Connectivity in the Smart Home. Thread or Bluetooth Smart?

This blog has already explored the multitude of standards currently being used as the basis for connecting sensors, object and all sorts of things  to the Internet and to each other. Nowhere is this problem more acute than in the area of home automation, where the lack of widely adopted standards results in systems that don’t talk to each other, and worse, in systems that quickly become obsolete and cease to be supported by their manufacturers. The situation where the home … Read more…

Qualcomm set to acquire CSR

Today Qualcomm announced its planned purchase of CSR, formerly Cambridge Silicon radio. Key observation is that Qualcomm is making a dual-technology strategy for personal area and local area networking, namely Bluetooth and WiFi, the latter building on its previous Atheros acquisition. This surely must raise questions for the current home-automation protocols such as Zigbee and Z-Wave, who cannot compete for scale of deployment with Bluetooth and WiFi, which are implemented in practically every Smartphone and Tablet sold. As Qualcomm buys CSR, … Read more…