The Internet of Things

Google has Nest, Apple has HomeKit and Samsung has…SmartThings, we’re hearing. The deal was completed for around $200 million dollars, though it might have been less according to one source. (Update: The deal is not done yet, says another.) SmartThings is in the home automation space, and allows you to connect devices like lights and Continue Reading →

The technology in our homes takes on a wide array of jobs: playing music, turning lights on and off and brewing coffee. One of the promises of the internet of things is that all of them could one day communicate, creating smarter homes that anticipate and meet our needs with minimal effort. There are already Continue Reading →

Samsung, ARM, Nest and four other companies have gotten together to build a new radio standard for the smart home. Dubbed Thread, it is a low-power, mesh network protocol that also supports IPv6. The standard is built on the existing radio hardware used by ZigBee devices (802.15.4), which means that a company could update its Continue Reading →

Manything, a cloud-based video monitoring service that allows you to use old iOS devices as security cameras around your home, has released a new version of its app on Wednesday which brings new functionality and support for its freshly-launched IFTTT channel. Announced on Wednesday, the new app allows users to set motion sensitivity, define motion Continue Reading →

For many of us old enough to remember, the early days of life online had little to do with the internet. Before we browsed the open web, we dialed into Prodigy or CompuServe or AOL with a 1400-baud telephone modem. Once connected to a particular service, we used its proprietary software to play inside its Continue Reading →

There’s yet another tech industry group focused on the internet of things in town. Samsung has partnered with Atmel, Broadcom, Dell, Intel and Intel-owned Wind River to launch the Open Interconnect Consortium, an organization aiming to create engineering standards to help electronic devices ‘talk’ to one another — e.g. controlling your Samsung fridge from an Continue Reading →

Coming to a technology conference near you this summer are serious amounts of gushing about how the Internet of Things, the web of billions of connected devices coming on stream over the next few years, will change your life forever. Who would have thought that the simple toothbrush, once wired up to the internet, would Continue Reading →

At the Bay Area Maker Faire in May, Anouk Wipprecht stood on stage as Tesla Coils sent close to a million volts of electricity coursing through her chain mail suit. Wipprecht also wore a 3D printed dress, plus plasma balls on her shoulders that glowed with each arc of lightning. It was the equivalent of Continue Reading →

Touchscreen chipmaker Atmel Corp said it would buy Newport Media, a maker of low-power Wi-Fi and bluetooth gear, for $140 million to gain ground in a technology that helps connect everything through the Internet. Atmel’s shares were down 1 percent in early trading on Thursday. With the deal, the chipmaker joins a list of semiconductor Continue Reading →

Everyone’s gunning to be the platform for your smart home, including Apple and Google, but Quirky spin-off startup Wink has its range in stores as of Monday at The Home Depot, giving it access to a market of average consumers. The Wink platform is basically a central hub for devices from manufacturers including Dropcam, Honeywell, Continue Reading →