The D-Link EXO AC3000 is a tri-band router that delivered speedy throughput in our tests and offers solid parental controls, malware protection, and mesh technology.

The tiny, rugged Atom smartphone is being followed up with the Atom XL, which increases the display size to 4-inches and adds a 48MP camera.

A team of Penn State researchers has developed a public-speaking tutor on the Amazon Alexa platform that could help users reduce their public speaking anxiety.

Right now you can save $10 when you buy two Echo Flex mini smart speakers and use the promo code below at checkout.

Belkin partnered with audio experts Devialet to create a high-quality audio experience while also offering access to Google Assistant and wireless charging for your phone.

More people are buying smart speakers—and one of the reasons the numbers have risen so high recently is that many owners have purchased more than one device.

The Roku Smart Soundbar is a capable stereo speaker that adds all of the capabilities of a 4K Roku media streamer to the mix.

This week’s episode of #EntrepreneurCorner features Antoinette Prophy, who talks about starting her own business at the age of 26, and the benefits of surrounding yourself with smart employees.

Belkin's smart plug lets you use your smartphone to turn your devices on and off from anywhere, but Bitdefender found some holes in its security. Don't worry, Belkin has fixed the problem.

The Pani Smart Water Monitor tracks your water usage while offering tips on how to conserve water and save money.

The project, which includes companies such as Philips Hue manufacturer Signify, Ikea, and Samsung SmartThings, will help ensure that smart home products work across platforms with the three voice assistants, Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri, and Google's Assistant.

The Smart Tab M10 switches between a tablet and a smart display, while the Smart Frame looks to better display your photos with ambient sensors.

The Flo by Moen is a smart water meter that monitors water usage throughout your home, tests your system for leaks, and protects against water damage with an automatic shutoff feature.

The Eufy smart scale normally costs $44.99, but Amazon is offering a 40 percent off coupon, which lowers the price to just $26.99.

The SmartDry is multi-sensor device that can save you money by eliminating unnecessary running time from your traditional clothes dryer.

Alexa, Google Assistant, or Siri? The first step in choosing an AI companion is deciding which voice assistance platform is the right fit for your home. The second step is picking up one of the best smart speakers we've tested.

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The Flo by Moen Smart Water Detector will let you know when something in your house has sprung a leak, and when used with the Flo Smart Water Shutoff valve, it will prevent further damage by turning off your water supply.

During the third quarter, the smart earwear products accounted for 48.1 percent of all shipments in the wearables category, according to IDC. In addition, shipments for the earpieces grew a stunning 242.4 percent from the same period a year ago.

The Job I love how dynamic the smartphone industry is and that there's something new to learn every single day - be it with respect to business or product innovation or the waves of changes in retail and e-commerce. It always keeps you on your toes. I am definitely a bit of a geek at […]

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Smartphone shipments set to decline 5-10% Y-o-Y in 2020; feature phones by 35-40%

Stick to asset allocation matrix, take regular profits and go for bottom fishing in select stocks/ MF schemes in these turbulent times

Multi-asset funds of mutual funds can be a good option for asset allocation mix even as gold is a good diversifIer. Also, do keep emergency funds in debt funds & fixed deposits

Make sure that you have the contact information of your reporting manger and HR department in a diary or phone or a place where your spouse can access the same easily.

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Coronavirus in India: Close to 9 crore users have downloaded the Aarogya Setu mobile application so far, a ministry official said.

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In the case of Covid-19, hazardous waste is being generated in hospitals, quarantine zones or red zone areas within cities. They are potential sources of Covid-19 and can cause further spread within the locality.

The Moto G5 Plus launches tomorrow, reskindling the budget wars in India. For budget buyers, there are actually quite a few options coming up soon, including the three new smartphones from Nokia. Here, take a look.

Here are 5 smart features that will be coming to all 2019 Samsung TVs.

Recently, Team India captain Virat Kohli had also called upon people to "stay safe and vigilant" in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak.

Although Artificial Intelligence is not being used now, Chowdhury says that rapid visualisation and data analysis is being done to provide better solutions.

HP Smart Tank 530 delivers hassle-free, reliable printing at an affordable price. It is designed to provide good ink tank experience and print quality for home users.

Social networking, gaming and education apps recorded the highest growth

Here are some financial planning tips for new moms to help you get your finances on track for a worry-free future.

LG has officially taken the wraps off its latest handset, the LG Velvet. For a phone designed with mid-range specs, we have to say that its asking price is a little disappointing.

