Nest Labs Introduces World’s First Learning Thermostat

Nest Learning Thermostat Programs Itself, Saves Energy

PALO ALTO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Nest Labs today announced that it has created the Nest Learning Thermostat™. Nest learns from your behaviors, preferences and surroundings to create a custom heating and cooling schedule, keeping you comfortable when you’re home and conserving energy when you’re away.

    “Under the leadership of Tony Fadell, the company is poised to make a significant impact on an industry that has been virtually void of innovation for the past 30 years.”

“It was unacceptable to me that the device that controls 10 percent of all energy consumed in the U.S. hadn’t kept up with advancements in technology and design,” said Tony Fadell, co-founder and chief executive officer of Nest Labs. “Together with the team, Co-Founder Matt Rogers and I set out to reinvent the thermostat using advanced technologies, high-quality manufacturing processes and the thoughtful design elements the iPhone generation has come to expect. The resulting Nest Learning Thermostat is like no other thermostat on the market. We hope it will not only save money and energy, but that it will teach and inspire people to think more about how they can reduce home-energy consumption.”

According to the U.S. Department of Energy and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, the annual energy bill for a typical single-family home is approximately $2,200, with heating and cooling (HVAC) accounting for approximately half of the bill. The programmable thermostat, developed in the 1970s, promised to help people conserve energy, but 89 percent of owners rarely or never set a program (source: ACEEE, 2010). The devices are simply too complicated. In fact, Energy Star revoked its certification of all thermostats in 2009 when it became apparent that people weren’t actually engaging with programmable thermostats to reach their proper functionality.

Nest Learning Thermostat

Nest addresses the programming problem through a combination of sensors, algorithms, machine learning, and cloud computing. Nest learns behaviors and preferences and adjusts the temperature up or down accordingly, making you comfortable when you’re home and saving energy while you’re away. Nest also provides people with tips and information to help them make energy-saving choices.

Product Features:

    Programs itself – Nest programs itself based on the temperatures you set. Nest learns your personal schedule in a week and starts automatically turning down heating or cooling when you’re away to save energy. Nest will keep refining its schedule over time.
    Saves Energy – Nest tracks the temperatures you typically set and guides you to more energy-efficient ones, displaying the green Nest Leaf as a reward when you set the temperature to a more energy-efficient setting. The Auto-Away™ feature uses sensors to detect when you’re not home, lowering the temperature and saving energy. You can also check Energy History to see how much you saved.
    Connected – Connect Nest to your home’s Wi-Fi to control it from your laptop, smartphone or tablet. Change the temperature, adjust your schedule and check your energy usage.
    Simple to Use – Rotate the outer ring to adjust the temperature. The display turns blue when cooling and red when heating. Push down to open the menu.
    Convenient Installation Options – Bundle installation service with purchase at nest.com or install Nest yourself if you’re handy around the house. Just about everything you need comes in the box. If you've installed a lighting fixture, you’ll find that installing Nest is a similar process.
    Thoughtful Design – The brushed stainless steel dial frames the display while the ring’s curved, neutral-silver finish creates a chameleon effect that grounds Nest within its environment by picking up the color of the wall upon which it’s mounted. This combination of sleek design elements and premium materials makes Nest a thermostat you can finally feel proud to display in your home.

Pricing and Availability

The Nest Learning Thermostat is expected to be available at www.nest.com and retail outlets in mid-November for a suggested retail price of $249.00 (U.S.). To be one of the first to experience the benefits of a Nest Learning Thermostat, go to www.nest.com to pre-order yours today.

The Nest Labs Team

The Nest team is committed to helping reduce home-energy consumption. Team members draw upon their years of technology, design and go-to-market experience from world-class consumer-facing companies including Apple, Google, Logitech, Sling Media and Twitter.

“Nest has built an unprecedented team of experienced designers and engineers with backgrounds spanning Silicon Valley,” said Bill Campbell, Apple and Intuit board member and Nest advisor. “Under the leadership of Tony Fadell, the company is poised to make a significant impact on an industry that has been virtually void of innovation for the past 30 years.”

You can read more HERE.

I'm guessing this is a one-of-a-kind boat, and it's for sale. No idea on the price, but if you're interested, I'm sure they'll be happy to give you a price. Here's the details:

This MTI was themed after a ZR1 Corvette with all the original GM parts used in the build purchased from GM dealers. The boat is constructed of carbon fiber. The black paint job is accented by carbon fiber airbrush work on the canopy and the entire hull of the boat. The exterior of the boat has ZR1 inspired hull sides, headlights, taillights, marker lights, custom ZR48 emblems and engine vents. The cockpit is truly one of a kind. The cockpit hatches are a custom gull wing type that have built-in escape hatches. The canopy also has an electric sliding rear window. The custom dash has fully function gauges, a custom ZR1 steering wheel and shifter. The custom shifter throttles both engines and controls drive trim. The interior is ultra leather and suede, with six air conditioned seats. The driver and throttle man’s seat are power sliding with footrests. The air conditioning is provided by a 24K BTU cruise air marine A/C system. The entire cockpit area is accented by custom Lumiflex and LED lighting. A true state-of-the-art sound system was installed which includes a custom engine block bow speaker pod with LED accent lights. The pod lifts electronically from the deck. The pod has 8 Focal K2 coaxial speakers and 2 horns, 2 Kicker Solo Baric 10-inch subs in custom matched ported boxes firing into the cockpit, aft-mounted speaker pods, custom amp cooling system, Apple TV with Wi-Fi network, custom iPad dock integrated into the ZR1 glove box and a separate volume control for the subs, cockpit and exterior sound. The total sound system is 8000 watts RMS. The uniquely designed engine bays are loaded with carbon fiber trim, LED and Lumiflex lighting, custom ZR48 badging and bulkhead accent panels. The accessories are powered by a 4.2 kW Fischer Panda Diesel Genset. The power for this monster comes from two Mercury Racing 1350 HP twin-turbo engines with number 8 drives. The engines are accented with ZR1 type supercharger covers, giving the engines a proper Corvette themed appearance. This one-of-a-kind boat has won many awards and is truly every Corvette enthusiasts “Dream Boat”.

