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thethings.iO on Forbes!

Forbes website talked about thethings.iO as one of the easiest IoT platforms that connects devices with the cloud

A few weeks ago we had made a post about how excited we were about being featured in VenturesBeat. If you’d like to see this article feel free to click here.

However, today we are thrilled to announce something a bit larger, last week thethings.io appeared in Forbes!

thethings.iO on Forbes

Barcelona-based thethings.iO is the latest entrant into the IoT cloud market. It proclaims to be the “Amazon Web Services (AWS) for IoT companies”. Though it seems to be yet another backend with ingestion API and real-time analytics support, the key differentiating factor is in its interoperability. thethings.iO is one the few platforms to expose both REST and CoAP APIs.Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP) is a protocol designed to be used in low-powered devices to allow them to communicate over the Internet. It is targeted at sensors, switches, valves, and actuators that are controlled remotely via standard Internet networks. Both REST and CoAP follow the same pattern of using HTTP verbs. thethings.iO uses CoAP to perform operations like activation, reading, writing and subscribing to sensors and channels. After completing the sign-up process, developers can grab an activation code to start pushing the sensor data to the platform. The node.js SDK is available on github.

Thethings.iO appeared next to some other awesome IoT startups from around the world, such as Konekt, TempoIQ, SensorCloud, Xively, Temboo and PubNub. But what makes us different from other IoT startups? The main factor is our interoperability. thethings.io is capable to expose REST, MQTT and CoAP APIs, which allows different kinds of devices to use cases to communicate over the Internet. Forbes’ article sums up all of this in their article, so make sure to check the whole piece out.

Stay tuned for more exciting posts from thethings.iO about The Internet of Things and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and be sure to check out our #IoTFriday blog!

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thethings.iO favorite watches and wearables

Wearable’s have become a hot topic among the Internet of Things tech enthusiasts. As the launch of the Apple Watch approaches, smart watches in particular have been weighing on everyone’s minds.

apple-watches

The various Apple Watch products will provide the opportunity for users to access most of the information that exists on their iPhone from their wrists. Everything from fitness tracking to checking your calendar, the Apple Watch will offer an impressive plethora of functions. In the meantime though, thethings.iO is excited to share some of our favorites, more affordable wearable’s on the market today: the Pebble watch, Motorola’s Moto 360, and Withings’ Activité Pop.

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thethings.iO is part of Hack4Europe

 

Hack4Europe

Hack4Europe

We are happy to announce that thethings.io will have the opportunity to be a part of the first on-line hackathon, hack4Europe.

This contest will allow us to connect with the most innovative start-ups, boost collective intelligence by using new APIs, get the opportunities to meet larger companies and win up to 50 000 Euros in rewards.

The teams have until May 16 to submit a project or join existing teams. The teams will need to choose any of the 30 APIs to start a project. There will be events in Madrid, Paris, Berlin and London with physical meet ups and mentorship for the teams. Finalists will be rewarded with trips to San Francisco, mobile devices and wearable’s.

Thethings.io is honored to be a part of this event. It will assist us in becoming familiar will different ways technology can be hacked which has allowed us to take the correct preventative actions to eliminate the risk of hackers in our system by being knowledgeable and experienced in this subject field.

 

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Ready for the Mobile World Congress 2015? At thethings.iO we are! #MWC15

This week we are so excited to announce that thethings.iO will be attending Barcelona’s 2015 Mobile World Congress (MWC), the world’s largest annual gathering of its kind. Over the past few years we have seen a shift in the focus of the event towards IoT innovation, and as a result there has been a great influx in Internet of Things gadgets showcased, developers and startups attending the event, showcasing and debating the latest trends and topics in IoT technology. Here is a detailed schedule of our whereabouts for the week so you can find us amidst the mobile madness of MWC 2015.

Mobile World Congress Barcelona

Mobile World Congress Barcelona

Sunday

thethings.iO will kick off this weekend at the Mobile Sunday event that will be held at the Antiga Fabrica Estrella Damm. Mobile Sunday is an opportunity for startups and developers to pitch their plans and products to potential investors and network with other attendees before the start of the conference. We will be there pitching and networking as ever.

Monday
thethings.iO will be at the IoT Stars competition which is an event our very own CEO Marc Pous has worked tirelessly to help organize. Narrowed down from some 50 applications a top-notch jury will have to decide in the final challenge for the glory of being named the top emerging IoT startup of MWC 2015.

Tuesday

Stop by the Wayra booth at 4YFN, to learn about Wayra and to catch up on all the most recent thethings.iO projects. 4YFN is a great chance for startups to meet with with one another as well as show off to investors so it is sure to be an exciting event!

Wednesday

In case you missed us during the rest of the week, come hear thethings.iO CEO Marc Pous at the WIP Developer Smackdown Wednesday afternoon at the Fàbrica Moritz Barcelona. He will be engaging in a lively debate with Oasys CTO Marc Mateu Mateus, and Superclock Technologist Emanuele Libralato, regarding the prototyping and development of hardware and wearables.

