Wireless technology is one of the most significant contributors towards widespread adoption of smart home technology, lowering the barriers and costs involved in connecting just a room or an entire home. Instead of paying for a custom install, devices can connect to each other and to home networks over WiFi, NFC or radio waves to name a few options. That means no drilling, no wiring and little technological know-how required for a homeowner to establish a smart solution.

Wireless speakers are among the most popular connected devices for the home, and theyre also some of the most beautiful. As the market matures, expected to reach $13.75 billion by 2018, companies like Philips, Sonos and Samsung are differentiating their products through design. But such differentiation tactics can be employed by startups as well.

Portland, Oregon-based BlueshiftPDX is one startup looking to pave a path to success by designing a better battery for wireless speakers. Its Helium speaker charges in only five minutes, thanks to its supercapacitor. This energy storage capability allows the speaker to charge quickly, and then play at full volume for six hours, Blueshift claims, lasting about 500,000 charge cycles.

Turning to crowdfunding, Blueshift has already exceeded its $35,000 campaign goal. Today we hear from Blueshift founder and head designer Sam Beck, who began by building bike speakers. Here Beck details the reasons his team chose CrowdSupply over Kickstarter, the importance of open source tools in startup communities, and his speaker design process.

Why CrowdSupply over Kickstarter?

Sam Beck, Blueshift founder

Theyre local, so I was able to meet with them in person, and I got a great deal of support from them. They helped with public relations and marketing more than what I wouldve been able to do on my own.

.

For Blueshift, whats the role of open source?

Its been really helpful so far, probably five or six electrical engineers have looked at the project and offered feedback. I have a couple guys helping with final round for revisions before our speaker goes out to production. Its been amazing to see how willing people are to help out.

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What we did right was something different and honest. Blueshift founder on wireless speaker design

SANDY SPRINGS, Ga.

Sandy Springs police say what officers initially thought might be a meth lab behind a home, was in fact a moonshine operation.

Police told Channel 2s Mike Petchenik they were called to a home on Windsor Parkway this week after the property owner discovered the unusual setup.

There was a pressure cooker, copper wiring, said Sgt. Ron Momon.Upon further verification it was determined to be a moonshining operation.

Momon said police believe whomever was distilling the homemade cider was making about a gallon of it a week.

Its actually a felony in the state of Georgia, he said. At this point we dont have any evidence, any leads. Only thing we have is the cooking operation.

Neighbors told Petchenik that they were surprised to hear about the found firewater.

I think its fantastic, said Guy Tucker.The mountains have come down to the city and its great to blend the two.

Neighbor Jack Byrd said he was disappointed to hear police had destroyed the distillery.

No samples? he asked. The whole neighborhood could have gotten happy.

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Police discover moonshine operation behind Sandy Springs home

By BETH HARRIS AP Sports Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Yasiel Puig was scratched from the starting lineup after arriving late for the Los Angeles Dodgers' home opener on Friday.

The rest of the team was already on the field stretching before batting practice while Puig was getting dressed in the clubhouse. He had been slated to start in right field for the afternoon game against the San Francisco Giants, who beat the Dodgers 8-4.

"I'm sincerely sorry," Puig said through a translator after the game, explaining that he didn't realize stretching and batting practice would be held so early with a 1 p.m. start.

Puig said he apologized to manager Don Mattingly and his teammates, and they accepted.

"They felt it was OK when I owned up to it and apologized," he said. "I felt bad I wasn't out there playing for all the fans."

Instead, Matt Kemp replaced Puig in the lineup after manager Don Mattingly had earlier said Kemp wouldn't start. Kemp came off the disabled list on Friday after rehabilitating from left ankle and shoulder operations. He was limited to 279 games during the last two seasons because of injuries.

Puig, last year's runner-up for NL Rookie of the Year, was 5 for 20 through his first five games of the season. He wasn't used as a pinch-hitter because Mattingly said the situation didn't call for it. The Dodgers trailed 8-0 after two innings.

Mattingly downplayed Puig's mistake.

"He truly felt bad," the manager said. "You can tell by his body language; he doesn't hide things well."

