Month: November 2014

The Internet of Things standards tussle – A phoney war?

  One thing that all commentators on the ‘connected everything’ space agree on is the need for common standards to allow a wide range of sensors, appliances and devices to talk to each other. This is nicely captured in an article in the Economist magazine, where the key problem is described as there being too many overlapping and conflicting initiatives. This is nothing new, and most new technologies which benefit from network effects, starting with the battle between direct and … Read more…

M2M device explosion to fuel growth in cloud infrastructure

This week, Cisco released its latest forecast on global data centre and cloud computing, covering the time period 2013 – 2014. During this time Cisco forecasts that annual data centre traffic will triple, a compound growth rate of 23%. But to what extent is this being driven by the growth in connected devices, and the traffic they generate? The answer can be found by digging into the Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) published in June. Over this period, it can … Read more…

The weird and wonderful world of Beacons

Aislelabs, a technology company specialising in big data analytics for retailers has just published what they are calling “The Hitchhikers Guide to iBeacon Hardware”. In 2013, Apple introduced support for Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) (or Bluetooth Smart) in iOS7 as a means for providing finely-tuned location information indoors. The idea is that if you pass an exhibit in a museum, a display in a shop, or approach a check-in gate at the airport, the appropriate app will trigger. In the … Read more…

First chips supporting Apple HomeKit start shipping

Although Apple announced Homekit, its home automation solution for iOS devices last June, its launch is not expected until early 2015. However yesterday Forbes reported that Broadcom and Texas Instruments have started shipping Homekit-enabled WiFi chips to their customers. While this is clearly too late for products aimed for the 2014 holiday season, it means that we should start seeing first products early 2015. Of course, the question remains whether people will buy into an Apple walled garden view of home automation, … Read more…

The many webs of things

Two recent posts dealt with the activities of Samsung and Google in the area of the physical web, otherwise known as the Web of Things. Given the announcements of these two heavyweights within a few weeks of each other, it is worth exploring what it means for the rest of us. For starters, what is the Web of Things? Put succinctly, it is the allocation of URLs or web addresses to physical objects, allowing apps, web interfaces, and cloud services … Read more…

What are Gogoro up to?

Gogoro, a well-funded Taiwanese start-up founded by big-hitting former HTC-execs with a name plucked out of the Tech industry’s random name generator has hit the headlines this week for raising a further $100m over an initial $50m in April 2011. Its broad aim, in rather fluffy terms is to “utilize the power of mobile connectivity and data analytics to transform energy distribution and management in the world’s cities.” Additionally, it is participating in the creation of a “more intelligent and … Read more…

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