Courtesy © malekas – Fotolia.com

According to Jupiter’s study, the viral adaptation of fixed and mobile broadband connectivity has opened doors we only imagined a few years back. Connected TVs, automated security and conveniences systems, and a vast array of other profitable niches in this space, all these have created a sort of business vacuum. As the author of the report Nitin Bhas puts it, this “land grab” for players trying to carve out a piece of the ecosystem, will probably end up with just a few players at the top of the food chain home tech wise.

Apple, Google and Microsoft are all in leverage positions, given their expertise and reach in the overall niche. While the full reports from Juniper are priced exclusively out of news report range, it is the trend and the potential that really matter for this story. Super smart home systems are already fairly abundant. A product we covered for Black Friday, Nest, is a real mover and shaker where ideas meet practical need for smarter home services and hardware. Nest basically chops your energy bills into bits by learning like a sort of Hal 9000 from Space Odyssey and then thermostatically optimizing comfort/economy.

As suggested, all any of the three big tech names has to do is buy a system like Nest (or make their own) and BINGO! There’s your market leader. Watch the Voice of America video below to get in the mood.

And the list of “smart” things for the home is pretty endless. I know from personal experience, such things as iPad operated shelves, even smart clothes and other electronic wizardry are in the works already. I am testing a WIMM watch that does everything but sing to me, my partner Mihaela, speaking with famous fashion designer Olivier Lapidus about Hotel Felicien’s design, he was incorporating smart-device activated doors and shelves throughout the penthouse there. As you will soon see, everything from Apple TV to an artificially intelligent toaster are possible, and now too.

Finally, ComputerWorld reported the other day on AT&T and Cisco announcing their an all-digital, wireless home monitoring service. This pretty much accomplishes the greater portion of what we have discussed here. Homeowners using this system will be able to control many sensitive functions via their  Android, iOS and Windows OS devices. The so-called Digital Life platform (below) will be open source as well. This will allow the vast number of app developers out there to create ever more appealing and useful applications for the system.

Below are some of the specifications of this controller from Cisco:

The Digital Life controller wirelessly manages an array of connected devices throughout the home by integrating AT&T software with Cisco Z-Wave communications radios. Connected devices include:

• Cameras
• Windows/door sensors
• Smoke, carbon monoxide, motion and glass break sensors
• Door locks
• Thermostats
• Moisture detection and water shut-off
• Appliance and lighting controls
• With a network-based approach, it is easy to customize and scale to meet specific customer needs such as remote video monitoring, alarm management and home automation.

As I said earlier, the smart home is already here. Deciding whether or not to enter the niche is really a forgone conclusion much like the decision to enter the online and mobile space. You are here reading this, no? Already the line has formed to mine for gold in this industry. Let us know your thoughts.

Mortgage scammers are using search engines to target struggling homeowners. Image courtesy michperu @ flickr.com

Typical ads placed online by scammers include promises of assistance for homeowners looking to avoid having their homes foreclosed on them. One favorite trick of these scammers is to claim that they can assist homeowners to obtain mortgage refinancing through government-backed programs, something that adds legitimacy to their claims. Scammers are increasingly turning to the internet to advertise their deceptive schemes, targeting specific phrases that troubled homeowners search for, such as “stop foreclosure” or “foreclosure assistance”.

One of the most common ways these scammers obtain money is to ask for cash upfront to process the homeowner’s refinancing application, or else they will direct homeowners to send their mortgage payments to them instead of their lender.

The report quoted the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program as saying that since Monday, investigators have discovered at least 125 online mortgage scams being advertised through search engines.

All three search engines have already stated that they will no longer be publishing advertisements made by any agencies that are suspected of scamming homeowners.

Microsoft, who own the Bing search engine, announced in a statement that it fully supported the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program it its efforts to help fight mortgage scams and was committed to preventing any fraudulent advertising taking place on its site.