Smart Homes and Buildings Google has launched Home, its answer to Amazon’s Echo-Alexa digital assistant, based around a home-speaker unit that funnels voice-queries into Google’s web platform. It looks like Google is throwing Nest under the bus, somewhat. Digital Lumens and Schneider Electric have signed a partnership deal that will bring smart lighting to Schneider customers looking to augment their building automation. KingTing Tech has launched a LoRa-powered smart home line, based on a YoSmart Hub, with three initial devices – thermostat, smart socket, and sprinkler. Wearables Garmin has announced its new vivosmart HR+ activity tracker, with wrist-based heart rate and GPS positional functionality, in a waterproof form factor. Google announced that Android Wear 2.0 is coming in Q3, although…