Amber Solutions, an IoT product company that sells smart outlets, switches and circuit breakers closed Series A Preferred Stock round of financing that equals $3.3M in gross proceeds. Amber will use the funds to support the commercial development of Amber's core technologies.

One of Amber’s product is solid-state circuit interrupter (GFCI) that basically stops harmful levels of electricity from passing through a person. It operates as a safety device alerting the homeowner of electrocution incidents in real time.

Amber Solutions’ core markets are builders that prepare smart home/smart building ready infrastructure, certified electrical contractors or remodelers, and electrical manufacturers.

Other latest funding news include Owlet’s $24M Series B, Axonize’s $6M Series A round and addition of Deutsche Telekom as its strategic investor, and $30M Series B raised by Palo Alto-based Armis.

Smart baby monitor company Nanit raised a $14M Series B round led by Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP). Other investors that participated include existing investors Upfront Ventures, RRE Ventures, Vulcan Capital and Vaal Investment Partners. The latest investment brings total equity funding of Nanit to $30M.

Nanit announced it will use the funding proceeds to expand its team of computer vision and machine learning engineers and grow its sales in Europe and Canada.

Nanit’s baby monitor helps new parents oversee nursery conditions as it has built-in temperature and humidity sensors. The camera lets parents remotely monitor baby’s crib whereas sound and motion are detected via smart sensors.

The monitor’s insights can be accessed via an accompanying mobile app. Nanit charges $10 per month for its premium package.

The key use cases of Nanit’s baby monitoring technology include sleep insights, behavioral analysis, expert guidance, and nightly video summaries. The company currently sells its smart monitors via its website.

Siemens Building Technologies division announced it will acquire Enlighted Inc., a smart IoT building technology provider. The transaction is expected to close in Q3’18.

Enlighted Inc.’s core element is an advanced lighting control application. It is based on a patented, software-defined smart sensor that collects and monitors real-time occupancy, light levels, temperatures and energy usage.

The sensor can gauge temperature, light level, motion, energy, and has Bluetooth connectivity.

The Enlighted system works by collecting temperature, light and motion data via its smart sensors. A gateway device carries the information to Energy Manager, a secure browser-based interface to create profiles and adjust settings of the entire Enlighted Advanced Lighting Control System. The Energy manager operates as an analytics device.

The whole system consists of multi-function sensors, distributed computing, a network, and software applications run by Enlighted Inc.

Enlighted Inc.’s main target market is commercial real estate. Key use cases of its intelligent Lighting Control System are energy efficiency, controlling heating, ventilation and air conditioning, and building utilization reports.

Use the Postscapes 'Connected Products Framework' to understand the smart home and buildings eco-system.

Smart Lock Company LockState raised $5.8M Series A in new investment to fund its aggressive sales and marketing and partner development plan. The company previously raised $740K seed round and $1M in a round led by angel investors. The lead investor in latest round was Iron Gate Capital. Other investors include Kozo Keikaku Engineering Inc, Nelnet and Service Provider Capital.

The company’s Wi-Fi-enabled RemoteLock is used by 1000s of Airbnb and other vacation rental hosts. It helps hosts remotely provide access to guests. Locking/unlocking codes can be generated via a host’s computer or smartphone.

RemoteLock’s prices start at $299 which is its algorithmic ResortLock. The most pricey lock by LockState is its ‘RemoteLock 7i Black WiFi Commercial Smart Lock’ which costs $479.

Another core product of LockState is its cloud-based remote access platform for internet-enabled locks. It implies users can remotely manage their (internet-enabled) locks via LockState’s cloud platform.

Unlike smartphones and watches, customers don’t look forward to upgrading their smart locks or buying one when new models are launched. Thus, smart lock companies offset this disadvantage by partnering with property management and short-term rental companies to get new customers.

LockState has partnered with vacation rental brands like Airbnb, HomeAway, and other listing partners to automate guest access.

Igloohome a Singapore-based smart lock company also raised an investment of $4M in April this year.

There has been so much hype about the “Internet of Things” (IoT) that it is refreshing to hear about a cutting-edge development project that can bring concrete benefits to millions of people. That project is the ongoing development of the Google Smart Contact Lens, and it was detailed in a keynote speech June 8 at the Design Automation Conference (DAC 2015).

The keynote speech was given by Brian Otis (right), a director at Google and a research associate professor at the University of Washington. The “smart lens” that the project envisions is essentially a disposable contact lens that fits on an eye and continuously monitors blood glucose levels. This is valuable information for anyone who has, or may someday have, diabetes.

