Google developing Brillo OS for Internet of Things, may introduce it at Google I/O next week

Google is developing an operating system called Brillo for the Internet of things (IoT). It would be lightweight and run on small low-powered devices. Reports say that the Mountain View giant plans to launch the new Brillo OS as early as next week at its I/O event.

Fortune has received information from sources who talked to Google and writes:

“The plan is to launch the code at Google’s I/O event next week. These operating systems are designed to be very small and take up very little memory so they can run on chips that might act as the brains of a smart lock or even a connected sensor. The world of these real-time operating systems as they are called is very fragmented, with most of the ones in use today being dictated by the chip. Most chipmakers provide an RTOS, as they’re known, that works with the chip.”

Brillo will not be a part of Google’s Nest division but will work on the smart devices developed by nest. The development of the OS is linked to its Android unit and will probably be released under the Android brand according to a report by The information.

The OS will be small and will need a memory of only 32MB or 64MB RAM and could be used in IOT devices such as smart light bulbs, security cameras, TVs, smart refrigerators and other smart appliances. Through the new OS, Google plans to connect all such small devices via internet.

Since IOT is the next big thing, Google will definitely benefit from the development of Brillo. So it is easy to understand why Google wants to develop its own software for IOT communication in smart devices.

The Google I/O annual event for developers is scheduled to begin from May 28 in San Francisco. Google is also expected to unveil a new edition of Android dubbed as “Android M” which would have several new features including better device integration and security.

Google developing Brillo OS for Internet of Things, may introduce it at Google I/O next week

Hackers May Target Your Home Electrical Appliances to Steal Your Most Sensitive Information

Modern electrical appliances are able to connect an internet and thus they will have an IP address. It is rather convenient as we can control them remotely and it is connected to one another. However, it is also posed a threat.

One possibility of the threat is that it is going to be easier for the hackers to steal your personal information such as your identity, bank and credit card information as there is more variety of equipment that the hackers can access to. For example, before, the hackers can only hack into your computer, but, now, the hackers are able to hack to your television, refrigerators or other home appliances.

An example of such case is the high profile cyberattack which happened in late 2013 and early 2014. Hackers broke into 100,000 consumer gadgets, such as refrigerator, televisions, wireless speakers and media centers to release 750,000 malicious emails.

Chris Robets, Colorado-based One World Labs, a security intelligence firm, estimated that there would be about 26 to 30 billion devices connected to internet by 2020. In order to keep them protected from hackers, it will require software upgrades and better consumer education as most internet security expert agrees that most consumers will not understand where their data is stored and who has access to it.

A guideline also has to be set and put in place to ensure privacy and security of the consumers.

Hackers May Target Your Home Electrical Appliances to Steal Your Most Sensitive Information

Everything about Facebook announcements at its F8 Conference

At its annual two-day long F8 Developer Conference in San Francisco, Facebook announced a number of new features and other stuff. Although the announcements are meant mostly for developers and app designers, FB users will also get benefited eventually.

Facebook announcements include a major update to its chatting platform, the Facebook messenger. Users will now be able to send photographs, music, GIFs as well as integrate with apps such as The Weather Channel, ESPN, Giphy and others. Enhancements were also announced for Facebook’s analytics platform and its video player. The social network giant is also going into Internet of things.

Here are the details:

Facebook Messenger unveiled as a platform

Facebook officialy opened up its Messenger Platform for developers who will now be able to add messenger features to various iOS and Android apps. So the Messenger service will enable users to do much more than just chatting with others.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in his F8 keynote, “It’s a new platform that developers can use to build apps that help people connect”.

Developers will now be able to add the Messenger button to other apps for example a movie ticketing service app. After purchasing a movie ticket, the customer can share the details with friends on FB.

Though Facebook’s new platform is available to all developers, it has already partnered with 40 companies including ESPN, Giphy, The Weather Channel and Imgur. Most of them are about photos and entertainment. Some apps are adding Messenger as an additional feature while some apps have been developed specifically for the Messenger platform.

Facebook Messenger Business

This is an interesting new feature in the Messenger Platform. Users will be able to communicate with retailers by sending direct message through the messenger. They will be able to make reservations and also check shipping details.

Facebook says that users can now have personal conversations with companies’ representatives. They can now get immediate responses to their queries and requests.

Support for 360 degree videos

Mark Zuckerberg announced that soon spherical 360 degree videos will be supported in Facebook’s newsfeed. 24 high-resolution cameras will be used to shoot the videos and users will be able to use their mouse cursor to pan around it. Such spherical videos may look odd on a flat screen but will work very well if you put on a VR headset.

Embedded Videos

In direct competition to YouTube, Facebook will also be allowing its users to embed Facebook videos in other websites.

