Some of the most interesting developments in the Internet of Things revolution will be how identity is established and protected, as well as a build out of communications channels among devices.

eMarketer:  The Internet of Things: Tracking the ‘Cross-Everywhere’ Consumer

“GSMA defines M2M mobile connections as “the next wave of smartphones, tablets and consumer electronics, as well as machines, vehicles, monitors and sensors equipped with [M2M] communications.” In other words, objects that talk to each other.”

“The challenge, according to Schler, will be related to data management, as consumers move from having between five and 10 personal devices to dozens or hundreds. One potential solution could be a sort of persistent digital identity that could be established using a combination of smartphones, wearables and IoT devices, with it all tied back to biometrics and user behaviors.”

The State of the Internet 2015 report highlights trends that are important for global commerce and innovation.

VentureBeat:  Akamai: Global Average Internet Speed Grew 10% Year Over Year to 5.0 Mbps, but Only 4.6% have Broadband

“Most importantly, global adoption of speeds 25 Mbps and greater (the new U.S. definition of broadband) increased 20 percent year over year to hit 4.6 percent penetration. Eight of the top 10 countries saw a penetration rate in double digits, but only South Korea could say one in five of its citizens have broadband speeds.”

“As in previous reports, Akamai also cited mobile traffic data collected by Ericsson, which has a presence in more than 180 countries and a customer base representing more than 1,000 networks. The volume of mobile data traffic grew 12 percent quarter over quarter…”

After several failed attempts at a flexible, user-friendly cloud solution, IBM partners its way into the consumer cloud storage space.

Forbes:  Box and IBM Form Wide-Ranging New Partnership to Integrate Services, Build New Apps

“In the partnership, Box will integrate IBM’s Watson analytics and security offerings into its content collaboration platform and will allow users to store their data on IBM’s cloud. IBM will gain access to Box within its own email and work solutions as well as apps built through IBM. Both companies will work together to build new apps for iOS.”

“IBM, meanwhile, hopes to offer its customers a better user experience than its been able to build in-house after billions spent on new cloud offerings and collaboration improvements. Ease of use is one of Box’s key strengths, says Bob Picciano, senior vice president of IBM Analytics. ‘We were sure from the beginning we had to focus on what we could do for the client,’ Picciano says. ‘Box has fulfilled an important need.'”

Data analytics opens up new product features for popular social apps.

Mashable: Instagram Overhauls its Search Features to Focus on Trends

“The new Explore menu is a major departure from previous versions of the feature, which surfaced photos and videos solely based on users you followed and posts you liked in the past. The app now takes a much more Twitter-like approach by surfacing posts based on tags and locations currently trending on the platform.”

“Tuesday’s update also overhauled the app’s search features, which now allow users to search for photos and videos posted from specific locations. Searches for specific locations will turn up results for both the most recent and top posts tagged with that location. The new search menu also makes it easier to narrow down searches by allowing you to sort results by people, places and tags.”

Wired: Google Music Crunches Your Data to Craft Perfect Playlists

“…Google is offering a free tier to Google Music that it hopes will bring more users into the service. Elias Roman, a product manager on the service, says Google kept seeing people turned off by having to put in a credit card. ‘When you open up the free tier,’ he says, ‘we have one agenda, and that is get you as quickly to music as possible.'”

“This is the perfect microcosm of Apple’s and Google’s value differences. In Apple’s world, there’s a single radio station the whole world will listen to; in Google’s, everyone wants different things, and with perfect data it can deliver it to you automatically. In both cases, though, they want everyone listening to music, and they’re going to pay artists for it.”

Bridging civic participation and technology, Google’s incubator supports projects that struggle to find funding, but that improve citizens’ everyday lives.

Fast Company: Google’s New Urban Innovation Incubator Just Made its First Investment, To Bring Public Wi-Fi to Cities

“The startup’s first project: Scaling up and spreading LinkNYC, a New York City project that’s turning old pay phones into public wi-fi spots with lightning-fast free Internet, free phone calls, USB charging, and wayfinding stations so people can more easily find the nearest subway or bus.”

“LinkNYC is also something that can move to scale relatively quickly and affordably, something that Sidewalk Labs values—the incubator hopes to occupy a space between the top-down smart cities projects from companies like Cisco and IBM, and smaller civic hacking projects that might happen as one-off installations.”

Brands and apps now want to capitalize on our every waking moment.

Slate: Moments are having a Moment

“For social-media upstarts like Instagram and Snapchat, then, emphasizing “moments” is partly a way to differentiate one’s product from that of Facebook, the industry’s dominant incumbent. The same logic applies to the standalone apps Facebook creates with the aim of filling different niches than the social network proper.”

“It’s no accident, I suspect, that mobile Internet companies have seized on moments as the next front in the war for our attention. Moments don’t typically happen when we’re on our desktop computers. They happen when we’re on the go. The question, then, is whether we choose to pull out our mobile devices or leave them in our pockets.”

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