Apple & Google to dominate 'smart home' spying market
Reports suggest Apple will introduce new software for controlling a connected home and Google is interested in adding to Nest's portfolio of "smart home" products.
Apple and Google are on a track for competition -- or possibly cooperation -- in yet another growing tech battlefield, reports contended Tuesday, with the Silicon Valley titans focused on the market for "smart homes." People shouldn't be surprised that Google/Apple or should we say the NSA/DHS. These companies have strong ties to the NSA which will allow Big Brother & private corporations to spy on everything you do at home!
What's the true measure of irony? Google asks users to demand Congress pass real surveillance reform!
Click here to read more. Google has already made a big play into the market -- which connects common household items to the Internet to make them accessible remotely, along with other new tricks -- with its $3.2 billion acquisition of Palo Alto's Nest Labs earlier this year. The Financial Times(FT) reported Tuesday morning that Apple would announce its first foray into smart homes Monday during the keynote address for its annual Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.
Google’s “Nest” division, which has created smart thermostats that program themselves and can be remotely controlled to change your home’s temperature over the Internet from anywhere, is looking to move into home security with plans to purchase home CCTV system-maker Dropcam.
“With a Dropcam Wi-Fi video monitoring camera and optional cloud recording service you can remotely drop in on your house, baby, pets, business, or anything else from a smartphone, tablet, or computer,” the firm says.
Google’s plans ultimately involve, according to Mail Online, total home (spying) automation.
The FT report says that Apple will introduce software that connects a user's lights, home security and other appliances, making them accessible through the Cupertino company's popular devices, such as the iPhone and iPad. Instead of accessing separate apps to turn off lights or begin preheating the stove for dinner, the new offering could allow users to access all their connected devices in one place.
"It is unclear exactly what Apple may be planning, but we suspect in its initial incarnation it will be a consolidating app for connected home devices, similar to what Apple has done with its GameCenter and Passbook applications," Raymond James analyst Tavis McCourt wrote in a note Tuesday.
The plan could boost sales for Apple's mobile products as well as offer interesting possible roles for other equipment as well as pathways to future offerings designed specifically for the smart home.
"More interesting would be the Apple TV peripheral turning into a home controller that provides the ability for consumers to automate scripts across multiple disparate apps," McCourt noted of one such possibility.
Apple already sells home automation gadgets in its stores, including including arch rival Google’s Nest thermostats, Dropcam wireless cameras, Philips Hue lightbulbs and Belkin WeMo switches.
This means you and your house will be constantly creating bits of data that form a blueprint of your daily life: how much electricity and water you use and when you use it, on top of a camera that video tapes you using it.
No matter the mechanics of the market, the profits are too large for either tech giant to pass up, McCourt predicted the smart home spying market could eventually produce revenues of $100 billion and more in the coming years.
"It is unlikely that any one company or even one channel strategy will win in the near term given the enormity of the opportunity," he wrote.
Irony anyone? Its all about profits at the expense of our privacy, that's the sad reality being shoved down our throats by greedy corporations working with the NSA & DHS.
The FT reported that Apple plans to play up the security of its offering in direct opposition to Google, which said in a filing last week that it foresees a future with ads served through the variety of new devices connecting to the Internet; Apple derives its revenues from the products it sells, while Google's main moneymaker is digital advertising.
"It sounds like Apple's early strategy will lean on partners ... and it's hard to imagine a better, more Apple-like smart home partner than Nest," Quartz reporter Dan Frommer wrote Tuesday.
He should have said: Its hard to imagine a more transparent move by private corporations to spy on our families.
We now live in such a fear-based society and we're literally paying to give up liberty for security.
http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_25845031/biz-break-apple-and-google-knocking-door-smart
http://www.thedailysheeple.com/why-would-you-want-to-spy-on-yourself-for-the-government_052014
Shipping companies UPS, FedEx & more claim they're not helping the NSA 'interdict' packages to install backdoors:
Cisco has insisted publicly that it has nothing to do with this program and apparently complained directly to the President about this program, and how it harms their reputation. While some people doubt whether or not Cisco is being totally forthright, others wondered if perhaps it wasn't Cisco, but a third party, such as whoever ships Cisco's equipment. It turns out that company is often UPS, and Matthew Keys, writing for TheBlot, got UPS to vehemently deny assisting the NSA as well:
UPS, which Cisco has used since 1997 to ship hardware to customers around the world, said on Thursday that it did not voluntarily allow government officials to inspect its packages unless it is required to do so by law.
“UPS’ long-standing policy is to require a legal court-ordered process, such as a subpoena, before responding to any third-party requests,” UPS spokeswoman Kara Ross wrote in an e-mail to TheBlot Magazine. “UPS is not aware of any court orders from the NSA seeking to inspect technology-related shipments.”
In a follow-up e-mail, Ross said UPS had no knowledge of similar orders from the FBI, CIA or any other federal agency.
Keys also reached out to other popular shipping options, including the US Postal Service, FedEx and DHL. USPS says that they don't participate in any such NSA program (though, some may question the validity of that statement). FedEx and DHL appear to have simply ignored repeated requests for comment from Keys.
Of course, it's not impossible that there are other methods being used to get the equipment -- or that the folks who handle these "special" projects are kept way far away from any official spokesperson. Clearly, however, the NSA can get these packages, and now the doubt is going to spread across pretty much everyone in the logistics chain, no matter what they say.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140523/18092027352/ups-insists-that-it-is-not-helping-nsa-interdict-packages-to-install-backdoors.shtml