communication

The Diffusion Group (TDG) has release a new report entitled “The In-Home CE Ecosystem of U.S. Broadband Households: 2010”. The report highlights the shift of the connected device from the home office to the living room where more devices are connected. It compares the location of hubs, routers and gateways in today’s homes with those of a few years ago. It looks at the shift also in terms of the types of content that is consume, how it is more web/internet centric.

ADT Security has released the ADT Pulse, a new interactive smart home touch screen solution. The ADT Pulse will provide anytime and anywhere access to your home security system via computer, iPhone or smartphone. ADT Pulse can be integrated into your whole home automation solution, so you can manage light, temperature, get security alerts and more.  It is built around Z-Wave open standard and will support other home automation solutions.

After two years in the making the BBC Trust has formally annoucnced what is to become of Project Canvas, its planned internet TV service. They have renamed it to from Canvas to YouView and said the service is expected to go live in early 2011.  The service like Freeview will allow UK households to watch live television except it will be through a Set-top Box via their broadband connection. There is one added partner (Arqiva) to the original five (ITV, BT, Five, C4 and Talk Talk).

A picture is worth a thousand word they say, the will be true for messenger user because Microsoft Hardware has launched the LifeCam, a new high-definition (HD) web video camera which offers true 1080p resolution. The LifeCam said Microsoft is to complement windows Live Messenger 2011, which will offer video calling. MSN Messenger users are in for a treat with this release now along with chat they will be able to see each other with bright clear picture.

Small computing devices like high-end digital home entertainment, tablets, smartphones and large-screen mobile computing is about to get more powerful and faster, with the launched of the Cortex-A15 MPCore Processor. According to ARM, the Cortex-A15 Processor delivers a 5x performance improvement over today’s advance smartphone processors and run up to 2.5GHz with a small energy footprint.

Broadcom and Philips Home Control have combined their technologies to create a new class of remote control for the emerging connected home appliances. The remote was developed using Broadcom Bluetooth technology and Philips expertise in advance wireless input and control solutions, and features Gestural Control for game consoles and other wirelessly connected devices.

Opera Software has release version 2.8 of its Opera Device SDK Software Development Kit that integrates support for HTML 5 video and features Opera’s newest and fastest JavaScript engine - Carakan. The new release will allow device manufactures to embed a web browser into their devices and even add extra features and functionalities developed on top of the browser with the SDK.

4Home today announced Verizon Investments Inc. participation in 4Home's Series-B financing round that closed in the first quarter of 2010. The investment, which was arranged through Verizon Communications Inc.'s Verizon Ventures group, assists 4Home to facilitate consumer-focused initiatives, including those underway with Verizon.

Entropic communications, a major player within the connected home sector, today announced the appointment of Mr. Robert Bailey and Dr. Theodore Tewksbury as members on it's board of directors.  Mr. Bailey is to leave PMC-Sierra where he is the chairman of the board and Dr. Tewksbury is leaving Integrated Device Technology (IDT) where he is the president and chief executive officer. Both men are added to strengthen Entropic’s position as a major player in the connected home entertainment market.

Marvell, a worldwide leader in integrated silicon solutions, today announced it has acquired the intellectual property and assets of Diseno de Sistemas en Silicio S.A. ("DS2"), a supplier of high speed semiconductor solutions for powerline communications.  Powerline technology converts any existing electrical power wiring into an intelligent, high-speed networking medium, enabling consumers to quickly and affordably create a "connected home" that can stream virtually any personal or subscription-based digital content to and from any room at high speeds.  Terms of the deal were not disclosed.