Live blog: Samsung’s CES 2015 internet of things event

Samsung keynote CES 2015

The first press day of CES 2015 is drawing to a close, and we’ll have live coverage of Samsung’s evening keynote event — where we expect some awesome internet of thing announcements — starting around 6:30pm PT right here.

Kevin C. Tofel 7:32:40 pm

That’s a wrap! Now I’m off to sign up for the Internet of Things army. Kidding aside, the vision here is good. Let’s see how the industry makes it happen. Thanks for following!

Stacey Higginbotham 7:31:53 pm

This felt like a long keynote for very little news, but I’m going off to talk to Alex Hawkinson so I’ll try to get more information on the devices and hub for y’all. 

Kevin C. Tofel 7:30:59 pm

And those were sarcastic wows.

Stacey Higginbotham 7:30:46 pm

Oh we  are coming to a crescendo now. There was an explosion of connectivity.  I give it two wows.

Kevin C. Tofel 7:30:11 pm

I feel like I’m on a modern version of “It’s a small world” at Disney.

Stacey Higginbotham 7:29:28 pm

He’s asking us to work together and some fantastic disney-esque music is playing and the lights are dimming. And I swear people should stand and put their hands over their hearts. 

Stacey Higginbotham 7:27:54 pm

The internet of things must be secure. Well that was a bummer. He’s right. 

Stacey Higginbotham 7:27:21 pm

Wait, one more thing …

Stacey Higginbotham 7:27:12 pm

I was totally hoping a car was about to drive up onstage. So far I am very disappointed by the level of showmanship as compared to previous years. 

Kevin C. Tofel 7:26:37 pm

Pics or it didn’t happen! (I guess video counts)

Stacey Higginbotham 7:26:19 pm

We are seeing a demo of a autonomous BMW i8 …. on video

Kevin C. Tofel 7:24:01 pm

Stacey Higginbotham 7:23:41 pm

He is presenting a fully integrated Samsung tablet into the BMW car called the BMW Touch Command. For the first time. 

Stacey Higginbotham 7:22:34 pm

In the internet of things the boundaries between the home and the car and the office are disappearing he says. He’s right. But we still have walls where we must switch platforms unless we are lucky enough to buy a car that happens to work with our current smartphone or office apps.

Kevin C. Tofel 7:22:27 pm

Stacey Higginbotham 7:21:21 pm

Now we have Spotify in the car and over the air navigation updates. Most of the BMW fleet is connected.

Kevin C. Tofel 7:20:57 pm

Stacey Higginbotham 7:20:48 pm

The history of connecting BMWs began in 1997 with the first assistance call. 

Stacey Higginbotham 7:20:07 pm

Yoon is talking about companies that have joined them in the way they think about IoT. Elmar Frickenstein SVP BMW Group takes the stage.

Stacey Higginbotham 7:18:57 pm

Also about cars and connecting them homes, auto repair shops and insurers. Most people are not cool with all of that yet. 

Stacey Higginbotham 7:18:13 pm

This one is about being able to measure a restaurant’s wine cellar and track that data and share it all the way back to the vinter and the grower. 

Kevin C. Tofel 7:17:41 pm

Stacey Higginbotham 7:17:06 pm

Another video. 

Stacey Higginbotham 7:16:55 pm

Yoon is talking about a sensor used in the intensive care unit of the hospital that is the size of his hand and placed under a mattress. It’s called Early Sense and he’s like to see that in more places. 

Kevin C. Tofel 7:15:49 pm

Stacey Higginbotham 7:15:33 pm

He’s also stressing the openness angle again. I’m with him. I know we have a long way to go, but I do think that we need make things as open as we can — business models be damned.

Stacey Higginbotham 7:14:32 pm

Yoon is back. He tells us the yes, the internet of things is amazing. This year Samsung will invest more than $100 million in the development community by strengthening the accelerator program and the developer community. 

Stacey Higginbotham 7:13:03 pm

Rahman says it’s not just data that’s exciting, but starting to build more interesting experiences for the end user. But he needs developers. I’m not sure when this became a dev conference. But I agree. Devs are kings.

Kevin C. Tofel 7:12:32 pm

I second the openness – cross-platform support is only part of it, I know, but my purchase decisions take that into consideration.

Stacey Higginbotham 7:11:39 pm

But it can only do that if things are open. So remember, open is good! 

Kevin C. Tofel 7:11:22 pm

Stacey Higginbotham 7:11:14 pm

The idea is that Jawbone has all of this context about you as a person it can tell the things around you what they should do in order to make you more efficient or productive. So your Up band can tell your Samsung phone to play a certain playlist to make you run faster on a jog based on past performance. 

