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Atari Is Going To Build IoT Devices (pcmag.com)
angry tapir quotes a report from Computerworld: The latest entrant in the Internet of Things is legendary gaming company Atari, which plans to make consumer devices that communicate over the SigFox low-power network. The devices will be for homes, pets, lifestyle, and safety. Atari has signed a deal with the communications service provider, Sigfox. "The initial product line will include categories such as home, pets, lifestyle and safety," the companies said in a statement. "By connecting to SigFox's global network, the products will benefit from its competitive advantages: a very long battery life and a simple solution that does not require local Internet connectivity and pairing. As soon as the battery is inserted in the object, it is immediately connected to the network."
I assosociate Atari with 70s tech and failure. It's over Atari, hang it up.
In 30 years or so, someone can discover the landfill where Atari buried all the failed IOT devices.
Atari ought to be good on customer privacy issues - the last time they brought out a product designed to "phone home", it took the whole company down. Doubt they'll want to go through that again. ;)
You're just jealous 'cuz the voices talk to *me*
Not at my house it doesn't.
Just to be clear. Yeah, if the battery goes in, then it does.
This is an... interesting... and disturbing trend for the future. Right now the home internet other than a few specific "mobile" devices like smartphones or onstar needs to connect to YOUR network, that YOU control.
This represents a shift where they connect to networks directly that you do not control. They don't run through your router, they aren't subject to your monitoring or blocking.
The future samsung smarttv won't need to connect to your network to get ads... it'll just connect to cellular or something directly and get ads.
The only solution... not even sure what it will be. Not to buy one (even today avoiding a smartTV is a PITA but not connecting it to the net is easy)?? Jammers ? Probalbly not going to be legal or easy to deploy in populated areas -- hardware hacks to render their antenna useless? Maybe? OR maybe their is no escape but to move into a log cabin in the woods...
It's just the company that owns the Atari trademark.
"IoT" or "Internet of Things" christ I miss the days that only hardcore nerds gave a shit about IT, Computers, technology, gadgets, etc.
Sorry, I'm super sick of hearing about "IoT" just be fucking descriptive, this shit is as bad as "the cloud" (actually it might even be worse)
This is a kind of disturbing development. I don't know what the actual hard costs to a manufacturer to give a device on-demand data access through a cellular type network, but my guess is that it's rapidly declining and that ultimately cellular network operators will be hungry enough for growth and have built out enough network capacity that selling capped data-only plans to IoT type companies will become appealing to them, especially if they can manage to get existing smartphone users to pay for them.
The scary part is that when you bring an IoT device home with magic connectivity, not only do you lose control of its communications but do you know what it might be doing to tap into your existing wireless network or somehow spy on you?
There's also the ability to build in obsolescence or subscription leverage -- when the device's data expires or no longer works, neither will it, regardless if its not worn out or otherwise damaged.
I suppose the good news is that if these devices exist, someone will figure out how to hack them to appropriate their data plans for their own use. This may be their undoing, as the devices may well be sold at a loss with the hope that subscription plans or other payments are designed to fund the connectivity that comes built in. They might try to ship them "deactivated" but there will probably be good reasons to ship them with functional data plans so they work out of the box without too much multi-vendor activation involved.
It's 12 bytes every 10 minutes. 96 bits. Not much for a tweet, but you can stuff quite a lot of data in 96 bits.
For example, say you're tracking fragile cargo :
2 bits - battery level (2 bits - 4 values, high / med / low / replace)
2 bits - status of 3 tamper switches (00 - all ok, 01/10/11 - a switch has been triggered).
6 bits - a temperature range of 64 degrees, in celsius, from starting from -14 to 50 degrees, 1 degree resolution.
6 bits - humidity (64 values stretched to 0-100, gives us about 1.5% resolution)
2 bits - whether temp or humidity has gone out of bounds since last transmission (and a spare value here).
6 bits - current speed 0-64 m/s (0 - 230 kmph/ 144mph)
6 bits - max speed since last transmission in m/s
48 bits - lat and longitude, good to about 11 metres globally.
18 bits - max g-force sustained in the last ten minutes (6 bits/64 values for x/y/z, scaled to 10g, so good to 0.15g)
Tada, 96 bits, full of info.
You are in a twisty maze of processor lines, all alike.
There is a lot of hype here.
I just want to know if there will be phillips head screws to take it apart so I can re-align the button pads ....
Commodore's IoT offering is bound to be superior.