t need too many updates, it can be a cost saver to use a slower polling
interval.

Another often requested example is things like battery-powered devices, or maybe
a device you only want to poll during the day and not during the night.

This release, we add support for disabling polling on every integration via
the integration system options; for ALL integrations.

Screenshot of the system options of an integration showing the disable polling option
Screenshot of the system options of an integration showing the disable polling option.

Wait? Disable polling?! Yes 🙂

So, there are many different requests on, for example, changing polling rates
(also known as scan interval), but also requests for polling on a schedule, or,
only based on other input (e.g., triggered by a motion sensor).

Therefore, we decided to provide the maximum flexibility for any use case you
can come up with. Disabling polling makes Home Assistant stop polling
automatically. However, you can use the
homeassistant.update_entity
service on those entities to trigger a poll for information.

This means, once you’ve disabled polling for an integration, you can create
automations and completely customize when you poll that integration from that
point on. All based on your own schedule, conditions or triggers.

Network integration

This release adds a new Network integration, created by @bdraco, to help
other Home Assistant integrations to get the right information about
your network.

It also provides you a single place to tell Home Assistant about your network.
It is an advanced feature and thus will only show up if you have advanced mode
enabled on your user profile.

You probably don’t need to change these settings, by default, Home Assistant
will auto-detect the right configuration. However, if you have a more complex
network configuration, with multiple network adapters or VLANs, you can now
select the interface Home Assistant integrations should use.

Screenshot of new Home Assistant Network settings in the general configuration
Screenshot of new Home Assistant Network settings in the general configuration.

Please note that this is a new feature that needs to be implemented/used
by other integrations. At this point, not all integrations will honor these
settings yet.

Other noteworthy changes

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

  • The Modbus has been receiving lots and lots of love from @janiversen,
    a big shout out to him for continuously improving it for the past weeks!
  • The Hue integration now supports push updates! Blazing fast response times
    if you are using that platform.
  • @balloob and @bdraco have been working on replacing date/time/timezone
    handling in Home Assistant. Right on time.
  • All services, for all integrations, now have updated information for their
    service calls. This means all service calls now have a nice new UI.
    Amazing job @tkdrob!
  • Support for the new colors modes is slowly expanding. This release
    Elgato, Z-Wave JS, KNX and MQTT have added support.
  • Sonos got some love from @mountainsandcode, @AaronDavidSchneider and
    @jjlawren. A lot of fixes and improvements, but also added support for
    controlling the state of the hardware buttons and controlling your Sonos
    alarms!
  • The developer state tools, now shows the
    name of the entity additional to the entity ID. Searching/filtering the list
    now supports wildcards (*). Thanks, @spacegaier!
  • Thanks to @PeteBa, there is now a recorder.purge_entities service that
    allows you to purge data from the recorder database for specified entities.
  • Watson TTS has added a bunch of new voices to choose from, thanks @demikl!
  • Ding dong! @bdraco added support for doorbell buttons to the HomeKit
    Controller integration.
  • BMW Connected Drive, now provides a bunch of sensors about your last trip.
    Thanks, @EddyK69!
  • @emericklaw added a new feature that allows you to duplicate a scene!
  • My Home Assistant now supports linking to
    the Ingress interface of an add-on!
  • Light templates now have support for effects, transitions and a bunch
    more properties, thanks to @jacekpaszkowski!
  • VeSync now supports Etekcity light bulbs, thanks @sdrapha.
  • The universal media player now supports overriding a lot of commands! Thanks
    for adding that @Drafteed!
  • @mdz continues expanding the SmartTub integration adding service to
    change filtration settings and snoozing reminders.
  • The Elgato integration now supports the new Elgato LED strips.
  • If you are into Oracle DB, @mciupak made sure our recorder can now use that.
  • Z-Wave JS integration now shows progress when adding or re-interviewing a
    device. Thanks, @cgarwood!
  • The Nexia integration now also supports controlling American Standard
    thermostat, added by @bdraco.
  • @Drafteed added support for changing channels on your LG NetCast TV, thanks!
  • @mib1185 ensured that the UX for counters and number helpers look nice!

