"Apart from the debut of a new music service and details of the next Android version, Google’s I/O conference today brought news of an initiative called Android@Home that aims to let the smartphone operating system double as a remote control for appliances and devices in the home.<br />
"Exhibit A: An upcoming line of intelligent LED bulbs from Lighting Science Group.<br />
<br />
"So how do they work? Each bulb will contain a small, wireless chip allowing the bulbs to communicate with one another, establishing a wireless mesh network that communicates with a wireless router in the home, which in turn can communicate with the phone."<br />
<br />
Not mentioned, but we're guessing it uses ZigBee.

"Google has a habit of approaching gadgets with a software-maker's mindset. It likes to launch not-quite-ready projects and then quickly improve them on the fly.<br />
"That works just fine on the Web. No one's paying for Google Voice, Google Maps or Gmail, so Google can release those applications and tweak them without many complaints from users.<br />
<br />
"But when you're paying $600 for a Google TV, $200 for an Android phone or $800 for an Android tablet, you're going to want those things to work perfectly. That's just not how Google operates."