Apple, Amazon and Google arecreating a joint technology standard which is aimed at smart-home products like Amazon's Echo, Apple's HomePod, and Google's Home. It's called "Project Connected Home Over IP," a very specific name for a group with a very specific goal: "To develop and promote the adoption of a new, royalty-free connectivity standard to increase compatibility among smart home products, with security as a fundamental design tenet," the companies announced on Wednesday.