We are thrilled to announce today a product we’ve been working on with Pitney Bowes for over a year now – a new BUGbase, we’re calling BUGsecure, that includes a special, tamper proof security chip.  We’ve issued a full press release here, but in summary this new chip, from Pitney Bowes, combined with their enterprise-class key management services and the Bug System gives our customers a completely new, high-security, trusted platform with which to prototype, pilot and produce innovative new wireless devices, services and applications.

The Pitney Bowes chip we’ve incorporated is the same one that lies at the heart of every Pitney Bowes mailing/postage machine whether it’s a desktop unit or a room size system and secures over $5B in postage transactions every year worldwide.  It’s called a tamper-proof, cryptographic key store.  In essence, it provides an ultra high security source for encryption keys with which to sign data.   This type of signature is essential for applications where the risks of fraud are high and/or the need for a bulletproof audit trail is required.  For example, many medical applications (think pharmaceuticals), financial, regulatory and safety use cases require this type of security.  Software-level security frameworks and protocols, while suitable for many uses, do not provide the level of certitude that a hardware key store does.

I heard a security expert recently say that “the mobile world today is about as secure as the desktop was ten years ago.”!  With so much attention being placed on mobility and empowering individuals and machines with new information and processing power, the need for the highest levels of security is exploding.  We’re excited to be working with Pitney Bowes on this exciting new opportunity.

We will be showing off the new system at CTIA in Orlando (booth #3659) all next week so if you’re attending the event please drop by and say hello!

Read the official post from Ayah Bdeir on the Open Hardware Summit blog! This is an exciting day in opening hardware!

We are pleased to announce the 1.0 of the Open Source Hardware Definition.

The definition has undergone a few rounds of feedback, and feedback collection has been done (online, forums, open hardware summit, stakeholder’s websites, email etc) and posted here for review. Gradually, feedback has been converging more and more, and support for the definition growing.

We would like to thank everyone who took an active part in drafting the definition, and discussing it.

Now, to move forward, please HELP:

1. Endorse the definition, post your feedback on version 1.0 on the forum and the mailing list as we work towards a 1.1 update in the next few weeks / months.

2. Take a look at the logos we are considering for “open source hardware”, give feedback or submit your own logo on the forum, in the thread LOGO.

3. Show your support of the OSHW Definition by applying the definition to your work/project/website

This is a very important step in propelling our movement forward. PLEASE FORWARD FAR AND WIDE.

Today, at CES 2011 in Las Vegas, we announced our latest milestone with Verizon Wireless – support for their new 4G LTE network.   Check out the press release here. We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Verizon and offer this new service to our customers.

The Bug System is now the world’s only 4G-enabled mobile product development platform.  This allows users to invent, prototype and deploy whole new categories of wireless device quickly and easily.   Imagine the possibilities – mobile hi-def video servers, 4G mobile hot spots, high-speed data back up devices, portable, wireless PBXs, the list goes on – all built in moments using BUG.

We anticipate great things with this new level of high performance connectivity and look forward to celebrating them on this blog.  If you have a great idea for a Verizon 4G LTE-powered device/app let us help you make it a reality!

We’re all looking forward to CES in Las Vegas. This will mark the fourth time we’ve attended.  Our benchmark for CES awesomeness is 2008 where we won the CNET “Best of Show” Award for Emerging Tech.  It was a fantastic feeling.  This year we’re demoing the new, re-designed Bug System with partners at the show and hope you come by to see it (booth info below).

But perhaps more importantly, I feel like the industry is approaching an interesting inflection point.

More and more devices are designed and built with idea of “sharing” as a core value – think net-connected cameras, music systems, TVs, etc.  We believe this year’s show will highlight the game-changing importance of this connectedness.  Fewer and fewer devices are being designed and built as standalone non-networkable electronic islands.  Just about everything now-a-days is being re-considered in the light of the power of “social” – an approach we’ve embraced since our inception.

BUGs are designed from the ground-up to support network sharing of all kinds -  via local, near-field, wide area, satellite, inter-galatic network technologies – and our recent announcement with the largest US carriers should confirm how serious we are about its importance.  Virtually all our customer engagements are based on this foundation.

Three words embody how we approach everything we do, whether it’s the development of our own platform and services or our customer and partner engagements – Build, Connect, Share:

Build – our platform helps customers build/prototype and deploy innovative new networked devices in hours/days, not months/years.

Connect – BUG’s built-in networking capabilities allow users to instantly connect new devices to each other, peripherals, LANs, the Internet, etc.