Stacey Higginbotham 7:09:35 pm

He’s also saying that people really like Jawbone. Now he’s selling the Jawbone system of the app, the data science behind the application and how the Jawbone band understands context about the user.

Tom Krazit 7:08:54 pm

It’s a Structure Connect reunion!

Stacey Higginbotham 7:08:35 pm

Rahman is talking about how Jawbone Up bands are beautiful and functional and in service of the user. 

Kevin C. Tofel 7:08:27 pm

Stacey Higginbotham 7:07:55 pm

SmartThings needs developers for IoT software and hardware, so he’s now welcoming Hosain Rahman, the CEO of Jawbone onstage. 

Kevin C. Tofel 7:07:17 pm

Maybe. I’m a DIY guy; just want to buy these things, set them up and have them work. Without a monthly bill. ;)

Stacey Higginbotham 7:06:33 pm

I think what may happen isn’t that you will send a text to your grandma if you pipe breaks, but it is a precursor to sending a text to a service provider like plumber. The question is who pays. them, you? A split?

Kevin C. Tofel 7:05:43 pm

I like what they’re offering but why do we have to pay for automated triggers and contacts from events?

Stacey Higginbotham 7:05:34 pm

That will be available in April.

Stacey Higginbotham 7:05:14 pm

SmartThings is announcing a new premium subscription service that will send alerts to you and then escalate the alerts to others in your family. 

Stacey Higginbotham 7:04:39 pm

SmartThings works with more devices than any other platform in the world right now. 

Kevin C. Tofel 7:03:58 pm

Stacey Higginbotham 7:03:52 pm

Alex says SmartThings now hows a smart TV solution and reminds people about the fitness trackers integrations. 

Tom Krazit 7:03:29 pm

Alex Hawkinson joined us at Structure Connect last October:

Stacey Higginbotham 7:02:58 pm

The next gen smartthings hub will work even if you have an internet and power outage in your home. Backup batteries for the win!!!!

Kevin C. Tofel 7:02:41 pm

Stacey Higginbotham 7:02:12 pm

It’s Alex Hawkinson the founder and former CEO of SmartThings!

Stacey Higginbotham 7:01:55 pm

Yoon says our IoT components and devices will be open. We will assure others can easily connect to our devices. That’s why when SmartThings became a member of our family we assured them we would keep it open. 

Kevin C. Tofel 7:01:38 pm

Stacey Higginbotham 7:00:49 pm

For success we need an open IoT ecosystem, that works will a variety of technologies. We must not have IoT silos. All sensors and all devices must work each other.

Stacey Higginbotham 6:59:21 pm

All of Samsung’s hardware will act as an IoT hub.

Stacey Higginbotham 6:58:57 pm

By 2017 90 percent of Samsung products will be IoT devices. And five years from now all pieces of Samsung hardware will be IoT devices. 

Kevin C. Tofel 6:58:35 pm

Stacey Higginbotham 6:57:33 pm

This video showing how all these devices work is cool, but so far it’s all Samsung. Not surprising in a Samsung Keynote, but in the real world I don’t live in an all-Samsung home. Want to impress me, show me a multi-brand home.

Stacey Higginbotham 6:56:06 pm

These sensors need to be always on and low power  so we are working on energy efficient, compact chips called ePOP and the Bio Processor. 

Kevin C. Tofel 6:55:17 pm

Stacey Higginbotham 6:54:59 pm

We are working on a 3-D range sensor for motion too says Yoon. That smell thing sounds sweet!

Stacey Higginbotham 6:54:28 pm

Sensors need to understand the context of your environment. We are working on a sensor that can identify more than 20 different smells. 

Kevin C. Tofel 6:53:59 pm

Stacey Higginbotham 6:53:37 pm

Yoon is back and talking about devices again. Maybe my news is coming now?

Kevin C. Tofel 6:52:50 pm

That’s the beauty of keynotes: Less news and more vision. You can’t be wrong that way.

Stacey Higginbotham 6:52:26 pm

It’s not just you, Kevin. But where is my news?

Kevin C. Tofel 6:52:04 pm

So it’s not just me.

Stacey Higginbotham 6:51:46 pm

The government should get involved too and ensure personal privacy, prevent discrimination and wow, this guy is sounding like a real hippie with no idea of how this is all going to come about. But I hope it works.

Stacey Higginbotham 6:50:56 pm

He’s now saying that companies need to realign their business models for the internet of things, working together to create a collaborative internet of things economy. 

Kevin C. Tofel 6:50:55 pm

Maybe it’s just me but he sounds like he’s running for office and this is his platform. 

Stacey Higginbotham 6:50:09 pm

Rifkin says we need to ensure a common code of standards and interoperability so users can share data across systems. We need universal access and inclusivity. Attempts to close and silo parts of the internet of things is bad.

