Most of Time Warner Cable's residential video customers will go all digital by year's end, the cable company said Friday. The TWC Maxx program -- a series of broadband and cable upgrades -- was announced in early 2014. So far this year, close to 2.4 million new set-top boxes, digital adapters and new modems have been installed as part of the conversion of analog video to digital, TWC said. Metropolitan areas already converted are New York City, Los Angeles, Austin/Central Texas, Kansas City and Dallas, with Raleigh and Charlotte to be complete before summer's end and San Antonio by year's end. San Diego is to be finished early in 2016, TWC said.

IDevices announced support for Apple Watch through its Connected app that works with the company’s iGrill and kitchen thermometers for remote food monitoring. Apple Watch users can receive an alert when food has reached optimal temperature, said iDevices. The customized version gives an overview of real-time temperatures and allows users to preset temperature notifications for particular foods, it said. A graph shows details of temperature progression through the cooking process, it said. IDevices announced in March its Icontrol One dealer platform that’s said to offer the features of a large service provider platform with a business model tailored to independent security dealers. With Icontrol One, dealers can upgrade customers from 2G to 3G with a new radio module that includes Z-Wave and 3G capabilities at a cost that’s less than a traditional stand-alone radio, said iDevices. The company is targeting Icontrol One to mass market smart home buyers. Schlage parent company Allegion bought an undisclosed equity stake (see 1502120042) in iDevices earlier this year.

Essence, an Israeli provider of cloud-based residential IoT systems, said 72 percent of its WeR@Home system customers use connected home services for real-time notification and action, and 62 percent remotely manage their home alarms using smartphones. One in five WeR@Home customers interacts with a home system three times a day, mostly for home security, it said. Consumers are using their WeR@Home IoT systems as part of service offerings from major security and telecom operators around the world, including the U.S., Australia and Europe, it said. Essence surveyed 500 households and found that many people used webcams to provide a video alert on their smartphones when the front door opens, said the company. “These basic security notifications allow the homeowner to know who has arrived home and when, allowing them to not only check on their children but also to ensure that no intruder has come in,” said CEO Haim Amir. Customers are also using the cameras for visual verification when smoke detectors are triggered, he said. Amir called consumers’ peeks into their home in their absence “look-in” ability. “As most of the interactions occur remotely, this reinforces the value that IoT can truly deliver as part of people’s daily living,” he said.

HomeSeer users can create cloud-based IFTTT (If This Then That) recipes to control HomeSeer devices as part of a partnership the companies announced Wednesday. HomeSeer users can also launch events using triggers and actions from more than 170 IFTTT channel partners including ESPN, Foursquare, Nest, Philips Hue, Twitter and WeMo, they said. HomeSeer’s software and hardware controllers let users integrate and automate lights, appliances, thermostats, door locks, security systems, audio/video and media content.

Evoz raised more than $58,000, some 234 percent of its crowdfunding goal, by Thursday, for development of a smart baby monitor that’s due to launch next month. The Evoz Smart Parenting Monitor ($169), called a “supplement to responsible adult care,” enables parents to watch their baby from a smartphone or tablet, capture a photo or video, play lullabies, control the level of the night light from the unit and talk to their baby. The Smart Parenting Toolbox includes company-provided services that will allow parents to get an email or text when their child cries along with data indicating how long the baby cried and room temperature. The software connects parents to sleep coaches via Kim West, creator of the Gentle Sleep Method, for insight and advice, said the company.

Sengled announced the Boost LED bulb with a built-in Wi-Fi signal repeater and two antennas that can extend connectivity throughout the home. The Boost is designed to address issues of diminishing Wi-Fi signal performance that occurs the farther a Wi-Fi device is located from a transmitter, said Robin Foreman, Sengled North America vice president-marketing and business development. Problems occur when users connect smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles or home automation devices, “since the signal may be obstructed by walls or objects or the device may be too far away to get a strong signal,” said Foreman. Sengled Boost fits in standard lighting fixtures that are typically mounted overhead and “free from obstructions," she said. The smart bulb can be controlled from a free app via smartphone or tablet that lets users configure the Wi-Fi signal and control light levels, said the company, and the light can be dimmed or turned off while boosting the Wi-Fi signal. Boost will be available in A60/A19, BR30 and PAR38 bulb types. Prices weren’t available.