Share – BUG’s open, Web-based APIs to provide immediate access all the information being produced/consumed by a new deployment.   If it sounds easy, it’s because it is.  You have to come and see it to believe it.

I’ll be doing a demo of all this at the AT&T Developer Conference on Wednesday Jan 5.  If you won’t be attending the AT&T event then be sure to come by the Verizon Wireless booth located in the South Hall, upper level, booth #35216.   We’ll be demoing the Bug System and showing off our latest LTE/4G connectivity using Verizon’s new high speed network capabilities.  I’ve been carrying my 4G BUG around for a bit now and it’s super fast.   Now, in addition to 3G, you can easily build and deploy (say, over a weekend!) innovative new LTE/4G-enabled devices using the open, modular BUG system.

Hope to see you there.  And feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

With 2010 coming quickly to a close, that can only mean one thing (and I’m not talking about half-hearted New Years resolutions) – it’s CES season!

Each year, the companies from all over the world gather in the desert to preview some of the most cutting-edge consumer technology innovations. For the past several years, Bug Labs has been lucky enough to participate, and the 2011 event will be no different. This year, we will be showcasing our Bug System at the Verizon Wireless booth (#35216) in the South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

The last half of 2010 was a busy one. In case you missed it, Verizon Wireless announced in September a relationship with Bug that allows product designers and software engineers to build, program and deploy new wireless devices on the Verizon Wireless network using the Bug System, without requiring additional wireless certifications. We have also made similar announcements with AT&T and Sprint in 2010, further helping companies create Internet-connected devices quickly and affordably, or the “Internet of Things.”

To all of our loyal customers, devout Bug Labs fans, and those that simply want to get to know us better, we’d love to meet with you in Las Vegas. Here’s a few ways that you can connect with us:

• 2011 AT&T Developers Summit – Before the excitement of CES begins, Peter Semmelhack, founder and CEO of Bug Labs will be presenting in a session titled, “AT&T Developer’s Toy Box.” The session will be held on Wednesday, January 5th from 3:20-4:00pm at the Palms Casino Resort.
• CES Exhibition Hall – We’d love to have you stop by our pod at the Verizon Wireless booth (#35216). As an added bonus, if you’re new to Bug Labs, we’ll have coupons available for first-time customers. We’ll be busy conducting demos of the Bug System and will be on hand to answer any questions you might have.
• Call us directly! – Interested in grabbing a coffee or some after-hours cocktails? We’d love to join you! You can reach me and the rest of the Bug team by emailing mike [at] buglabs [dot] net.

I have no doubt that 2011 will be a year filled with much opportunity and promise for companies that are looking to create custom, networked devices. We look forward to going on this ride with you.

See you in January!

Our customers are all interested in wireless communications – WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC, 3G, 4G, satellite, you name it, if it means having no wires they want to explore the opportunities.

With this in mind we’ve been working overtime to provide all the tools necessary to satisfy this need.  Which is why I am delighted to announce our partnership with Sprint, our latest alliance in the 3G/4G wireless space.

Jeff Jarvis, in his book “What Would Google Do” mentioned that “there are no mass markets, only a mass of niches”, a point with which I whole-heartedly agree.  Our partnership with Sprint now gives our customers a whole new selection of unique tools and services to fine tune their solutions to precisely meet their needs.  The benefits of this are in keeping with our core mission – helping product developers and designers prototype, produce and deploy new wireless electronic devices quickly and cost effectively.

One thing we share with the Sprint team is a passion for innovation and helping customers achieve unique value and advantage through creative uses of wireless technologies.  For example, Sprint has inaugurated a new M2M Collaboration Center in Burlingame, CA to showcase new solutions and demonstrate cutting edge technologies.  We’re a proud participant in this new center and think it will be a terrific way to expand the discussion of wireless M2M is whole new ways.

I’m excited by this new partnership and look forward to helping our customers realize all the benefits of Sprint’s network and application development environment.  Stay tuned!

Our whole mission at Bug Labs is to eliminate the barriers to innovating in hardware (and there are many).  From open source hardware designs and software, to valuable partnerships in areas such as supply chain and manufacturing, we strive to make it easier for organizations large and small to design, build, produce and deploy innovative new electronic devices quickly and cost effectively.

In my post on September 22nd, I mentioned that the carriers in this country are becoming increasingly motivated and interested in inspiring whole new ways to innovate and bring new wireless devices to market, preferably on their networks.

If you combine their motivations with our mission, wonderful things start to happen.

As evidence of that, I am excited to announce today that we’ve partnered with AT&T to help developers seamlessly integrate 3G GSM wireless connectivity into whatever electronic device they can dream up with the BUG platform.  AT&T certified/network-ready wireless modules will become part of our integrated collection of BUGmodules.  This means the BUG-based device you put together can run, certified, on the AT&T network immediately – no further testing required.

