Posted By Simon Montford on January 11, 2017 CES 2017 has drawn to a close for another year, so I have featured some of my highlights from the show that include robots, wearables, drones, smart home tech, smartphones and cars. In addition, gadgets announced at CES have been included on this month's featured products page. We don't usually feature them from major OEMs like Samsung, Nvidia, HTC, Huawei, and LG because most of the really cutting-edge innovations tend to come from independent makers and startups, but every January we make an exception.
Guest post By Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino on May 16, 2016 Back in January I gave a webinar on what to think about when you’re considering quitting your day job and starting an IoT product. Startupbootcamp IoT | Connected Devices is aimed at companies that are a little further down the road but if you’re thinking of applying to an incubator at the end of the year and want to get going, here’s what I think you should consider in light of my experience building the Good Night Lamp. (Please note some of these examples are UK-centric but similar services may be available to you locally.)
Posted By Simon Montford on March 16, 2016 Day two of the Wearable Technology Show was just as enjoyable as day one. The highlight of the second day was meeting the exhibitors (see photos and videos below), and attending talks in the IoT Keynote Theatre. Saverio Romeo (Principal Analyst at Beecham Research) talked about "The Current Status of the Internet of Things Vision". I wasn't exactly sure what his talk was going to be about, but I was intrigued by the word "vision", which appeared to have been tacked onto the end, which caused me to speculate. Was he going to give us a kind of "State of the Nation" type address containing lashings of stats about market adoption etc, or was he going to dish out something completely different?
Posted By Simon Montford on March 6, 2016
Mobile World Congress took place in Barcelona from the 22nd-25th February 2016. It is the world’s largest gathering for the mobile industry, and I was there to cover the show. Here's a selection of photos and videos taken during my week in Spain. As it was my first time attending the conference, I found it overwhelming! Due to the bus and metro strike, getting around the city was a major challenge, but getting to and from the conference centre was a breeze compared to the real challenge of finding my way around the vast series of halls that played host to thousands of the world's leading mobile technology companies, with the exception of Apple.
Posted By Simon Montford on Feb 1, 2016 As a species we are becoming more and more connected. Today fitness trackers are pretty basic, but tomorrow they will become embedded precision instruments capable of monitoring our health 24/7. Our cars will be self-driving, our homes will be operated by powerful artificial intelligence, and one leading academic recently predicted that robots will be able to read our minds by 2030 - welcome to the future!
Posted By Simon Montford on Jan 9, 2016 The International Consumer Electronics Show (International CES) is the world’s gathering place for the consumer technology industry. Held in Las Vegas every year (Jan 6-9), it has acted as a showcase for innovation and breakthrough technology for more than 40 years. Today it is one of the world's leading technology events.
Posted By Simon Montford on Dec 23, 2015 A Hungarian startup called Codie, that successfully raised $96,306 back in May 2015 via crowdfunding platform Indiegogo, has started shipping its robotic toy. The device offers a fun way to teach kids how to code. The campaign was so successful that it raised one third of its funding goal in only two days, and ended up exceeding it by 115%.
Posted By Simon Montford on Dec 15, 2015 Hello Barbie is set to become one of the hottest toys this holiday season. The wi-fi enabled doll comes with an app that enables the plastic princess to record and play back speech. Sounds like fun, until parents discover that hackers could utilise vulnerabilities in the toy's software to spy on their children! It could also be used to collect personal data, such as the home addresses of children and recordings of them talking to the doll.
Posted By Simon Montford on Dec 12, 2015 This weekend over 50,000 people are attending Brick2015, an annual Lego convention taking place at ExCel in London. I have been invited by a Hungarian-based company called Vengit that's exhibiting a prototype of their latest product, "Towers Game". The eventual aim is that the game will enable up to sixteen opponents to construct Lego towers armed with catapults. You can probably guess the rest...
Posted By Nicola Osborne on Oct 29 2015 18:15 - 18:20 Simon Montford (WEB3//IOT) @simonmontford
The theme tonight is the maker revolution – the opening up of industrial technologies to amateaur makers. Maker Culture contributes 30 billion to the global economy, so this is a big and growing thing, with Internet of Things at the centre (the recorded livestream can be viewed here). Posted By Simon Montford on March 12, 2015 Disclaimer: I've known both Hermione and Ben Way, founders of Quiet Night, for many years and so, for the sake of my readers, I will do my very best to be as objective as possible! Quiet Night is the ultimate parent-friendly appcessory that will delight both parents, as well as the youngest member of the family. This is because the device plays soothing tunes that keep babies occupied and happy, leading to a 50% reduction in crying. They say silence is golden, so I believe this product has huge potential.
