Peggy Smedley talks about a new program being introduced by a Texas utility that will enable consumers to remotely control their thermostats in the home via their smartphones, in exchange for participating in a two-year demand-response program. Smedley also talked about how Best Buy recently launched its own mobile broadband Internet service designed to provide connectivity to connected devices, as well as the launch of Best Buy’s Insignia Infocast, an Internet media display used for streaming Web-based content.;

 

Erik Goldman, president, Hughes Telematics Inc.(HTI), and Sascha Simon, director of advanced product planning, Mercedes-Benz USA, discuss mbrace, the in-vehicle connectivity solution developed by the two companies. They also talked about the specific role that HTI plays as a service provider for mbrace.;

 

Erik Goldman, president, Hughes Telematics Inc. (HTI), and Sascha Simon, director of advanced product planning, Mercedes-Benz USA, discuss what sets mbrace apart from competitive solutions on the market such as Ford Sync and OnStar as well as what types of vehicles can be equipped with mbrace and what phones are compatible with the service. They also discuss some of the ways the two companies are working to further enhance the mbrace solution.;

 

Peggy Smedley, and Mike Carrozzo, chief editor, Connected World magazine, talk about some of the unlikely places where M2M technology has shown up recently. The applications they discuss include a 5K race using RFID tags to record and enable runners to see their finishing time in realtime, and an ice-cream machine that uses facial recognition technology to identify and dispense free ice cream to smiling consumers.