Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman. Image: Warner Bros
This week, Warner Bros looks to IoT for the future of entertainment, while Portugal is introducing free zones to accelerate the development of self-driving cars.
In an exciting move, Cisco has announced it is to invest $1bn in a new venture to help more cities become smart, in an initiative called the City Infrastructure Financing Acceleration Program.
Along with the benefits of internet of things (IoT) technology come a number of cybersecurity woes, as a new report from ForeScout Technologies found that business teams are concerned about potential IoT security failures.
Portuguese government to boost driverless car tech
According to Smart Cities World Forums, Portugal is to introduce ‘free zones’ to boost the development of self-driving cars and drones in the country. The zones will have special regulations that will allow firms to test their technologies in a stringent way.
Portuguese industry secretary Ana Lehmann said: “We are working a lot on the regulatory and legal aspects because this is really totally fundamental for opportunities in this area.”
The country is one of a number rethinking how they allow their companies to test their new technologies.
Which? warning over IoT devices aimed at children
The holidays will soon be upon us, and UK consumer rights group Which? has warned parents about security risks involved with popular Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connected toys. It has also called for an outright ban on products that have known security flaws.
The group studied toys such as the CloudPets cuddly toy, which security experts found had stored thousands of unencrypted voice recordings of children and parents in an unsecured online database.
Warner Bros to personalise how we consume content
As well as being a successful Hollywood studio, Warner Bros is also a member of the Intelligent IoT Integrator (I3) Consortium, which met this week for its official launch.
According to Variety, Warner Bros is interested in creating methods for customers to digitally purchase and integrate its content into their lives via their IoT devices.
Bryan Barber, vice-president of digital innovation at Warner Bros, said: “The internet of things is a development that can create millions and millions of internet consumer touch points.
“The devices you encounter could light up or respond in ways that are uniquely tailored to you as a fan of DC Comics, Harry Potter, or their own fandom.”
Ericsson to modernise mobile network in Romania
Ericsson is to deploy the latest 5G-enabled and NB-IoT-ready radio equipment across telecoms company RCS & RDS’ network, focusing on the city of Bucharest as well as other urban areas in Romania.
Ericsson will enable both 3G and 4G services while preparing the network for the evolution towards 5G.
Arun Bansal, senior vice-president and head of Europe and Latin America at Ericsson, said: “By future-proofing its network, RCS & RDS can take advantage of 5G and IoT technology concepts, and reap the benefits of the technology now.
“This partnership represents a great step for Romania towards 5G and the IoT, taking the mobile broadband experience of subscribers to a new level.”
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