This Hack Turns Your iPhone Into An Android - Thomas Brewster

Android 10 running on an iPhone 7, in a photo taken with an iPhone XR. A new hack will let you run Google's operating system on the Apple device, with support for more models on the way, according to the developer.

THOMAS BREWSTER/FORBES

Ten years ago, David Wang pulled off a remarkable trick, installing Android on the first-generation iPhone.

Now Wang and his colleagues at cybersecurity startup Corellium are doing it again with the ostentatiously titled Project Sandcastle. And Forbes got an exclusive hands-on look at their Android for iPhone product ahead of its public release scheduled for later this Wednesday.

The timing is sure to have Apple fanboys rubbernecking: Corellium is in the middle of being sued by Apple.

As preported by Forbes, in August last year, Corellium was taken to court over Apple claims the startup breached copyright laws by creating software versions of the iPhone for security and testing. The case took a surprise turn late last month when Apple subpoenaed Spanish banking giant Santander and the $50 billion U.S. military and intelligence contractor L3Harris.

But Corellium has lofty ambitions for Project Sandcastle, saying that it’ll actually show how Apple’s walled garden, which it has fiercely protected since launching its flagship phone in 2007, can be deconstructed and taken over by others’ software.

“Project Sandcastle is about having fun building something new from the sand—from the literal silicon of the hardware,” said Corellium CEO Amanda Gorton, in a statement sent to Forbes.
A Cheeky Potshot At Apple

“Apple restricts iPhone users to operate inside a sandbox, but users own that hardware, and they should be able to use that hardware the way they want. So where sandboxes create limits and boundaries on the hardware that users own, sandcastles provide an opportunity to create something new and wonderful from the limitless bounds of your imagination."

The release might also be seen as a cheeky potshot at Apple as the copyright legal tussle continues. “Apple has, for years, attempted to lock down the iPhone and iPad under the guise of security when, in reality, it sought to exclude competition,” says David Hecht, partner at Pierce Bainbridge and Corellium’s counsel.

“Apple’s dominance allows it to decide everything from what apps will be allowed in the market to the commission it charges developers. Corellium’s solution to run Android on iPhone will finally provide customers with a viable alternative to Apple’s App Store and iOS.”

How Do I Get It?

The hack is currently limited to a handful of devices: the iPhone 7, the iPhone 7 Plus and the iPod Touch, but Chris Wade, cofounder of Corellium, says more support is coming. And it may not ever work on any iPhones older than the 5S or newer than the X. That’s because the hack uses the checkra1n jailbreak to launch, which won’t work on the 11 model or above. If a new jailbreak is found, however, it could be possible that Android for iPhone will work on the most recent Apple devices. And given the underlying vulnerabilities exploited by checkra1n probably won’t ever be fixed by Apple, it should work in perpetuity for relevant devices.

For anyone who wants to try the beta like Forbes did, head to ProjectSandcastle.org and follow the instructions. The site only went up this week as Corellium is constantly working on updates to its Android for iPhone, so don’t expect the full Android experience for now. It’s Android 10, but you won’t be able to do things like use the camera or install apps from Google Play.

When Forbes played around with the phone, running Android on an iPhone 7 running iOS 13.3, the most compelling addition was encrypted messaging app Signal. This points to a more interesting use case than simply getting a kick out of running Android on an iPhone.

With Project Sandcastle possible to create an “ephemeral” phone within the iPhone, where everything you’ve done on the operating system vanishes on reboot and iOS returns. This is particularly handy for anyone wanting to have a sensitive conversation over Signal—once you’re done with encrypted calls and messages, you can erase all memory of them from the device and go back to using iOS.

Jailbreaks like Checkra1n can make iPhones less secure, as it removes “sandboxing,” which prevents malicious code from one app stealing data from another, among other security protections. It’s therefore worth considering what device, if any, you choose to install this on.

How Did They Do It?

Wang told Forbes that recreating Android for iPhone was no easy feat. Over the last decade, Apple has been upping the security of its devices.

“The big challenge was that the Apple hardware is both undocumented and nonstandard. Our team knows more about it than most outside Apple, but we still had to put in a considerable amount of work to build drivers for it,” he told Forbes over Signal.

One major issue was wrangling with the way in which Android handles memory so it was able to work on an iPhone, as Apple handles memory in different size chunks to Google, he says.

To build Project Sandcastle, Corellium’s team used its own tools, which can quickly spin up software versions of iPhones and Androids. Without that ability, if a hack bricked the device, they would’ve had to have switched to a new physical iPhone. But with their tool, they could just create a “virtualized” phone. Those virtualized versions are what have peeved Apple’s copyright lawyers, who claim they illegally replicate iPhones. Corellium has disputed Apple’s claims, and the court fight rumbles on.

Wang says he’s excited to see what the community does with the team’s work. “Even old devices could potentially be recycled without the issue of being locked to another user’s iCloud account or risking someone else’s data. We’re excited to see where the community takes it. We hope that it helps inspire other developers to keep pushing the mobile ecosystem forward.”

(Forbes)

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Once hacked, twice shy: How auto supplier Harman learned to fight cyber carjackers

When researchers remotely hacked a Jeep Cherokee in 2015, slowing it to a crawl in the middle of a U.S. highway, the portal the hackers used was an infotainment system made by supplier Harman International.

Harman, now part of Samsung Electronics (005930.KS), has since developed its own cybersecurity product, and bought Israel-based cybersecurity company TowerSec for $70 million to help it overhaul manufacturing processes and scrutinize third-party supplier software.

The expensive efforts have prevented another public breach and helped it become a key player in automotive cybersecurity, but they show the strain suppliers and automakers face in dealing with this new dimension of automotive technology.

“At the end of the day, automotive is a very competitive business with small margins. If a competitor wants to eat the cost to win the business, you have to do the same thing,” said Geoffrey Wood, Harman’s director of cybersecurity business development, who joined the company in late 2016.

The automotive cybersecurity market has seen exponential growth. While global revenue was at around $16 million in 2017, it is expected to reach $2.3 billion in 2025, according to IHS Markit, driven by Harman, Garrett Motion Inc (G02.F), German suppliers Continental AG (CONG.DE), Robert Bosch [ROBG.UL] and a range of smaller U.S. and Israeli companies.

Securing cars from hackers is a complex task for these companies. Modern vehicles run on 100 million lines of code, are equipped with hundreds of different technologies and can have up to 150 electronic control units using various operating systems.

Unlike consumer electronics, cars can stay in use for decades, long after operating systems and component software cease being supported through updates that patch vulnerabilities - a challenge the industry is still grappling with.

Automotive cybersecurity requirements now number in the hundreds of pages from just a page five years ago, according to interviews with a dozen automotive cybersecurity professionals.

For its 2024 vehicles under development at BMW AG (BMWG.DE), for example, suppliers are required to ensure that driving system control units have no direct connection to customers’ internet-connected devices, said Michael Gruffke, head of security system functions at BMW, which sources parts from Harman.

