Internet of Everything: Cisco CTO Details Connected Future

Padmasree Warrior, chief technology & strategy officer of Cisco Systems, summarizes a panel discussion that took place at this year’s Mobile World Congress. Cisco customers Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone participated, along with Warrior’s peers from Ericsson and Huawei. The panel addressed the evolution of the Network Architecture for mobile service providers and the impact of apps, the cloud and Internet of Things. Continue reading Internet of Everything: Cisco CTO Details Connected Future

Wall-Sized Touchscreens in Our Near Future, Says Microsoft

According to Microsoft’s vision of the future, our lives will soon be impacted by large, wall-sized touchscreens, on which we will perform daily tasks, communicate with loved ones and much more. Additionally, all of our gadgets will respond to our voice commands and we’ll be able to seamlessly transfer information between devices with just a few swipes and/or taps. Continue reading Wall-Sized Touchscreens in Our Near Future, Says Microsoft

Freescale Offers Smallest ARM-Powered Chip in the World

Chipmaker Freescale Semiconductor has created the world’s smallest ARM-powered chip (called the Kinetis KL02), which touts 32KB flash with 64 byte flash cache, up to 4KB RAM, a 32-bit processor and multiple flexible low-power modes. Measuring only 1.9 by 2 millimeters, the chip is a full microcontroller unit that includes RAM, ROM and an I/O control unit — all the requirements of a miniature computer. Continue reading Freescale Offers Smallest ARM-Powered Chip in the World

AllJoyn: Qualcomm Touts Peer-to-Peer Networking Platform

Chip company Qualcomm made its fortune in mobile connectivity, but is pursuing additional initiatives as well. Most recently, it has created an open source mesh-networking platform called AllJoyn, which connects nearby devices to each other instead of connecting each device back to the Internet. Qualcomm plans to announce its plans at the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona this week. Continue reading AllJoyn: Qualcomm Touts Peer-to-Peer Networking Platform

Cisco Forecast: Mobile Devices to Outnumber Humans by 2017

Cisco predicts smartphones and tablets will account for three times more data consumption than desktops by 2017. The U.S. currently consumes significantly more data than any other nation — a trend Cisco expects to continue. However, consumers in Asia are expected to collectively pass North America. Cisco also predicts the average mobile user will consume 10 hours of video, 15 hours of audio, download 15 apps and take part in five video calls per month. Continue reading Cisco Forecast: Mobile Devices to Outnumber Humans by 2017

Smartphone as Magic Wand: Your Remote Control for Everything

Electronic devices and household appliances are going mobile in increasing numbers. And your smartphone is about to go along for the ride. In fact, your smartphone is about to conduct the ride. “In the age of the connected home, your mobile devices are becoming the central command, the brains, if you will, of the entire smarthome experience,” writes Wired. Continue reading Smartphone as Magic Wand: Your Remote Control for Everything

Internet Of Things Has Arrived, So Have Security Concerns

The “Internet of Things” has arrived and companies across multiple industries are developing means of linking smartphones, vehicles, household appliances and more to industrial-strength sensors, the Internet and each other. Wired notes that while it may seem to be resulting in somewhat mundane technical features as of now, “the potential benefits to lifestyles and businesses are huge” — in both good and bad ways. Continue reading Internet Of Things Has Arrived, So Have Security Concerns

CES 2013: Internet of Everything Starts in the Connected Home

The Home of the Future was a popular theme at World’s Fairs and theme parks. Such a home would include centralized and automated control of appliances, voice commands, picture phones, and the use of computer technology throughout the house. That Home of the Future concept was in evidence throughout CES with connected solutions from companies including Samsung, Technicolor, Qualcomm and AT&T. Continue reading CES 2013: Internet of Everything Starts in the Connected Home

Trends for 2013: Internet of Things, The Cloud, Big Data and More

David Alan Grier, professor at George Washington University and president-elect for the IEEE Computer Society, suggests five ways the computing world will change in the coming year.

1) “New companies and applications will bring the long-held vision of the Internet of Things closer to reality,” Grier writes for Forbes. By 2020, there will be an estimated 100 billion Internet-connected objects, triggering “an explosion of new uses by consumers and enterprises alike,” he predicts. “New types of sensors, new ways of connecting devices, and new strategies for embedded computing must be rolled out to bring IoT’s vision to the forefront.”

2) “Visualization and analytics will help solve the challenges of big data.” More and more data is collected and generated than ever before, but analyzing big data has become a significant challenge. Federal agencies and large corporations have launched research programs to address the problem of overwhelming or quickly outdated data.

3) “Enterprises will deploy hybrid clouds and consumers will embrace personal clouds.” Looking for energy-saving green approaches, companies will increase the demand for cloud computing; cloud interoperability and standards will also advance.

4) “The battle over Internet censorship and control will reach new heights,” Grier writes. “In 2013, expect to see these battles continuing, in the form of Internet filtering versus circumvention, surveillance versus anonymization, denial-of-service attacks and intrusion attempts versus protection mechanisms, and on- and offline persecution and defense of online activists.”

5) “Researchers and companies will develop new tools and approaches to help unleash the power of multicore computing,” which will be a “critical priority” in the age of parallel processing.