LG announced IoT SmartThinQ Hub ahead of CES
The smart home is going to be a huge area where companies big and small try to enter the market with smart devices. Lg is no different. The company announce a IoT hub named SmartThinQ hub. The hub looks awfully similar to Amazon’s Echo speaker. The LG speaker hub doesn’t include Alexa or a bunch of cool integrated apps, but the SmartThinQ hub is the gateway for smart lights, refrigerators, and other IoT devices to communicate with each other.
The hub is launching with partners like Lowes, Nest, IFTTT, ADT, and a few other smart device makers. The hub uses AllJoyn platform, meaning ZigBee, WIFI, Bluetooth, and ZWave can all be used to connect and communicate with IoT devices. The hub features speakers that can play music either from your phone or iHeart Radio, but unlike Amazon’s Echo it cannot respond or take commands to play music or turn your kitchen lights on. The hub will allow LG’s Web OS 3.0 TVs to control the smart devices with the IoTV app.
The controls and notifications will all be shown in the SmarThinQ app, but like Nest or Wink its nothing new. While we do except Siri or Alexa to control our devices with voice, sometimes its nice to just be able to control everything without speaking a word.
The SmarThinQ device and app will be shown off at CES next week. We’ll be on the show floor taking photos, getting hands on, and seeing if this device is really worth spending your money on. Tell us in the comments below what you think about LG’s first attempt with the smart home hub!