Small auto suppliers with thin profit margins are often the weakest link for hacks, said Rotem Bar, a cybersecurity professional until recently at Israeli company CyMotive which has partnered with German automaker Volkswagen AG VWOG_p.DE.

But automakers typically still hand off testing and ensuring the security of data systems to their subcontractors, industry experts said.

“It’s really shifting the burden onto the suppliers because the automaker is not able to test and verify everything along the supply chain,” said Dennis Kengo Oka, senior solutions architect at Synopsys Inc (SNPS.O), who conducts research on automotive cybersecurity.

At BMW, more than 70% of the components in its vehicles are manufactured by suppliers. “We therefore must expect our partners to take responsibility for implementing cybersecurity in respective deliveries,” the automaker said in a statement.

General Motors (GM.N) said in a statement that it handles “a significant amount of work” related to security and testing without passing the expense to its supply chain partners.

Ford Motor Co (F.N) and Fiat Chrysler (FCHA.MI) did not respond to requests for comment. Volkswagen and Daimler AG (DAIGn.DE) declined to comment.

BUILDING CYBERSECURITY BUSINESS

Harman saw its Jeep hack experience as a viable business opportunity: the supplier today sells cybersecurity software that allows automakers to monitor their fleets and provide over-the-air software updates. Analysts at IHS Markit consider Harman one of the top players in that segment, with some 20 automakers using its over-the-air services.

Harman does not break out revenue for that business. But the company does try to recover some costs by charging higher prices for advanced security.

“We have to educate our sales people in conversations with carmakers’ purchasing departments and say ‘don’t let this go without adding cybersecurity to your quote’,” said Amy Chu, Harman’s senior director of automotive product security.

Asaf Atzmon, the Israel-based vice president and general manager for automotive cybersecurity, said Harman has come a long way since he joined in March 2016 as part of the TowerSec deal.

At the time, Harman employed only some security architects, and the company later changed its organizational structure, appointing or hiring professionals such as Wood and Chu to oversee cybersecurity efforts, Atzmon said.

The changes helped Harman consider cybersecurity issues at every stage of the production process, creating a checklist for engineers that includes scanning third-party software for bugs, increasing Harman’s own cybersecurity defenses and creating a risk analysis of potential vulnerabilities for every component.

Instead of simply adding comfort features such as Bluetooth, for example, designers now first have to show how they would secure such a connection.

A particular challenge is securing vehicles over their entire lifecycle, said Chu. Cybersecurity professionals are used to simply issuing software patches, but automotive engineers caution that only a fraction of vehicles can receive over-the-air updates.

During the Jeep hack, costly recalls had to be issued for 1.4 million vehicles to fix software flaws at dealerships. Tesla Inc (TSLA.O), which offers over-the-air updates as a standard for even safety-critical functions, is so far the exception.

“Things are just not that easy for us in the auto industry,” said Chu.

Conscious of the many challenges, the industry over the past years has come together in a rare show of collaboration. Automakers in 2015, soon after the Jeep hack, created a group to share threats and vulnerabilities and companies currently try to define industry-wide cybersecurity standards that in turn could lower costs to suppliers.

Still, common standards are not expected to be published before next year. And some of the standards might be watered down to protect smaller suppliers and ensure they have the resources to comply, said Victor Murray, a group leader at the Southwest Research Institute, which tests cars and components for cybersecurity vulnerabilities.

“You want to be careful and not box anybody in because if smaller suppliers get overwhelmed with mandates they’re out of business,” Murray said.

(Reuters)

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Leveraging AI And IoT For Citizen Security In Smart Cities - Naveen Joshi

What do you think of when you hear the term smart city? Most likely, you’ll picture a city that offers seamless physical and digital connectivity through well-managed transportation and easily accessible communication networks. You might think of a city that enables convenient, even luxurious living through smart and sustainable housing, intelligent infrastructure, and digitized governance. It is true that benefits such as unprecedented levels of convenience and connectivity will distinguish the cities of tomorrow from those of today. However, our fixation with such pleasant benefits often makes us overlook the fact that smart cities can also enhance the provision of basic human necessities such as safety and security.

While it may be true that the world is -- ever so gradually -- becoming a safer place to live in, many perils to people’s well-being do still exist. And the biggest source of these perils, unsurprisingly, happens to be other people. Be it in the form of organized terrorism, accidents, planned robberies or thefts, there are many situations where people’s well-being and security may be predicated on the actions of another person or group of people. And preventing such incidents is paramount among the duties of smart city governors, along with ensuring the adequate supply of basic necessities such as food and water. To that end, smart city governments can use technologies like IoT and artificial intelligence in physical security.
Applications of IoT and artificial intelligence in physical security for smart securities

The security and safety of the citizens have traditionally been entrusted to the law and order departments of cities. The same will be true for smart cities of the future. However, the traditional methods employed by police departments to monitor the city populace for signs of potential deviance won’t suffice to maintain law and order in the future. In fact, the police departments in many cities across the US are already short-staffed, making it harder for them to ensure public safety all the time and in all places.

As the global population increases and more and more people start migrating to cities, the comparatively minuscule police forces won’t be able to provide security effectively. Hence, to help them, law and order agencies across the world are using increasingly advanced applications of modern technology for physical security. The applications of technologies like artificial intelligence in physical security and public safety are becoming commonplace now. And as smart cities continue to crop up across the world, such systems will gain ubiquity and functionality, giving governments greater leverage in their quest to ensure the safety of their assets, and more importantly, the safety of their people. Following are a few ways in which smart cities can use IoT and artificial intelligence for physical security:

Video analytics

Video surveillance has become a mainstay in governments’ efforts to maintain law and order across the world. However, the video surveillance systems of yesteryears have been primarily used only as a way to retrospectively analyze crimes that have been already committed or on the rare occasion, as a deterrent to the uncertain, potentially criminal individual. That's because, although there may have been numerous surveillance cameras scattered across towns and cities, there weren't enough people to constantly monitor the footage from each of them and act in a timely manner. This limitation is easily overcome with the help of video analytics, where real-time footage is analyzed by deep learning-driven AI. Any anomalies, such as foreboding indicators of violence can be identified by these systems and notify nearby personnel instantly. This may help in quick reaction to crimes or even prevention of many criminal acts.

Crowd monitoring

Monitoring large crowds in public places such as busy streets and intersections, shopping areas, and railway and metro stations for any potential security incidents is an important part of maintaining public safety. However, monitoring every individual's activity and behavior in such crowded spaces can be a tough task, to say the least, for security personnel. For instance, identifying a person who may be carrying explosives or weapons can be a real hassle.

Using different types of IoT sensors, a smart city's security personnel can constantly be on the lookout for suspicious and potentially harmful items. For instance, scanning devices can detect objects made of certain materials and discern their shape, even if they are hidden from plain sight. AI algorithms can analyze this scanned footage in real time to determine if these objects are harmful or not. If any lethal objects are identified, personnel can be dispatched for further examination.

