13 February 2014

Radar7 is our recurring feature where we’ll highlight the top seven pieces of thought-provoking industry commentary that should be on your radar.

1. Google Is Making A Land Grab For The Internet Of Things

TechCrunch delves into Google’s recent acquisition drive, as the search engine appears to be collecting companies to fit into its “real life internet”, a network of AI-driven robots and objects that will aim to improve day-to-day consumer life, transportation, and manufacturing.

2. Auto-Mobile: The potential of smart dashboards and connected cars for advertisers

It now seems almost certain that the connected car will reach its tipping point this year and become as much as part of the common vernacular as smartphones and tablets. In fact, as The Drum discovers, much of the most speculation has focused on the opportunity that these smart vehicles offer to connect advertisers with a whole new audience.

3. A third of smart meter customers saving up to £75 a year, British Gas says

The UK Government is committed to putting a smart meter in every home in the UK by 2020, and according to this piece in the Guardian, with good reason. The paper reports that 9/10 customers are now making a conscious effort to keep their costs down, leading to 54% saving money on their energy bills, some up to £75 a year.

4. Why Aren’t App Designers as Famous as Chefs?

In a world that can celebrate the most obscure chefs, it’s a relevant question: Why aren’t the world’s best app designers renowned? The WSJ asked some of the great and good of Silicon Valley for their thoughts.

5. Why everybody in the US and nobody outside it watches the Super Bowl

The Super Bowl is undoubtedly one of the most widely-covered and hyped sporting events of the year. And yet outside of sports fanatics and marketing circles (the Super Bowl ads have become something of a benchmark), is anyone really bothered? Quartz sees how it stacks up against other televised sporting events.

6. Asia-Pac operators join forces on M2M

11 operators across Asia Pacific have formed the The Bridge M2M Alliance to offer customers a ‘one-stop-shop’ for M2M services, reports Telecoms.com. The deal will enable customers to deal with one operator, rather than several as their services cross geographical boundaries.

7. Security basics overlooked, says Heathrow CISO

Airports have become one of the leading centres of innovation in recent years as air travel security continued to be scrutinised. However, as ComputerWeekly reports the basics of information security are still too often overlooked at global airports. Keeping software security patches up to date, security incident management and information system resilience, are vital in IT-enabled critical infrastructure environments.