Following the Smackdown, you can follow Marc to Barcelona’s Wearable Wednesday event where he will join a panel discussing future possibilities of IoT integration into cities. The City of San Francisco and Wearable world have partnered to present an initiative they call the IOT For Cities Initiative, where they have begun to develop IoT solutions to the many problems faced by cities across the globe.

If you will be attending any of these events and wish to connect with Marc and thethings.iO mention us on twitter @thethingsIo or shoot us an email at hello@thethings.io. We can’t wait to see you there!

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VentureBeat features thethings.iO as the Amazon Web Services for the IoT!

We are SO excited to share one of VentureBeat‘s most recent posts, featuring… thethings.iO as the Amazon Web Services for the Internet of Things!

VentureBeat featuring thethings.iO

VentureBeat featuring thethings.iO

Recently, we launched our free IoT cloud solution, including back-end support for the cloud solution, a customizable front-end user interface, analytical tools, and guaranteed interoperability.

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thethings.iO Top Picks from CES 2015

Every January, techies from around the world flock to Vegas for CES, the Consumer Electronic Show, to show off their latest innovations and catch a glimpse of the newest technology. CES 2015 was the largest in the event’s history, with more than 3,600 exhibitors– many of which were startups flaunting the latest IoT gadgets.

CES 2015

CES 2015

As we can see from CES 2015, the world of technology is constantly growing, and here at thethings.iO we know that it is becoming increasingly difficult for developers to keep up. We offer back-end support for your cloud solution, a customizable front-end user interface, analytical tools, interoperability, and guaranteed protection of the customer’s data, so developers can focus on what they do best: building cool things. Take a look at some of our favorite CES 2015 IoT launches, and learn about some of the things we would LOVE to connect to the Internet!

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thethings.iO launches their FREE IoT Cloud Solution

This past summer, thethings.iO was selected amongst some six hundred plus startups as the winner of the Wayra Weekend in Barcelona. Since then, we have moved to the Wayra HW at Telefonica Tower in Barcelona, as one of many emerging startups in the Wayra acceleration program. As an accelerated startup, we have had the opportunity to expand our knowledge and have enhanced our capacity to engage in new projects.

thethings.iO team working (source: Tyba)

thethings.iO team working

In the past, what we offered was limited to what we called the “social network of the ‘Internet of Things,’” but we have since then developed our own IoT Cloud Solution that is ready for launch. We are now offering back-end support for your cloud solution, a customizable front-end user interface, analytical tools, and guaranteed interoperability.

With the launch of thethings.iO IoT Cloud Solution, we will be better equipped to handle the IoT needs of developers, and are currently looking for new customers with things to connect. While we have already begun to foster a number of partnerships, we are excited to invite individual developers as well as IoT startups and companies to start their membership. We are offering free accounts for developers, providing the opportunity to try our services through the connection of three things.

In addition to the free membership, we are also offering a premium account. Developers and IoT companies who would like to continue with unlimited services can connect their things for 1€ per thing, per year.

If you are interested in creating a premium account, please contact us (hello at thethings.io) directly as we do not yet have a mechanism for accepting payments at the moment.

We can’t wait to see what you create!

thethings.iO team

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How to learn CoAP in 5 minutes #IoTFriday

Welcome to the new edition of  IoTFriday at thethings.iO. Some customers and personal friends have asked us here at thethings.iO what is the best Internet of Things communication protocol? The answer is complex, because in reality it truly depends on the uses and needs of the developer. Today I would like to take five minutes and explain how to learn CoAP to everyone out there.

In the video I will explain to the listeners what CoAP is and why someone should use CoAP in their particular hardware.

What is CoAP

CoAP is defined as Contrained Application Protocol, and is a protocol intended to be used in very simple hardware. CoAp enables devices to communicate over the Internet. The protocol is especially targeted for constrained hardware such as 8-bits microcontrollers, low power sensors and similar devices that can’t run on HTTP or TLS. CoAP is a simplification of the HTTP protocol running on UDP, that helps save bandwidth.

The Internet Engineering Task Force Constrained RESTful environments (IETF CoRE) Working Group has done the major standardization work for CoAP. The core of the protocol is specified in RFC 7252, which means that CoAP is still not a standard protocol.

Two new features designed specifically for Internet of Things and M2M are:

  • Observe at new events happened on sensors or actuators.
  • Device management and discoverability from external devices.

 

When to use CoAP

Some of the specific cases in which CoAP are useful are:

  • Your hardware cannot run HTTP or TLS: If this is the case then running CoAP and DTLS can practically do the same as HTTP. If one is an expert on HTTP APIs, then the migration will be simple. You receive GET for reading and POST, PUT and DELETE for mutations and the security runs on DTLS.
  • Your hardware uses battery: If this is ones problem then running CoAP will improve the battery performance when compared with HTTP over TCP/IP. UDP saves some bandwidth and makes the protocol more efficient.
  • A subscription is necessary: If one cannot run MQTT and HTTP polling is impossible then CoAP is a solution

 

At thethings.iO we provide a CoAP library to connect your hardware at our IoT cloud solution. Make sure to contact us to try thethings.iO CoAP protocol.

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and be sure to check out our #IoTFriday blog!

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