The Internet of Things Phenomenon

The UK government is to spend an extra £45m on research for the development of “internet of things” technology as it hopes to lead the new industrial revolution alongside Germany.

Speaking at the CeBIT technology trade show in Germany on 9^th March,  UK Prime Minister David Cameron said that the UK government would pledge more than double the current funds available to UK technology firms, working on devices that can communicate over the internet. This additional £45m of funding brings the total pot to a whopping £73m!

Providing it with the simplest of definitions, “Internet of Things” refers to devices that can sense aspects of the real world – such as temperature, lighting, the presence or absence of people, etc. – and report or act upon that real-world data. At present, most data on the internet is being produced and consumed by people. It is about making information increasingly produced and consumed by machines. For example - an internet connected water pipe can automatically warn of a drop in pressure. It is hoped that this technology will provide a means of boosting productivity, keeping us healthier, making transport more efficient, reducing energy needs and even tackling climate change.

The Prime Minister hopes for the UK and Germany to lead this new “industrial revolution”:

"I see the internet of things as a huge transformative development - a way of boosting productivity, of keeping us healthier, making transport more efficient, reducing energy needs, tackling climate change," he said.

"Take British ingenuity in software, services and design, add German excellence in engineering and industrial manufacturing and together we can lead in this new revolution."

US research firm Gartner forecasts the market to be worth $300bn by 2020, with nearly 26 billion devices connected to the internet of things.

Sources: Marketing Week, BBC

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Apple is using location data in a whole new way, and it’s about to transform your life

Apple changed the way we live with the iPod. Then it did it again with the iPhone.

Steve Jobs repeated the feat once again with the iPad, and just as we get used to that, his company's about to transform our lives for the fourth time.

Apple announced its iBeacon technology with iOS7 and it's been built into all the firm's operating systems and devices since 2013. If businesses simply set up some transmitters, they can send messages to nearby smartphones advertising their presence and doing everything from sending special offers to recognising a customer.

Here are outlines two things you need to know about iBeacon:

1. It's based on Bluetooth Low Energy

Bluetooth LE is fuelling the Internet of Things, and the latest version of the 10-year-old innovation was designed specifically so it's not as energy sapping as its predecessors. This is the backbone of iBeacon - despite Bluetooth's location-based technology, it wouldn't work if everyone disabled the feature to conserve battery life.

It also means it's open standard. While Apple's trademarked iBeacon, Android and other operating systems can utilise Bluetooth to do the same thing too. The only thing they'd need to do is develop a similar app - Apple decided to build it into iOS7, meaning each smartphone automatically locates itself by using its own triangulating software.

2. Bluetooth and NFC will go head to head

Near Field Communication (NFC) has co-existed fairly peacefully with Bluetooth since 2004, but many predict that relations will grow hostile as the IoT takes hold. Nine years ago, NFC was very different to Bluetooth, but while the two are based on very distinct technologies, they are growing increasingly similar.

NFC is limited to distances of just a few centimetres, while Bluetooth extends to more than 30ft. But as Bluetooth's location accuracy improves with every update, and as the IoT means close-field communication becomes more important, the question arises: don't we just need one?