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 2021.6.1 – June 3

  • Fix last activity consideration for AVM Fritz!Tools device tracker (@mib1185 – #51375) (fritz docs)
  • Handle Sonos connection issues better when polling (@jjlawren – #51376) (sonos docs)
  • Fix no value error for heatit climate entities (@raman325 – #51392) (zwave_js docs)
  • Fix Tibber Pulse device name and sensor update (@Danielhiversen – #51402) (tibber docs)
  • Fix shopping list “complete all” service name (@spacegaier – #51406) (shopping_list docs)
  • Bump aiohomekit to 0.2.67 (fixes #51391) (@Jc2k – #51418) (homekit_controller docs)
  • Bump zwave-js-server-python to 0.26.1 (@raman325 – #51425) (zwave_js docs)
  • Update frontend to 20210603.0 (@bramkragten – #51442) (frontend docs)

Release 2021.6.2 – June 4

  • Hot fix version of Apply modbus interval patch (@balloob – #51487) (modbus docs)
  • Update to iaqualink 0.3.90 (@flz – #51452) (iaqualink docs)
  • Retry isy994 setup later if isy.initialize times out (@bdraco – #51453) (isy994 docs)
  • xknx 0.18.3 (@farmio – #51277) (knx docs)
  • Update xknx to version 0.18.4 (@farmio – #51459) (knx docs)
  • Bump aiolyric to 1.0.7 (@timmo001 – #51473) (lyric docs)
  • Improve logging for SamsungTV (@chemelli74 – #51477) (samsungtv docs)
  • Upgrade elgato to 2.1.1 (@frenck – #51483) (elgato docs)
  • Protect our user agent (@balloob – #51486)

Release 2021.6.3 – June 7

  • Use a single job to ping all devices in the Broadlink integration (@felipediel – #51466) (broadlink docs)
  • Fix loop in tod binary sensor (@bdraco – #51491) (tod docs)
  • AsusWRT fix keyerror when firmver is missing from info (@timmo001 – #51499) (asuswrt docs)
  • Handle missing options in foreign_key for MSSQL (@bdraco – #51503) (recorder docs)
  • Fix missing Tibber power production (@Danielhiversen – #51505) (tibber docs)
  • Bump garminconnect_aio to 0.1.4 (@cyberjunky – #51507) (garmin_connect docs)
  • Bump pyialarm to 1.8.1 (@RyuzakiKK – #51519) (ialarm docs)
  • Improve log message when zone missing in geolocation trigger (@exxamalte – #51522) (geo_location docs)
  • Ensure host is always set with samsungtv SSDP discovery (@bdraco – #51527) (samsungtv docs)
  • Bump aiorecollect to 1.0.5 (@bachya – #51538) (recollect_waste docs)
  • Fix garmin_connect config flow multiple account creation (@cyberjunky – #51542) (garmin_connect docs)
  • Bump dwdwfsapi to 1.0.4 (@stephan192 – #51556) (dwd_weather_warnings docs)
  • Increase isy setup timeout to 60s (@bdraco – #51559) (isy994 docs)
  • Fix Sonos restore calls (@jjlawren – #51565) (sonos docs)
  • Update builder to 2021.06.2 (@pvizeli – #51582)
  • Fix deprecated value_template for MQTT light (@emontnemery – #51587) (mqtt 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.

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Community Highlights: 24th edition

The 24th edition of the Home Assistant Community Highlights! Some interesting
things popped up around our community, which we thought was worth sharing.

Do you want to share something for the next edition?
Information on how to share.

./Klaas
Intern on Home Assistant Energy

Blueprint of the week

I think this situation is familiar to many parents: your children who get
out of bed too early and who you would like to learn when it is the right
time to get out of bed.