Additionally, IoT and AI-enabled crowd monitoring systems can also keep track of the footfall in places where it matters, such as footbridges. These systems can ensure that bridges are always optimally loaded to ensure the safety of the people using them. The IoT-enabled systems can warn the people present as well as authorities when such places get loaded beyond a set threshold to initiate appropriate actions.

Access control

Access to high-security areas such as airports, banks, power plants, government data centers, and military bases can be restricted by using technologies like IoT and AI. IoT-powered security gateway security systems can ensure that only authorized personnel can enter key government facilities. Multi-factor authentication, which may include biometric scanning, can be used to add further layers of security to the most sensitive parts of such facilities.

Transportation can be made safer through IoT-enabled ticketing. Tickets can be made more secure and easily scannable by embedding RFID technology into them. In fact, RFID-enabled tickets were used for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, which helped in speeding up the ticket checking process despite the large volume of fans without compromising security. Alternatively, tickets can be digitally stored in people’s smartphones, that can automatically communicate with the security systems and automated turnstiles at airports to allow only the right people in without requiring manual guarding. This can enable more effective use of security personnel and keep them on standby for more serious situations.

Robotic patrol and security drones

While the use of IoT and AI in physical security may disburden security personnel, the use of AI-powered security robots can potentially eliminate the need for human law enforcers. Robotic security personnel can patrol the streets of smart cities and identify potential threats with the help of cutting-edge sensors and cameras. They can prevent crimes from happening just by their mere presence and can execute basic security missions like crowd control and search operations, sometimes with greater efficacy than human officers. Human security officers can stay on stand by and engage only in escalated situations. Similarly, drones can be deployed to monitor public places and notify nearby security personnel in case of potential threats to public safety.

While smart city administrators should always have their visions set on providing citizens with convenient and comfortable living, they should first ensure the security of their citizens. Adopting technologies like IoT and AI in physical security applications can be an effective step towards that end. However, it is important to realize that there is yet a long way to go before entrusting our safety completely to technology, as there are many things that only human security and law order personnel can do. And until we can have machines capable of performing these tasks, these technologies should and will only remain at the periphery of smart cities’ security strategy.

(Forbes)

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Cybercrime: Microsoft warns Nigerian companies on menacing phishing threat

Technology Company, Microsoft, has raised the alarm over the damaging effects of cybersecurity threat called phishing, warning Nigerian companies and individuals to guard against it.

Phishing is a cyber attack method which a fraudulent cybercriminal uses to obtain sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details from unsuspecting online users, disguising as a trustworthy entity. Typically carried out by email spoofing or instant messaging, it often directs users to enter personal information at a fake website which matches the look and feel of the legitimate site. 

According to Microsoft, phishing is the number one threat in Nigeria today. It said phishing has the highest growth rate among the four other identified key threats that have risen to the forefront to undermine the fight against cybercrime. 

The software giant’s recently published Security Intelligence Report, said in several attacks that happened in the past year including an overview of the threat landscape, phishing claims the higher rate. 

Digital Advisor for Microsoft Middle East & Africa, Mr. Daniel Adeyemo, at a round table conference in Lagos recently, said: “From our ongoing research, we found that in the past year ransomware attacks as a vector declined, software supply chains have become a risk, cryptocurrency mining is prevalent, and phishing still remains the preferred attack method. 

“While this may indicate progress in blocking ransomware attacks against organisations, it also draws our attention to new avenues now being identified for attacks. These new avenues are very easily ignored by organisations but are a recognisable ‘pathway’ for penetration.” 

He said that with constant ongoing attacks rising to the surface across the African continent, it’s evident that governments and industries have a long way to go with successfully mitigating risks when it comes to cybercrime. 

However, Adeyemo believed that security is a journey and not a destination and must be addressed holistically by everyone and not by a single vendor. He said: “By working closely with our partners, governments, industry, and the security ecosystem our aim is to ensure consumers and businesses can trust the technology they make use of – not viewing these solutions as barriers to technology adoption.” 

Also, the company’s Country Manager for Nigeria & Ghana, Mr. Akin Banuso, expressed worry that the trend is gathering momentum that spells danger to the business community, and encouraged organizations to guard against cybercrime. 

He noted that as organisations continue to digitally transform, so does their exposure to threats within cyberspace. Banuso said: “Organisations need to leverage ever-improving capabilities with advanced technologies like Artificial Intelligence to efficiently combat cybercrime. We have a responsibility to educate businesses about these recent developments; this is what encompassed our goal for this event. 

“While there will always be new threats, attacks and technologies, organizations, and companies can begin to take action today to address security concerns and improve their security postures. It is critical for companies to strengthen their core security hygiene across areas like monitoring, antivirus, patch, and operating systems, adopt modern platforms and comprehensive identity, security and management solutions, and to leverage features offered within cloud services.” 

He added: “It is just as important to create education and awareness across employee populations in order to build and sustain a pervasive security culture.”

(Vanguard)

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AI And Big Data Helping Austria's OMV Lower Oil Production Costs, Says Tech Boss

Deployment of advanced data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) are helping Austrian integrated oil and gas company OMV (VIE:OMV) achieve spectacular efficiencies across its operations, according to its digital technology leader.

Speaking at the Ignite 2019 conference organized by software firm Cognite, in Oslo, Norway on Wednesday (June 12, 2019), Markus Berghofer, Vice President of Digital Excellence at OMV, revealed the company which began its current phase of digital innovation little over 12 months ago, has reduced its production costs from $15 per barrel of oil equivalent down to $7 per boe.

"Various operational efficiencies have brought that about, not least digital. We have pledged €500 million ($566 million) towards digital innovation in the run-up to 2025. The drive is not just about operational efficiencies; it's about a range of issues from sustainable health and safety practices to attracting new talent to the oil and gas industry via a strong digital presence."

In 2018, OMV's daily production stood at ~427,000 boe per day. Away from oil and gas production, the company operates three refineries with a total annual processing capacity of 17.8 million tons and more than 2,000 filling stations in ten countries. It also runs gas storage facilities in Austria and Germany.

Berghofer said OMV's current digital drive enjoys strong backing from Chief Executive Officer Rainer Seele, Executive Board Member and Deputy Chairman of OMV Johann Pleininger, and the company's board.

"As a technologist you cannot ask for more. The commitment goes all the way to the top. We are carefully looking at where we have to adapt our organization, and every business segment is seeing digitally-driven changes. OMV has also established a digital academy to nurture talent and upskill colleagues."

Berghofer himself has undergone a change of title, adopting his current one as of January 1, 2019 stepping up from his previous industry title of 'Vice President of Upstream Information Management and Business Projects.'

That's because the company is undergoing transformation banking on three pillars – "business agility, digital capabilities and digital ways of working."

