Aaahhh... CES. The mecca of gadget geeks, networking aficionados and technology freaks worldwide. Every year, NETGEAR announces exciting new products in the networking field, and 2012 is no exception.
This time, though, it's a bit bigger than a new router or extender--it's a promising new ecosystem of cloud applications called the "Smart Network."
Reading through the press release (included below) we're super excited about the possibilities--especially for the programming crowd here at MyOpenRouter. ANYBODY can program for the Smart Network Application Cloud, it seems, making it an "App Store" of sorts for your network connected devices.
We'll be sure to report more when we get a chance to check out some of the features of Smart Network, but for now, you can sate your appetite with the press release below and NETGEAR's official information page.
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LAS VEGAS, Nev. – January 9, 2012 — NETGEAR®, Inc. (NASDAQGM: NTGR), a global networking company that delivers innovative products to consumers, businesses and service providers, today announced its Smart Network Cloud Application Platform, a new technology platform that enables consumers to purchase and download apps from the cloud for their home network to optimize and personalize their connected home. Enabled exclusively through NETGEAR’s latest routers, ReadyNAS® storage devices, media players and future products, the NETGEAR Smart Network gives consumers far more control over their home network than ever before and enables enhanced capabilities and management of practically any connected device. The Smart Network Cloud Application Platform also provides a platform for innovative new applications to exist in the cloud and be readily downloaded by consumers – allowing users to customize their network capabilities and manageability to match their particular lifestyle and needs.
NETGEAR’s Smart Network Cloud Application Platform allows consumers to download apps from a variety of categories to their NETGEAR home network products. These downloaded apps will enable a nearly infinite number of capabilities, controls and applications for these connected NETGEAR home network devices, including media, gaming, security, energy conservation, and more. Consumers can use apps to do everything from managing smart home devices, such as WiFi thermostats, for increased energy efficiency, to ensuring priority and performance for streaming media entertainment. Other apps will greatly enhance personal productivity tasks, such as enabling simple print sharing and cloud printing capabilities for tablets or sharing pictures and home videos with friends and family on social networks without having to upload any files to public web sites.
Smart Network Apps can be developed by anyone, from an independent programmer to a game developer, home appliance company, major utility company and more. For example, an independent programmer can develop a simple data usage meter app that alerts consumers when they near their data cap. Utility companies can provide applications that allow users to more closely monitor, and even lower, their energy usage. Game developers can provide network optimizers that ensure higher network priorities for their particular high-bandwidth game. Internet service providers could even create applications that allow simple sharing of user-generated content without the need to upload any content files to public web sites.
“NETGEAR’s Smart Network Cloud Application Platform opens up a whole new world of possibilities for consumers everywhere. For the first time, consumers can use our dashboard to create a customized network experience that caters to their needs and desires,” said Cedar Milazzo, Senior Director of Engineering. “Today’s smart devices are only as smart as the networks they are connected to. Over the years, mobile phones have evolved into smartphones, and televisions have evolved into Smart TVs. Now NETGEAR is driving the evolution from home networks to Smart Networks. NETGEAR Smart Network will allow consumers to use innovative new applications to harness the power of all of their network devices and use those devices in new ways that meet customers’ needs and that enable accessibility from anywhere.”
AppManager for Increased Control
NETGEAR’s AppManager is a dashboard that enables consumers to select and use downloadable apps from a convenient cloud operated by NETGEAR. The AppManager dashboard offers a variety of apps built by NETGEAR as well as third party vendors, with more apps being added all the time. Users can interact with the apps directly from the dashboard, giving them a simple overview of their connected devices. From the NETGEAR Smart Network Application Cloud, consumers can easily download and install new apps to fit their needs.
Developers to Join the Revolution
NETGEAR is opening its Smart Network platform to developers to create apps that let consumers customize their network to their lifestyle. Enabled through NETGEAR’s latest routers, media players, storage solutions and other devices, the Smart Network software develop kit (SDK) provides a technology agnostic XML API to interact with network devices and other applications on the Smart Network. As the home networking market leader, NETGEAR is also the broadest deployed platform shipping tens of millions of routers and gateways every year. NETGEAR is now accepting applications from developers to become a part of the Smart Network developer’s community Early Access Program. Interested parties are encouraged to visitwww.netgear.com/smartnetwork.
More information
To learn more about the Smart Network, please visit www.netgear.com/smartnetwork.
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