BlackBerry's Survival Plan: the Internet of Things

jfruh writes BlackBerry's smartphone business is famously floundering, but the company isn't betting everything on its new retro physical-keyboard phones. It's also making moves into distributed, embedded, and asset-tracking computing for homes, cars, and businesses, which can all be lumped under the currently trendy "Internet of Things" buzzword umbrella. The company got a head start when it acquired the QNX OS in 2010, which was intended as the basis of a new smartphone OS but which already had credibility in the embedded market.

Comments

Stop The Internet Of Things

[barbariccow]

"The Internet of Things" is so dumb. It was never called "The Internet of Computers" when computers were hooked up, and technically all these "things" have computers in them. And a network exists in the ether between devices; communication. I'm just so tired of this buzz phrase, I cringe every time I hear it. It's like "Information Superhighway", except less relate-able .

Re:and don't hook the little thingies up, either

[Shakrai]

You don't NEED it but I think it's GOOD PRACTICE to have it. Do you trust Windows enough to be sure that no one can access your file shares if they're on the same LAN segment? Do you trust your closed-source TiVo enough to know that the folks at TiVo (or a black hat) can't remote into it and explore your network if they're so inclined? I don't. Why does my TiVo need to be in the same broadcast domain as the file server that contains my complete financial history and e-mail archives going back to 1991?

I have three VLANs. One for completely trusted devices, one for untrusted devices (the Android phone sits on this one, incidentally) that need internet access, and a third one for friends/guests that wish to use my Wi-Fi. They do not talk to each other. There's no reason for them to.