Jen Sorensen (@jensorensen@mastodon.social)

Attached: 1 image Latest comic. A British consumer rights group examined unnecessary data harvesting by “smart” devices, including air fryers connected to phone apps. While these devices may not pose the greatest privacy risk in our everyday...

Reverse Engineering A Soundsystem’s API

We’ve all been stymied by a smart thermostat, coffee maker, or other device which would work fine on its own but ultimately seems to be worse off for having an Internet connection —  so…

A Giga-Sunset For Gigaset IoT Devices

In today’s “predictable things that happened before and definitely will happen again”, we have another company in the “smart device” business that has just shuttered their servers…

Another Chance To Revive Your Nabaztag

The early history of home internet appliances was replete with wonderful curios as a new industry sought to both find a function for itself and deliver something useful with whatever semiconductors…

Toy Gaming Controller Makes The Big Leagues

Some of the off-brand video game consoles and even accessories for the major brands can leave a lot to be desired. Whether it’s poor build quality or a general lack of support or updates, the…

Your Guide To Using Amazon’s Sidewalk Network For The Internet Of Things

As the Internet of Things became a mainstream reality, it raised an interesting point about connectivity. We quickly learned it wasn’t ideal to have every light bulb, toaster, and kettle buzz…

Supercon 2022: Irak Mayer Builds Self-Sustainable Outdoor IoT Devices

[Irak Mayer] has been exploring IoT applications for use with remote monitoring of irrigation control systems. As you would expect, the biggest challenges for moving data from the middle of a field…

Smart Ovens Are Doing Dumb Checks For Internet Connectivity

If you’ve ever worked in IT support, you’ll be familiar with users calling in to check if the Internet is up every few hours or so. Often a quick refresh of the browser is enough to see…

Building A Local Network With LoRaWAN

At its core, the Internet is really just a bunch of computers networked together. There’s no reason that there can’t be other separate networks of computers, or that we all have to tie …

UV Monitoring Budgie Keeps An Eye On Exposure Levels

UV rays are great at helping us generate vitamin D, but they can also be harmful, causing sunburn and even melanoma. To help kids keep track of the UV index in his local area, [Jude Pullen] created…

Insteon Gets Another Chance

It would appear that, sometimes, miracles happen. A few days ago, an update graced the website of Insteon, a company whose abrupt shuttering we covered in detail two months ago. An entity described…

Automated Blinds Can Be A Cheap And Easy Build

Blinds are great for blocking out the sun, but having to get up to open and close them grows tiresome in this computationally-advanced age. [The Hook Up] decided to automate his home blinds instead…

Insteon Abruptly Shuts Down, Users Left Smart-Home-Less

In today’s “predictable things that happened before and definitely will happen again”, Insteon, a smart home company boasting the Insteon ecosystem of devices built around their p…

Messaging On Signal Via The ESP32

Signal is a popular encrypted messaging app, typically used on smartphones. The cross-platform service can now be used via the ESP32, however, thanks to the work of [Dharmik] and [Tirth]. The demon…

Swiss Researchers Develop Wearable Microchip that Eliminates Bodily Privacy Once and for All

These microchips will eventually connect to the ‘internet of things,’ a comprehensive array of devices which track and record us at all times.