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Puig out, Kemp in for Dodgers home opener

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - This spring will look less leafy at 39th and Genessee streets.

Blame the need for Internet speed.

A crew, hired by Google Inc. to make way for the companys overhead fiber optic lines, transformed the neighborhood ginkgo trees into tall stumps one morning last summer.

They butchered em, just butchered em, said Ted Larkin, the owner of three buildings in the neighborhood.

Complaints would ultimately prompt the removal of what was left of the trees, replaced with saplings needing decades to produce the same shade. Those in the neighborhood notice the difference.

Technology, said Jim Svetlecic of State of the Art picture frame shop, is not painless.

Once Google Fiber fully wires Kansas City with its light-speed-to-the-home Internet network, no other American market its size will boast such broad, broad broadband.

To get there, the Google Fiber technicolor bunny is tree-trimming, jackhammering and trenching its way across the area to hoist, bury and stretch a network of fiber optic lines that zig-zags - so far - for nearly 6,000 miles.

On a given day, city officials say, about 1,000 workers for private companies scatter across the market to climb utility poles, string cables through buried conduit or lace lines into crawl spaces to stitch together Googles network.

Sometimes their work leaves beloved trees denuded. Other times, crews clip electrical, telephone, cable or natural gas lines. On occasion, people nearby have had to clear out of homes or offices when gas leaks were triggered.

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Wiring cities for Google Fiber not always pretty

Spring is a popular time to start renovating your home. Some projects you look forward to, but others you don't yet they still need to be done. Angie Hicks, the creator of the Angie's List website, says, "Unfortunately, there are projects that have to be done around your house that you are never going to talk to other people about like updating wiring, replacing your roof. They are not fun and exciting, but if you don't do these things it's really going to hinder the value of your home and its resale value." Here are three home projects you should never avoid. One, repairing the foundation. Get that slow-growing crack up the wall checked out before it's too late. Two, removing mold. Failure to remove it can cause health problems. Make sure to hire a remediation company that finds the source of the mold. Three, update electrical wiring. Rewiring a home or modernizing an aging electrical system is not cheap, but you'll sleep better knowing there's a decreased risk of fire. Angie's List says spending money on needed projects can be painful, especially when you don't have an emergency fund. Financial planners recommend tucking away at least $5,000 for these types of situations. If you don't have an emergency fund, start small. Have a portion of each paycheck automatically deposited into a savings account.

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Angie's List: Must-Do Home Projects

The average home broadband ISP download speeds for the largest seven Internet access providers in the United Kingdom managed to reach 20.94Mbps in March 2014, while uploads hit 4.79Mbps. As usual BT and Virgin Media continued to hold the top spots for downstream performance.

Its very important to highlight that theres been a big change this month because weve decided to experiment byusing Ooklas data from Speedtest.net for our monthly summaries. In the future this will allow us to expand and cover more ISPs but for this month well retain a little consistency by focusing upon only the largest mainstream providers (TOP 10), although for a comparison weve added Zen Internet into the mix.

Top7 Big UK ISPs Average Download Speed (Megabits per second) 1. Virgin Media 42.60Mbps 2. BT 25.41Mbps 3. PlusNet 21.16Mbps 4. Zen Internet 20.15Mbps 5. TalkTalk 12.65Mbps 6. Sky Broadband 12.38Mbps 7. EE 12.27Mbps

Top7 Big UK ISPs Average Upload Speed 1. BT 7.44Mbps 2. PlusNet 6.51Mbps 3. Zen Internet 6.15Mbps 4. Virgin Media 4.91Mbps 5. Sky Broadband 3.29Mbps 6. EE (Orange) 2.94Mbps 7. TalkTalk 2.29Mbps

Please take anecdotal data like this with a big pinch of salt. Every home is different and performance can be affected by all sorts of issues, many of which are beyond the ISPs ability to control (e.g. slow wifi or poor home wiring). We do not consider the above data to be a reliable barometer for individual users but it can help to highlight general changes in the market.

In addition, Ooklas data attempts to reflect the fastest sustainable throughput performance by dropping a large chunk of the slowest and a smaller slice of the fastest results for each ISP. This may be useful for certain comparisons but it can also skew the results, especially since slower connections tend to exist in rural areas. The impact is most noticeable for upstream speeds, which we believe to be too high (we might not use their data for upstream in the future).

