Internet of things struggles as use of smart home gadgets flatlines (telegraph.co.uk).
Indeed, as tablet sales have seemingly flatlined too (cultofmac.com, May 2014) while smart phones have not, making you wonder if—troublesome austerity aside as without consumerisation of entertainment gadgets and services economies return to needing to burn wood to slowly make charcoal in forest clearings (medievalhistories.com)—“the internet of things” is not much of a thing without a social and perhaps show off component.
“The technology giants of Silicon Valley have long predicted that all our fridges, ovens and light bulbs will soon be connected to the internet. But British households have yet to embrace the so-called ‘internet of things’, according to new research showing that sales are flatlining. Figures from Deloitte show that the popularity of connected home gadgets has barely changed in the last year, despite manufacturers and retailers trying to boost sales.”
For sure, because lighting controlled without potato mass leaving the sofa or heating that prepares a warm greeting before you arrive home does not really connect with people it seems, perhaps because it lacks the connection of showing “look what I’ve got” which I’d have to say seems to be quite a part of the social routine of a gathering of people whipping out and twiddling with their phones updating what they just had for tea.
However, one thing that aims to be part of said internet of things is being advertised heavily over here and I may predict a perhaps more connectedly fruitful outcome as it ticks that seemingly important “look what I got” box:
Ring Video Doorbell review: Chime-tastic security for your front door (pocket-lint.com).
“In the age of the smart home, the number of home devices being connected to the internet is expanding exponentially. Whether it’s a kettle, fridge, vacuum cleaner, the central heating or—in this case—a doorbell, you can control and monitor almost anything from your smartphone these days. Ring Video Doorbell review: What is it? The Ring Video Doorbell is an outdoor security camera and motion sensor, which is internet connected and can be used as a regular doorbell. Its built-in camera, microphone and speaker mean you can talk to anyone who’s at the door through your phone, using the app. Whether that’s a delivery guy and you’ve just got out of the shower, or an uninvited guest door-to-door selling who you want to ignore them without opening the door.”
So that you can answer chiming door in Essex from phone and tell deliveryman to “leave it with next door neighbour or place under generous mat eagerly awaiting for him to ask why you cannot come to the door to collect so you can excitedly exclaim “because I’m in Hull!” Dare I say I expect there will be a slew of prank answering rather than callers uploaded to GoogleTube pretending to be Addams Family’s Lurch to see *shocked* delivery guy’s face too.
Updates/Follow Ups
27th September 2016
But it seems some have found the Internet of Things is a thing with seemingly that thing being to try teach “nosy” journalists who certainly have and likely still are scuppering their scams a lesson, or better, make hosting too expensive for them whether they learn it or not:
The democratization of censorship (krebsonsecurity.com).
“As many of you know, my site was taken offline for the better part of this week. The outage came in the wake of a historically large distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack which hurled so much junk traffic at Krebsonsecurity.com that my DDoS protection provider Akamai chose to unmoor my site from its protective harbor. … There is every indication that this attack was launched with the help of a botnet that has enslaved a large number of hacked so-called ‘Internet of Things,’ (IoT) devices—mainly routers, IP cameras and digital video recorders (DVRs) that are exposed to the Internet and protected with weak or hard-coded passwords. Most of these devices are available for sale on retail store shelves for less than $100, or—in the case of routers—are shipped by ISPs to their customers.”
Mr Krebs perhaps prudently ducks the question of who would have the resources to do such quoting the the hypothesise of a fellow security researcher with “someone is extensively testing the core defensive capabilities of the companies that provide critical Internet services” with nation states supposed, but but quotes another suggesting “today’s reality is that DDoS attacks have become the Great Equalizer between private actors & nation-states”.
But I am positive he of course knows full well those that have—and indeed provide the “bulletproof hosting” for such—are the very people his security and scam journalistic blog nobly targets, who have in the past attempted every sort of take-down imaginable, including trying to set him up by having heroin delivered to his home address via The Silk Road, a tactic known—and usually aimed more pankishly at celebrities or on equally young adversaries on 4chan over a disagreement on a pornocised Pikachu—as Swatting (Wikipedia) and who have it seems found a new extortion racket in offering protection against such DDoS attacks (krebsonsecurity.com).
Recent/related stories
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