Since he was speaking to an engineering audience, Otis focused on the challenges behind building such a device, and described some of the strategies taken by Google and its partner, Novartis. The project required new approaches to miniaturization, low-power design, and connectivity, as well as a comfortable and reliable silicon-to-human interface. Otis discussed the “why” as well and showed how the device could potentially save or improve millions of lives.

Millions of Users

First, a bit of background. Google announced the smart lens project in a blog post in January 2014. Since then it has been featured in news outlets including Forbes, Time, and the Wall Street Journal. In March 2015, Time reported that Google has been granted a patent for a smart contact lens.

The smart lens monitors the level of blood glucose by looking at its concentration in tears. The lens includes a wireless system on chip (SoC) and a miniaturized glucose sensor. A tiny pinhole in the lens allows tear fluid to seep into the sensor, and a wireless antenna handles communications to the wireless devices.

“We figure that if we can solve a huge problem, it is probably worth doing,” Otis said. “Diabetes is one example.” He noted 382 million people worldwide have diabetes today, and that 35% of the U.S. population may be pre-diabetic. Today, diabetics must *** their fingers to test blood glucose levels, a procedure that is invasive, painful, and subject to infrequent monitoring.

According to Otis, the smart contact lens represents a “new category of wearable devices that are comfortable, inexpensive, and empowering.” The lens does sensor data logging and uses a portable instrument to measure glucose levels. It is thin, cheap, and disposable, he said.

Moreover, the lens is not just for people already diagnosed with diabetes—it’s for anyone who is pre-diabetic, or may be at risk due to genetic predisposition. “If we are pro-active rather than re-active,” Otis said, “Instead of waiting until a person has full-fledged diabetes, we could make a huge difference in peoples’ lives and lower the costs of treating them.”

Technical Challenges

No one has built anything quite like the smart lens, so researchers at Google and Novartis are treading new ground. Otis identified three key challenges:

• Miniaturization: Everything must be really small—the SoC, the passive components, the power supply. Components must be flexible and cheap, and support thin-film integration.
• Platform: Google has developed a reusable platform that includes tiny, always-on wireless sensors, ultra low-power components, and standards-based interfaces.
• Data: Researchers are looking for the best ways to get the resulting data into a mobile device and onto the cloud.

Comfort is another concern. “This is not intended to be for the most severe cases,” Otis said. “This is intended to be for all of us as a pro-active way of improving our lifestyles.”

The platform provides a bidirectional encrypted wireless link, integrated power management, on-chip memory, standards-based RFID link, flexible sensor interface, high-resolution potentiostat sensor, and decoupling capacitors. Most of these capabilities are provided by the standard CMOS SoC, which is a couple hundred microns on a side and only “tens of microns” thick.

Otis noted that unpackaged ICs are typically 250 microns thick when they come back from the foundry. Thus, post-processing is needed so the IC will fit into a contact lens.

Furthermore, the design requires precision analog circuitry and additional environmental sensors. “Some of this stuff sounds mundane but it is really hard, especially when you find out you can’t throw large decoupling capacitors and bypass capacitors onto a board, and all that has to be re-integrated into the chip,” Otis said.

Sensor Challenges

Getting information from the human body is challenging. The smart lens sensor does a direct chemical measurement on the surface of the eye. The sensor is designed to work with very low glucose concentrations. This is because the concentration of glucose in tears is an order of magnitude lower than it is in blood.

In brief, the sensor has two parallel plates that are coated with an enzyme that converts glucose into hydrogen peroxide, which flows around the electrodes of the sensor. This is actually a fairly standard way of doing glucose monitoring. However, the smart lens sensor has two electrodes compared to the typical three.

In manufacturing, it is essential to keep costs low. Otis outlined a three-step manufacturing process:

• Start with the bottom layer, and mold a contact lens in the way you typically would.
• Add the electronics package on top of that layer.
• Build a second layer that encapsulates the electronics and provides the curvature needed for comfort and vision correction.

Beyond the technical challenges are the “clinical” challenges of working with human beings. The human body “is messy and very variable,” Otis said. This variability affects sensor performance and calibration, RF/electro-magnetic performance, system reliability, and comfort.

The final step is making use of the data. “We need to get the data from the device into a phone, and then display it so users can visualize the data,” Otis said. This provides “actionable feedback” to the person who needs it. Eventually, the data will need to be stored in the cloud.

As he concluded his talk, Otis noted that the platform his group developed may have many applications beyond glucose monitoring. “There is a lot you can do with a bunch of logic and sensing capability,” he said, “and there are hundreds of biomarkers beyond glucose.” Clearly this will be an interesting technology to watch.

Richard Goering

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