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TECHNOLOGY A23
The smart-tech future beckons to us from the CES gadget show
RYAN NAKASHIMA
AP Business Writer
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Look
around. How many com-
puting devices do you
see? Your phone, prob-
ably; maybe a tablet or
a laptop. Your car, the TV
set, the microwave, bed-
side alarm clock, possibly
the thermostat, and others
you’ve never noticed.
Much of that computing
isn’t doing much while seg-
regated into individual de-
vices. But many of these
gadgets have the potential
to get smarter by connect-
ing to their fellows, which in “There’s a big value in
turn could open the door
to a brave new “Internet of
Things.”
To see where that might be
taking us, there’s no bet-
ter place than the annual
gadget extravaganza for-
merly known as the Con-
sumer Electronics Show —
and now simply as CES.
The show, which starts
Wednesday in Las Vegas,
is the place for companies
large and small to show off
new connected devices.
These range from the seem-
ingly trivial — for instance,
smart umbrellas that mes-
sage you if you leave them
behind — to the undeni-
ably helpful, such as navi-
gation devices that display
driving directions onto your
windshield so you don’t
have to take your eyes off
the road.
According to the McKin-
sey Global Institute, a divi-
sion of the consulting giant
McKinsey & Co., the value
created by connecting the
world’s devices could hit
$11 trillion annually by 2025, the 1990s, and Microsoft
a mind-boggling sum that
T-Mobile exempts streaming video from some data caps
ANICK JESDANUN
AP Technology Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Stream-
ing video from Netflix, HBO
and other leading services
will no longer count toward
data limits under T-Mobile’s
higher data plans.
T-Mobile already exempts
many streaming music ser-
vices from data limits, but
audio doesn’t use as much
data as video. Video is
among the leading uses of
data on phones.
A few hours of video can
quickly eat up an entire
represents over half of U.S.
economic output in a year.
Most of the value comes
from industrial uses — like
cleaner air from smarter
energy use and fewer fac-
tory shut-downs due to
smarter maintenance. But
trillions in benefits are ex-
pected to come from con-
sumer-bought products:
safer streets because of
better-driving cars, robots
that take care of house-
hold chores and health
and fitness trackers that let
us know when our bodies
need medical attention.
avoiding pain and suffer-
ing,” says report co-author
Michael Chui.
Of course, people have
been making big projec-
tions for the Internet of
Things for years, yet prog-
ress remains halting and
fragmentary. Major tech-
nology companies can pur-
posefully make it tougher
to interact with other com-
panies’ gadgets for busi-
ness reasons. More data
can mean less privacy.
In recent years, CES has be-
gun catering more heavily
to startups hoping to break
through the noise. The
sprawling show has sec-
tions for wearable fitness
gadgets, drones, autono-
mous vehicles, education,
virtual reality, video games,
robots, 3-D printers and
smart homes.
That’s largely a reaction to
the fact that many of tech-
nology’s biggest names
have been no-shows for
some time. Apple Inc. has
skipped the show since
Corp.’s then-CEO Steve
month’s allotment under
some plans.
The data exemption,
dubbed Binge On, applies
to 24 services, including
most of the major ones,
plus two from T-Mobile’s
competitors, Verizon and
AT&T. But not YouTube. T-
Mobile said YouTube isn’t
covered because the
company couldn’t reliably
tell yet that it’s video. Also step up from the most ba-
not covered is video shown
on Facebook feeds, as T-
Mobile has no good way of
distinguishing video traffic
Tuesday 5 January 2016
Ballmer gave the com- mow your lawn. they hacked into and took
pany’s last CES keynote in It’s worth bearing in mind control of a Jeep Cherokee
2012. Google parent Al- that CES is first and fore- via its cellular connection
phabet Inc. and Amazon. most a venue for promot- to the Internet. Cybersecu-
com Inc. hold their own ing the tech industry — at rity firm Rapid7 gave a fail-
Attendees sit in the self-driving Mercedes-Benz F 015 concept car at the Mercedes-Benz booth at
the 2015 International CES, in Las Vegas. The 2016 International CES will have a panoply of vendors
showing off such connected devices, from smart umbrellas that will notify you if you’ve left them
behind, to navigation devices that project directions on car windshields so you don’t have to take
your eyes off the road.
(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
events to release products. least the non-Google/Ap- ing grade to eight of nine
And the Consumer Tech- ple/Amazon/Microsoft part popular baby monitors for
nology Association that of it. Sometimes the pro- simple and obvious weak-
runs CES is aiming for atten- motion falls flat; 3-D screen nesses like failing to encrypt
dance this year at or below technology unveiled at Internet-streamed video to
last year’s record 176,000. CES in 2010 went from the prevent eavesdropping or
Shawn DuBravac, the next big thing to a mostly using unchangeable pass-
CTA’s chief economist, ar- unused feature. Netbooks words that malicious types
gues the show’s maturity introduced in 2009 took a could easily find online.
is a good thing, its focus back seat to the iPad re- Such issues point to a
transforming over the last leased a year later. And deeper problem: Many
two decades from what concepts such as the smart would-be connected de-
was “technologically pos- home have taken a really vices max out their capa-
sible” to what’s “techno- long time to materialize. bilities doing one thing well,
logically meaningful.” It’s For all we know, the Internet leaving little headroom for
no longer about a robot of Things could be next on security protection that
that can walk up steps. It’s that list. Last summer, two wasn’t ever necessary in
about robots that actually researchers described how an unconnected world.
from musings about lunch. streaming much video any- most people will notice.
T-Mobile says there are no way. Normally, “data is wasted
financial arrangements But all customers will benefit because on smaller-screen
with video providers to be from T-Mobile’s new video- devices, you don’t need
included, and any service optimization technology, to get all that data to get
can qualify by meeting which the company says a great picture,” Andrew
technical requirements the means three times as much Sherrard, T-Mobile’s chief
company is posting online. video for the same amount marketing officer said re-
Unlimited video streaming of data. Streams will main- cently.
is restricted to those who tain DVD-level quality on a Higher-resolution video, he
have data plans of at least phone without transmitting said, is more important for
3 gigabytes, which are a as much data. larger TV screens. Viewers
Although DVD quality is who want that higher qual-
sic plans. short of high definition, ity can turn the feature off,
T-Mobile CEO John Lege- which many phones are but the data exemptions
re said those with smaller capable of displaying, the wouldn’t apply.q
plans probably weren’t company doesn’t believe