In these days of DRM, locked hardware, and, well, most of the other stuff EA does, this came as a nice little surprise.
In business since 1962, Artcraft restores, repairs, plates and polishes not only silver, but also gold, copper, brass and nickel -- anything from antique Tiffany lamps and brass chandeliers to silverware, tea sets, statuettes, trays, and bathroom fixtures, door and lock hardware, and, yes, the screws that hold them in place.
The partnership should also go a ways toward improving August's lock hardware, which has received mixed reviews since launching three years ago.
Some of those Latch development dollars have been spent part-funding installations of the smart lock hardware.
Smart access startup Latch, which targets the enterprise market in the U.S., selling smart lock hardware and access control services to building owners and operators, has added a third product to its portfolio.
I asked Bogatu why there's even a need for Kiwi.ki, when others like Lockitron are already offering connected home lock hardware, and companies like Schlage seem pretty well-poised to introduce their own similar solution and crush the market.
Bitlock's b2b proposition packages its smart lock hardware as an automated rental system, in conjunction with fleet management software and a rental app that takes payment via Stripe which the team developed since the original crowdfunding campaign.
"In other [consumer technology] ecosystems you get more continuous innovation in hardware that you rarely see in consoles because consoles lock the hardware and software platforms together at the beginning and they ride the generation out for seven years or so," said Spencer.
Which is why Apple's Macs, with locked down hardware, have always been a better experience than the hugely hardware-flexible Windows operating system.
