Atari Is Going To Build IoT Devices (pcmag.com) 84
angry tapir quotes a report from Computerworld: The latest entrant in the Internet of Things is legendary gaming company Atari, which plans to make consumer devices that communicate over the SigFox low-power network. The devices will be for homes, pets, lifestyle, and safety. Atari has signed a deal with the communications service provider, Sigfox. "The initial product line will include categories such as home, pets, lifestyle and safety," the companies said in a statement. "By connecting to SigFox's global network, the products will benefit from its competitive advantages: a very long battery life and a simple solution that does not require local Internet connectivity and pairing. As soon as the battery is inserted in the object, it is immediately connected to the network."
Oh god no (Score:2, Informative)
I assosociate Atari with 70s tech and failure. It's over Atari, hang it up.
Re:Oh god no (Score:5, Interesting)
The original Atari filed for bankruptcy in the 1980's. The IP floated around the industry for years until Infogrames bought Hasbro Interactive, moved their San Jose headquarters (previously known as Accolade) to Sunnyvale, and renamed the company to Atari. The name didn't help them survive the dot com bust. Eventually, after selling off studios that they paid two to four times actual value for pennies on the dollar, and exploiting every legacy property that they had on the books, the "new" Atari filed for bankruptcy in 2013.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari,_SA [wikipedia.org]
I worked there for six years, starting off at Accolade in 1997 and leaving Atari in 2004. Three years as a tester, three years as a lead tester. Fun times. But I saw the writing on the wall when I became a lead tester, went back to school to learn computer programming, and got into IT support work for the rest of my career.
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I'd love to see your resume. You seem to have worked at a lot of high profile places. Didn't you say Google turned you down once?
I've done contract work for Accolade/Infogrames/Atari, Cisco, eBay, Fujitus, Google, Intuit, and Sony, among many others.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-reimer-b3706928 [linkedin.com]
it hasn't been the "legendary gaming company"... (Score:1)
The Atari of today has little to do with the legendary gaming company of yore. The name has been bought and sold and licensed and is now basically just a marketing shell. There's something called "Atari", yes...
I grew up in the Atari 2600 era. I remember the first Pong machines showing up in restaurants in the early 70's, where two players would sit down at the machine. It was a great company then, and it changed the world. That company has not existed for a long time.
Also:
As soon as the battery is inserted in the object, it is immediately connected to the network.
Not at my house it doesn't.
Re:it hasn't been the "legendary gaming company".. (Score:4, Interesting)
Not at my house it doesn't.
Just to be clear. Yeah, if the battery goes in, then it does.
This is an... interesting... and disturbing trend for the future. Right now the home internet other than a few specific "mobile" devices like smartphones or onstar needs to connect to YOUR network, that YOU control.
This represents a shift where they connect to networks directly that you do not control. They don't run through your router, they aren't subject to your monitoring or blocking.
The future samsung smarttv won't need to connect to your network to get ads... it'll just connect to cellular or something directly and get ads.
The only solution... not even sure what it will be. Not to buy one (even today avoiding a smartTV is a PITA but not connecting it to the net is easy)?? Jammers ? Probalbly not going to be legal or easy to deploy in populated areas -- hardware hacks to render their antenna useless? Maybe? OR maybe their is no escape but to move into a log cabin in the woods...
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This is a kind of disturbing development. I don't know what the actual hard costs to a manufacturer to give a device on-demand data access through a cellular type network, but my guess is that it's rapidly declining and that ultimately cellular network operators will be hungry enough for growth and have built out enough network capacity that selling capped data-only plans to IoT type companies will become appealing to them, especially if they can manage to get existing smartphone users to pay for them.
The
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IOT = solution in search of a problem.
As someone who has investigated this stuff a fair bit, I agree that the connected appliances that are currently being pushed are uninteresting and, frequently, pointless. However, an INTRANET of Things is a whole different proposition, with sensors connected to a central processing device/server that uses the data to make complex decisions and then controls various other devices to effect the required changes. That, to me, starts to look really interesting as the security issues are reduced by being a much
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>OR maybe their is no escape but to move into a log cabin in the woods...
Yeah, like my buddy Ted. His advice: make sure your cabin is somewhere that still has good snailmail service. Can't attach the explosives to e-mail.
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That costs money.
The relevant hardware is cheap. Like under $10 cheap. And the data... lots of devices can easily run on under 100MB per YEAR. A data plan negotiated directly by the manufacturer with the carrier "for the life of the device" when looking at thousands or millions of devices would be pretty nominal.
And if the purpose of that data plan is partly to drive ads to the device and marketable user tracking info; it will literally pay for itself.
It's coming.
Re: it hasn't been the "legendary gaming company". (Score:2)
It's just the company that owns the Atari trademark.
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The name still exists. The actual company shut down years ago, after having been bought years before that.
Pets??? (Score:2)
FTFS:
The devices will be for homes, pets, lifestyle, and safety.
I asked the dogs, but they don't have any money for this sh*t. It's not part of their lifestyle, and they're dogs - they provide the safety for the home already.
Another IoT (Idiots obtaining Turdware) loser.
Re: Pets??? (Score:1)
Collar for the dog with transponder. Finally you can find out who is leaving out the smelly rotting fish that Rex is rolling in every night.
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Collar for the dog with transponder.
You get microchips for cats and dogs. Use the collar on the kids instead.
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Collar for the dog with transponder.
You get microchips for cats and dogs. Use the collar on the kids instead.