"It's not digitization for the sake of it. We are tying digitization projects to money. For instance, AI and advanced analytics are becoming major factors in the evaluation and exploration of oil and gas reservoirs. Digital technologies are also being used to get people off the rig to have it managed remotely."

OMV is also partnering with industry rivals to share digital know-how. In May, it inked an agreement with Aker BP (OSL:AKERBP), an Olso-listed oil and gas joint venture of Norway's Aker and UK oil giant BP, committing "to share digitization competencies and technology across borders and advancing both companies' agendas."

Together, the two companies will collaborate on projects that explore how to set up and execute wide-scale digital transformation processes. Aker BP will share best practices from Eureka, their digital transformation program that started two years ago.

The insights will purportedly "advance the digital maturity of OMV Upstream" and also benefit a wide range of suppliers and partners connected to OMV's operations. In turn, the Austrian company will share the insights from its digitalization program DigitUP to advance the digital transformation of Aker BP.

Underpinning OMV's own Big Data drive is its partnership with Cognite to provide cross spectrum access to data and information, Berghofer said.

"We intend to operationalize data analytics and machine learning and to roll it out across operations – from Norway to Yemen, from Libya to Austria – integrating them seamlessly with existing infrastructure to make all relevant data instantly available as a comprehensive set in the cloud."

By subsequently harnessing the data, Berghofer said OMV would be able to easily monitor critical machinery, move from scheduled to predictive maintenance, increase production, and improve its health and safety.

"Imagine all data, all systems just one click away for anyone, anywhere in the world within the OMV team. The possibilities are immense and the value of it [to the corporate ecosystem] cannot be understated."

(Forbes)

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Intel says its 5G modem chips will not appear in phones until 2020

Intel Corp executives said on Friday its 5G modem chips will not appear in mobile phones until 2020, raising the possibility its biggest customer, Apple Inc, will be more than a year behind rivals in delivering a device that uses the faster networks.

Sandra Rivera, who oversees Intel’s networking chip business, said at a media event in Palo Alto, California, that sample 5G modem chips will ship to customers this year but that Intel does not expect consumer “products in the market” until 2020.

Intel has said its 5G modem chip will be available later this year, but it never indicated when it believed products will arrive for consumers. Rivera said non-consumer 5G products, such as networking gear, will appear later this year.

It was unclear whether Intel’s timing on modem chips means that Apple will not have an iPhone with 5G capabilities in 2019. Bloomberg previously reported that Apple would not have a 5G iPhone ready until 2020.

Apple executives have held talks with Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and MediaTek Inc over 5G modem chips for iPhones to be released this year, but the outcome of those talks is unknown.

Reuters reported on Feb. 7 that Apple earlier this year moved its modem engineering efforts into the same division that makes its proprietary processor chips.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

While Apple remains Intel’s only major modem chip customer now, Intel Chief Executive Bob Swan said the Santa Clara, California-based chipmaker plans to pursue other lines of business, such as selling modems to carmakers.

He also said that modems could appear in a range of other devices, such as network gear, alongside Intel’s computing chips as 5G networks proliferate. But Intel executives declined to comment on whether Intel would combine its modem and processors into a single chip the way that rivals such as San Diego-based Qualcomm Inc have done.

Swan said Intel did not plan to generate patent licensing revenue from its 5G technology like its Southern California competitor does.

“Our model relative to other California-based players is just completely different,” Swan said. “Ours is not a licensing based model.

“Royalty streams that are charged against the cost of the entire device, that’s a model that as you know has caused quite a bit of friction in the market,” Swan continued, alluding to Qualcomm’s legal battles with Apple and other phone makers over the San Diego firm’s patent practices. “Friction for others is opportunity for us.”

(Reuters)

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Focus on Business Processes, Not Big Data Technology

The rapid evolution of analytics has put a wonderful array of cutting-edge technologies at fingertips, from Spark and Kafka to TensorFlow and Scikit-Learn. And yet, despite this technological treasure trove, the vast majority of big data projects fail, according to analyst firms. So what gives? It’s likely a combination of factors, but one that stands out is that we spend too much time focusing on technology and not enough on business process, industry experts say.

Gartner analyst Nick Heudecker turned some heads last year when he said 85% of big data projects were failures, citing poor integration with existing business process, as well as internal policies, executive buy-in, lack of skills, and the ever-present security-governance issue. Other tallies of big data, data science, and advanced analytics projects have turned up similar statistics about the rather narrow odds of success in big data.

The fact is, losing at big data is a lot more common than wining. The human skillsets required to stitch together complex, largely open-source technologies into something that’s enterprise-grade and contributes value to the business are not easy to find. This is something that the Hadoop ecosystem has been grappling with for the past five years, which in turn has driven scads of businesses into the arms of comfy clouds, where customers can avoid all that muss and-fuss by utilizing pre-built, pre-integrated, pre-configured big data systems.

There’s no doubt that this is tough stuff, which isn’t a reason to avoid it. To paraphrase President John Kennedy, we didn’t aspire to put a man on the moon because it was easy, but because it was hard. Most of life’s most worthwhile accomplishments are difficult, which makes those victories that much sweeter. But at the same time, there’s no point in over-complicating what is already an extremely complicated enterprise.

Bill Schmarzo, the Dean of Big Data, has hammered this point over the years. While at Dell EMC, he encouraged customers to apply the SAM test – which assesses whether it is strategic, actionable, and material — to any potential data analytic they’re thinking about utilizing in their business. Now Schmarzo the CTO of analytics and IoT at Hitachi Vantara, but he continues to stress the importance of business processes.

During a keynote address at Hitachi Vantara’s NEXT conference in September, Schmarzo encouraged the audience to re-frame the conversation away from focus on analytics.

“This conversation needs to be about business outcome,” he said. “You hold the organization’s single most important asset – data — and it’s out of that data we can glean customer, product, service and operational insight that we can use to improve our business and operational process to mitigate risk and compliance issues, to uncover new revenue streams, to deliver a compelling and differentiated customer experience.

“It’s not an individual technology transformation,” he continued. “It’s a digital business model transformation. It’s transforming the business model with the data and analytic insights you glean from that.”

Teradata CTO Stephen Brobst said similar things during a session at the Teradata Analytics Universe conference last month. During the session, Brobst encouraged attendees to think about how analytics projects can impact business processes, specifically within the context of “real time” analytics.

“People talk about real time as some kind of marketing buzzword,” he said. “A much better term is right time. Right time is not defined by technology. Right time is defined by your business process.”

The goal of a “right time” analytic system, Brobst continued, is to drive as much latency out of the decision-making process as makes business sense. The value that a company can get from making a good business decision based on analytics drops as time goes on. But that value doesn’t drop equally for all businesses in all types of industries and all circumstances, so it’s critical to take the specifics into account.

