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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
If there were any doubt that IoT is for real, one fact ought to dispel it: For the first time, U.S. mobile operators are adding IoT connections to their networks faster than they’re adding phones.
In fact, cars alone are getting connected to cellular networks faster than anything else, according to statistics compiled by Chetan Sharma Consulting for the second quarter of this year. Counting all U.S. carriers, about 1.4 million cars got connected to cellular networks in the quarter, compared with 1.2 million phones and less than 900,000 tablets.
The second quarter, between April and June, isn’t a high point for new phone sales like the fourth quarter, when holiday shopping hits and new iPhone models roll out. But IoT growth has been a long-term trend.
AT&T, the carrier that’s led in connected cars, has already been adding them faster than phones and tablets combined for seven consecutive quarters, says Sharma, a longtime mobile industry analyst. AT&T’s on track to reach 10 million car connections soon, he said.
For now, most of those cars have been tuning in without their drivers lifting a finger, Sharma said. It’s the car companies that are rolling out vehicles with live cellular connections, which can help them do things like monitor the condition of their cars, update the software on board, and learn things that could help them improve future models. Keeping vehicles online may also reduce the need for expensive recalls where cars have to come back into the shop.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by mendax on Friday August 12 2016, @08:05PM
Fortunately, while I am a geek, I resist the temptation to buy "geeky stuff". My truck is 10 years old and is hackable only with a master key (or a tire iron). However, I recently got hearing aids thanks to the tinnitus created by a concussion thanks to an idiot who knocked me off my motorcycle at a red light last year. Watching the audiologist program them from his computer made me think about how how hackable they are. I've heard of Bluetooth-equipped hearing aids that allow users to use their phones with them. Now, if I had a couple of those someone could drive me insane by playing nasty rap music or, worse, American country music through them.
But the most devilish thing a person could create is an Internet-enabled cat brush. Imagine how it would allow my very smart and evil black cat to pester me even more at my desk than she already does by having it beep at me when she wants me to brush her fur out. Anyone who has owned a cat knows that they are as evil as Hitler and as narcissistic as Donald Trump, and that they will do anything to get what they want.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday August 12 2016, @08:14PM
I brushed a cat a few times in my life. As I was reaching for that stupid brush one evening, it occured to me that the cat has it's own built in cat brush. If Kitty needs grooming, then Kitty needs to get busy. I've done my part to slow down the upward evolution of felines, and the downward evolution of the feline's servants. The only question in my mind is, did cats create the clever simians, or did cats just domesticate the clever simians?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday August 12 2016, @08:18PM
We domesticated one another, if you think about it.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 12 2016, @10:52PM
Domestication and ownership of cats may actually be caused by a disease. Toxoplasma gondii has well-known effects on the behavior of mammals, including the seeking out of cats. People say that it doesn't have the same effect on humans, in what I surmise to the whole "people aren't animals" line of thinking. However, given the links to other mental illnesses caused by T. gondii that people share with other mammals (schizophrenia, OCD), it shouldn't be surprising that other ones turn up too. There is a pretty good article about it here: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/03/how-your-cat-is-making-you-crazy/308873/ [theatlantic.com] and the evidence mention in it has only gotten stronger as more experiments are done.
(Score: 2) by q.kontinuum on Saturday August 13 2016, @08:42PM
You are talking about humans and cats or about you and Runaway, getting more civilized with each other?
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday August 14 2016, @03:34AM
Humans and cats. I've been domesticated by my girlfriend and Runaway's got rabies so he's a non-starter.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday August 12 2016, @09:00PM
The cats directed the evolution of the simians for maximum comfort and heat transfer. Why else would we only have hair left where we do?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 12 2016, @09:06PM
Trendiness fail. Kill yourself now.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 12 2016, @09:15PM
I have a different reason not to buy these IoT things. Once you seen how the sausage is made you dont want it :)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 12 2016, @10:35PM
Once you see the source code, you appreciate the software even more, because it's a miracle that it works at all!
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 13 2016, @12:13AM
Yes I know. I was one of the writers of said code. To get my management to 'talk' about security was a chore. They had a *very* jedi hand wavy 'it is secure' way of doing it. I will not say which company I worked for, but it was a big one. From what I saw this sort of attitude is rampant in the whole industry. Very few take it seriously.
People are worried about not owning their own computers? Dont be. The crap is insecure top to bottom. Be more worried about the service your IoT device connects to works in 5 years. They will either shut the platform down because it is woefully unprofitable; or they want to move everyone to a new platform so they can resell you the hardware and a higher monthly cost.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 13 2016, @02:54AM
Oddly enough, I had a tour of a small sausage factory a few years back. I think the company employes about 50 people, so this is a "boutique" meat processor. After looking all around, the place was so clean and neat, washed down all the time, I have no problem eating that brand of sausage.
This says nothing about national brands of hot dogs, etc. They may well match the old phrase...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 12 2016, @10:52PM
as evil as Hitler
Citation needed.
(Score: 2) by Rich on Saturday August 13 2016, @11:27AM
Fortunately, while I am a geek, I resist the temptation to buy "geeky stuff".
Well, what you mention, digital remote-restrictrion-enabled, unhackable crap is not "geeky" at all. It might be "trendy", but "geeky" it ain't. A bag of parts from the electronics store, waiting for the soldering iron to be brought together in a way that does the job in an individual (and maybe puzzling to non-geeks) way, that is "geeky".