With this announcement, AT&T becomes our exclusive provider of 3G GSM services in the US.  The benefits of GSM are well known – but perhaps the biggest is its international footprint.  Build and program a device in the US and deploy it in Europe without changing a thing.   That’s cool.  We will also be rolling out a number of innovative new programs with them in January, so stay tuned.

We are very excited by this new partnership and look forward to telling you more in the coming months.

In the meantime, you can check out the latest here att.m2m.com/buglabs

The Open Hardware Definition has been updated  with a statement of principals:

Open source hardware is hardware whose design is made publicly available so that anyone can study, modify, distribute, make and sell the design or hardware based on that design. The hardware’s source, the design from which it is made, is available in the preferred format for making modifications to it. Ideally, open source hardware uses readily-available components and materials, standard processes, open infrastructure, unrestricted content, and open-source design tools to maximize the ability of individuals to make and use hardware. Open source hardware gives people the freedom to control their technology while sharing knowledge and encouraging commerce through the open exchange of designs.

Please view the entire definition draft here. And we invite you to post your thoughts, changes and addition to the definition on the forums for the 1.0 version. There will also be continued discussions on the mailing list.

Special thanks to everyone who gave feedback for the 0.4 draft, especially Windell Oskay, David Mellis, and Phillip Torrone for their hard work dedicating much time on the wording.

Read another excellent post on the topic by Sparkfun.

The wireless carriers in this country face a daunting challenge – finding ways to charge for more and higher value data services fast enough to offset the deteriorating demand for high margin voice services – while simultaneously turning in positive earnings.  It’s a difficult trick to pull off.

Today there are a couple ways to do this; convince you to pay more for services on devices that you currently own (e.g. your phone) or get you to pay for services on new device types (e.g. iPad).

Given the focus of this blog, it won’t surprise you that I’d like to focus on the second approach, because it is here that I think a significant opportunity exists.  If you do a quick inventory of devices available on any of the carriers’ web sites you’ll see only a handful of device types available.  Obviously, the phone is the overwhelming focus – feature phones, multi-media phones, smart phones, etc.  You’ll also find a smattering of netbooks, wireless picture frames and USB modems, but that’s about it.  Your choices are pretty limited.

Now compare this selection to what’s available in any of the popular app stores.  I’ll use Apple’s because it’s the most famous.  Today you can avail yourself of over 250,000 applications organized loosely into 20 categories, and it’s still growing rapidly!  In this world, you have an entire universe of choice.

The explosion of software applications for the mobile world is testimony to the fact that, for the most part, the cost of innovating in software has gone to zero.  You, as a software developer, can get all the tools you need to create mind blowing new applications for no charge.  The results of this fact speak for themselves.

Now compare this with innovating in hardware.  Well, there is no comparison.  Today it is incredibly complicated and expensive to bring new wireless hardware devices to market.  In fact, it’s so hard that only large, well-financed companies can do it, and few of them well.  But does it HAVE to be this way?  No.  But changing how it all works will take time, energy and the participation of key industry players.  Which is why…

… I’m very happy to announce that we’re adding another, large, influential member to our growing community of open hardware advocates – Verizon Wireless.  It may come as a surprise to you that a company that is so often vilified for being closed is teaming up with Bug Labs, a company that is defined by its openness.  I was skeptical at first too.  But over the past several months the teams we’ve worked with at Verizon have demonstrated time and again their commitment to supporting our mission.  Their press release announcing our partnership (came out today) says it best.  And we’re on their website here!

Why is Verizon interested?  Because of the challenges I mentioned in the first paragraph.  They can do two things – deal with the status quo or change the game in the hopes of inspiring whole new categories of wireless device developer.  And why is this good?  Because it will lead to greater choice for us, the customer (both business and consumer).  And who knows – five years from now it may not seem weird at all to have a “Gadget Store” filled with 250,000 different wireless devices to choose from.  Stranger things have happened.

I’m thrilled to have them as a partner and look forward to telling you all about our progress.

Earlier this evening about 11pm, the Open Hardware Summit sold out! We are so excited by the response.  In case you were still hoping to be part of it, we’ll be in the usual places: Twitter, flickr, blogs, forums and anything with a #openhardwaresummit. We are also video taping the event (We’re crossing our fingers we’ll have the bandwidth to stream it!) so in case you can’t make it to the Hall of Science we want you to feel included.

Thanks to everyone for all your support, we’re looking forward to a revolutionary event.