Justin Grammens
Welcome IoT Weekly News Readers!
The IoT, or what I have been calling now "Connected Products and Devices" continues to show up in major technology stories in a variety of applications. As you'll see in this issue, everything from a connected coffee machine to sports equipment to industrial grade machinery is being connected to the Internet today. This issue contains a number of great stories for everyone from beginners to experts on Connected Products / Internet of Things. Enjoy!
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News
What Connected Products Can Learn from the Electric Car
More than 20 years ago GM produced the first mass market electric car: the EV1. It was deemed as unprofitable by GM and subsequently was terminated in 1999. GM spent what I would assume to be millions of dollars crushing the EV1’s to end their development of electric cars. Fast forward to today. Elon Musk is heralded as the leader of the electric car movement and his company, Tesla which is valued at $60 billion, is at the forefront of the electric car revolution.
Samsung Has a More Advanced Digital Assistant Than Bixby. But Where Is It?
Samsung made more announcements about its voice assistant Bixby this week, showing off cool features including image recognition: In a demo at the Note 8 launch event Wednesday, a Samsung employee showed how he could ask Bixby to move a picture of pizza into his "food" folder.
Building Smarter Homes in Southern California
Southern California’s strong job market for knowledge workers has also made it a prime proving ground for new smart home platforms that builders are rolling out as standard equipment in an increasing number of new homes.
Intel Loves the Maker Community So Much It Just Axed Its Arduino, Curie Hardware. Ouch
Intel's flirtation with the maker community appears to have fizzled out, although the chip giant insists its passion remains. After announcing plans to axe its Edison, Galileo, and Joule compute modules later this year, Chipzilla has said it will stop making its Arduino 101 board and its much-hyped Curie module, too.
On Particle, IoT, and Solving Hard Problems
Particle is an IoT platform. That’s a very jargon-y way to describe us, and it resonates well in the tech-forward Bay Area. But a better way to describe what we do, in plain English: we help companies who manufacture physical products bring those products online. We add connectivity to their products (Wi-Fi or cellular), we provide security and device management, we let them push out software updates, and generally we help them overcome the many hurdles and technical challenges associated with the exciting new industry that we’ve started calling "the Internet of Things"
Sponsor
Lab 651
Lab 651 connects the physical world to the digital universe. We have teams of Product Designers, Embedded Systems and Mobile and Data Science Engineers ready to help build your connected product and devices! Come check us out, meet our teams and take a tour of our lab to learn what smart, connected ( IoT ) products we can build for you!
Security
Leak of More Than 1,700 Valid Passwords Could Make the IoT Mess Much Worse
Security researchers have unearthed a sprawling list of login credentials that allows anyone on the Internet to take over home routers and more than 1,700 "Internet of things" devices and make them part of a destructive botnet.
For Chief Information Security Officers Blockchain Will Improve Internet of Things (IoT) Security
Because the Internet of Things (IoT) is creating its own ecosystem, the biggest challenge for the industry is how companies secure and manage the exponential growth of decentralized endpoint devices. Unfortunately, most security experts only know how to defend against attacks from a centralized perspective.
Millions of IoT Devices Hit by 'Devil's Ivy' Bug in Open Source Code Library
A flaw in a widely-used code library known as gSOAP has exposed millions of IoT devices, such as security cameras, to a remote attack.
Business
Staples Easy Button Gets IoT Makeover
“That was easy” is the iconic tagline of Staples. The international retailer has used that line since 2003. In 2005, the slogan took a material shape and appeared in ads as a red “easy” button. Now, Staples is giving its next-generation of the Easy Button a serious IoT makeover.
Supporting and Improving Crop Production with IoT
“It will not be doubted that with reference either to individual or national welfare, agriculture is of primary importance,” said George Washington. Much has changed since Washington’s day, but that statement still holds true. The problem is, we’re depending on fewer farmers than ever before to satisfy the needs of an increasing—and increasingly urban—population.
Development
IoT Messaging: The MQTT Protocol Is Stepping up to the Plate
The need for MQTT arose when the pair was helping oil and gas companies find an effective data transport protocol in the mid-1990s. While a slew of other protocols were available, most required a switch statement to process the data which, while doable with a static number of devices, would be increasingly challenging as more devices came onto the scene.
Foxconn Strategy Includes the Internet of Things
It’s an odd mix of gadgets — from smart doorbells and refrigerators to medical devices and factory machines — but the internet of things is changing our lives. You couldn’t, for instance, have a full discussion about Foxconn Technology Group — the Taiwanese electronics giant that has proposed to build a $10 billion factory in southern Wisconsin — without mentioning machines tethered to the internet.
Why the Industrial IoT Needs an Open-Source Edge Platform
The Industrial IoT could be left with dozens of platforms and a huge device and systems integration headache. IOTech’s Keith Steele and Andrew Foster write that an open-source platform with industry partnerships may overcome that challenge.
Crowd Funding
AnZa: Redefining the Espresso Machine in Concrete and Corian
The AnZa espresso machine elevates an appliance to something you love. Turn heads and deliver cafe-quality coffee in your home kitchen.