Blog articles from 06/2016

VidCon, online video's takeover of the Anaheim Convention Center, was interesting, thought provoking, educational, and honestly a lot of fun. Between keynotes and discussions on the future of online video, I witnessed mass gatherings of fan communities and enjoyed unexpected brief meetups with Dr. Lindsey Doe of sex ed channel Sexplanations, and Michael Stevens, creator and longtime host of the channel Vsauce. Amidst the controlled chaos of online video's biggest gathering, a few key...

It seems that everyone is talking about security nowadays. Each week, news stories present headlines of new breaches or, more troubling, breaches that happened months or years ago that were only recently discovered. In the past two weeks alone, security-related stories ran regarding recognizable brands and government organizations, such as Morgan Stanley , LinkedIn , Myspace , and school districts in New Hampshire and Colorado . Each story underscores the scope of the...

Healthcare reforms in the U.S. and in other global markets are incentivizing care providers to take deeper interest in how their patients manage their health on a day-to-day basis. Connected health devices and apps , built on cloud-based platforms, give consumers and their care providers the insight they need to manage health conditions in a proactive, ongoing way. This is particularly important for those with chronic diseases, which account for the vast majority of healthcare...

As gigabit-speed broadband offerings emerge in a market, a portion of operators are unable to easily follow competitors to very-high-speed offerings due to capital constraints, existing infrastructure, or other considerations. Those companies that cannot easily match the speeds offered by rivals face a difficult competitive challenge. Even those operators that can expand into gigabit-speed services will have to be selective in their deployments, will have portions of their physical...

With an estimated 20 to 50 billion cloud connected and IoT products by 2020, established players and new entrants are looking at ways to create a seamless connected experience and how interoperability and ease of use impact the adoption rate of IoT products. The smart home is at the forefront of consumer IoT, particularly for categories such as connected lights, locks, security systems, and thermostats. Kitchen appliances also play into this ecosystem but are evolving at a different...

Millions of cars gain connectivity annually through embedded cellular modules, smartphone tethering platforms, and aftermarket OBD-II dongles. Vehicle performance and driver behavioral data that was once untracked, trapped within the vehicle, and inaccessible to consumers is now collected, stored in the cloud, and reportable to consumers in easy-to-digest formats. Cloud-based connectivity is shifting the power relationship between vehicle owners and the rest of the auto...

Broadband services remain a key driving force in global productivity and communication. Businesses, governments, and individuals continue to rely upon the quality and dependability of high-speed data services in order to inform, educate, interact, and entertain. New generations of connected products and Internet-based services enter the market with a core assumption that high-speed data connections are easily and readily available—an assumption that is generally true for most...

Recent Parks Associates research finds that nearly 20% of U.S. broadband households own a smart home device, with over 40% planning to purchase one this year. With adoption rates for smart home devices increasing, the need for those products to work seamlessly together, and among a broad ecosystem of products, has become vital. Parks Associates and Appliance Design have partnered together to co-cost a  complimentary industry webcast  on June 22 called “IoT Mass Market...