Better to use them on the parents of the 4-year-old who was lest to climb into the gorilla enclosure [mirror.co.uk]. The worst part is that the edited video that makes the rounds makes the gorilla look aggressive, whereas it's clear in this video that's not the case. A copy of the video had been turned over to the zoo and police, so which one made the edited version?
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>2016: Elect Baggins for a better shire!
Screw you ! I'm voting Took !
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Screw you ! I'm voting Took !
The Trump of the Shire? I feel sorry for you.
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Surely the Trump of the Shire must be Sackville-Baggins !
The good news: (Score:5, Funny)
In 30 years or so, someone can discover the landfill where Atari buried all the failed IOT devices.
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Do they explain how they time traveled?
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They were buried in the same landfill where Atari buried all the failed time machines.
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Which begs the question; if those time machines were failures, how could they have been buried there?
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Which begs the question; if those time machines were failures, how could they have been buried there?
If a time machine only works one-way, I would call that a failure.
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Pretty much all time-machine-based scams revolve around bringing information back to the past.
Hardly a failure, especially considering the time-machine could fund it's own improvement in a recursive feedback loop.
Feedback Loop (Score:2)
I enjoyed my circuits class. I did have to work to wrap my head around the idea of a feedback loop where the output of a circuit can be wired back as an input to the circuit changing the output and also the input changing the output changing the input.... ok make it STOP! ;)
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They time-shifted and then didn't have the network to connect to anymore! As a part of the anti-consumer behaviors, the devices toasted themselves.
Great! (Score:2)
Time to break out the port scanner.
Ought to be good on privacy issues (Score:5, Funny)
Atari ought to be good on customer privacy issues - the last time they brought out a product designed to "phone home", it took the whole company down. Doubt they'll want to go through that again. ;)
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http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/i... [kym-cdn.com]
Continuity (Score:2)
This business plan makes sure they remain irrelevant.
You mean Infogrames? (Score:2)
The company that made Alone in the Dark is switching to IoT? Hmm, I guess they believe they have some relevant patents and a good partner for this venture, but IoT seems like an area filled with pitfalls and liability. Maybe not the best strategy for a company staving off vultures? [wikipedia.org]
But what are the products? (Score:2)
I couldn't see anything in either link about what the products are, or will do, for homes, pets, lifestyle, and safety.
Am I missing something or is this just a press release from SigFox saying that Atari wants to use their network?
and this years buzzword wank award goes to (Score:3)
"IoT" or "Internet of Things" christ I miss the days that only hardcore nerds gave a shit about IT, Computers, technology, gadgets, etc.
Sorry, I'm super sick of hearing about "IoT" just be fucking descriptive, this shit is as bad as "the cloud" (actually it might even be worse)
I want a smart snobby toaster (Score:2)
I want a smart snobby toaster than orders its own fresh bread to toast, because it is too good to toast old bread.
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I just read up on it, and the SigFox protocol is 12 bytes per message, max of 140 messages per day.
That's tiny. Kindergarten kids can write faster than that.
Re:What is "the network?" (Score:5, Informative)
It's 12 bytes every 10 minutes. 96 bits. Not much for a tweet, but you can stuff quite a lot of data in 96 bits.
For example, say you're tracking fragile cargo :
2 bits - battery level (2 bits - 4 values, high / med / low / replace)
2 bits - status of 3 tamper switches (00 - all ok, 01/10/11 - a switch has been triggered).
6 bits - a temperature range of 64 degrees, in celsius, from starting from -14 to 50 degrees, 1 degree resolution.
6 bits - humidity (64 values stretched to 0-100, gives us about 1.5% resolution)
2 bits - whether temp or humidity has gone out of bounds since last transmission (and a spare value here).
6 bits - current speed 0-64 m/s (0 - 230 kmph/ 144mph)
6 bits - max speed since last transmission in m/s
48 bits - lat and longitude, good to about 11 metres globally.
18 bits - max g-force sustained in the last ten minutes (6 bits/64 values for x/y/z, scaled to 10g, so good to 0.15g)
Tada, 96 bits, full of info.
Controls (Score:3)
I just want to know if there will be phillips head screws to take it apart so I can re-align the button pads ....
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The so called "Internet of Things" is simply not going to happen any time soon.
Have you noticed all of the TV's, refrigerators, door locks, thermostats, garage doors, security systems, and lights that are connected to the internet and accessible from outside the home? It's already here
...but they'll soon learn.
No. They won't. 99% of people out there don't know or don't care. I, personally, would love the convenience of being able to control my lights and thermostats from my cell phone, but I sure as hell am not going to connect it to someone else's service to make that happen. Case in point, my local gas o
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Nope, I've never personally encountered any of those in the real world. They're niche products for wealthy people who'll buy a gadget just because, they're not products most people actually care to pay for.
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I've taken strides to make damn sure the things I buy do not access the internet, if they don't have a productive need to.
The only thing in my house that connects to the internet is my playstation, computer, and.. well.. yeah. That sums it up. I have a techie house, but not internet house.
Since I know how things work behind the scenes, it scares the bejeezus out of me to even think about lining things up to basically be spread buck-naked and ready...
The real meaning of IoT (Score:2)
"Internet of Terror"
"Insecure Online Things"
"Insecure Omnipresent Technology"
I think I'll wait (Score:4, Funny)
IDIoT (Score:2)
Implicity Dumb Internet of Things.
This is basically the sate of IoT due to an almost total lack of security.
Will you be able to play Asteroids on them though? (Score:2)