Conference Stop: London, England - IoT World Forum 2014

Explore the future of IoT and learn how IoT makes a tectonic shift in how we live and communicate.

Communication companies; software and cloud vendors; and the sensor and sensor gateway companies come together in this conference in London, England during November 25-26, 2014.

Speaker list includes professional from all of these companies and more.

More details here:

Agenda:
http://iotinternetofthingsconference.com/conference-agenda/
Registration:

http://iotinternetofthingsconference.com/registration/

I just had a look at some of the 'things' related companies as we are all familiar with 'communication' and 'software and cloud' companies and they do have a lot to say.

Here is a video from 'Net4Things'



Here are screen shots that summarizes the activities of two other companies, Neul (www.neul.com) meaning 'Cloud' in Gaelic and Libelium.

neul

 

Libelium



Microsoft's smartwatch is coming soon

Microsoft was one of the earliest companies that wanted to bring a smart watch to the market, but the timing was not good. Samsung came out with a smartwatch not too long ago. Now Microsoft is going again at it and so are Google and Apple.

Microsoft's smartwatch running Windows features:
Fitness tracker,
music player and
messaging device
Detachable watch face gets charged from a dock.

Microsoft filed a patent and the watch looks like this,

http://money.cnn.com/2014/05/06/technology/innovation/microsoft-smartwatch/index.html
Microsoft's Watch Concept looks similar to Google's Moto360 but probably with lot more stuff if you go by the Watch Concept.
Watch the concept video on this page:
http://microsoft-news.com/check-out-this-awesome-microsoft-smartwatch-concept-
running-windows/

Story continued here:
 http://hodentekmobile.blogspot.com/2014/08/smart-watches-will-flood-market-soon.html

Visual Studio 2013 Update 3 is now available

Following its new version release scheme, Microsoft today released the third update for Vsual Studio 2013 and Team Foundation Server 2013. This release addresses some of the core IDE features.

Image source: TechCrunch.com site.

If you are using Visual Studio Ultimate, then Microsoft provides for CodeLens for Git repositories. CodeLens is in-situ help for code you write. Diagnostic tooling now includes tracking apps' CPU and memory usage. Application Insights (was in preview) is now part of Visual Studio.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn481095.aspx

What does Applications Insights provide?

• Allowed you to monitor (both .NET and Java) your deployed live application.
•  Find out how your app is used, so that you can improve your app and optimize it.
•  You can monitor apps for, web, Windows Store and Windows Phone.
•  Web service availability and responsiveness is tracked
• Your App   URL is tested every few minutes from locations around the world flag problems
• Diagnose performance issues either related to CPU or other resources.

Read more here:
http://techcrunch.com/2014/08/04/microsoft-updates-visual-studio-with-deeper-git-and-azure-integrations-performance-and-diagnostic-tools/?ncid=rss

Visual Studio 2013 Update 3 download:

Download from here:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=43721

The above site is for downloading the RC and RTM should be the same.
Download file info:

Version: 2013File
Name: VS2013.3.exe
Date Published: 7/29/2014
File Size: 1.7 MB

OS support (Microsoft Site):
Supported Operating System
Windows 7 Service Pack 1, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Windows Server 2012
Hardware Requirements •1.6 GHz or faster processor
•1 GB of RAM (1.5 GB if running on a virtual machine)
•8.5 GB of available hard disk space
•5400 RPM hard disk drive
•DirectX 9-capable video card that runs at 1024 x 768 or higher display resolution
Additional Requirements: •For Windows Phone development:
•Windows Phone 8.0 development requires Windows 8.1 (x64) or higher
•Windows Phone 8.1 development requires Windows 8.1 (x86) or higher
•For the Windows Phone emulators, Windows 8.1 (x64) Professional edition or higher, and a processor that supports Client Hyper-V and Second Level Address Translation (SLAT)

These are the download options:On-line, Off line and ISO image

You can also download Visual Studio Express 2013 for Windows from the same link to develop store apps.
 

Shimeji - the desktop buddy is a fun program

This is a fun program from the site here:
http://www.group-finity.com/Shimeji/

Download details are posted here:
http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2014/07/have-you-installed-java-on-your-windows.html

This video shows it all.

The zip folder as detailed in the previous link was downloaded to the Windows 7 (x64) bit computer and extracted to a folder in the C:/ drive. The folder contents are as follows. 

As per my previous link I believe I have Java x64 bit installed on the computer. The jre7/bin/ was appended to the path.
If you want to enable it in the path go here:

http://hodentekhelp.blogspot.com/2014/08/what-is-path-in-windows-7-and-how-do.html

The readme file in Shimeji folder specifically says the following are required:

1. Windows XP or higher
2. Java 6, must be 32-bit

However despite the above the program still works although Shimeji-ee.exe does not work and throws the error mentioned previously in the link. The Shimeji-ee.bat also does not work.

Double click the executable jar file. The following window opens:

Just accept the default and click Use Selected. The desktop buddies or, the desktop mascots appear as shown.

You also get the Shimeji icon in the tray which you can double click and use the drop-down menu. To close the program click Bye Everyone!

Mahalo

 

Xiaomi smart phones are a sell out in India, coming to more countries

Xiaomi is a challenge to smart phone makers from Apple to Samsung. They are not only way-off cheap but as good and in some cases better than the avaiable ones. Xiaomi has announced the next version Xiaomi Mi4 today in China.

In India Xiaomi Mi3 started selling in July and they were sold out in India within moments they started selling, it appears from all accounts. More units are on the way.
Read here:

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Xiaomi-Will-Sell-15-000-Xiaomi-Mi3-Units-in-India-on-August-5-453227.shtml

Here is a picture of its availability in India from the above site:

That was Mi3 unit and Xiaomi has recently announced the Mi4 which is available in China and it has already earned the nick name, 'Apple of China'.

The high end Xiaomi Mi4 touted as the fastest smart phone uses the 2.5 GHz Snapdragon 801 processor; a 3080 mAhs battery; 3GB Ram; 5 inch touch screen; full HD display resolution; 13 mega pixel camera and 8 mega pixel front camera with a 80 deg wide angle, f 1.8 lens. Regarding internal storage there two kinds, 16GB (~ $320) and 64GB(~$400).

Xiaomi not only makes smart phones they are geared to compete for every other gadgets from TV to smart wrist bands.

Read this on Bloomberg BusinessWeek Technology section:

Xiaomi's Phones Have Conquered China. Now It's Aiming for the Rest of the World

By Brad Stone June 04, 2014