In my original blog back in May I posited that the Internet of Things sits on 7 pillars (8 if we add investment) and here they are: Sensing and Control Connectivity Analytics (big data) and the cloud Security  Applications, ROI and 2nd/3rd order effects Standards and Regulation Ecosystems and Communities Investment Opportunities I always knew that security was going to be a huge issue and this was before the Edward Snowden and NSA revelations but my thinking was changed this week after I read a series of articles on EETimes.com about the Toyota unintended acceleration cases that are f ..read more

If you read this blog regularly you know I have pointed out how important the connectivity layer is in #IoT and that a good cloud solution is key to everything that happens next so its interesting to see Microchip getting a jump on the trend by hooking up with the biggest (maybe the best?) cloud outfit there is;  Amazon.   They have a WiFi kit (for $99) and a cloud development platform that should speed time to working prototype.  I expect many more microcontroller vendors to jump on this now.  You can read the details here: http://www.microch ..read more

As of this month I joined Avnet Electronics Marketing as Brand Director for the America's (translation;  I'm a marketing guy now).  Avnet if you don't know is the worlds leading distributor of components and technology, chips to systems to put it another way.  If you want to get in touch here is my LinkedIn profile; http://www.linkedin.com/in/dblaza/ I am going to continue this blog because the IoT space is really interesting right now and I will have some even deeper insights in my new role that I will share when appropriate.  You can follow me on Twitter here: https://tw ..read more

Just blogged over on #EETimes about a recent FTC action against +TRENDnet should be a wakeup call for everyone who thinks about #IoT and info security http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1319517& Check out the link to the FTC workshop on IoT security on November 19 in Washington DC, that could be a seminal event ..read more

Just blogged over on EETimes about why IoT rollouts really need a cloud strategy and not reinventing the wheel. http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1319480& Really like the App store approach seecontrol used.  Keep it simple stupid!  ..read more

A big question hovering over the IoT space has been where is Intel? They were touting "Intelligent Systems" as their way forward but that was in reality a catchall phrase for their existing business of PC's, servers and the cloud. Until this week Intel could not legitimately say they were a player in the IoT market and had no answer to the ARM model. Well today its different and at IDF in San Francisco the new Intel CEO (Brian Krzanich) dropped the IoT bomb with Quark. The official release is here.  Quark will be a low power, small footprint processor with some flexibility for on chip pe ..read more

A new site dedicated to all things IoT launched this week.  Its from UBM and sponsored by Freescale but the content should be good.  Probably more skewed to hardware but we will see how it does.  Go over here: http://www.iotworld.com/ and register to check it out and participate ..read more

One of the major challenges of IoT is standards or the lack thereof so the venerable IEEE Standards organization is getting together in November (5 & 6) at the Silicon Valley Computer History Museum,  if this floats your boat the details are here: http://iot.ieeesa-events.org/ Its a very reasonable $99 to get in if your are an IEEE member or $199 otherwise.  The big plus here is you can suggest a panel and get to participate if you move quickly.  Why not get in on the ground floor as they say ..read more

I must admit that when the news broke this week about the Vault 7 WikiLeaks files I had to go and take a look; did you?  The CIA won’t say if these documents are fakes but my sense is they are authentic given the banality anyone who has worked in a large corporation and browsed the internal wiki will immediately recognize.  This leak doesn’t actually include any acual code but just the project pages and descriptions of the work of the wonderfully titled (for me) Embedded Development Branch (EDB).   After spending more than a decade in the pre-IoT Embedded market I had ..read more

Back in 2011 I wrote a blog on EETimes about why 3D TV was doomed to fail (and I was right!) so I'm emboldened to do the same for Virtual Reality (VR) for many of the same reasons. This thought was triggered by a couple of things, first I was at a major trade show where a vendor was using VR to demonstrate how their technology could be implemented to save money and improve safety.  Unfortunately is was cool but unsatisfying as a real demonstration and came across as gimmicky not to mention the weird feeling of isolation and unsteadiness that VR creates, at least in me. Second, I watc ..read more