Open Data – The UK leads, but what are the benefits?

Europe is often regarded as playing somewhat second fiddle to the US when it comes to technology and innovation – with little to show for compared to the dominance of Silicon Valley’s big Internet companies (though China is beginning to catch up) . However there is one area where Europe, and particularly the UK, is leading the way – namely the use and dissemination of Open Data. In this post, I explore what Big Data is, and what are the main … Read more…

Amazon rethinks mobile payments strategy

Only six months after launch, Amazon has appeared to have pulled its beta Amazon Wallet app, in the wake of a raft of poor reviews, having averaged 3.1 stars on the Google Play store. This product could only use Amazon vouchers and credit as a means of payment, and was consequently not well received by users, who did not see the point of it. Pointedly, all its main competitors seem to have more comprehensive products and strategies in this space – Apple Pay accepts … Read more…

Big Bang Disruption – L Downes, P Nunes

Touted as one of the ‘must read’ business books of the digital age, this is an important book, even though it does not quite meet the levels of hyperbole on the cover – “Everything you need from business school in one very direct book”. Instead, this book describes the nature of digital disruptors very well, particularly the economic and technology drivers and the impact they are having (both deliberate and accidental) upon incumbent players. The authors prescribe a number of useful … Read more…

UK regulator Ofcom launches initial 5G consultation

It has been barely 2 years since the 800MHz and 2600MHz bands were assigned in the UK for use by 4G services, and Ofcom, the UK communications regulator has already kicked off the process for assigning spectrum to be used by as-yet unknown 5G technology. Perhaps stung by criticism that the UK was a laggard in assigning 4G spectrum. However, the spectrum being considered is at 6GHz, and many home WiFi users will attest to, very high frequency spectrum does not … Read more…

Google in talks to buy SoftCard

SoftCard, the struggling mobile payments joint venture in the US between AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile is apparently in the eyes of Google as it seeks to counter the success of Apple Pay in the US. Be interesting to see what this means for other carrier payment joint-ventures, such as Weve in the UK. The Wall Street Journey covers the essentials of this story well. Google Is in Talks to Buy Mobile-Payments Service Softcard null  

50 Smart City Applications

Libelium, a manufacturer of sensors and connected devices provides a useful list of case studies and applications for smart sensors, covering urban applications, environmental monitoring, water management, smart grid and energy distribution, security applications, retail, logistics, industrial control and agriculture. Top 50 Internet of Things Applications – Ranking | Libelium    

The Internet of Things – A conceptual model

Earlier this week, we saw how TechCrunch attempted to model the Internet of Things ecosystem. In this post I propose an alternative model, albeit one quite similar in structure . I will not attempt to reproduce in comparable detail the vast number of companies and organisations involved, but will simply provide a representation on how the overall model can be represented. In common with many other models, I too split the connected things ecosystem into industry verticals and horizontal enablers. … Read more…

Big data predictions in the online and physical world

One piece of news that hit the headlines this week was the revelation from researchers from the University of Cambridge and Stanford University that Facebook may be a better judge of personalities than spouses or friends. Apart from the obvious hype value this is particularly significant as it shows the power of machine learning in scenarios which we intuitively feel should be difficult for algorithms to handle. Instead it turns out the the inherent lack of subjective bias and prejudice … Read more…

Mapping the IOT Ecosystem – 612 companies at a time

One of the most ambitious attempts to pull together the key players in the IoT space can be found in TechCrunch, courtesy of Matt Turck of FirstMark Capital. Originally compiled in 2013, their ecosystem is divided into verticals, enablers and building blocks. Like any attempt to make sense of such a complex web of players, it is imperfect – see ARM, Amazon and Sony grouped rather randomly into a ‘Corporates’ bucket. What is startling is that this version has increased … Read more…

CES 2015 – Internet of Things goes Mainstream

Reviewing the various round-ups on what was big at CES, most agree that the Internet of Things was pretty high up the agenda of the companies attending, and was the underlying theme for the event. Not that this is a reliable predictor – don’t forget that 2012 was the year that supposed saw 3D TV come of age. The Absentees It is perhaps worth starting with a reminder of the notable absentees, Apple, Google and Microsoft, the three industry’s largest platform and … Read more…

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