IoT news of the week for Feb. 24, 2023

This week’s news was compiled and written by Kevin C. Tofel

Biscuits, tea, and a network for IoT: There’s a new national IoT network in the UK, courtesy of BT, formerly known as British Telecom. To provide device data coverage across the country, BT worked out roaming agreements with other telcos, and offers national roaming SIMs for service. Even better than the broad coverage area is that there’s no change in price for the service. BT’s current pay-as-you-use IoT plan works across the land, regardless of network roaming. (ComputerWeekly)

Wyze jumps into the Wi-Fi 6E mesh router market: In typical “low cost” fashion, Wyze has debuted its take on home network routers. Dubbed the Wyze Wi-Fi 6E Mesh Router Pro, a two-pack costs $273.99, while a trio of routers can be had for $120 more. Those prices slightly undercut the reasonably priced Google Nest Wi-Fi Pro units we recently reviewed. All of the important basics are in the Wyze router,  including guest network support, device management, and bandwidth usage reports. A nice extra is free cybersecurity threat management and alerts through Firedome. Support for up to 2.5Gbps broadband connections is also appealing. One other item that I look for these days in a router is Thread support. That isn’t included, so you won’t be using this Wyze product as a Thread Border router. Even so, the feature set for the price is compelling. (Wyze)

Monitor drinking water with 5G satellites: As someone who spent most of their life drinking well water, this news from Sateliot is interesting. The company has partnered with GoSpace labs to provide a wireless monitoring system for drinking water. Well owners use a Meritch water sensor to measure pH acidity levels and temperature in their water. The idea is that these data points can detect the presence of contaminants. Of course, getting that data is where the new Sateliot partnership comes into play as the water sensors have connectivity to the company’s 5G satellite constellation. When something bad in the water is detected, well owners can be notified. At age 53, I’m still waiting for my growth spurt, likely because of that well water. Where was this when I needed it? (Sateliot)

Speaking of satellites and…wearables? It seems that satellite partnerships are in the air this week. Chip designer MediaTek is collaborating with Skylo, a non-terrestrial network (NTN) service provider. The idea is that modems on MediaTek chipsets will support NTN communications for satellite connectivity as needed. MediaTek is mainly known as a chip vendor for phones, tablets, and smart TVs, but the two companies suggest satellite communications in wearable devices and IoT sensors are feasible too. (Skylo)

How much would you pay to find a hidden AirTag? On this week’s Internet of Things podcast, we discussed how Tile is improving its trackers to keep you from being stalked. Now there’s a new product to help you find any hidden AirTags planted on you or your belongings for the same reason. It’s called the Bluesleuth-Lite and is raising funds for production on Kickstarter. The product will scan around for any Bluetooth tracking tags that you might not know about, which sounds great. What doesn’t is the price. To back this product and receive one, you’ll have to come up with $499. I suppose I could say that your privacy is priceless, but that’s still a hefty sum. (AppleInsider)

The Apple Watch could monitor glucose without a pinprick: Apple just keeps adding more and more health features to its watch, so this doesn’t surprise me. What does is that this reported feature “in the works” can monitor glucose levels without drawing any blood. Unknown to me until this week is that Apple bought a glucose monitoring startup called RareLight, in 2010. Since then, the company has been working on using lasers to measure blood glucose levels under the skin. Don’t expect this feature anytime soon, but if Apple does bring it to market, I could see many more folks with diabetes become Apple Watch owners. (Bloomberg)

Here’s a nifty DIY connected project: Instead of buying a connected weather device, it’s not too difficult to build your own. And this recent project I found lets your homemade weather station run for 60 days on a single charge. It uses a combination of remote sensors for outside data and a Wi-Fi connection and e-Ink screen for other weather information. What keeps the power draw so low, besides using the e-Ink display? The chip inside is mostly in sleep mode, waking up every five to 15 minutes for a few seconds to gather and show new data. Clever! (HackADay)

Should you be worried about Alexa’s future? I don’t see Amazon pulling the plug on Alexa and Echo devices, but some people are concerned. And that’s a valid concern given that the company has reportedly lost $10 billion on Alexa and that many recent job cuts came from Amazon’s devices unit. This article ponders what all that means and suggests some alternatives for those who fear Alexa might not see as much innovation and development in the coming years. (ResTechToday)