Now even your thermostat is smart…

In a previous post, I wrote about the nightmarish future envisioned by Corning where every surface is made of glass and is capable of assaulting you with social media and advertising while also acting as a video monitor and camera. While this may make me sound like a Luddite, I’m happy to report that I have recently become aware of a product that looks to make life better rather than more scattered: the Nest thermostat.
Created by former members of Apple’s iPod team, the Nest is a learning thermostat. It pays attention to how and when you adjust the thermostat, programs itself based on your input, and starts to make those changes for you. Through a collection of sensors, it can tell when you’re home, or asleep, and can make adjustments to the temperature that you would, if you were there. This makes the Nest a potentially money and power saving device and could revolutionize the thermostat industry, which in my opinion is long overdue for a revolution.
The Nest has a click wheel, much like the original iPod, and though borrows some functional design from the classic Honeywell thermostat design, it makes use of a round LCD screen to display submenus and usage charts on the thermostat itself. It’s also wifi enabled, so it can be accessed remotely. And there is an app for it as well. I’m not sure if they have some way to connect it to Facebook, but I wouldn’t bet against it. They also have the standard introductory video with the requisite hipster indie music:
It’s a little spendy for a thermostat, but it seems as if you’d be able to recoup that expense in energy savings. Standard post-social media marketing aside, I think it is safe to call this the most exciting thermostat to hit the market in decades. Really.