Refreshed Comments

Facebook’s comment feature is getting an update. When users comment on a webpage, it will show up on the official shared story on FB page also.

Analytics for Apps

Facebook is offering a new tool to developers – Analytics for Apps which will tell them the demography about the people using their apps, whether males or females, teenagers, older people etc.  The info will help developers and marketers to know their audience.

Mobile Ad Exchange with LiveRail

Facebook bought LiveRail last year. It is a monetization platform that helps publishers to manage their video ads so that the relevant ad appears for the users. In the new update, LiveRail’s capabilities have been extended to mobile display ads. Publishers can now fill ad spaces for mobile display ads too.

In addition, LiveRail will be using anonymized Facebook user data to help publishers target their ads in a better way on platforms other than FB.

Parse for Internet of Things

Facebook is doing its own bit for the “Internet of Things” (IoT) vision where all the objects, animals and humans will be part of a huge network which will facilitate exchange of data  without the need for human to human or human to computer interactions.

Facebook has introduced SDKs for its Parse mobile app development suite, that will support IoT by helping developers to incorporate data from web-connected devices into their apps. The platform is compatible with Arduino first and other platforms will follow.

Everything about Facebook announcements at its F8 Conference

The Meaning of Privacy in this Internet of Things Era and NSA

In this Internet of Things era, it will benefit a lot of people, from the typical average of Joe to big corporate. It is the era whereby all the things are connected with billions of devices storing and exchanging data and thus the information is traveled faster than in olden days. However, there is always a concern about the security of these device, not only from hackers but from government surveillance.

The three big technology companies, Apple, Microsoft and Google claims to take the privacy seriously. Apple, for example, implements a two way verification and/or TouchID on their Apple Pay service to protect your personal data from third party peeping tools. Google, on the other hand, has probably the largest archive of digital data. It is so huge so that the device user does not need to type for Google to know where you are, where have you been and most probably what are you thinking right now, but, definitely, with your permission. Microsoft has missed the mobile trend, however, the technology company definitely wants to be part of Internet of Things trend.

With all these information available, the intelligence agencies are using them to harvest information about the person of interest back in 2012. Edward Snowden leaked documents showing that team at Fort Meade, actually has access to all our information through services from the big technology companies.

This also does not mean that no one is trying to put some ground rules. Mike Capuano from Democrat party has introduced two bills to prevent excessive data collection in modern DVRs and automobiles: the We Are Watching You Act and Black Box Privacy Protection Act. Both is not confirmed to be passed as of now.

The Meaning of Privacy in this Internet of Things Era and NSA

Wi-Fi Backscatter: Using RF signals to power battery-free devices and connect them to the Internet

Can you imagine a world where various devices are interconnected forming a grid so that sharing of data and automation become easy.  This is the concept of Internet of Things in which a wide variety of devices are interconnected with each other wirelessly within the existing internet network.

In the ‘Internet of Things’, such ‘Things’ could be an automobile with a built-in sensor, a farm animal with embedded biochip transponder, a human with a heart monitoring implant or a wearable to which an IP address can be assigned and which can transfer data over an internet network. Unfortunately, this concept has not yet gathered momentum because such devices need power as well as connection to the internet.

As an important step in this direction, engineers at the University of Washington have developed a new communication system called the ‘Wi-Fi Backscatter’ technology through which battery-free devices could be connected to an existing Wi-Fi infrastructure by using radio frequency (RF) signals as the power source.

An earlier research has shown that energy from TV, radio and other wireless signals in the air could be harnessed to run low-powered devices such as temperature sensors or wearables. Researchers at the University of Washington have gone a step further and connected these devices to the WI-Fi network.

It was a challenging task as wireless signals are very weak and even low power Wi-Fi needs 3 to 4 times more power than what could be harnessed through these RF signals. So they developed a new Wi-Fi Backscatter mechanism.  They devised an ‘ultra-low power tag’ having an antenna and a circuit to detect signals between Wi-Fi router and a smartphone or a laptop and communicate data to them. These tags consume very little power.

Shyam Gollakota, assistant professor of computer science and engineering at the University says “If Internet of Things devices are going to take off, we must provide connectivity to the potentially billions of battery-free devices that will be embedded in everyday objects.”

“We now have the ability to enable Wi-Fi connectivity for devices while consuming orders of magnitude less power than what Wi-Fi typically requires”, he adds.

The Wi-Fi Backscatter tag developed by the University of Washington engineers has been able to communicate at rate of 1 kbps with a Wi-Fi device about 2 meters away. They are now planning to increase the distance to about 20 meters. The research team plans to launch a company for their technology and file patents for it.

The video below demonstrates the how the Wi-Fi Backscatter technology works:

Wi-Fi Backscatter: Using RF signals to power battery-free devices and connect them to the Internet