The Application Developers Alliance launched “IoT{Accelerate}Berlin,” an Internet of Things competition for developers and prelaunch startups, the alliance said Monday. Organized with funding from Ericsson and Google, the project “aims to spur innovation in this rapidly growing market,” the alliance said. "IoT is experiencing substantial growth, and the opportunity for European developers and startups to help shape its future is clear.” From "connected cars and homes to health, wearables, or big data solutions, the competition will help developers conceptualize and produce innovative products for this growing market," alliance Executive Director Jake Ward said. The alliance estimates the global population of connected devices will reach 50 billion units by 2020, and so “the incentives for developers to tackle the challenges emerging from IoT are substantive,” it said. App development “is a fundamental part of the networked society enabling superior consumer experience and driving network utilization,” it said. The winner of the competition stands to land 20,000 euros (about $22,500) in prize money, it said. The competition is so named because it will center around a three-day IoT workshop March 27-29 in Berlin, it said.

Toshiba will merge several information and communication technology (ICT) business segments into a single Cloud & Solutions Co. subsidiary April 1 so it may “proactively promote the business that exploits” the Internet of Things, the company said in a Thursday announcement. Toshiba’s current Corporate Information Systems Division, Corporate Software Engineering Center and part of Toshiba Solutions Corp.’s system integration business will be merged into the Cloud & Solutions Co.; Toshiba I.S. Corp., which supplies information systems and services to the Toshiba Group, will become a Cloud & Solutions Co. subsidiary, Toshiba said. “Success in realizing new IoT-based services and solutions lies in deploying software technology, including cloud computing and big data processing, in order to handle huge amounts of data at high speed,” Toshiba said. “ICT specialists and engineers within Toshiba Group will be brought together in a unified organization, so as to enhance the development of big-data analysis technology, real-time information processing technology and other ICT-related technologies.” The new organization “will also develop Toshiba’s common IoT platform by combining diverse expertise and experience from across Toshiba’s business segments,” it said. “Toshiba’s common IoT platform will serve as infrastructure for offering advanced connectivity of systems and devices over the Internet, with the aim of creating new IoT services and solutions that realize all-encompassing monitoring, analysis and control.” Toshiba vowed it will undergo “a rapid shift in focus from being a business that merely provides products towards a business model that provides products that realize excellent user experiences.”

Restrictive copyright laws for electronics and software also apply to the Internet of Things, said Corynne McSherry, Electronic Frontier Foundation intellectual property director, in a blog post Tuesday. Licensing models for technology are bad for consumers and innovation, she said. McSherry recommended Congress repeal of Digital Millennium Copyright Act Section 1201, which prohibits the circumvention of technological protection measures, except in the case of nonprofit libraries, public archives and educational institutions. She also said end-user license agreements, which govern a consumer’s use of a product’s software, should be limited. IoT shouldn’t become the “‘Internet of Things I Think I Own But Can’t Control,’” McSherry said.

The Congressional Caucus on the Internet of Things (IoT) was launched by House Judiciary IP Subcommittee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and House Judiciary Committee member Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., a joint news release said Tuesday. Issa and DelBene will be caucus co-chairs, it said. The caucus’ primary function will be to educate lawmakers on IoT issues, including examining the FTC’s forthcoming report on IoT, the release said. “It’s critical that lawmakers remain educated about the fast paced evolution of the Internet of Things, and have informed policy discussions about the government’s role in access and use of these devices,” Issa said in the release. “Policymakers will need to be engaged and educated on how we can best protect consumers while also enabling these new technologies to thrive,” DelBene said.

The Internet of Things will remain a “trending topic” in 2015, as more than a third of online U.S. consumers now own at least one smart device other than a smartphone, said Ipsos research conducted for data privacy management company TRUSTe. The most popular devices are smart TVs (owned by 20 percent of those sampled), in-car navigation systems (12 percent), fitness bands (5 percent) and home alarm systems (4 percent). The survey canvassed 1,000 U.S. adult consumers online Nov. 28 to Dec. 5 and found that the number of connected devices available on the market continues to grow, and so does the amount of data being collected, TRUSTe said. Nearly eight of 10 consumers canvassed said they’re concerned about the idea of their personal information collected, it said. Only 20 percent “think that the benefits of owning a smart device outweigh any privacy concerns about the data they may collect,” it said. Though ownership of smart devices is high, consumer awareness of Internet of Things as a term is remarkably low, it said. The survey that 82 percent were unfamiliar with the term, it said.

