This is my tenth monthly IoT update.

What happens in Vegas:

• This year's CES delivered plenty more Internet of Shit
• Even as the battle of the ecosystems continues, the big consumer vendors announced they'd collaborate on IP-based home IoT standards via Project Connected Home over IP (CHIP).
• See also our related 2016 paper IP-to-the-edge.
• And the Open Connectivity Foundation announced its first compatible devices too.
• Don't expect too much from these initiatives soon as there are many layers of interop to resolve (especially up at the top of the stack, e.g. schemas) before any chance of everything "just working" together.

IoT Security news:

• A podcast hacks Ring cameras live on air
• US approvals entity UL launched an IoT security mark
• The California law to regulate security of IoT devices kicked in on 1^st Jan
• A must-read is Ross Anderson’s always-updating book Security Engineering
• The massive Wyze data breach apparently resulted from them trying to roll their own operational analytics (shoulda used DevicePilot!)

IoT Communications news:

• As Starlink becomes the satellite operator with the most satellites and Musk says the access points will look like a UFO-on-a-stick, their satellite-to-satellite laser links aren't yet operational but it still looks like they can beat fibre-optic latency anyway using ground stations as relays because light moves through the vacuum of space about 47% faster than it does through fibre-optic cables. And perhaps the terminals will cunningly be the relays.
• Russia announced it had successfully tested unplugging its internet (how would they unplug 42,000 satellites though?!)
• Sigfox announced total coverage for positioning across every ocean
• Sierra Wireless claim that by next year about half of all industrial assets will be connected

Openness:

• Interesting things are afoot regarding open-sourcing IoT hardware and software, to build a complete IoT tech stack which is safe to use because it's a) not controlled by any single commercial entity, and b) inspectable, all the way to the bottom
• Berkeley's RISC-V open CPU architecture is aiming to give ARM a run for their money
• The Titan project aims to create an Open Source "root of trust"
• The Open Source Hardware Association OSHWA has a process for certifying open source hardware

In other news:

• Forbes says we should stop calling it IoT
• A nice roundup of various approaches to wireless power for IoT
• "ML at the edge on very low power" is increasingly a thing for IoT: engineers have managed to crunch down Cloud ML models so they run with very low precision on small processors at the edge - even on ARM's Cortex M0, which is pretty-much the chip that they launched in 1985. See new startup Edge Impulse and Audio Analytic and of course ARM's ML for dummies.
• Darpa's Ocean of Things introduces "mosaic warfare"
• Arduino adds a new "low code" platform for modular development <-- doing this is what made Bluetooth really take off, so interesting development (and that it's ARM-based)

Meanwhile at DevicePilot towers:

• New partner Jungleworks integrated their Tookan logistics app with DevicePilot and we now have joint customers using the combination to schedule service of their connected devices.
• New partner EMnify has integrated DevicePilot for easy provisioning and control of IoT devices globally
• Teska Labs offers solutions for cyber-security and privacy
• Haltian - provides end-to-end integrated & managed IoT sensor solution for companies looking to digitalize their operations 
• Awair - tracks invisible fine dust and chemicals in your air and gives you personalised recommendations to help you stay safe and healthy.

Breaking news: We just released our new "Capability and Maturity Model" report – answer just 20 questions and receive a free, personal, confidential report scoring your maturity against your IoT stage, in 9 dimensions, suggesting specific actions and content to help prepare you to execute your next stage brilliantly. I recommend trying it!

Do send me your news, and have a great 2020.

-Pilgrim