Applied AI Weekly News

Justin Grammens

I decided to cover a wide range of categories on the Internet of Things this week! There were a number of articles that I didn't get to publish before the end of 2015 and found interesting to share.

The big new this past week of course was CES. One of the most covered stories was the collaboration between Microsoft and Samsung on IoT and great keynote by Dr. WP Hong.

Also, if you are in the Twin Cities, the IoT Fuse Conference 2016 website is now live! We are actively looking for both speakers and sponsors! Additionally, I'll be speaking at Code Freeze 2016 tomorrow. I hope you can make it!

Hope you enjoy this issue and please tweet it to your followers!

News

Farmers Insurance Eyes Drones, Internet of Things

Led by a new CIO, fresh from Toyota, the insurance carrier is looking to revamp internal IT and tap emerging technologies to better support its 19 million policy holders.

Honeywell Takes on Nest with a HomeKit Thermostat

Honeywell is still playing catchup with Nest regarding the Internet connected thermostat, but it's good to see this hometown hero brining additional features to their product line. Adding HomeKit support, their devices will now be integrated with other smart home products connected to the HomeKit system.

A Whole New World: How IBM Is Gearing up for the Internet of Things

The $3 billion investment by IBM was announced earlier this year, but we are now seeing it play out and specifics on how the business unit is running.

US Government IoT Policy Lags: Industry IoT Leading Charge

Good article discussing how the IoT Industry is leading policy definition around the Internet of Things and how the US in particular is lagging behind other countries. It's not a surprise however, as typically governments are some of the last groups to pickup and drive technology innovations.

IBM Opens New Watson IoT Unit In Munich In Bid For Big European Customers

This is an oldie but a goodie. IBM is getting serious in the Internet of Things by opening an office in Munich specifically around as the article puts it, "...on how customers can actually make money from the insights they gain from data."

IoT Abandonware: When Your Cloud Service Leaves You Stranded

This is a good article on thinking about how issues with cloud providers stopping services would have an impact on your product and how you might mitigate against it. The world of IoT depends on multiple services being available and when one is down it will cause a cascade effect, making the end user weary of participating in the Internet of Things.

Sponsor

SmartThings

Stay Connected to Your Home and Family

The Home Monitoring Kit is all you need to turn your home into a smart home. You can then enhance your smart home by adding hundreds of compatible products.

Consumer

Can Connected Rackets Make Tennis Smarter?

I love this article. It's from earlier this year, but it hits the nail on the head around taking something that was once considered a "dumb" product and internet enabling it to create something that is unique and new in the market.

Development

What Will The Internet Of Things Be When It Grows Up?

This is definitely one of the hottest stories of the past week as I have seen this all over Twitter. It's all about the development, policy and standards of the IoT. If you haven't seen it, enjoy!

Crowd Funding

Keyport Modular Multi-Tools: Keys * Tools * Smart Tech

Two next gen all-metal modular Keyports + Bluetooth low energy locator & pocketknife add-ons + KeyportID online lost & found program

Network

Choosing the Best Connectivity Network for Your Project

This chart was forward to me from Steve over at Minnov8. It contains a really cool breakdown of connectivity options to consider when building solutions for the Internet of Things and the tradeoffs depending on which ones you choose.

Events

IoT Fuse Call For Speakers and Sponsors

IoT Fuse is back for 2016! With 5 tracks this year covering topics of:

IoT of Data
IoT of Physical Computing / Living Services
IoT Development - Products, Platform and Security
IoT Design - Hardware & Manufacturing
IoT Makers

IoT Fuse will once again be the premier IoT event to be a part of as a speaker and sponsor in 2016! Sponsorships and speaking slots are already filling fast.