Dawn Chmielewski
Report Predicts Surge in “Internet of Things” Devices
A new mobility report from Ericsson projects that the number of net-connected devices will increase by three or four times by 2019.
There were some 200 million machine-to-machine devices online by the end of 2013 -- a broad term that describes any device that exchanges information across a network without need for human intervention. These form the foundation of the “Internet of Things” phenomenon, and encompass everything from Internet-connected “smart meters” that keep track of energy consumption to cameras with built-in SIM cards to jump onto mobile networks.
Patrik Cerwall, Ericsson’s head of strategic marketing, said these devices communicate information across slower mobile networks today, but that will change by 2016, when the majority of such devices use higher-speed 3G or 4G networks. Smartphones accounted for 65 percent of all phones sold worldwide in the first quarter, Ericsson found.
Within two years’ time, the number of smartphone subscriptions will surpass basic mobile phones. Consumer adoption of the smartphone has accelerated since Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007.
PBS Kids Gives Parents an App to Monitor Children’s Screen Time
Managing children’s screen time has been a perennial concern for parents -- even back when there was only one screen in the home to monitor.
PBS Kids has applied a contemporary solution to this familiar parenting challenge: An app that allows parents to monitor which videos their children watch on PBSKids.org, what games they’re playing on the site and what they’ve learned along the way.
The new PBS Kids Super Vision app even lets parents set a timer that effectively puts the PBSKids.org site to sleep when it’s bedtime, dinner time or simply time for the child to move away from the computer screen.
“The kids know that there are rules, and when the show is over that’s enough -- but I like having that reinforcement,” said Abby Jenkins, a mother of two boys, ages 2 and 5, who has had access to a pre-release version of the app as a PBS employee.
PBS Kids Digital Vice president Sara DeWitt said the app was developed in response to a series of focus group meetings with parents, who said they think of PBS as educational but don’t know enough about the programs or the educational skills these shows seek to develop.