Top IPhone Designer Now Works for the Google Grid
Top IPhone Designer Now Works for the Google Grid Most of our homes are still operated by dumb technology with clumsy on/off switches. There are really only a few mainstream success stories of the so-called “Internet of things,” the idea that plugging our offline worlds into the Internet will make our lives better. Google just bought one of them, for $3.2 billion. The company is Nest. It was founded when Tony Fadell, who led design teams for the iPod and the iPhone, left Apple in 2008 to build a better thermostat. The move might have led to snickering if the device wasn’t so cool. By now it should surprise no one that Google -- which has invested billions in renewable energy and infrastructure projects -- would want to own it. The question is, to what end? The $250 Nest thermostat, which has the look and feel of a round iPhone, learns your habits and adjusts the temperature of your home to shave about 20 percent from electricity bills. Nest’s only o...