For example, an e-commerce retailer who needs to act before a customer leaves a website, a decision needs to be made quickly. A bank needs to make a decision on whether a transaction is likely fraudulent before moving that data. But for most strategic decisions, fresh data isn’t that important.

“If your strategy is based on the last two hours’ worth of sales, you’re in trouble,” Brobst said. “Strategy does not need the most up-to date data….We don’t need real-time data to make good [strategic] decisions. In fact it’s probably distracting.”

Real-time data becomes more valuable when it comes to executing a business strategy. And the value proposition of data diminishes with each increment of latency introduced into the business process, he said. It can be tremendously expensive to refresh a Teradata environment with the latest data every 30 seconds, which is why it’s critical to match the acceptable latency with the strategy and the business process goal.

“Right time is aligning the technology investment that you make with your business process, because if I did ‘real time,’ but your business processes are still operating daily, then we spent a lot of money and didn’t add any value,” Brobst said. “The cost of really doing it in 30 seconds is more than the value. For their business processes, 15 minutes is good enough.”

Another problem with big data technology is that it often never makes it out of the data scientist’s sandbox, Brobst said.

“What I observe is a lot of organizations do this great data science and they never actually put it into production, or their version of production is it’s running in a desktop or a closet with huge operational list behind it,” he said. “You don’t get to count your money until it goes into production. So make sure that you productize – out of the closet or out from under the desk – and put it into a properly governed environment.”

That’s not to say that technology plays no role. Technological advances, in the end, are the sources of the big data revolution that continues to unfold. Deep learning technology may be overhyped, but it also will likely play a big role in corporate decision-making, including automating many decisions that today are made by humans.

“These technologies have huge impact on all business,” Brobst said about deep learning. “It’s not just about the dot-com business change. Its’ about changing process for companies like this – heavy industrial companies doing smarter things with their data.”

But in the end analysis, if we want to succeed with big data analytics and the array of AI technologies coming down the pike, we’re going to need to think more intelligently about how we apply them, and be very deliberate in adapting specific business processes with them, because the alternative is just more spending on failed big data projects.

“It’s not just about technology. It’s about business process change, and if it doesn’t happen, your technology delivered no value,” Brobst said. “The hardest part is not the technology. It’s changing the way you think. Humans are much harder to change than technology, so business processes are a part of it.”

(Datanami )

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Requisite features of Big Data analytics tools

The sheer volume of Big Data that modern organizations have been generating and managing is clear indication that Big Data is not just a fad. To be able to survive this new wave of technology, organizations need to stay conditioned on the most relevant information, analyzing which would help to inform critical business decisions. Big data analytics fine-tunes this process to provide the best insights and knowledge available to analysts and decision makers in real time.

A complex entirety of processes including data scientists, business management, production teams and developers characterizes big data analytics, just a small fraction of which is designing a new data analytics model.

Big data analytics tools must have purposeful features, which would be vital to reduce the data scientists’ effort in improving business results. Some of them are:

1. Support embedded analytics

Big data analytics tools need to have APIs that are well-documented and use de facto standards, such as REST or JavaScript interfaces, along with sample code, videos, and a developer community active enough to provide assistance and share examples. The tools can support embedded analytics if they are designed as a series of micro-services or modular services with associated APIs that host applications can call to execute analytic functions. A lot of well-developed big data analytics tools are now offering APIs that help developers in the creation of a complete custom interface.

2. Provide integrated views of data

A big data analytics tool can be deemed good if it successfully melds fragmented data to project a holistic aspect of the enterprise. A federated query engine displays the benefit of providing fresh data integrated from several systems to customersin real time. The tool deals with the complexities of resolving the query, normally by referring statistics about each database’s activity and characteristics, and utilizing algorithms that optimize query execution plans.

3. Support high-velocity data

Businesses today are no more satisfied with snapshots of fast-moving data like big data as they desire to perform real-time analyses against all the data. Big data analytics tools can interface with streaming processing foundations, such as Spark Streaming and Apache Kafka, or they require a self-employed streaming engine that visualizes real-time streaming data to users as it flows through the system.

4. Support self-service

Organizations ought to provide analytics to a vast network of users, the range of which is still growing, to be able to profit from data. This includes every worker—decision makers who take in information and power users who analyze that data.

5. Query large volumes of data

The advent of Internet of things has caused a skyrocketing increase in the volume of data that business users want to query. In the world of big data, the data is too varied and volume of it is too much to move cost effectively. Big data analytics tools should be able to run directly against big data sources like Spark or Hadoop clusters, or operational systems running in the cloud or on-premises.

6. Optimize big data query performance

When optimizing query performance against large volumes of data, BI vendors have to make a choice between querying all the data directly that would cause slow query response time, or extracting and loading data into a local data store, delivering fast queries against an old data subset.

7. Underpin  all data sources

Some of the most common data management systems in the evolved data landscape are relational databases, analytic databases, Hadoop, Spark, NoSQL, cloud file systems, search engines, cloud applications and machine applications. A big data analytics tool should be able to query every one of these data sources and applications and visualize the data in real time for users to be able to identify trends and anomalies and act accordingly.

8. Support all data formats

Big data analytics tools should be able to interpret and parse non-relational data types like XML and JSON, and deal sparsely with non-symmetric tables and nested data structures. They should also be able to query the increasingly popular NoSQL systems with the use of analytic features, if available.

9. Manage data security

Big data analytics tools should be able to integrate with an organization’s existing authentication framework, and provide close control over the functions, features, and data accessible to users based on role, group and individual permissions. The tools should provide sufficient security within a multi-tenant cloud environment.

10. Support governed discovery

Big data analytics tools need to offer a single environment for both power and casual users with the environment tailored to the users’ individual requirements.
 

(CIO Review)

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No Fleas On HarperDB, IoT Database Ready To 'Go Fetch' At The Edge- Adrian Bridgwater

The so-called Internet of Things (IoT) is growing, exponentially, obviously. As an example of the machines that populate the IoT, modern aircraft are estimated to now fly with connected sensors monitoring as many as 5000 component elements per engine every second - and that’s just the engines. For equipment engineers in aviation (and every other industry now digitally transforming) this means a lot of head scratching, some cool innovations and a lot of fine-grained physical tuning with a fair dose of engine grease.

The same challenge also exists for information technologists supporting these systems.

For software programmers and database engineers in every industry, making the IoT work means a lot of brain-aches, some super-cool innovations and a lot of fine-grained keyboard and screen based tuning, with a fair dose of ‘virtual’ microprocessor engine grease (spoiler alert: microprocessors are built in clean room labs and rarely get oiled with lubricant).

We need a smarter edge

The question for IoT engineers (physical real world engineering & tech engineers) is: how do we get smarter out on the edge? That is to say -- how do we make more of the performance analysis, predictive maintenance analytics and wider management system-related computing happen out there on the edge, on the devices themselves?