Next week's CES will have more than 900 exhibitors participating with products, services and technologies for the Internet of Things, CEA said Tuesday. “The Internet of Things is the hottest topic in tech right now,” said Karen Chupka, senior vice president-International CES, citing the opportunity to connect “everyday items” including cars, home security systems and kitchen appliances to networked devices such as PCs and smartphones. A Sensors Marketplace will highlight technologies enabling IoT, featuring eyeSight Mobile Technologies, Logbar and QuickLogic, CEA said. The Smart Home Marketplace will show how smartphones and tablets can lead to a more efficient home where security systems and lighting systems interact, it said. Participating companies include Blinksight, Bosch, iDevices, Konnect Labs, Lowe’s and Muzzley. Keynoters representing the IoT are Brian Krzanich, CEO, Intel, and Boo-Keun Yoon, CEO, Samsung Electronics. Sessions on the Internet of Things include: "Privacy and the IoT: Navigating Policy Issues," Tuesday, Jan. 6, 1-2 p.m. in the LVCC North Hall, Room N254, with opening remarks by FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez; “The Impact of the Internet of Things,” 2:15-3:15 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 7, North Hall, Room N261; and “The State of the Internet of Things,” 3:30-4:30 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 7, North Hall, Room N253, CEA said.

Membership in the Open Interconnect Consortium is nearing four dozen companies with the addition of 15 members, the consortium said in a Wednesday announcement. Among the noteworthy new members are CableLabs, Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo. In addition, GE Software joined as the consortium’s newest "diamond" member and took a seat on the consortium board, the group said. Other board members are Cisco, Intel, MediaTek and Samsung. Diamond is the most elite of the organization's three membership tiers, the consortium’s bylaws say. To achieve diamond, a company must pay $350,000 in annual dues (vs. $75,000 for platinum, $10,000 for gold), and must be approved by a 75 percent vote of the board, the rules say. Diamond is the only tier that qualifies for a board seat, though platinum members may chair or participate in a working group, they say. The consortium was formed this summer to promote interoperability among the billions of connected devices expected to come online by 2020, by establishing a specification, an open source implementation and a certification program, first for smart home and office solutions (see 1407090068).

GreenPeak Technologies, a supplier of chipsets for ZigBee and other platforms, will use a CES exhibit at the Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas to showcase various smart home applications under the banner, "The Heart of the Smart Home," the company said in a Wednesday announcement. CES will be GreenPeak’s first public demo of its "Family Lifestyle Systems" platform for service providers and system integrators, the company said. "Family Lifestyle Systems learn how a person or a family lives in their home, what they like to do and when, and then monitors their movements via unobtrusive sensors to send alerts if something happens out of the ordinary." At CES, GreenPeak also will announce new partnerships and new ZigBee radio chips for various smart home applications, it said. "The Internet of Things is exploding," it said. "New devices, new technologies, new ways of connecting devices to each other and to people, all require solutions that are reliable, robust and simple to use."

Qualcomm agreed to spend $7 million for 7 percent ownership of Qterics, the new Silicon Image subsidiary that will supply services and components and devices for Internet of Things-capable TVs, smartphones, tablets, routers, home automation devices and smart appliances, the companies said in a joint announcement Thursday. Qterics will be composed of Silicon Image’s UpdateLogic services business and other of its software and IP holdings, they said. "The vast expansion of Internet-enabled devices enables new applications and services, but only if the devices can be properly managed." UpdateLogic, now under the Qterics umbrella, has been a leading supplier of device management and remote access services already deployed in "tens of millions" of CE products, they said.

The Electrolux brand bowed what it’s calling the world’s first digital vacuum cleaner, the World Wide Vac, "with the purpose of helping people clean their personal clouds." Available as a beta version widget for helping Gmail subscribers clean out their email inboxes, the widget analyzes the inbox to identify irrelevant emails and allows the user to choose among several levels of cleanup commands, the announcement said. "Each level of digital cleaning is built on different algorithms, allowing the user to set the cleanup ambition."