Posted By Simon Montford on March 12, 2015 Last weekend I attended one of a series of Intel Hardware Hackathons, sponsored by IBM (BlueMix), Intel (Edison), and RSComponents, which took place at FabLab in London. The event was part of a multi-city initiative by Intel to raise awareness of the IoT among the startup community by bringing together software engineers (aka "Hackers") and connected hardware enthusiasts (aka "Makers"). It is hoped that by doing so, innovative prototypes that use Intel's "Do-It-Yourself" Edison circuit board, will be developed that showcase the UK's talent for all things IoT, as well as the board's capabilities.
Posted By Simon Montford on Feb 20, 2015 The smart home of the future will be packed with all kinds of weird and wonderful products, but how will we choose to control them? Will people prefer to use voice commands, gesture or sound? Well a Japanese-based company called Interphenom think we will use sound. The company's "listening assistant" is a device called Listnr, which enables products like the Philips Hue smart light to be controlled using sounds such as clapping, finger clicking and floor stamping.
Posted By Simon Montford on Feb 18, 2015 Crowdfunding veterans, Evoz are running another campaign on Indiegogo for their "Evoz Parenting Monitor". Like many other home security devices, the Evoz enables parents to capture video and still images as well as interact remotely via their smartphone and tablet. What's different about this baby monitor, however is that it offers what Evoz calls a "toolbox" for parents that includes advice forums, and in-app expert parenting advice.
Posted By Simon Montford on Dec 5 2014 Paper aeroplanes are so last century however, when thrown correctly they can still be fun! The creators of the Carbon Flyer decided they wanted to keep the look of the traditional paper aircraft but use carbon fibre instead, as it turns out than paper sucks when it comes to aircraft construction.
Posted By Simon Montford on Dec 4 2014 MIPOW have successfully crowdfunded a Bluetooth colour LED smartbulb on Kickstarter that is also a speaker. Music can be streamed to it from a smartphone or tablet within a range of 30 feet.
Posted By Simon Montford on Nov 27, 2014 The Bit By Bit (B3) is a device the size of a mini-tablet that is aimed at kids as well as adults to help them design simple web enabled things like toy phones, internet-based music players, time-lapse cameras or even drones.
Posted By Simon Montford on Nov 20, 2014 The STAR by SenseGiz is not only a fitness tracker but it also enhances smartphone functionality - it does this via gesture control. This is particularly useful when your phone is not easily accessible. For example, you can increase or decrease the volume, or answer/reject calls while out running with a simple clap or swipe motion. It also offers notifications, sleep monitoring and workout reminders.
Posted By Simon Montford on Nov 13, 2014 Linkoo is both a GPS tracker and phone for kids. The watch has been designed to appeal to pre-teens, sporting several bright colour options. Linkoo can help anxious parents keep tabs on their young ones by tracking their whereabouts. They can also make calls directly to the device and if the child doesn't respond, the watch can be configured to automatically call back.
We think little wearables for little people is about to become a big growth area. In addition to the bluebooth-enabled pacifier by Blue Maestro, new kid on the block MonBaby has successfully crowdfunded their infant sleep and movement tracker.
Posted By Simon Montford on Nov 10, 2014 In addition to the Tempo, Blue Maestro has also created a Bluetooth pacifier called Pacifi, which not only monitors body temperature but also features a proximity sensor that will alert parents when the device strays out of range. The Pacifi app can also be used to find the Pacifi in the event that it has been lost or intentionally hidden by mischievous toddlers. Parents can also record when medication was administered, set-up reminder alerts, and share data with carers and medical professionals. Pacifi will be available in Autumn 2014 and will retail for approximately £30 ($47) where applicable.
Posted By Simon Montford on Oct 31, 2014 Maker Club's mission is to make robots fun and accessible to everyone. This is the reason why Maker Club have launched an Indiegogo campaign to get 3D printed robot kits into the hands of "Makers". They will be powered by an Arduino chip which will enable Makers to control their creations via their smartphones.
Posted By Simon Montford on Oct 2, 2014 SAM is the first electronics development kit that seamlessly integrates Hardware, Software and the Internet. It’s the easiest way to learn about engineering, electronics, the Internet of Things, and coding by doing. Check it out on Kickstarter.
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