Startup Proper Pillow is looking to raise $1 million through an Indiegogo campaign to develop a connected pillow that promises to monitor, quantify and improve users’ quality of sleep. The smart pillow packs a sensor network, Bluetooth Smart technology and data presentation software, which the company said can help alter poor sleeping behavior, identify problems with breathing patterns and improve sleep recovery. "By embedding the monitoring technology into the pillow itself, we bring the power of quantification into the heart of the sleep experience," said Proper Pillow CEO Rick Loos. The sleep wellness tool gives users “the power to improve their sleep, and their waking lives as a result,” he said.

Smart home monitoring company Neurio is taking pre-orders for a single-sensor monitoring product that tracks home energy use. Neurio bills the Sensor as the home's “brain,” providing data on older appliances plus smart devices so users can modify energy usage based on real-time feedback. Unlike sensors that connect to individual products, Neurio’s $249 Sensor product attaches to a home’s electrical security panel. The Sensor sends out measurements to the Neurio Cloud “every split second,” and software algorithms identify appliances and behaviors based on unique signals, said the website. When the software detects appliances turning on or off or a change in user behavior, it notifies Neurio apps or third-party Web services that display the information to users. With over 99 percent of appliances in North America not Wi-Fi-capable, the market opportunity is immense, the company said. A Kickstarter-funded project, Neurio wants to be the “brain” of the home “because the smart home is not very smart,” Chief Technology Officer Ali Kashani told us. Smart home devices now on the market are largely remote controls for the home, he said. "We provide context and intelligence for the smart home.” Neurio’s goal is to partner with telecom and security companies in the B2B market, though a retail component is possible given the do-it-yourself possibilities of the device, said Kashani. “Anyone who’s comfortable installing a light switch can do it.” The company’s first partner is a solar company, for which it’s supplying several thousand sensors a month. Kashani declined to name the customer, citing a nondisclosure agreement. The next software release from Neurio, due in a few weeks, will enable appliance detection, said Kashani, so consumers will be able to tell if they left a burner on or a curling iron plugged in. He called that the core piece of the platform. Once appliance detection is in place, the company hopes to integrate with control platforms including Nest and SmartThings. From one app, users will be able to “check to see if they dryer is done” while also controlling the thermostats and lights, he said.

More than half of U.S. broadband homes would pay $2.99 per month for a service that combined energy, appliance and HVAC monitoring in a bundle, said research from Parks Associates. Consumer interest in value-added monitoring services “opens important revenue opportunities in the energy markets," said Tom Kerber, Parks director, home controls & energy research. In addition to bundles, successful providers will combine monitoring services enabled by connected products along with traditional service contracts and home warranties, Kerber said. Parks is holding its annual Smart Energy Summit this year at the Four Seasons Hotel in Austin Feb. 16-18. Sponsors include Alarm.com, ecobee, EcoFactor, Emerson, Lowe's, NRG, People Power Company, PlanetEcosystems, Smart Utility Systems, Southern California Edison, Tendril, WeatherBug Home and WattzOn.

Intel said it agreed to buy German broadband access and networking solutions company Lantiq. By combining Intel’s cable gateway business and Lantiq’s broadband access technology, the companies hope to transform broadband customer premises equipment into a smart gateway that connects “an increasingly diverse roster of devices in the home,” Lantiq CEO Dan Artusi said Monday. The acquisition, for an undisclosed amount, will enable Intel to extend its offerings in the cable residential gateway market to other opportunities such as DSL, fiber, LTE, retail and Internet of Things smart routers, the companies said. By 2018, they predict there will be more than 800 million broadband households worldwide.