This week’s blueprint is that of koosvanw,
who created a blueprint for the above situation that works with a light that
can change color and where the brightness can also be adjusted. Try it out!
Read more about it on the community forum or install this
automation in your instance with a click on the My button!

Threedy card

Do you have a 3D printer and are you not quite sure how to display it in a
beautiful way in your Lovelace dashboard? Then try this card from
dangreco, which works well in combination
with octoprint.

ESPHome weather station

Have you always wanted to build a weather station in your garden? Then
try the ESPHome variant of hugokernel,
it is quite extensive with many measuring options.

Garage fingerprint

This week we also came across something cool that was shared on our subreddit
page. For example, you could open a garage door by means of geofencing from your
phone or with an NFC tag. But Nhminer has
tried another option, namely opening with a fingerprint sensor 😲

Do you want to know more about it? Then also check
this forum topic.

Got a tip for the next edition?

Have you seen (or made) something awesome, interesting, unique, amazing,
inspirational, unusual or funny, using Home Assistant?

Click here to send us your Community Highlight suggestion.

Also, don’t forget to share your creations with us via Social Media:

See you next edition!

Backpack-Expandable

Kabuto releases a larger version of its smart suitcase

Kabuto, the French startup that designs and sells smart suitcases, is releasing a new suitcase today. Called the Kabuto Trunk, this is the company’s biggest suitcase to date. Unlike smart suitcases from other brands, this isn’t just a suitcase with a battery in it.

In particular, there’s a fingerprint reader located at the top of the suitcase. You can save up to 10 different fingerprints. After that, it works pretty much like a fingerprint reader on a smartphone — you put your finger on the reader and it unlocks your suitcase.

In that case, it unlocks the zippers. If somebody else is using your suitcase or the battery is dead, you can also open the suitcase with a traditional key.

The Kabuto Trunk features a hard-shell design with a capacity of 95 liters. It has metal bearing wheels and real tires. Users can choose between two batteries — a 10,000mAh battery and a bigger 20,000mAh battery. Basically you have to choose between weight and battery capacity, as bigger batteries tend to be heavier.

Customers can also choose to buy a backpack that magnetically attaches to the suitcase. Designed with travel in mind, that backpack is expandable and can double in thickness from 9 liters to 18 liters.

Image Credits: Kabuto

The suitcase currently costs $629 and the backpack $299 — the company plans to raise prices once the Kickstarter campaign is over.

As always with Kabuto products, this isn’t a product for everyone. They tend to be more expensive than what you’d normally pay for a suitcase. But some people like to pack things in a very specific way so that important items remain available. The startup has previously raised $1 million (€900,000) from Frédéric Mazzella, Michel & Augustin, Bpifrance, Fabien Pierlot and others.

Image Credits: Kabuto

Huawei officially launches HarmonyOS for smartphones

Think you’re living in a hyper-connected world? Huawei’s proprietary HarmonyOS wants to eliminate delays and gaps in user experience when you move from one device onto another by adding interoperability to all devices, regardless of the system that powers them.

Two years after Huawei was added to the U.S. entity list that banned the Chinese telecom giant from accessing U.S. technologies, including core chipsets and Android developer services from Google, Huawei’s alternative smartphone operating system was unveiled.

On Wednesday, Huawei officially launched its proprietary operating system HarmonyOS for mobile phones. The firm started building the operating system in 2016 and began letting developers create HarmonyOS-compatible applications for tablets, electric vehicles and smartwatches last September. Its flagship devices such as Mate 40 could upgrade to HarmonyOS starting Wednesday, with the operating system gradually rolling out on lower-end models in the coming quarters.

HarmonyOS is not meant to replace Android or iOS, Huawei said. Rather, its application is more far-reaching, powering not just phones and tablets but an increasing number of smart devices. To that end, Huawei has been trying to attract hardware and home appliance manufacturers to join its ecosystem.