Kevin C. Tofel 6:49:36 pm

Agreed. It’s being sold as a major transition for the global economy, like the Industrial Revolution. We’re not there yet though.

Stacey Higginbotham 6:48:41 pm

Aside from his high falutin’ talk what he’s talking about is true. Connecting as much as we can will make things more efficient because we can share information more easily and reduce waste. 

Kevin C. Tofel 6:48:12 pm

Stacey Higginbotham 6:47:36 pm

It’s going to be AMAZING

Stacey Higginbotham 6:47:19 pm

We are about to discuss the “Paradigm Shift” that the internet of things will entail. Basically the communication internet will meet a renewable energy internet and a transportation and logistics internet and create some “super internet” that will encompass all of these things. 

Stacey Higginbotham 6:45:49 pm

Yoon just invited Jeremy Rifkin, the president of the Foundation for Economic Trends, onstage

Kevin C. Tofel 6:45:13 pm

Stacey Higginbotham 6:44:26 pm

Yoon asks what we will do with the new freedom that the IoT will grant us. Most of us will spend more time on the internet.

Kevin C. Tofel 6:44:05 pm

Good point. Developing the business models so that people find real value from IoT may be a bigger challenge than the devices and connectivity options.

Stacey Higginbotham 6:43:07 pm

All of these keynotes talk about IoT being not about devices and being about people, but when the business models come into play it’s really about the devices and the data. And the people are forgotten.

Kevin C. Tofel 6:41:59 pm

Makes sense; devices predicting your needs.

Stacey Higginbotham 6:41:41 pm

A sensor, processing power and connectivity is what you need for an IoT device says Yoon. I agree. And when you put them together you get more than the sum of the parts.

Kevin C. Tofel 6:41:32 pm

Stacey Higginbotham 6:40:47 pm

“The internet of things, it is ready to go,” Yoon.

Stacey Higginbotham 6:40:23 pm

That was very buzzy. Also in black and white!

Kevin C. Tofel 6:40:15 pm

Efficiency, speed and convenience seem to be the big themes.

Stacey Higginbotham 6:39:55 pm

The video shows how to motion graph a skater’s body. Show you how to save time in a washateria, a kid excited about about tracking his progress at baseball. a BABY! People at a retail store. Police chases ending earlier.

Stacey Higginbotham 6:38:25 pm

And it’s another video!

Kevin C. Tofel 6:38:18 pm

Stacey Higginbotham 6:38:12 pm

Yes, he brought up Back to the Future and while we don’t have time travel we have some awesome things form the internet of things, but first we have to make it work and get the tech to measure up. It needs to fit into human lifestyles.

Kevin C. Tofel 6:37:08 pm

Stacey Higginbotham 6:36:57 pm

Yoon says many people think the internet of things is in the distant future but it is not. It is 2015 and this is the year we are in the future!

Stacey Higginbotham 6:35:33 pm

Here comes Boo-Keun Yoon, the president and CEO of Consumer Electronics at Samsung Electronics, who is leading Samsung’s efforts into the internet of things.

Stacey Higginbotham 6:34:04 pm

There will be 375 startups in Eureka Park! Many of them IoT.  Now he is just shouting buzzwords. Cybersecurity. Internet of everything. 4K!

Kevin C. Tofel 6:33:20 pm

Stacey Higginbotham 6:33:14 pm

I bet he’ll sign a book if you ask him to. 

Stacey Higginbotham 6:32:55 pm

We are welcoming Gary Shapiro the President and CEO of the CEA. 

Stacey Higginbotham 6:32:28 pm

This is like an IMAX y’all.  Very fancy!

Kevin C. Tofel 6:32:03 pm

OK, this is odd. The video stopped about a minute ago and we’re all just sitting watching an empty stage.

Kevin C. Tofel 6:30:39 pm

And we’re getting started with a video. Except it’s sorta a commercial for CES. 

Kevin C. Tofel 6:29:28 pm

New announcement: No flash photography except for the opening welcome. Did we just enter a Cirque show or something? #Weird

Tom Krazit 6:29:19 pm

The good news is that Twitter is back. TWITTER IS BACK OMG! /kindasad

Kevin C. Tofel 6:27:21 pm

And of course, her phone hotspot just died. Who else loves IoT and mobile broadband?

Kevin C. Tofel 6:25:42 pm

We just got the 5 minute to go announcement; Stacey is stretching her fingers to type faster.

Kevin C. Tofel 6:16:47 pm

15 minutes to go and we’re getting pretty crowded now. And this guy behind me has a pretty big camera too. 