Aiming to play ‘go fetch’ in this space is the doggy-named HarperDB. This is an enterprise-level IoT database built to run on ‘edge’ devices (i.e. machines out in the extremities of a network, on an aircraft, on an oilrig, in any remote location even in cities). It is has small footprint (it is economical in terms of how much code it takes to run, its CPU power is moderate and its battery life and memory requirements are lean) and can be installed directly on a micro-computing devices. Harper was (in fact still is) company CEO Stephen Goldberg’s favorite dog, a five-year old adopted pup.

For its summer update cycle, the firm has announced new features to HarperDB that allow real time geo-analysis, storage optimization for edge devices and the ability to run massive data analytics. When HarperDB talks about geo-analysis, it is referring to the act of being able to geo-tag any device in the world to know where it is on the planet when it carries out a particular computation and creates a log file and record of what it has done.

But why bother trying to make edge devices smarter when we have all that power at the cloud datacenter in the backend?

“In IoT projects, many devices on the edge have limited storage hardware and the data is only valuable for a short period of time. With the ability to replicate and store data in the cloud, users can optimize their on-device storage for the most impactful analytics,” said Zach Fowler, chief product officer of HarperDB. “It’s important that we constantly evolve the HarperDB solution to meet industry demands. With enhanced geo-analysis and the ability to concurrently run large data sets in the background, our customers have a competitive advantage they can exploit for success.”

HarperDB’s dynamic schema (that means database fields that can be changed in name, form and relationship to other data values as business requirements change) allows for geo-analysis and reaction to constantly evolving IoT data in real time from the edge. Fowler says that as more IoT sensors are deployed, the complexity around data analysis will increase dramatically.

How geo-data works

Utilizing the industry standard of GeoJSON (a format for encoding a variety of geographic data structures) users can integrate with MapBox, Google Maps and other Geographic Information System (GIS) applications. Traditionally, geo data would be analyzed in a GIS or spatial database. What HarperDB is saying is that companies can now combine workloads for applications, data warehousing and spatial analysis into a single product.

“It is especially critical in IoT for companies to be able to immediately identify where systems need attention in real-time as their data is transacting or to understand where it trends overtime. With HarperDB's geo-analysis functions, users have the ability to visualize and understand their data as it occurs in the real world by gaining insights into specific locations, regions or their entire topology,” said Kyle Bernhardy, chief technology officer of HarperDB.

This whole get smart at the edge element of the IoT has some logic to it, that is - firms using these technologies want to be able to make decisions about what data needs to be stored on the edge without incurring further storage or hardware costs. Think about all those video capture cameras and sensors out there constantly creating data files and needing to hang on to them until they are needed.

Time to Live, or Die

HarperDB says it is addressing this aspect with its Time to Live auto expire data function. We don’t actually need to make that old data die and kill it off. In fact, users can store the most important information on the IoT edge while retaining full access to all historical data in the cloud.

The proliferation of IoT devices is being seen in every industry from oil and gas, logistics, military defense, telecommunications, agriculture and so on. Making these machines work better and work smarter means giving them more power ‘in situ’ for sure… but it also means making that on-device at-the-edge power moveable, malleable and manageable so that we can draw it all back home into the cloud when we want to.

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What Does IoT Look Like In Nigeria Right Now? - Akindare

Like one those starving children Western media love to use to depict Africa is the answer to the title question. But it’s not as vacant as you would think. GRIT Systems’ G1 product, for all intents and purposes, is an IoT device that is designed, built and sold here in Nigeria.

But the IoT space isn’t popping either. There are no big startups, government policies or funding rounds. So what really is going on, you ask? Well, we took a look:

Who is doing great stuff?

The hardware community is doing a lot of incredible things around IoT. From the aforementioned GRIT Systems to Fasmicro’s Zenvus, which makes a range of connected sensors and nodes, the maker community are building quite a few IoT solutions that actually have the potential for massive scale. 

There’s also the Obuno IoT Engine, built with 95% made-in-Nigeria components by Abuja-based not-for-profit Innovation Habitat Initiative for Indigenous Technology(iHabitat).

Agu Collins Agu, mentor at iHabitat and director, Corporate Planning & Strategy Department of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), says, “It is maker friendly and fully compatible with Arduino IDE and peripheral modules. Obuno IoT Engine, an end-to-end platform helps IoT developers avoid tunnel vision and its consequences by providing a comprehensive set of hardware and software components that easily combine into complete IoT applications, providing developers with a head start on their custom designs.”

The federal government seems to be aware of the potential of the IoT space too. Recently, it approved six Cisco-executed “IoT labs” in six unity schools across the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria. But that’s about it. The National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) has no investments or white paper concerning IoT. There aren’t even skills development programs specific to IoT.

Opportunities

The fourth industrial revolution is upon us and as [both] the largest economy and largest population in Africa, Nigeria should not get left behind (again). At Cisco Connect 2014 in South Africa, Cisco estimated that the IoT market in Africa alone is worth $500 billion – and that is a very tiny fraction of the global estimate. Obviously, if Nigeria wants to play in that market, it needs to create enablers.  

An enabler could be promoting local IoT solutions and providing those solutions with access to market or creating collaborative spaces where people can tinker and build. Imagine traffic systems that can direct traffic based on data collected from connected cameras and sensors, and algorithms. There is so much ‘innovating’ that could be happening.

IoT is also a “future” technology in that it’s not at full maturity yet and the kinks are still being worked out. However, the 13.2 billion devices already connected to the Internet in 2015 shows that in the future, IoT will rule everything. There are even posits that IoT is the next evolution of the Internet as we know it. That’s why it’s a great opportunity to invest in it now, while the rest of the world is also trying to figure it out, so we can have some kind of footing later on as well as benefit from shared knowledge.

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Rigado Raises $15 Million for Expansion of Commercial IoT Edge-as-a-Service

Rigado, a global provider of commercial IoT Edge-as-a-Service solutions, recently announced it has closed a $15 million Series A round of funding, led by Madrona Venture Group with participation from Vanedge Capital, Rogue Ventures, FusionX Ventures and the Oregon Venture Fund. The investment will be used to expand its engineering, sales and deployment teams to meet growing demand for Rigado solutions that provide connectivity, computing and security for large-scale IoT applications such as smart buildings, asset tracking and connected retail. In addition, the funding will be used to help Rigado further extend its global footprint. Joining the board will be Len Jordan from Madrona and Moe Kermani from Vanedge Capital.

“The commercial IoT market is growing quickly as business owners understand the need for widespread supply chain control, smart buildings, asset tracking and the ability to personalize consumer services in retail locations,” said Len Jordan, managing director, Madrona Venture Group. “Rigado’s team has a deep understanding of both the technology and customer challenges and we are excited to help them grow to be a global powerhouse.”

In the year since Rigado announced $5.2M in seed funding, the company has seen rapid year-over-year growth fueled by accelerated new product development. It opened an EMEA headquarters in London and seeks to continue to extend its international footprint with today’s funding. Rigado partners with a broad set of companies to deploy their complete edge IoT service in locations across the globe.

