Techie Thermostat Cool Way to Save Money

Fort Mason’s century old Festival Pavilion was the perfect setting for Engadget’s inaugural Expand show in San Francisco last weekend. The old building with its steel bones showed off 21st century drones, electric cars, and the latest in electronic gadgets that literally made participants say ”wow!” out loud.

Some of the products are already on the market, while plenty of entrepreneurs wandered the show floor making new contacts and getting advice about crowd sourcing.

Palo Alto Company

Amongst the companies displaying products was Palo Alto’s Nest, which markets a “learning” thermostat. A step above simple, programmable technology, the Nest uses activity sensors and different algorithms for different types of heating systems.

“In the first week you have Nest, you teach it wisely,” said Isabel Guenette, Product Manager at Nest. “You can also use the app to change it.”

Nest has received glowing reviews from product testers. You can purchase it at Lowes, Amazon, The Apple Store and from the company’s website.

Nest currently has two dozen job openings, mostly in engineering.

Engadget Expand

Engadget is an online magazine focused on happenings in the world of technology, gadgets and consumer electronics. Engadget Expand featured speakers, cool tech stuff and a competition, Insert Coin, for $20,000 in startup funds for new ideas.

Several companies displaying their products were focused on reducing energy consumption—Nest of Palo Alto, and Insert Coin challengers Radiator Labs and Observos.

Another amazing product was Ziphius, an aquatic drone controlled by smartphone or tablet. Ziphius’ inventors came all the way from Portugal to show their product. Other long-distance commuters included Scubo 3D from Spain and an entry from Manitoba.

ZSpace of Sunnyvale bowled-over attendees with its revolutionary 3-D product that allows you to pick-up and manipulate objects, via a stylus, on a computer screen. Whether a patient’s own heart, a product design, a mutated gene or architectural plans, the uses for this product are astounding. To make it even cooler, it has a “camera” that you can fly through the objects, seeing them from the inside.

Engadget Expand’s sponsors all had extensive displays of their latest products, including Lenovo, Outlook and Toyota.

Editor’s Note: Engadget and Patch are both owned by AOL.

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