NICE acquires Nortek brand of home security equipment: Italian home automation company NICE has acquired Nortek's security systems for $ 285 million. The agreement adds to NICE's smart home equipment brands, which include 2GIG, Number, IntelliVision, Linear, SpeakerCraft and more. In 2018, Nice took a majority stake in Abode, a smart home security system with a significant DIY base. The Nortek agreement emphasizes how important security is to any home automation company. (That's great) - Stacey Higginbotham

The IoT Kore platform becomes public: Atlanta's IoT platform, Kore, went public through a special-purpose procurement company (SPAC) and began trading on the NYSE last Friday at $ 7 a share. (It closed at $ 6.42 on Thursday.) Like many IoT companies, Kore has seen an increase in activity due to the pandemic, and analysts quoted in this article anticipate that it could use some of its cash to make purchases. (Fierce Wireless) - Stacey Higginbotham

Honeywell has fixed a vulnerability in its controllers: Claroty, an IoT security firm, reported three vulnerabilities in the Honeywell Experion Process Knowledge System (PKS) distributed control system (DCS). These vulnerabilities could allow a hacker to load his own software onto a controller and force it to execute malicious code. The result of that code can affect a physical process or can be used to launch a denial of service attack. The researchers informed Honeywell, who repaired the affected controllers, and now any company that uses these controllers must call if they need to correct or wait. (Claroty) - Stacey Higginbotham

Hiber gives up his own satellite dreams: Hiber, a European IoT business hoping to launch its own constellation of satellites to build an industrial IoT service, has filed with the FCC to withdraw its plans to launch the remaining planned satellites. The company has launched only four of the 24 satellites and plans to turn to another provider to provide satellite connectivity. Hiber offers sensors and an integrated software monitoring package as opposed to raw connectivity, and recently signed an agreement with Shell to monitor its decommissioned oil rigs in remote areas. Curiously, many other IoT satellite broadcasts face a launch failure. (SpaceNews) - Stacey Higginbotham

The maritime industry is testing portable fatigue monitoring devices: P&O Maritime Logistics will use a smart device used in the logistics and truck industry to measure the fatigue of its marine workforce. The device, from a company called SmartCap, measures EEG signals using a tape worn on the headset or cover to track fatigue. The purpose of the equipment is to help prevent a worker from falling asleep or performing poorly during safety-critical work, such as driving a truck or piloting a ship. I am concerned that the use of such technology without addressing the reasons why workers may be tired in the first place will give companies ways to demand as much staff as possible, while at the same time providing the minimum in terms of relieving stressed workers. (Maritime Executive) - Stacey Higginbotham

Hello smart blinds with Thread support! I've been thinking about adding shades or smart blinds to my house for a while, but I haven't turned the switch on yet. The main reasons? Costs and hopes for Thread support. So I was thrilled to see an announcement this week featuring Eve MotionBlinds Motors. They won't arrive in the US until early 2022, but we've already discovered details from a store in the Netherlands where you can buy them now. Yes, there is Thread support, just like most of the newest Eve products, and the price seems to be about half of what I would pay if I chose the smart blinds currently available from Lutron or another company. And those current alternatives do not yet support the Thread protocol. Eve collaborated with Coulisse to cover the windows, which will be available in curtains, Venetian blinds and cell shades. (Eva Home) - Kevin Tofel

There is a new expensive HomeKit security camera: I've never heard of Zorachka, but this company has announced a new HomeKit webcam called Homam and it's not cheap. The circular camera available now costs a whopping $ 399. Why the relatively high cost? It does not use the cloud at all for image storage or AI detection functions, instead offering 64 GB of storage per device for beginners. And Homam uses something called VIS or Verona Index Storage, which is a proprietary technology. VIS is used to store high-speed videos and indexes for faster browsing of your videos, similar to commercial on-demand video services. The company says its camera can find a video in a five-year archive in less than a second, for example. I'm not sure consumers will pay for such a feature, but at least there's no subscription fee! (HomeKit News) - Kevin Tofel

Finally: a Helium router that you can actually get. This week, RAKWireless announced that it is building a new Helium hotspot called MNTD. I've been waiting since March for the similar LoRaWAN hotspot I ordered from Nebra for about the same price of $ 400. Since then, each month has been one of frustration due to shipping or production delays. RAKWireless takes a different approach with MNTD: instead of taking bulk orders just to make consumers look forward to the devices, the company will only sell the product when it has them. This means that buyers will only have to wait two weeks before they can expand the Helium IoT network with their own hardware. Managing expectations: what a new concept! (StaceyOnIoT) - Kevin Tofel

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