By this point, it’s pretty much understood most smart home products don’t do the best job talking to each other. Slowly, the issue is being rectified with the creation of more and more hardware and software platforms attempting to serve as a centerpiece to a connected home.
The is the iothinks mission, but the team behind it goes about it a little differently: by using sound. The actual iothinks device is a small, attractively designed device sporting the usual play/pause button and status lights along with a few custom buttons. But the magic happens when it connects to a user’s smartphone and to any Bluetooth or Wi-Fi-enabled speakers. Then, it acts as an Amazon Echo, doling out social media message updates and weather notification, auto-launching playlists when a user is detected back home, linking up with sleep trackers for smart alarms — iothinks boasts a wide range of features.
If for some reason a feature isn’t present out the box, the platform’s open API and IFTTT integration ensures whatever a user wants to do is always possible. A single iothinks device goes for $167 and is expected to ship November 2016. Its Kickstarter campaign is looking for about $111,600 by April 5th, 2016.
Compared to the Amazon Echo, iothinks is infinitely more capable — if a tad bit late to the party. With Amazon’s recent announcement of the Echo Dot, the only thing making the iothinks platform more attractive is its openness. Consumers might enjoy being able to customize their experience with a device like this rather than wait for a 3rd party to implement the integrations they need.