home working

The UK’s technology trade association Intellect has published a report in which it predicts the UK’s connected home market could worth £3bn a year within the next five years. The report entitled “Connected Home – a Reality” looks at elements of the connected home and offers guidance on making it a reality for everyone. Read more »

The Portuguese are building a city that has never been see or built before, except in the minds of the designers.  A place where the environment feeds off us and wee feed off it. Through the use of the Urban Operating System (UOS^tm) the physical structure will be fitted with embedded sensor technology that allows it to manage it resources based on feeds it gets from us and the other systems, such as other machines and the atmosphere. Read more »

For a while Google and Microsoft were encouraging utilities and consumer to get connected through their solutions to learn more about their energy use.  Google launched the Google PowerMeter through it iGoogle platform, Microsoft launched Microsoft Hohm and Cisco launched the Home Energy Controller gadgets and software. They all promised information at our finger tips so we can make more informed decisions on how we use our home energy. Read more »

Lorex Technology has announced the latest innovation in their line of plug & play home video monitoring solutions. The Lorex Live Connect (LW2031) is the first in its series that features an easy-to-use portable home monitor with remote viewing over the Internet using Skype.  Live Connect is the first of its kind to carry the Plugged Into Skype designation. Read more »

A Home Run - Berlin, Birmingham and Beijing are no different to Boston or Bangkok: citizens everywhere are spending more and more time connected and are excited about 4G networks, machine-to-machine technology and embedded mobile devices. Amdocs’ market research survey of some 4700 consumers in 14 countries shows that consumers want, and will pay extra for, a “connected home” - a home environment conveniently controlled from residents’ smartphones, tablets, PCs or even connected-TV interfaces. Read more »

The University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) has been selected by The RVU Alliance as the first independent vendor to handle the certification program for RVU products. According to the Alliance the first RVU client devices are now entering the certification process and should be available in the next few months. The current set of devices will be certified based on the ratified RVU 1.4 specification. Work on the RVU version 2.0 is already started and will include support for advanced graphics, and additional profiles to support mobile client displays. Read more »

Digital Home software provider SoftAtHome, is opening a new office in Dubai to support the current deployment of its technology by Etisalat. As their first subsidiary outside of Europe, SoftAtHome said they want to address the needs of other operators in the region. The SoftAtHome range of digital home software helps operators and 3rd party developers to create innovative and convergent applications for the Digital Home. Read more »

I have read mix opinions on the recent acquisition of Skype by Microsoft, for about $8.5 billion. Some thinks it’s a waist of money and believe it could be better spent on some of Microsoft own systems and strategies.  Others said why buy Skype when they [Microsoft] already have a Lync, their own unified communication platform.  From a connected home point of view, I personally think a lot can come out of this acquisition and marriage of technologies based on the direction I see the market going. Read more »

The connected home is slowly becoming a reality for many of us and many businesses are positioning themselves to take advantage of this lucrative market. Among the many businesses is Microsoft; quietly and behind the scene they have been working on solutions, that according them we will be using in the next 3 to 15 years. These do not include the Windows operating system or Microsoft Office software but devices and software that we take around with us and appliances that we use in our homes. Read more »

Savant systems launches a new line of Apple-based Audio Visual control and distribution platform, called SmartSystems, which consist of eight systems. The new solutions replace the current Rosie and PROTÉGÉ range and include an iTune-based digital media server. The SmartSystems will allow you to manage all your smart home appliances including home-theater control, whole-home automation, lighting, media and A/V distribution. Read more »