Somfy’s TaHomA Lets You Control The House From Your iPad

Chris Velazco is a mobile enthusiast and writer who studied English and Marketing at Rutgers University. Once upon a time, he was the news intern for MobileCrunch, and in between posts, he worked in wireless sales at Best Buy. After graduating, he returned to the new TechCrunch to as a full-time mobile writer. He counts advertising, running, musical theater,... ? Learn More

I’m not a homeowner myself, but something tells me that when I do buy a house, I’m going to want something like the TaHomA home automation system to ensure that I can be as lazy as possible.

Developed by a company called Somfy, the TaHomA allows you to remotely control multiple supported products throughout the house, from motorized awnings and blinds to lights and thermostats.

Oh, and did I mention you can do it all from your iPad?

In fairness, the TaHomA has a pretty robust web interface too, and can run on just about anything that supports Flash. Obviously, since iPads and iPhones can’t handle Flash, they had to make do with a native app that does all the heavy lifting.

Aside from the iOS-friendly dashboard, the TaHomA system itself consists of a host of components. The most important bit is the TaHomA controller, a thin glossy black box that runs into your home wireless router, and coordinates a series of small wireless receivers through a ZWave mesh network. From there, those receivers communicate with all the Somfy-supported goodies in your house, like your motorized shutters (you do have those, right?).

Once all the pieces are in place, you’re ready to fire up the dashboard. Here, homeowners can fiddle with things independently, or create special presets called “scenes.” If you’re like me and just can’t get up in the morning, why not create a scene that cranks up your lights and turns down your thermostat? Users can create as many scenes and control as many rooms as they like, so fiddling is definitely encouraged.

Note that installing the TaHomA definitely isn’t going to be a fun DIY project. Somfy actually trains and certifies installers to make sure that new and existing homeowners wind up with a solid installation experience, so don’t go expecting to buy the components and throw them together over the weekend.

Creating a product like the TaHomA is a pretty bold for a company like Somfy, who have spent the last 40 years making motors. The end result is surprisingly polished for a first-time effort: the web interface is smartly laid out and easy to understand, and the experience scales down nicely to both iPads and iPhones.

The TaHomA is set to debut on November 1, but the pricing entirely depends on how far you want to trick out your house. The ability to control 11 devices within your home will set you back a cool $2500 before installation, but it could be a small price to pay to control your house while on the run.

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Colorio E-820: Epson’s New Photo Printer Is Portable, Comes With Display And Remote Control

Dr. Serkan Toto currently works as the first and only Asia-based writer for the TechCrunch network, mainly covering Japan-related technology and web companies for TechCrunch, CrunchGear and MobileCrunch. Serkan also works full-time as an independent web and mobile industry consultant with a focus on the Japanese market. He is sept-lingual, holds an MBA and is a PhD in economics. Serkan... ? Learn More

Epson announced [JP] the Colorio E-820 for the Japanese market today, a photo printer and wireless keyboard set somehow designed like a computer from the 1970s or 1990s (at least when looking at the top menu). The newest in a line of similar devices, this 5,760×1,440dpi inkjet printer is suitable for printing both pictures and postcards without a PC.

Users can create postcards by choosing between 1,055 different pre-set designs and use the 7-inch LCD screen (800×480 resolution) to check their works before printing them. The keyboard is for adding comments, greetings, etc. to the pictures and postcards.

The device can be carried around using a handle and supports USB sticks, SDXC or microSDHC cards, xD-Picture cards and Memory Stick Pro cards.

Epson says the screen can be used as a digital photo frame, too (and throws in a remote control for that function).

The E820 is sized at 235×158×192mm and weighs 2.6kg. It will hit stores in Japan on September 15 (price: $718).

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Monetate Gives Control Of Consumer Experience Back To Marketers With New Testing And Targeting Tools

Rip Empson is a writer at TechCrunch. He’s not here to make friends, he’s here to WIN, and don’t you forget it. You can reach him at rip[at]techcrunch[dot]com ? Learn More

Earlier this month, Monetate, the platform that provides marketers with testing and targeting services for their websites, announced that it had closed a $15 million series B funding round, led by OpenView Venture Partners, which added to the $5.1 million series A round the company raised back in December from First Round Capital and FLOODGATE. With over $20 million in the bank, Monetate has been developing a new platform that gives marketers greater control over messaging and promotions on their websites as well as testing, targeting, and personalization tools.

As we reported a few weeks ago, the coolest part about Monetate’s platform is that it can be installed using a single line of code. The startup’s newest version of its cloud-based platform enables marketers to integrate customized content and features between the eCommerce server and the site visitor’s browser.

“One of the unfulfilled promises from the early days of eCommerce was that marketers would be able to deliver the right message to the right customer at the right time”, says Monetate CEO David Brussin. “With Monetate, we have inserted a new level of agility into the eCommerce marketing experience, providing marketers with the ability to make educated campaign decisions that will directly contribute to increased conversion”.

What’s more, as marketers and marketing teams are so often on the go, Monetate 11 allows its customers to test, target, and personalize their websites on the iPad, giving users that extra layer of mobile functionality. Another bonus: All current Monetate users will be automatically upgraded to the new version of its platform.

Monetate 11, like its predecessors, aims to cut out the IT middleman by giving control of creating and measuring marketing campaigns and serving customized user experiences back to marketers. They simply enter the “who, what, when, why” of the campaign into the Monetate dashboard, and the platform takes care of the rest, offering users the ability to take advantage of campaign cloning, tagging, and filtering.

Marketers will also be able to do automatic A/B testing against a control group, tracking the results in realtime, so that marketers can quickly see the impact their new campaigns will have. Users will also have the added benefit of new targeting options, including geotargeting to tailor messages and promotions to a visitor’s specific location, weather-based targeting, and behavioral targeting.

Monetate customers will also now be able to test and deploy their own HTML and JavaScript, target recommendations based on complex business rules, and access all the data they need about traffic segments and purchasing patterns to make informed decisions about the promotions, messages, and other content they deliver to consumers through its analytics and reporting features.

Monetate is really a no-brainer for eTailers and eCommerce marketers. It’s a great solution, and along with an infusion of new capital, the startup’s new version may very well have legs. After all, its platform has already attracted brands like Petco, Urban Outfitters, Sports Authority, QVC, Casual Male, Dick’s Sporting Goods, to use its targeting and testing services on their eCommerce platforms — and Brussin told us that the company has added hundreds of millions in collective revenue to these businesses, removing the need for businesses to hire specialized teams and decrease bounce rates and shopping cart abandonment.

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