You can see more pictures of it HERE.

This is pretty expensive for a lamp, at about $1,345. However, both models are something unique. Here's the details:

DESIGN:

Angela Jansen has reinvented the standard lamp. The design evokes memories of old fashioned lamps, but when you see the floating part, you realize this is designed for the future.

APPEARANCE:

The lamp consists out of a handcrafted wooden base with a high glossy black finish. Attached is a stylish black fabric covered power cable. The conical shaped lampshade is manufactured in matt black fabric with a pearl white inner sid furnishing. The light flows through the openings of the mirror which covers the lower part of the lampshade.

TECHNOLOGY:

What makes this lamp floating is the integrated levitation technology. It consist out of electromagnetic components and a sophisticated control system. Next to the fact that they employ the very latest LED technology, the lamp is low in power consumption too. With a touch of your fingertip, the lamp can be dimmed to the intensity you require.

SPECIFICATIONS:

The fabric covered power cord is 2.00 meters long (6,5 feet) and is connected to the universal power adaptor with a power cable with the length of 1.85 meters (6 feet). The standard universal power adaptor has a EU two pins power plug, but you can order an US power adaptor.

Light intensity: 300 Lux. Power consumption: 3W standby (only levitation on), 15W when the LEDs are fully on.

You can check it out over at the Goodsie site HERE.

I like this artists work enough that I thought I would post something else. Along with the flask from yesterday, he also makes moneyclips with the same sort of designs. All look to be very well made, and they go for around $45. You can check them all out HERE.

I have to admit, I think this is the coolest flask I've ever seen. I love the brass skull and crossbones, which would be great by itself, but the etching on the rest of the flask really adds to it.

It also looks to be very well done, with an attached screw on cap, and made from stainless steel with chrome silver plating and the skull is raised gold brass-plated.

With your average flask you might pay around $40, and I'm impressed that this is only $75. You can grab one over at the CosmicFirefly site on Etsy by clikcing HERE.

I might get one of these for my desk at work, and write messages on it. It sort of amuses me that someone might stop past my cube and learn that I'm at lunch by reading a skull.

Pretty much what you see is what you get with this. It's a skull thats 7" x 5" x 7" in size, made of plastic and porcelain, with enamel chalkboard paint.

You can grab one for $42 over at the Etsy site HERE.

This is a really cool idea, but I wonder how useful it would be. It's pretty simple, you see an image, fire up the application on your phone, point it at the image, download the augmented reality info, and then see the animations.

The only thing I would worry about is that you have to download the information. If you're out and about, and have a poor connection, it might not be that useful. Maybe it's possible to download them early for things you know you want to see? On the site, it looks like they had campaigns for both Harry Potter and Green Lantern.

You can head on over to the Zapparel site and check it out HERE.

You can also check out some videos of it in action over HERE.

These are awesome. The only bad thing is that this is more art project than something you can buy, but that doesn't detract from the coolness. Here's what little details there are:

We designed special bowling balls together with famous spraygun artist Oliver Paass that look like cut-off heads. For more than three weeks he made detailed 360° layouts that were sprayed on standard bowling balls. In several German bowling alleys we swapped the standard balls for these special ones. Additional black balls referred to the German horror TV channel No.1.

You can check them all out at the Design Made In Germany site HERE.

I keep thinking about getting one of these, but I wonder how many times I'd slash myself learning to use it.

This is one of the cheaper ones that I've seen, but it still comes in at $100. Here's a little about it:

The Art of Shaving Straight Razors are handcrafted by DOVO, a prestigious German razor maker since 1906. The carbon steel 5/8” blade is half hollow ground with single stabilizing piece, laser etching on the blade to deliver a more comfortable shave and provide the sharpest edge. The handle is made from black resin. Upon purchase of a Straight Razor, The Art of Shaving offers a complimentary guide on how to use and maintain the razor at home.

You can take a look at this one, and the several other models they have, at the Art Of Shaving site HERE

I've seen these before, but this is the first time I've seen one for sale. It isn't cheap, costing $5,000, but it is unique. The tank can be hung just about anywhere, looks to be big enough to be used to sort of separate rooms in a large space. Or just hung someplace to look cool. Here's the details:

This very unique wall hanging fish tank is a fantastic accessory for any setting. The cords and filtration system are neatly concealed within the hanging tubes and the fluorescent light (included) beautifully sits atop the acrylic frame. The filtration system can be set for fresh or salt water fish.
 
Small hoses within the stainless steel hanging tubes carry water back and forth from the filter, which can be separately set anywhere (500 foot reach).

- Made of acrylic fish tank, stainless steel tubes

- Height  ( 28.5")  5 Foot    ( 28.5")  6 Foot    ( 28.5")  8 foot

- Width   ( 59")                   ( 71")                   ( 95")

- Depth   ( 14")                   ( 12")                   ( 12")

- 1 year warranty

You can check it out over at Opulent Items by clicking HERE.