Welcome to the inaugural Internet of Things Podcast with Stacey Higginbotham. It's super exciting to be able to share the show with all of you, after these past few weeks of Gigaom closing its doors and us wondering about the fate of the show. This week my co-host Kevin Tofel and I have missed three weeks but didn't miss a beat when it comes to reviewing the <a href="http://www.staples.com/D-Link-Staples-Connect-Hub/product_1181115">Staples Connect Home</a> hub version 2, discussing the <a href="https://gigaom.com/2015/03/08/apple-watch-launch-live-blog-spring-forward/">Apple Watch</a> and Kevin's earlier article on <a href="https://medium.com/@kevinctofel/the-smartwatch-conundrum-simplicity-at-odds-with-complexity-and-size-7c981cc9ea82">smart watches and their issues in general</a>. In other news, look for more Kevin coverage at his <a href="http://www.zdnet.com/article/welcome-kevin-tofel-greg-nichols-and-andrew-brust-to-zdnet/">new home on ZDnet</a>.
After Kevin and I chat, I interviewed Brady Forrest, who is in charge of PCH's <a href="http://highway1.io/">Highway1</a> incubator on how to build hardware that <a href="https://gigaom.com/2015/02/10/want-to-attract-the-average-consumer-skip-the-hardware-preview/">won't make consumers question why they bought it in the first place</a>. Forrest, who has mentored startups such as Ringly and the company behind the Drop kitchen scale, has helped build companies whose products don't suck. That's why I asked him to join me for a chat. Listen in for some good advice and to hear me learn exactly how hard it is to develop hardware for the myriad platforms out there. I gained a new appreciation for the challenges companies are going through and learned something new. Listen up, and maybe if I get enough downloads, next week I'll manage to get an intro and some music pulled together. Here's hoping!
Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guests: Brady Forrest, vice president at PCH's <a href="http://highway1.io/">Highway1</a> incubator
<ul>
<li>What you need to know about the new(ish) Staples home hub </li>
<li>Will Kevin buy an Apple Watch? Which version? </li>
<li>I cannot say this enough. Hardware is hard. </li>
<li> The many ways a product can fail </li>
</ul>