Stacey Higginbotham 6:14:10 pm

Today Samsung put Tizen into its TVs, and if it puts it into its appliances and other connected gadgets I wonder what that would mean for AllJoyn/AllSeen. 

Kevin C. Tofel 6:12:10 pm

So while this is an industry keynote, I wonder how many times we might hear the word Tizen, which is Samsung’s software that it seems to be using now to connect things. Tizen was going to be a big phone platform for the company but with Android in the mix, Tizen might be better suited for connected devices.

Stacey Higginbotham 6:11:56 pm

Always great for pranking my family when away on business trips, though. 

Kevin C. Tofel 6:10:51 pm

Yup great for remote stuff, less great for local stuff. 

Stacey Higginbotham 6:10:26 pm

Thanks to IFTTT, SmartThings and host of other devices I can control most connected things in my home if I don’t mind a few seconds of latency. It’s okay when changing the temperature, but intolerable when turning on a light.

Kevin C. Tofel 6:07:50 pm

That means Stacey has enough time to use her Smart Things app to check on her home.

Kevin C. Tofel 6:06:23 pm

We’re starting to fill up in here; should be starting in 20 or 25 minutes. I’d guess there’s room for 2,000 folks; not a huge ballroom by Vegas standards.

Kevin C. Tofel 6:02:12 pm

Oh and we don’t just talk the IoT talk, we walk the walk. With smartwatches!


Kevin C. Tofel 6:01:09 pm

This is the informative main screen we’re seeing as we wait. I fell like I’m at a movie theater before the previews.

Stacey Higginbotham 5:56:29 pm

Tom, the internet of things has not yet gotten to five nines reliability. Or even three. Twitter is another story. 

Kevin C. Tofel 5:56:24 pm

True story: First CES took place in 1967; the same year that Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was released. And I’m not just saying that because I’m a Beatles fan. I’m saying it because the main screen here just surfaced that tidbit. If this comes up on Jeopardy! someday, you can thank me.

Stacey Higginbotham 5:55:27 pm

Background reading for y’all. Why Samsung bought SmartThings back in the summer of last year. https://gigaom.com/2014/07/15/if-samsung-buys-smartthings-its-a-win-for-both/ Just in case you are sitting in a conference ballroom with time to kill. 

Tom Krazit 5:54:51 pm

Does Twitter count as a thing? Because it’s not connected at the moment.

Kevin C. Tofel 5:51:21 pm

All joking aside, so far (and it’s early yet) this CES is looking like what I expected here: https://gigaom.com/2015/01/04/my-ces-2015-expectations-connect-all-the-things/ Most of the mobile tech is incremental because we’re now finally ready to connect all the things!

Kevin C. Tofel 5:48:21 pm

Breaking news: On the main screen they just showed the dates for the International CES in 2016. Book your tickets now: Jan 6-9.

Stacey Higginbotham 5:48:02 pm

Surely it is connected. It has Wi-Fi.

Kevin C. Tofel 5:47:35 pm

But… is it a connected toaster? 

Stacey Higginbotham 5:47:19 pm

I’m using a toaster as a hot spot. Ba DA boom!

Kevin C. Tofel 5:46:04 pm

Surprisingly, there’s no event Wi-Fi here so we’re using our own IoT strategy with phones as hotspots.

Kevin C. Tofel 5:45:01 pm

Well, lets be real for a second. You can’t have New York, New York that close to the Strat with just Excalibur in between.

Stacey Higginbotham 5:43:49 pm

It’s a panoramic of the Strip and I will confess to seeing the plane and crying out, “Ooooh, a plane!” Kevin, on the other hand, is critiquing the accuracy of the picture.

Kevin C. Tofel 5:41:36 pm

That’s not a window to the Vegas strip and the big ferris wheel, by the way. But it is a moving picture. Stacey saw a plane fly across the screen.

Kevin C. Tofel 5:39:21 pm

And we’re inside, up near the front for all of Samsung’s IoT goodness.

Kevin C. Tofel 5:26:50 pm

Hearing that the doors are opening in five minutes so at least we can sit for the next 60!

Stacey Higginbotham 5:23:21 pm

I’m hoping to see new SmartThings hardware. My current box is a little long in the tooth compared to some of the newer hubs on the market. Wish list includes backup batteries. Maybe more radios and some updates on the application to make it a bit easier to use.

Kevin C. Tofel 5:20:39 pm

Kevin C. Tofel 5:19:46 pm

While you all sit and wait for us, we’re sitting and waiting to get in. At least we can wait on the fifth floor, where the keynote actually is. General admission is down on the second floor and the line is quickly growing. 

Kevin C. Tofel 5:16:45 pm

In case we weren’t sure about tonight’s topic, Samsung is strongly hinting here. (It’s IoT!)

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