IoT news of the week for July 24, 2020

InfluxData gets adopted by PTC: InfluxData is a popular time series database that PTC has now embedded into its ThingWorx platform, bringing the database to many more potential IoT customers. Time series databases are great for the IoT because they are a means of storing relatively simple information that can come in at high velocity. They typically store a measurement and a time, such as the temperature of an item and when that temp was taken. InfluxData also added a cloud-based integration with Microsoft Azure, which means that companies can now turn to InfluxData when they want to send data to the cloud. (ZDNet) — Stacey Higginbotham

Bosch Sensortec will now certify some of its gear for a decade to make industrial customers happy: In the IT world, 10 years is an eternity (imagine using your 2010 computer or your iPhone 4 today), but in the industrial world factories are amortized in 30- or even 50-year increments. This disconnect means that IT vendors are trying to push the limits on how long they will support their gear while industrial buyers grudgingly accept that software and IT hardware aren’t available for their time frames. In general, we see vendors willing to support silicon and devices for roughly 7-10 years. To help address this disconnect, Bosch Sensortec has just created a longevity program for industrial, agricultural, and even medical clients. The program will include a broad-based vibration sensor, an accelerometer, and a barometric pressure sensor. (EEJournal) — Stacey Higginbotham

Arduino announces an app for its IoT cloud service: Arduino makes several computing boards that combine a microcontroller, radios, and lots of pins so developers can attach all kinds of lights, servos, and other functions to the board. And now they can control the board and see the data coming from it using a mobile app as opposed to the web-based app. It’s iOS-only for the time being, but an Android app is in the works. (Arduino) — Stacey Higginbotham

Siemens is embracing flexible work policies (and will use what it learns to sell remote tools to other enterprises): The coronavirus is pushing more companies to evaluate their current office environments. But while there’s a ton of talk about remote work becoming the new norm, changing more than a century of office work is a daunting task. Siemens, however, is going to try, announcing that it will embrace a hybrid of remote and in-office work based on the legal requirements of the countries where employees live, the demands of the jobs being performed, and employee-specific preferences. Siemens has been using its own smart building tech and other software to ensure that workers can collaborate during the lockdown, which will undoubtedly help it package up compelling software to sell to other large companies that are coming to similar conclusions about the future of work. The story and quotes are worth a read. I think Siemens is serious. (TEDMag) — Stacey Higginbotham

Emerging trends in the database world? This week, the folks I follow on Twitter from my days covering cloud computing were all aflutter over a recently funded company called Fauna. The company is pitching a new style of database for the serverless architectures that are gaining ground in the IoT. Companies that leverage the IoT are keen on serverless computing because the server spins up to handle a quick request and then spins back down, which costs a fraction of what it might if they left the server running all the time just to handle something intermittent, like status updates for a device. Fauna is trying to rethink database access for that world. On a related note, Microsoft last week released its second-generation time series database, which is also optimized to run as a serverless service. That should reduce the cost of keeping the data available for queries. I’m assuming it can do this because time series data is actually pretty small, consisting of the time and piece of information, as opposed to something huge, like a graph database. This is an area I’d like to learn more about. (Fauna, Microsoft)  — Stacey Higginbotham

What does the end of 3G mean for the IoT? Most of the customers that received AT&T’s botched email notifying them that their phones would no longer work because AT&T was shutting down its 3G network were angry that the carrier neglected to say that the shutdown is in 2022, which is still 18 months away. However, while this will cause some problems for AT&T’s phone customers (especially on the voice side, where even some 4G phones may stop working), it’s going to cause significant issues for the IoT. Many long-lived IoT devices (including my car) run on AT&T’s 3G network, and the demise of that network will have very real repercussions across industries. Ironically enough, I haven’t gotten a notice from AT&T or Tesla about that. (Ars Technica) — Stacey Higginbotham

Just how many COVID-19 track and trace apps are there? I was excited to see a rare partnership between Apple and Google for a contact tracing API earlier this year. Months later, however, not too many states are using apps that support it. According to this article, which provides a great overview of where the U.S. is at with such mobile software that uses Bluetooth LE, “despite early hype about the Apple-Google API, only Oklahoma, Alabama, South Carolina, and Virginia currently plan to use the Silicon Valley companies’ protocols.” Even more states have their own app, which for privacy reasons relies (unfortunately) on GPS data. (Lawfare) — Kevin C. Tofel

Jibo the robot is coming back, and with a digital twin: When the company behind social robot Jibo shut down operations early last year, owners of the device became sad. Not because of the price (Jibo initially launched at $899) but because people were attached to Jibo. I can relate, having gone through the same pain when Anki ceased operations and the Vector robot I bought from it looked like it was going to become a doorstop. Vector eventually regained a future after Anki sold the IP, and now Jibo is enjoying a similar renewed lease on life. NTT Disruption purchased the Jibo assets and will continue support for consumers. It’s not stopping there, though. NTT plans to target enterprises and offices with Jibo, and is even creating a digital twin of the robot; you’ll be able to access Jibo’s smarts and personality from a mobile phone in the future. (The Verge) — Kevin C. Tofel

Remember Nucleus? Well, this article will remind you: I was excited to see a deep dive into Amazon’s questionable venture capital strategy in the Wall Street Journal this week. The article offers up several examples of startups who met with Amazon’s VC arm or took investment from the company only to find it launching a competitive and almost identical service soon after. The article digs into the fate of Nucleus, a startup that built a video-based intercom system for the smart home that used Alexa and Ubi, a voice-activated smart home controller that was launched before the Echo. Its CEO had met with Amazon back in 2012 to discuss voice-based computing. I know the CEOs of both companies, and I’m glad their stories are getting the attention they deserve. I am curious about Amazon’s deal flow after several years of such dodgy behavior. Generally, corporate venture arms are too cautious about alienating traditional venture investors and startup founders to steal ideas so blatantly, but Amazon is probably not too concerned with generating a return or building the end market for its services, which is the general rationale for such investment programs. (WSJ) — Stacey Higginbotham