IoT
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IRL: August's renovation-free smart lock is convenient, if unnecessary
I rent a one-bedroom apartment in New York City, which means if I want to make my home "smart," my options are pretty limited. A Nest Thermostat is out of the question. Truth is I don't even have a dumb thermostat in my apartment; there's a middleman standing between me and my heat. A smart lock would also normally be a no go, since that would mean replacing the whole lock and getting new keys. (Plus, I'm sure my landlord wouldn't want to foot the bill.) But August, as co-founder Jason Johnson is fond of saying, isn't really a smart lock. It's more like a robot that attaches to your existing lock. And since it only replaces the thumb latch on the inside of your deadbolt, it actually allowed me to give my roughly 90-year-old (and showing it) apartment a 21st century update.
Smart everything: Behind Hive's plans to automate your entire home
When British Gas' Hive entered the connected home space a year ago, smart thermostats were still an emergent technology. The energy provider joined a small number of manufacturers, promising to change the way you heated your home with a mix of complex automation algorithms and slick mobile apps. Fast forward to today: While Brits have embraced smart thermostats from Nest, Tado, Climote, Netatmo and Honeywell, it's Hive that has enjoyed more of a significant uptake than most. Today, the subsidiary is claiming that its controller is now the most popular smart heating solution in the UK, having been installed in over 100,000 homes.
Let this shape-shifting baton escort you around town
Don't you hate it when you have to constantly check your phone for map navigation, thus not able to fully enjoy the scenery while travelling? Rather than just switching to audio navigation (which can get annoying after a while), NTT Docomo believes tactile feedback is another possible solution, as demonstrated by its Yubi Navi ("Yubi" meaning finger in Japanese) concept at CEATEC. As you can see in the above GIF image, this simple handheld device can gently twist left and right to give turn directions to your thumb. But there's more: When paired with another Yubi Navi, the two users can simulate the feeling of holding hands by squeezing their own devices, as the lower part of the stick can push a bump up against the palm.
Google's Physical Web aims to make the internet of things easier to use
When it comes to smartphones, fragmentation (or as some would say, "diversity") isn't the problem it once was -- but smart objects? Well, that's a whole new issue. Most products breaking ground in the "internet of things" exist in their own walled-off ecosystem, often requiring users to download a separate app for every smart device they encounter. If physical objects are the next evolution of the web, Google says, this isn't realistic: we need an open solution. Introducing the Physical Web, Mountain View's attempt at creating a common web standard for objects. It hopes the standard will give everything from posters to rental cars a easily accessible smart experience without flooding the market with one-time-use apps.
ARM attempts to speed up 'internet of things' adoption with new platform
It's the year 2014, and we've yet to have our flying cars and commuter jet packs. But we do have a glimpse of the future with the advent of the "internet of things." It's essentially the idea of connecting everyday objects -- be it thermostats or kitchen appliances -- to the web, in an effort to make our lives easier. As wonderful as that sounds though, development of new IoT technologies can be slow, due in part to the multiple different protocols in existence today and how tiresome it is to create an ecosystem from scratch. That could soon come to an end, however, thanks to ARM. The chipmaker has just announced a brand new IoT-specific device platform that includes both a free operating system (tailor-made for ARM's Cortex-M processor based devices, of course) plus a server-side software product that ties it all together. Based on the mbed hardware and software ecosystem, the platform basically gives manufacturers the tools and building blocks necessary for IoT devices and services, thus making it that much faster and cheaper for them to bring their ideas to fruition.
Huawei's just bought an internet-of-things startup
Whenever we talk about Huawei, it's normally within the context of the company's growing smartphone business. What we don't talk about as much is the Chinese giant's massive networking operation -- but it's this department that's making a big entry into the Internet of Things. Huawei has announced that it's buying Neul, a Cambridge-based startup that specializes in building low-power wireless sensors for monitoring in various industrial and medical applications. Neul is probably most famous for having built the UK's first smart road, a 50-mile chunk of highway designed to monitor traffic flow and avoid congestion. Huawei has pledged to use its vast resources to turn Neul's Cambridge HQ into an "internet of things stronghold" which, we're sure, will go down really well with those people who refuse to deal with the company on security grounds.