On top of that not everybody takes the fastest speed available from their ISP and the latest super-fast connections (FTTC, FTTP etc.) can have a disproportionate impact compared with the older and slower copper ADSL2+ lines etc.

Originally posted here:
The UK Top 7 Fastest Big Fixed Line Home Broadband ISPs March 2014

Emma Shaw, 22, killed by 240 volts from stopcock made live in building blunder but mother Diane Potter brands negligent supervisor's punishment a 'joke'

The mother of a young woman electrocuted by faulty wiring during a flood at her home has told of her fury after the worker responsible was fined just 1,000.

Mum-of-one Emma Shaw, 22, died when she was hit by 240 volts from a stopcock that had become live because of a building blunder. Her one-year-old son Brayden was playing in the lounge when she collapsed

Negligent Neil Hoult, 53, was handed the fine after being found guilty of breaching health and safety rules.

But Emma's mum Diane Potter branded the punishment a joke. She said: I am so very disappointed. It just does not seem right to fine someone only 1,000 for such a terrible thing.

That is a very small price to pay for a death. It has been over six years since I lost Emma and I havent really been able to grieve. But now at last I have closure.

Emma was killed while dealing with a leak from a boiler at her flat, in West Bromwich, West Mids.

She was trying to turn off the stopcock when she was hit by the fatal shock. Investigators found the tap had become live after a screw penetrated an electric cable during construction work at her home.

Hoult, of nearby Rowley Regis, approved and issued a certificate ruling the electrical installations were safe and did not pose any danger.

Emma was found dead in a storage room by her partner Andrew Cross. He had rushed home from work after she sent frantic text messages about a pipe which had fallen off. She told him "the electrics were sparking".

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Mum's fury at 1,000 fine for electrician after faulty wiring killed her daughter

(ANGIE'S LIST) - When it comes to home improvement, we'd all like to spend our money on nice projects transforming the master bath into one that belongs in a hotel suite or turning the backyard into an outdoor oasis that rivals the finest resorts.

But chances are, you'll have to spend some big bucks on unglamorous maintenance projects. While you won't want to show these projects off to the neighbors, they will keep your home healthy.

Homeowner Robyn Meslin isn't posting pictures of her latest home improvement project on Facebook or Pinterest.

After discovering her home's previous owner had done of lot of electrical work himself, she had to call in a professional.

"The basement was pretty much a nightmare. He had finished it himself so there were open electrical boxes down there, switches that didn't turn on and off, anything that we could figure out," says Meslin.

As Meslin knows, home ownership is unpredictable.

Angie Hicks from Angie's List says,"Unfortunately, there are projects that have to be done around your house that you are never going to talk to other people about updating wiring, replacing your roof these are the kind of things that are required to keep your house in good condition, but they are not fun and exciting, but if you don't do these things it's really going to hinder the value of your home and it's resale value."

Here are three unsexy home projects you should never avoid.

One, repairing the foundation.

More:
Angie's List: Home improvements you shouldnt avoid

By JEFF KAROUB Associated Press

DETROIT (AP) - The families of Detroit's Brightmoor area are delighted that the day is finally approaching when bulldozers will arrive to level more of their neighborhood. After that, their community's future will be like the cleared landscape - a blank canvas.

For years, Brightmoor residents pleaded with the city to demolish vacant homes that scavengers had stripped of wiring and plumbing and anything of value. Some structures are already gone, and now officials aim to do much more, possibly tearing down as many as 450 empty houses each week across more than 20 square miles of this bankrupt city - a vast patchwork of rotting homes comparable to the size of Manhattan.

The huge demolition project holds the potential to transform large parts of Detroit into an urban-redevelopment laboratory like the nation has never seen. But community leaders here and in cities that have attempted similar transformations say Detroit's best efforts could still wither from lack of money, lack of commitment or harsh economic realities.

"What's the plan for lots to keep them from becoming a different type of blight?" asked Tom Goddeeris, executive director of Grandmont Rosedale Development Corp., a nonprofit community improvement group representing a cluster of five Detroit neighborhoods.

