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Nest plans to offer its smart thermostat to Irish consumers for free when they sign up for a two-year contract with Electric Ireland. Nest chief executive Tony Fadell said at the Web Summit in Dublin that the deal could put his company’s thermostats in up to 1.6 million homes, according to CNET, and claimed that similar deals would be announced for other countries in the future.
[...] Google is infamous for its ability to offer consumers products which are paid for not by their users but by the ads those users see. Its products are among the best in their categories, and when it’s free to use them, there’s little reason for consumers to pay for another service. Now Google is just applying that same logic to the real world — and it will probably work out for it just as well.
Even I’ve grown sick of hearing this sentiment, but it’s more relevant now than ever: If you aren’t the one paying for a service, you are the product.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by mojo chan on Thursday November 06 2014, @08:40AM
i really can't fathom why someone would want a 'smart' thermostat.
Because it saves you money and makes your home more comfortable. It's like energy meters - you wouldn't think that simply having more data would make you more energy efficient, but it does. The fact that the thermostat learns and reacts to your behaviour means you don't need to fiddle with it, but still get energy savings and a nice environment.
It's all a trade off. I have a sleep monitor that uses an app on my phone to display data, and needs an online account. Now Omron knows my sleep patterns, but at least I sleep better. They don't seem to be spamming me either, so I'm okay with it for now. If they do become douchbags I'll use data protection laws to demand they remove my data. It's not perfect but it's more than worth it to me, to sleep better.
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