Welcome to This Month in Things. Happy New Year! Every month, we try to bring you the most interesting, important information you need on IoT. It's always quick, useful, and informative. Make sure you subscribe to stay tuned in to IoT.
Top Tech Stories of CES 2018
CES is here! Be ready to see a ton of cool gadgets and devices that will tell us a lot about this upcoming year in IoT. As more everyday items obtain microchips, CES will get bigger and crazier. VentureBeat predicted some of the top things we can expect to see at this year’s CES.
First, we will see a lot more Artificial Intelligence(AI). AI will lead to better smartphones, games, self-driving cars, and basically any other product. Next, there will be lots of talk about 5G cellular. Predicted to roll out in 2020, 5G is 10 times faster and has lower power consumption. This makes it an ideal connectivity layer for IoT. Check out VentureBeat’s article for the rest of their predictions.
Silicon Labs Acquires Sigma Designs, Inc.
In December, Silicon Labs acquired Sigma Designs, Inc. This is significant because Sigma Designs held the IP behind Z-Wave. Z-Wave is one of the common technologies used in the smart home, along with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Zigbee. This gives Silicon Labs the ability to expand Z-Wave and build more Z-Wave specific solutions. It gives Silicon Labs an edge in the IoT space.
IoT Trends for 2018
DZone reported their predictions on the IoT trends for 2018. Edge, Fog, and Gateway computing will continue to grow. We’ve been seeing IoT solutions do more computing locally, and this won’t be stopping any time soon.
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Next, over the course of the year, the industry will hear more about digital twins. Being able to digitally represent your assets in the cloud comes with a ton of benefits. This year, we’ll see products dedicated to the idea of the digital twin. Check out DZone’s article below to check out the rest of their predictions.
Tile Is Putting Its Location-Tracking Tech in All Kinds of Gadgets
You may know the product Tile as the device that helps you find your keys if you lose them. It’s powered by Bluetooth. The Tile device has a feature where it can discover devices outside of your Bluetooth range by using other peoples’ device. If someone else with the app walks by, it might be able to discover your device. Because of this, it’s important to Tile to keep expanding its network.
Here soon, the Tile technology will be in other devices. For example, Bose is adding the technology to their headphones, with just a software update—rather than a whole new device with new hardware. Tile is also working with other partnerships to make their network even stronger.
Meltdown and Spectre
The Meltdown and Spectre security vulnerabilities have been taking over the news lately.
Spectre is said to affect almost every device, and Meltdown only affects Intel and some AMD processors. Operating Systems and Cloud providers are rolling out patches to fix these issues. Both issues, with some performance hits, can be fixed with software. So, just as a precaution, you should probably update all your devices if an update exists.
However, I have good news for all of you makers, the Raspberry Pi is not vulnerable to either of the bugs because of the ARM cores that they use.
That’s all for this month! Until next time, Stay Connected.