Korean carrier upgrades eel farm, makes the Internet of (slimey) Things
By definition, the Internet of Things (IoT) should connect with anything -- even writhing, kinda gross, but often delicious eels. SK Telecom's latest project is aimed at showcasing its IoT skills with a pilot connected eel farm that uses a network of sensors to monitor thousands of eels, mostly autonomously. Sensors dotted across multiple 20-foot-wide tanks check on water temperature, pH and oxygen levels, Data is then collated and analyzed by the Korean carrier's cloud system, and bounced to a simplified smartphone app -- all in pretty much real time. "Why?" is a good question, but there's a good answer too: apparently minute changes in those factors above can be fatal to young eels. Before, this meant regular tank checks by workers every two-to-six hours. Now, it's mostly automated and sudden changes will even ping a warning to eel farmers' smartphones when needed. SK Telecom is planning to roll out the system commercially next year -- who knew eel farming was big business?
How to make your dumb home smarter without spending a fortune
If you go all out connecting your house, you can end up spending as much upgrading a smart home as it costs to build a dumb one. But you don't need a ton of proprietary gear to pimp your crib with 21st-century tech. Your smartphone and tablet already serve to consolidate your digital life, and they can do the same with your lights, power outlets, air conditioning and nanny cam -- even your door locks and Crock-Pot can be app-controlled, if you so please. Join us below to explore affordable options for your entire home, all of which can be installed yourself.
Recommended Reading: 'Lucy's' bad science and space movie inaccuracies
Recommended Reading highlights the best long-form writing on technology and more in print and on the web. Some weeks, you'll also find short reviews of books that we think are worth your time. We hope you enjoy the read. Lucy's Based on Bad Science, and 6 More Secrets About the Film by Angela Watercutter, Wired A quick Google search will reveal quite a few articles pointing out the inaccuracy of the main premise of Lucy. By ingesting drugs stuffed inside her belly by traffickers, a woman is able to access not just the 10 percent of her brain regular humans can supposedly access, but also the other 90 percent. That whole 10 percent figure is of course a myth, but that didn't stop Luc Besson from using it as the base for his fictional narrative. Besson uses his knack for creating great female leads with some out-of-order storytelling to make the whole thing a bit more believable, and Wired has a quick rundown before this weekend's debut.
Nest, Samsung and others team up for better home automation
A group of tech companies including Samsung, Google's Nest Labs and chipmaker ARM are teaming up to create a unified system to run all of your connected home gadgets. Thread uses low-power mesh networks to run all of your devices, promising greater reliability and cloud access for every piece of hardware in your house. The name might be new, but an early version of the protocol is already used to drive Nest's thermostats and smoke detectors. The group also believes that a simple software update would enable plenty of other existing smart home products to join in the fun. Of course, this isn't the only group trying to marshal the disparate forces that are trying to make in-roads into our homes. For instance, Qualcomm and Apple all have rival platforms in various stages of development -- so perhaps the next generation of forum debates arguments will be about which connected washing machine is "better" than the rest.
Intel, Samsung join forces to streamline connectivity for the Internet of Things
The upside to connected devices is pretty obvious: From smart thermostats to smartphone-controlled light bulbs, these gadgets have the potential to make our lives easier. There is a downside, though and it's a pretty significant one; with so many companies trying their hands at the Internet of Things, there's an ever-growing list of protocols for getting gadgets connected. And considering that the IoT market is projected to reach 212 billion devices by 2020, it's pretty much guaranteed to be a huge mess if products continue to run independently of each other. One universal spec allowing interoperability across all kinds of devices would help to simplify things, and that's what Intel, Dell, Samsung and other tech giants hope to achieve with the just-announced Open Interconnect Consortium.
Boston turns park benches into solar-powered charging points
Let it not be said that public parks are anti-technology. Over in Boston, city officials are more than happy to try new things in green spaces, including the use of solar-powered smart benches, aka "soofas." These look a lot like regular benches, except they're equipped with big, steel-encased blocks that contain vulnerable-looking photovoltaic panels and charging points for weary-legged phone users. There's also a mishmash of Verizon-connected sensors inside, which record and transmit data about air quality and noise levels. The installation of the benches is being funded by Cisco, which is presumably looking for tangible and endearing ways to promote the internet of things. However, it's being left up to local Bostonians to pitch which parks deserve to get soofa'd up -- and these pitches need to be submitted by July 11th.
Ford and Intel want to make cars that respond to your face and gestures
Where do anthropology students go when they leave college? Apparently, instead of travelling the Andaman Islands investigating the social impact of cousin marriage like they're supposed to, they've been earning big bucks working for Ford and Intel on something called "Project Mobii." The name stands for Mobile Interior Imaging, and we're told that it involves a collaboration between "ethnographers, anthropologists and engineers" who are looking for ways to deliver a "more personalized and seamless interaction between driver and vehicle."