The ambitious demolition schedule was formally presented last month as part of the city's plans to emerge from bankruptcy.

The changes could be far-reaching: Unlike other cities where building space is almost always limited, Detroit will offer urban planners a rare chance to experiment with wide-open land. Neighborhood advocates are talking excitedly about creating urban gardens, farms, forests and other types of "green space." Brightmoor already has the Lyndon Greenway, which connects two large parks with smaller parks and bike paths.

No other American city has as many abandoned properties as Detroit. But smaller-scale successes with similar green initiatives have been engineered in places such as Philadelphia and Cleveland.

The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's Philly Green program has converted roughly 10,000 vacant lots over the last two decades, making it the "gold standard," said Joe Schilling, who directs the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech.

Having a non-governmental organization manage and design the effort, is a huge advantage, Schilling said.

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Home demolitions turn Detroit into blank canvas - NBC40.net

Sunnyvale, CA (PRWEB) March 27, 2014

iSmart Alarm, Inc is aiming to revolutionize the home security market, again. For 2014, the company is developing and offering new devices to expand on the iSmartAlarm Home Security System, such as the Doorfront front door security solution, Smart Switch outlet controls, glass breakage sensors, satellite sirens, an updated version of the streaming iCamera, security yard signs, and more.

Launching in 2013, the iSmartAlarm Home Security System is the companys flagship product, a self-monitored, self-controlled home security system with no monthly fees and no contracts, emphasizing a 21st century spin on traditional security systems. The iSmartAlarm Home Security System is sleek, expandable, and completely DIY, with no wiring necessary.

iSmart Alarm Inc will be exhibiting these new products at the ISC (International Security Conference) West show in Las Vegas April 2-4 in booth 34064. Held annually in the Sands Expo, the show is the largest security show in North America, focusing on access controls, alarms, home monitoring, high and low-tech security, and the latest in digital and physical protection in the modern world.

With the iSmartAlarm Doorfront, users can remotely monitor entryway activity, know immediately if there are deliveries, and be alerted to suspicious activity. The Doorfront is the first device to seamlessly integrate motion detection, a high-resolution controllable camera, doorbell, and intercom functionalities in an easy-to-use device. The iSmartAlarm Doorfront provides a wide view of activity and notifies a user via their Android or iOS device if there is motion in range or if someone rings the doorbell. The user can then see who is at the door and directly communicate with the visitor, view activity through the live streaming video and automatically or manually take snapshots of action and people.

With the iSmartAlarm Smart Switch, users can remotely control electrical outlets, see when their lighting is turned on or off, ensure potentially dangerous appliances are turned off when not in use, and monitor energy usage. Automated schedules can be established to secure the home, to create the impression of a family at home, and provide physical safety so the user will never have to walk into a dark home again. Multiple Smart Switches can be in use at the same time, and can cross-communicate with other devices in the smarthome ecosystem to automatically turn on lights or machines in case of a break-in.

Along with our new App updates, weve focused our attentions on a combination of what our customers want and what our customers need. The upcoming free Android and Apple updates will focus on giving our users more customization capabilities to match their lifestyles, said Raymond Meng, co-founder and CEO, iSmart Alarm. Our new devices will widen the range of controllability in the home, and ultimately give users peace of mind when they are home or away. The game is changing It is not just about security anymore. It is about home control, comfort, and connectivity.

The new iSmartAlarm devices all compliment iSmart Alarms line of existing home control, home security, and home automation products. These products are all part of the iSmartAlarm home control ecosystem, offering users a new level of control and connectivity within their homes. With iSmartAlarm, the ability to monitor, manage, and secure your home, property and family using your iPhone or Android devices has gotten even better.

Visit iSmart Alarm, Inc at booth 34064 at the ISC West show April 2-4 at the Sands Expo in Las Vegas for the latest in devices and app updates.

For more information on the iSmartAlarm ecosystem, Doorfront, Smart Switch, and current and future iSmart Alarm offerings, visit http://www.ismartalarm.com. Pre-sale for new devices will begin in Q2.

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iSmartAlarm Showcasing New Products and Innovations at ISC West Show in April