Godfather Of The iPod Unveils Latest Gadget, Cascade Takes A Closer Look What He Came Up With.

Jan. 13, 2012 - PRLog -- http://www.itpro.co.uk/636967/godfather-of-the-ipod-unveils-latest-gadget

Cascade was eager to read about the latest inventions by the legend Tony Fadell. The man known as the iPod godfather has showcased his latest Silicon Valley invention. Tony Fadell, dubbed the godfather of the iPod, has unveiled a new gadget - the fruits of a collaboration with a small army of engineers and designers from Apple, Google, Microsoft and other tech heavy weights. Instead of the next hot digital media device, Fadell took the wraps off a new thermostat designed by Nest Labs, a company he started in 2010 with former iPhone software manager Matt Rogers.
Thermostats aren't an obvious market for a former Apple designer to tackle. But Fadell thinks there will be demand for a device that is cool and often sits in prominent areas of people's homes. The managing director of Cascade’s reaction was laced with confusion saying, ‘thermostats? I cant say I saw that coming, I was expecting some sort of teleporting devise – but okay then, thermostats it is!’
"We want to treat these devices as desirable consumer electronics," Fadell said. "Dyson made vacuums sexy." Some of the largest venture capital investors in Silicon Valley agree. Nest counts Kleiner Perkins, Light speed Venture Partners, Google Ventures and Shasta Ventures among its investors. Fadell said the investment was "significant" but declined to be more specific. Identifying a gap in the market is key to every company’s success. At cascade they have done exactly that which is tribute to their success this year. The managing director of Cascade said, ‘Plymouth is a buzzing city and before we opened our doors a lot of research was done to see if the city held potential. Our clients are excited to see the developments we have made this year and are excited about 2012 as are we.’
Several top engineers left big tech companies to join Nest. Shige Honjo, a former program manager for Apple's iPhone, is a vice president in program management at Nest. Yoky Matsuoka, a MacArthur fellow and former head of innovation at Google, is vice president of technology at Nest. Lee Mighdoll, former vice president for engineering at Twitter and director of engineering at Microsoft, is also working at Nest, along with David Sloo, also from Microsoft. ‘WOW I can only image what it is like to sit around a boardroom table with such talented individuals,’ continues the MD of Cascade.
In all, Nest has roughly 100 employees, including interns. The product they came up with is a round, brushed metal device with a convex glass circle in the middle that displays the temperature and changes colour depending on the colour of the wall it is on.
The front of the thermostat turns, so the device is, in effect, all dial. The device senses when room lights are on, or when sun light is particularly strong. It also senses movement, so if people are away from their home for a certain time, it automatically turns down heating or cooling. It tracks users' behaviour too and uses the information to project heating and cooling patterns into the future, according to Fadell. A sources form Cascade was ‘super impressed’ with the developments saying, ‘technology is becoming so savvy and advanced is hard to imagine what the future holds.’
For example, if users turn the thermostat down at night two nights in a row, the system will start turning the temperature down every night at that same time and to the same level, Fadell explained. It's wirelessly connected, so the device's software can be updated seamlessly. Temperatures can be set remotely from an iPhone or Internet browser.
Cascade has ambitious goals for 2012 just like Nest. Even though each company is completely different there are a few key characteristics of a successful company – worth ethic, attitude and student mentality. The managing director of Cascade wraps up his year saying, ‘2012 is going to be an amazing year, our clients can expect massive results from us next year!’

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Newly formed in October 2011 to service a growing demand in the business development sector, Cascade offers a system of unique direct marketing solutions.