IoT news of the week for Jan. 24, 2020

Edge ML chip startup gets funding: Kneron, a company that makes silicon for machine learning at the edge, says it has raised $40 million in new funding to bring its Series A round to $73 million. The round was led by Li Ka-Shing’s Horizons Ventures. Qualcomm, Sequoia Capital, and Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund have also backed the company. Kneron provides both silicon and software for running face detection, wake word detection, and other algorithms at the edge. Unlike a more general purpose processor that might run with any ML framework, a company needs to use both Kneron’s chips and its software for optimal power savings. In my decades covering chips, this approach is popular but rarely beats out more flexible options. (VentureBeat) — Stacey Higginbotham

Could Wi-Fi 6E get waylaid by congressional scrutiny? Earlier this month, the Wi-Fi Alliance said it had created Wi-Fi 6E as a standard to ensure that when the FCC opens up airwaves in the 6 gigahertz spectrum, Wi-Fi will be ready. We even talked about it on this week’s podcast. The use of additional spectrum would ensure that Wi-Fi can continue to meet the demands of billions of connected devices. But 38 lawmakers are concerned that an effort to apportion roughly 40% of the available 5.9 GHz spectrum for unlicensed services would cause problems. They sent a letter to the FCC arguing that the spectrum should be protected and allocated for short-range, vehicle-to-vehicle use cases. (Fierce Wireless) — Stacey Higginbotham

Trend Micro created a fake factory to test industrial IoT security: Security firm Trend Micro spent almost a year creating and then running a fake IIoT company that acted as a honeypot. The goal was to monitor what happened to a relatively unsecured factory online so the company could understand how malicious actors are behaving and evolving on the web. This will surprise no one, but the results of Trend Micro’s fake factory experiment weren’t good. After pages describing the set-up in depth, Trend Micro shared that it saw two ransomware attacks, at least one attempt to mine cryptocurrencies, and several attempts to use the faux company as a screen for malicious activities. I especially enjoyed the detail describing how the ransomware attacks went down. The report makes for great reading — and a good primer for thinking about security. (TrendMicro) — Stacey Higginbotham

There’s money in robotic waiters! Bear Robotics has raised $32 million in Series A funding, and I hope it uses it well because I want to see its products come to market. The Redwood City, Calif-based company envisions leasing robotic waiters to any place where food is served. Restaurants are the obvious target as each robot can autonomously deliver up to three trays of food. However, the company is currently testing the devices in casinos and homes as well. Sign me up as a beta tester! (TechCrunch) — Kevin C. Tofel

Buying that expensive Apple Watch can actually save you money. Got a gym membership at Basecamp, Crunch Fitness, Orangetheory, or the local YMCA? If you do but don’t have an Apple Watch, you might want to consider buying one. By using the wearable to track your exercise or gym check-ins, you can earn a discount on your monthly membership fees, get free fitness classes, or gift cards. Deals vary by the gym chain but in the case of Basecamp, you can actually get a free Apple Watch by “paying it off,” or taking at least three paid classes per week for a year. (CNBC) — Kevin C. Tofel

Amazon hand recognition terminals for payments? I’m a near-daily user of NFC payments with my phone or smartwatch. So much so that I generally leave my wallet in my car when I’m out shopping. Sometimes, though, I forget that I also left my watch at home or my phone in the car, too. That may not be a problem much longer, however. Amazon is reportedly testing hand recognition payment terminals with Visa now and MasterCard soon. No need for a wallet, phone, or smartwatch if the tests pan out: Just slap your palm down and go. (Engadget) — Kevin C. Tofel

SmartThings is worth another look: Several years ago we declared that Wink was the best smart home hub for most mainstream consumers, but the Wink platform seems captive to an uninterested owner, which means updates are slow and the future is uncertain. So Kevin took a look at SmartThings, which is the other big platform out there, and determined that it has aged into a solid choice for folks trying to build out automated smart homes. (StaceyonIoT) — Stacey Higginbotham

Could Wi-Fi ever be replaced? In my monthly column over at IEEE Spectrum, I propose the end of Wi-Fi as cellular gets better and new opportunities emerge that could wrest licensed cellular technology away from the carriers. This has turned into a very controversial column, so feel free to read it and tell me how wrong or maybe how right you think I am. (IEEE Spectrum) — Stacey Higginbotham