To date, more than 500,000 developers are building applications based on HarmonyOS. It’s unclear whether Google, Facebook and other mainstream apps in the West are working on HarmonyOS versions.

Some Chinese tech firms have answered Huawei’s call. Smartphone maker Meizu hinted on its Weibo account that its smart devices might adopt HarmonyOS. Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi, which are much larger players than Meizu, are probably more reluctant to embrace a rival’s operating system.

Apple sales bounce back in China as Huawei loses smartphone crown

Huawei’s goal is to collapse all HarmonyOS-powered devices into one single control panel, which can, say, remotely pair the Bluetooth connections of headphones and a TV. A game that is played on a phone can be continued seamlessly on a tablet. A smart soymilk blender can customize a drink based on the health data gleaned from a user’s smartwatch.

Devices that aren’t already on HarmonyOS can also communicate with Huawei devices with a simple plug-in. Photos from a Windows-powered laptop can be saved directly onto a Huawei phone if the computer has the HarmonyOS plug-in installed. That raises the question of whether Android, or even iOS, could, one day, talk to HarmonyOS through a common language.

The HarmonyOS launch arrived days before Apple’s annual developer event scheduled for next week. A recent job posting from Apple mentioned a seemingly new concept, homeOS, which may have to do with Apple’s smart home strategy, as noted by MacRumors.

Huawei denied speculations that HarmonyOS is a derivative of Android OS and said no single line of code is identical to that of Android, though Wang Chenglu, president of Huawei Consumer Business Group’s software department, previously said in an interview that HarmonyOS had also used open-source codes from AOSP. A spokesperson for Huawei declined to say whether the operating system is based on Linux, the kernel that powers Android. 

Several tech giants have tried to introduce their own mobile operating systems, to no avail. Alibaba built AliOS based on Linux but has long stopped updating it. Samsungflirted with its own Tizen but the operating system is limited to powering a few Internet of Things, like smart TVs.

Huawei may have a better shot at drumming up developer interest compared to its predecessors. It’s still one of China’s largest smartphone brands despite losing a chunk of its market after the U.S. government cut it off from critical chip suppliers, which could hamper its ability to make cutting-edge phones. HarmonyOS also has a chance to create an alternative for developers who are disgruntled with Android, if Huawei is able to capture their needs.

The U.S. sanctions do not block Huawei from using Android’s open-source software, which major Chinese smartphone makers use to build their third-party Android operating system. But the ban was like a death knell for Huawei’s consumer markets overseas as its phones abroad lost access to Google Play services.

The article and headline were updated with more clarification on HarmonyOS. 

Huawei’s new OS isn’t an Android replacement… yet

US removes Xiaomi’s designation as a Communist Chinese military company

Xiaomi, one of China’s high-profile tech firms that fell in the crosshairs of the Trump administration, has been removed from a U.S. government blacklist that designated it as a Communist Chinese military company.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has vacated the Department of Defense’s designation of Xiaomi as a CCMC in January, a document filed on May 25 shows.

In February, Xiaomi sued the U.S. government over its inclusion in the military blacklist. In March, the D.C. court granted Xiaomi a preliminary injunction against the DoD designation, which would have forbidden all U.S. persons from purchasing or possessing Xiaomi’s securities, saying the decision was “arbitrary and capricious.” The ruling was made to prevent “irreparable harm” to the Chinese phone maker.

Xiaomi has this to say about getting off the blacklist:

The Company is grateful for the trust and support of its global users, partners, employees and shareholders. The Company reiterates that it is an open, transparent, publicly traded, independently operated and managed corporation. The Company will continue to provide reliable consumer electronics products and services to users, and to relentlessly build amazing products with honest prices to let everyone in the world enjoy a better life through innovative technology.

Xiaomi’s domestic competitor Huawei is still struggling with its inclusion in the U.S. trade blacklist, which bans it from accessing critical U.S. technologies and has crippled its smartphone sales around the world.

What China’s fintech market can teach the world

Trump administration adds Xiaomi to military blacklist