Month: January 2014

Lowe's Iris home automation service goes national

11 January 2014 by Steve Blum
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Point of sale.

“We made the investment to go national”, said Kevin Meagher, vice president and general manager for home automation at Lowes. “We’re pleased with progress to date, we have confidence in the huge potential for the market”.

He was talking about Iris, Lowe’s home automation control platform that was introduced at last year’s Consumer Electronics Show, amid predictions that it was doomed to failure. Instead, as Meagher explained at this year’s show, it’s grown to include about thirty devices from more than a dozen manufacturers.… More

The end of TV and the rise of the microwave oven will define consumer electronics of the future

10 January 2014 by Steve Blum
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Twilight of the gods.

“The TV has been challenged for the the last four or five years and, frankly, it’s on the way out unless they reinvent its presentation in the home”, said Peter Corcoran, assistant dean at the National University of Ireland. He spoke yesterday at a CES session sponsored by IEEE and focused on future technology.

“The TV needs to reinvent itself”, Corcoran said. The way to do that is to marry it to smart phones and tablets and make it a two screen experience.… More

FCC puzzles mobile broadband crunch and spectrum auctions

10 January 2014 by Steve Blum
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Washington works by twists and turns.

“I keep describing it as a Rubik’s cube”, said FCC chair Tom Wheeler as he answered questions at CES about plans to auction off television frequencies for mobile broadband use. Like a Rubik’s cube, it’s a constantly moving problem on three axes: a reverse auction to buy back TV channels and a regular auction to sell the bandwidth to mobile phone companies, all while repacking television stations into less spectrum.… More

Three ways for start-ups to cash in on the Internet of things

9 January 2014 by Steve Blum
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There ought to be an app for that.

“There is money to be made in the internet of things”, said Steve Brumer, a partner at 151 Advisors. “There is a vertical market, there is a horizontal market and there’s an ecosystem” that innovative entrepreneurs can tap into to make money. “There’s not one vertical that’s not touched by the Internet of things”.

Big companies might be building the infrastructure, but figuring out what to do with the data they collect is anyone’s game.… More

Wheeler's success as FCC chair hinges on his enthusiasm for intervention

9 January 2014 by Steve Blum
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So far, so collegial at the FCC, commissioners Pai and Rosenworcel at CES.

Chairman Tom Wheeler’s intention of enforcing a “network compact” via the FCC’s Internet neutrality rule – the open Internet order – won’t go down well with republican-appointed commissioners, but his idea of case by case review might.

“The open internet order was a solution in search of a problem”, said commissioner Ajit Pai at CES yesterday. “The FCC lacks the authority to promulgate the rule”.… More

Bitcoin is virtually a developing country

9 January 2014 by Steve Blum
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Open for business.

Four thousand transactions a day and total 2013 transactions of $100 million would be chump change for Visa or Mastercard, but it represents blindingly fast growth for Bitpay, which only moved $3 million in 2012. It’s an Atlanta-based transaction processor, one of three Bitcoin-related companies sharing a small booth in the back of CES’s south exhibit hall.

Bitpay is one of several companies that make it possible for merchants – big or small, online or bricks and mortar – to accept Bitcoins from customers and get dollars, or whatever national currency they prefer, in return.… More

International passengers make voice calls on planes, politely

9 January 2014 by Steve Blum
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Can’t we all just get along?

“At Delta, we’re very much promoting cellular transmission on airplanes but not voice calls”, said Kirk Thornburg, an engineering executive for the airline. Chuck Cook, his counterpart at JetBlue, agrees. “We do not support the use of cellular voice airborne, that’s customer driven”.

In fact, nearly everyone on this morning’s CES panel discussing consumer electronics on airplanes agreed that passengers should be able to use cellular data services in the air, but shouldn’t be allowed to talk on their phones.… More

$170 million in California broadband subsidy proposals await decisions

9 January 2014 by Steve Blum
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The latest update from the California Public Utilities Commission shows that 12 projects are still in the hunt for subsidies from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF). Eleven projects, totalling $30 million in grants and $41,000 in loans, have been approved. Nine have either been rejected by commission staff or are on hold.

One of the pending projects – a $1 million DSL upgrade proposed by Ponderosa Telephone Company in Fresno County – is due for a vote by the commission next week.… More

Consumer gizmos might get the same kind of regulatory attention as radio transmitters

8 January 2014 by Steve Blum
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Bandwidth hog?

“There is no spectrum shortage, what we have is a spectrum utilisation problem”, said Austin Schlick, director of communications law at Google. Several solutions were offered as technology executives and policy makers talked about “slicing the nation’s airwaves” at CES this afternoon.

One suggestion that would have a major impact on consumer electronics companies, not to mention consumers, is to start regulating wireless receivers in something like the same way that the FCC regulates transmitters.… More

U.S. commerce secretary needs congress' help to let skilled people in and kick patent trolls out

8 January 2014 by Steve Blum
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Steve Jobs called it right.

Reforming U.S. visa rules, particularly for highly educated employees, and patent troll protection are major concerns for technology companies. Both of those policy initiatives are priorities for the Obama administration, but are being left in the hands of congress for now, according U.S. commerce secretary Penni Pritzker.

“I think there’s a window in the first half of this year to get immigration reform done”, she said.

She was interviewed on stage at CES this morning by Consumer Electronics Association president Gary Shapiro, who suggested that passing the changes that republicans and democrats agree on, such as fewer visa restrictions for highly skilled workers, is a better approach.… More