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Control Your “Smart Home” With the Touch of a Button
Bellevue startup Pebblebee prepares to launch its latest gadget, the Stone
This article originally appeared in the December 2015 issue of Seattle magazine.
Bellevue-based Pebblebee made a name for itself last year with the Honey ($24.99 at pebblebee.com), a small Bluetooth “key finder” device designed to help users keep track of oft-misplaced household items. This year the tech startup releases the Stone, a tiny gadget—roughly the size of a quarter—that looks like its namesake, except that it has a button on one side.
The simplest way to describe this newer product might be to call it a tracker that’s more advanced than its predecessor. The Stone’s most notable feature? Its programmability. A user can set up the Stone so that, in response to a trigger (when the button is pressed or when the temperature is too low or too high, for example), it automatically performs a task through the user’s smartphone.
The device’s usefulness depends on how much you’ve invested in other “smart home” products. For instance, it can only change your thermostat setting if you already have a thermostat connected to Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. In less-connected (read: nearly all) households, the Stone will be more fun than functional.
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