“The past year has seen very strong growth and interest from commercial organizations and their IoT partners, a testimony to the hard work of the Rigado team,” said Ben Corrado, CEO, Rigado. “We’re proud to be working with a team of creative, dedicated employees and innovative companies who use Rigado’s edge infrastructure to deploy their IoT applications on a global scale. From faster time to ROI to greater security and enhanced management, we look forward to further accelerating Rigado innovation and extending our solutions to more enterprises worldwide.”

Rigado Cascade Edge-as-a-Service

Rigado recently announced Cascade, its integrated Edge-as-a-Service solution built on Microsoft Azure for IoT edge connectivity, computing and security. Offered as a simple monthly subscription, Rigado Cascade reduces the complexity, risk and cost of large-scale commercial IoT deployments.

The Cascade IoT Gateway solution integrates with Azure IoT to enable smart building solutions at scale. Rigado is a limited preview partner of new Azure IoT spatial intelligence capabilities announced this month.

“The internet of things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) have great potential to help building owners, operators, and occupants manage and dwell in buildings with greater efficiency—saving costs and energy, and organizing space in a way that best fits a company’s culture and goals,” said Bert Van Hoof, Partner, Group Program Manager Azure IoT, Microsoft. “New Azure IoT capabilities make it easy to create, scale, manage, and secure solutions that take advantage of spatial intelligence. Rigado’s solutions provide a key ingredient in this context, enabling a range of new real estate applications that can help bring the next level of ‘smart’ to the built environment.”

(IoT Evolution) 

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Google: Datally app will reduce high mobile data usage in Nigeria

Concerned about data consumer complaints on fast depletion of data bundles on mobile devices, caused by too many unwanted background apps that are running on mobile devices, Google has said that the newly introduced app for emerging markets, called Datally, would help data users in Nigeria to monitor and control their data usage. 

Announcing the launch of Datally in Lagos recently, Google Nigeria Country Director, Juliet Ehimuan-Chiazor, said the new app, which was specifically designed for data users in emerging markets like Nigeria, would help Android users understand and control their mobile data to get the most out of their data plans. 

According to her, "For the last few years, our Next Billion Users team has been doing a lot of research on the ground in fast-growing internet countries like Nigeria, We have found that data is a major constraint for the next billion users. Introducing Datally into the Nigerian smartphone market will help users understand how to control their mobile data better. 

"Google tested Datally in the Philippines for most of 2017, and the insights from the product tests there, shaped the final app. The user research showed that people testing the app saved up to 30 per cent of their mobile data, depending on the way they used Datally." Datally works on all smartphones running Android 5.0 and higher and is available for download on the Google Play Store globally. 

(ThisDay)

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Intel cuts stake in ASML to below 5 pct

Chipmaker Intel (INTC.O) has cut its stake in Dutch semiconductor equipment supplier ASML (ASML.AS) to 4.96 percent, according to a filing published by the Dutch Financial Markets Authority on Friday.

Intel took a 15 percent stake in ASML in 2012 as part of a program to help the company invest in new technology needed to build the next generation of smaller, faster chips. With ASML’s new machines now beginning to enter commercial production, that investment program is winding down.

In its most recent previous report in June, ASML had reported a 9.96 percent stake in ASML.

Samsung (005930.KS) and TSMC 233O.TW, which also took stakes in ASML in 2012 have also been gradually selling down their shares.

(Reuters)

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The incredible ways Heineken uses Big Data, The Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence (AI) - Bernard Marr

Every industry can benefit from Big Data, IoT and AI, and that includes brewers. Dutch brewer Heineken has been a worldwide brewing leader for the last 150 years, but today, as the No. 1 brewer in Europe and No. 2 in the world they are ramping up their results thanks to the use of big data and AI. As the company sets out to better compete in the formidable U.S. beer market they plan to leverage the vast amounts of data they collect. Currently they sell more than 8.5 million barrels of its various beer brands here in the U.S., but they hope to increase those numbers with data-driven improvements and AI augmentation to its operations, marketing, advertising and customer experience.

Heineken Improves Operations through Data Analytics

From forecasting to optimizing delivery routes, Heineken uses data at every stage of the supply chain . Data informs Heineken’s collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment processes to eliminate inefficiencies throughout the entire chain. Through data analytics the brewer can adjust production when there is high inventory, long production or replenishment lead-times, and seasonal variances in the demand for its products.

The Internet of Things and Heineken’s Ignite Bottle

The brewer is not letting the potential of the Internet of Things (IoT) pass them by. By 2025, the Internet of Things is expected to generate up to
$11.1 trillion a year in economic value according to a McKinsey Global Institute report. Heineken has already dabbled in the IoT with its Ignite bottle—one of the winning ideas for the company’s annual Future Bottle Design Challenge. These interactive bottles have 50 individual components and sensors including LED lights that turn beer bottles into connected devices that respond to the beat of the music in clubs and reflect its rhythms so that “every bottle becomes part of the party.” Its lights also flicker when the bottle is tipped back for a drink, “cheers” another bottle and dims when nobody is touching it. The Ignite bottle certainly contributes to a memorable customer experience when enjoying a Heineken brew.

Data-Driven Marketing

Heineken partnered with Walmart on a pilot program with Shopperception, a company that analyzes the behavior of shoppers in front of the shelves and uses the metrics it gathers to create real-time events to drive more conversions. This program helped them gather a tremendous amount of data on how every six-pack or can of Heineken left the store. The brewer and retailer can assess all the data collected to better understand the customer who is purchasing Heineken as well what might be the best location in the store to sell beer and when.

Heineken also has a strong social media following and created partnerships with Facebook and Google to better understand their customers. Now armed with this insight, Heineken can create personalized and event-driven marketing experiences.

Customer Engagement and Building Relationships

Building customer engagement is at the core of many of Heineken’s marketing executions. The company’s
social media strategy strives to develop relationships with its fans rather than just bombard their feeds with posts of beer glasses and links to its latest ads. They implemented the “Star Treatment” that includes targeted mobile ads, special offers and exclusive events. Every Facebook and Twitter post is tagged with a unique identifier that allows the social media strategists to gather data on how people are responding to the posts.
The brewer launched a “dual screen” experience with a StarPlayer game during a Champions league football tournament. The football game matched in real-time with the StarPlayer game, so its experience was dependent on what occurred on the field. Of course, the game also helped the fans engage with the Heineken brand at the same time they were cheering their football team.

Last year during the EUFA Champions League Final, the company introduced the Heineken Banternator on Twitter—the world’s first AI football commentator. This bot was taught to respond to Heineken’s Twitter followers with relevant football banter during every aspect of the entire game from kickoff to penalties to each goal.
The company’s New Zealand branch is piloting a new way to engage with customers through Bluetooth Low Energy beacons . They have enabled bar and restaurant management with a smartphone app and content-management software so they can use Heineken LIVE to send out messages, specials and rewards to those within range of their establishment’s beacon.