Super cheap Smart Home kit brings automation to the masses
If you're wondering when home automation might tip into the Walmart-level mainstream, here's a sign: Archos' Smart Home starter kit is now on sale. Along with two cameras, two movement tags and two weather tags, they're throwing in a controlling tablet, all for $250 -- or $25 each for the cameras and sensors. Considering the tablet, that's even cheaper than SmartThings' low-end kit. Archos says it's the first to use the Bluetooth Smart tech in connected homes and engineered it to work at double the normal distance (65 instead of 32 feet) with up to 13 devices. That'll permit it to take a photo when a movement-tagged door is opened, for instance, using its scenario editor and the Tasker Android app. Archos also has controllable plug sockets, alarm sirens, motion-detectors and even a pet tracker planned for the future. The kit should hit its online shop soon, but fair warning -- Archos is known for low-priced, but not exactly high-end goods.
Intel and San Jose's smart city will use real-time data to monitor air quality and more
Today Intel announced a partnership with the city of San Jose, with the goal of improving quality of life through real-time data tracking of air quality, traffic flow and more. The six-month pilot program is Intel's first "smart city" implementation in the US, and it's being presented today as part of the White House SmartAmerica Challenge in Washington, DC.
China is the global leader in Internet of Things thanks to government support
China accounts for more than a quarter of global machine-to-machine (M2M) connections, according to a report by the GSMA association of mobile operators. With more than 50 million connections, the country's at the head of the pack when it comes to Internet of Things adoption. China's lead is thanks to strong government support - the country plans to invest more than $600 billion in IoT through the year 2020. The fact that China's top mobile operators are cooperating with the government to deploy M2M solutions across several fields doesn't hurt, either.
Big Brother is live-tweeting you: artists turn a lightbulb into a surveillance device
When you hear a scandalous conversation, there's always the temptation to live tweet it for the internet's benefit -- but what if your furniture could do that for you? Conversnitch is a project by artists Brian House and Kyle McDonald which reinvents the humble lightbulb as an internet-connected surveillance microphone. Running off a Raspberry Pi, the hardware records conversations in real time and pushes them to Amazon's Mechanical Turk, where the chatter is transcribed for the project's Twitter feed. The idea is to generate some alarm about our surveillance-heavy culture, since the bulbs have already been quietly installed in public spaces across New York -- although we guess the pair still have a long way to go before they can out-do the folks over at Fort Meade.
Intel's SD card-sized computer may not be so tiny after all
Back at CES, Intel made a big deal of the fact that it could squeeze a Linux-based PC with Bluetooth and WiFi into the size and shape of an SD card. However, with just a few months to go before the launch of these miniscule Edison development boards, it looks like the chip-maker has changed tack. Instead of being based on the Quark SoC, which was specifically designed for wearables and the Internet of Things, the first Edison products will actually rely on a more traditional Atom chip -- in other words, the same sort used in many current Windows tablets and hybrids. An Edison PC based on Atom should deliver more grunt and connectivity options compared to Quark, and for less money, but it'd be too chubby to ever get accidentally jammed in an SD slot. That's why Intel has been forced to admit that, while it continues to work on Quark, the Edison devices coming this summer will be "slightly larger" than was first claimed.
The other thing Holland has legalized: carrier-free SIM cards
When it comes to tolerating things that other countries deem illegal, Holland's got previous experience, but this time the nation has approved something that doesn't just benefit glaucoma sufferers. The country has ratified the use of blank SIM cards that aren't tied to a carrier, and can instead be tweaked use whatever network is best for you. The idea is that since you're not tied to an operator, you can switch between providers when your needs change -- allowing you to swerve roaming charges when you're out and about. The move also boosts "internet of things" makers, who can connect devices to cellular networks without signing a long, expensive deal. Of course, the longer-term implication is that smartphone companies like Apple and Samsung could bulk-buy voice and data services and cut out the middle man -- a prospect that would even send John Legere into a cold sweat. [Thanks, Omar]
The Internet of Things isn't safe: thousands of smart gadgets hacked to send spam and phishing emails
Smart things are the future, or at least that's how it appeared to those of us who attended CES 2014. And, while we're excited about home automation and smart appliances, it turns out that those companies building the bits and pieces of the Internet of Things (IoT) need to beef up security. Proofpoint -- a security service vendor that routinely researches large-scale spam and phishing campaigns -- discovered that during the two-week period before CES, a global hacking campaign successfully targeted and manipulated more than 100,000 consumer gadgets, including smart appliances, routers and other devices, into sending out more than 750,000 malicious emails. Apparently, the attacks began on December 23rd and, while roughly three quarters of the emails were sent by traditional computers and mobile devices, more than 25 percent were doled out by gadgets from the IoT.