Can Machines Help Us Improve Beer?

IntelligentX is one company that is attempting to deploy AI to improve beer recipes and customize beers for individuals. They don’t plan to replace the human artistry of beer brewing, only augment the capabilities with feedback from consumers and other data points. IntelligentX’s founders launched the idea after becoming frustrated with how other breweries used data to only data to alter advertising plans rather than actually improve the product. Whether this can be scaled to the worldwide demand is another question, but it’s intriguing to watch it develop.

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New York attorney general sues Charter over internet speeds

New York filed a lawsuit on Wednesday accusing Charter Communications Inc of short-changing customers who were promised faster internet speeds than it could deliver.

The lawsuit in State Supreme Court in Manhattan accused Charter's Spectrum unit, until recently known as Time Warner Cable, of systematically defrauding customers since 2012 by promising and charging for services it knew it could not offer.

At least 640,000 subscribers signed up for high-speed plans but got slower speeds, and many subscribers were unable to access promised online content such as Facebook, Netflix, YouTube and various gaming platforms, the complaint said.

The lawsuit seeks "full restitution" for customers, as well as hefty civil fines.

In a press conference, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said his office filed the lawsuit after fielding thousands of complaints from unhappy customers.
"The allegations in today's lawsuits confirm what many of you have long suspected," he said. "Spectrum-Time Warner has been ripping you off."

Charter bought Time Warner Cable last year.

In a statement, Charter said it was disappointed that the attorney general challenged Time Warner Cable's broadband speed advertisements that predated the merger.

"We will continue to invest in our business and deliver the highest quality services to our customers while we defend against these allegations involving Time Warner Cable practices," the Stamford, Connecticut-based company said.

Among the allegations in the complaint was an accusation that Time Warner Cable leased older-generation modems to 900,000 subscribers knowing that the modems could not achieve faster internet speeds.

Schneiderman had in October launched a probe into whether three major internet providers were shortchanging consumers.

The others included Verizon Communications Inc and Cablevision Systems Corp, now owned by European telecom group Altice NV.

(Reuters)

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Creators of the selfie honoured with £1 million prize

Four inventors whose work paved the way for the selfie phenomenon have been awarded the world's most prestigious prize for engineering.

The £1 million Queen Elizabeth Prize is shared by British-born Dr Michael Tompsett, Prof Nobukazu Teranishi from Japan, and Prof Eric Fossum and George Smith from the US.

Between them, their innovations, which span three decades, revolutionised the way we capture and analyse visual information.

The winners of the prize will be formally honoured in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace later this year. Along with the £1 million prize, they will each will receive an iconic trophy

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Three U.S. companies expected to dominate the Internet of Things

As the Internet of Things (IoT) picks up speed on the course of the next decade, much of the work will be on infrastructure. Wired and wireless networks and systems that monitor huge loads of incoming data from all the connected “things” are essential for real-world IoT applications. Three U.S. companies sit in prime positions to create the IoT backbone, according to a Business Insider report.

Cisco, General Electric, and Verizon already have infrastructure products that can slot right into developing IoT systems and applications. Consumer IoT applications will likely do just fine with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi wireless connections, but business and government will need more robust systems, including long-range (LoRa) wireless networks. Business Insider and The Motley Fool peg business and government as the largest adopters of the Internet of Things.

Cisco’s networking hardware, its key business, will be in great demand. Cisco has long been recognized as the leader in networking infrastructure, which makes it a slam dunk for at least a top slot on the short list of any organization building out a complex IoT system.

Verizon’s wireless network not only has more U.S. subscribers than other wireless providers, but it’s also the furthest along in developing next-generation 5G connections, described as 30-50 times as fast as 4G. According to The Motley Fool, Verizon said that 5G wireless “will provide the ecosystem to enable a fully mobile and connected world.”

General Electric recently moved its world headquarters from Fairfield county in Connecticut to the Boston area to be close to the technology and artificial intelligence centers — and for tax purposes. G.E. is already deep into the IoT with its Predix cloud-based suite of applications for industry. Likened to an operating system for cloud systems combined with an app store, G.E.’s Predix is the sole player in the market at this time. G.E. itself is already a Predix user, which provides the company with growing expertise with industrial implementations and applications.

Business Insider stated that industry will be the largest adopter of IoT in order to lower operating costs, increase productivity, and expand product offerings and markets. Government applications will be the second most common IoT implementation, with consumer use in third place. Today, when many people hear about the Internet of Things, they think of smart home thermometers and appliances. But the real action, the greatest growth of what is forecast to be a $6 trillion market during the next five years, will be in business and government applications. Cisco, G.E., and Verizon are poised to take lion’s shares of the underlying business.

(Digital Trends)

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Meet 'Pillo,' the robot that aims to be your personal pharmacy

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Amazon adds programmable Dash Button for IoT

The Amazon Dash Button is simple. If you press a button for toilet paper, you get toilet paper. But sometimes simplicity isn't all it's cracked up to be: what if you had a programmable Dash Button that could do almost anything when you pressed it?

Such a button now exists. It's called the AWS IoT Button, and it's definitely not simple. To use it, you need to be a developer who understands Amazon Web Services architecture: Lambda, DynamoDB, SNS, and the like. If you do, the possibilities of this button are endless: a few lines of AWS code can tell the button to interact with pretty much anything that's connected to the Internet.

Here are some of Amazon's suggestions: "For example, you can click the button to unlock or start a car, open your garage door, call a cab, call your spouse or a customer service representative, track the use of common household chores, medications or products, or remotely control your home appliances.

"The button can be used as a remote control for Netflix, a switch for your Philips Hue light bulb, a check-in/check-out device for Airbnb guests, or a way to order your favorite pizza for delivery. You can integrate it with third-party APIs like Twitter, Facebook, Twilio, Slack or even your own company's applications."

If you're an Amazon Echo owner, and these all sound like things you can already use Alexa to accomplish with voice commands, you're not mistaken. The IoT Button is very much like Alexa. Amazon CTO Werner Vogels put it this way in a tweet: "if you can do it as an Alexa Skill, you can you it with the button."

The IoT Button went on sale at Amazon.com yesterday for $19.95, according to GeekWire, though it apparently sold out and is no longer available. The battery is rated for 1,000 pushes; after that, you'll have to replace it. Regular Dash buttons, meanwhile, are free after your first order.

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Soon you'll be able to store your driving licence on your iPhone

The days of paper driving licences are already long gone, but motorists may soon be able to get in their cars without any form of physical identification.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is working on a digital version of the driving licence that could be stored in the Apple Wallet on an iPhone or iPad.

DVLA chief executive Oliver Morley teased the plans on Twitter with a photo of a digital driving licence on an iPhone, claiming this is "something we're working on".

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