What’s in a Name? Pachube to Cosm (beta) to Xively…

There have been a lot of questions about the name ‘Xively’; Why did we change, and why this particular name? The short answer is that we wanted to emphasize a clear evolution of the previous service into something larger, more innovative and more sophisticated.

We considered literally thousands of names and eventually converged on Xively. We chose Xively (zīv-lē) because it rhymes with ‘lively’ and with the “X” it suggests the interconnection of a new type of connected object.  Xively objects are not just ‘alive’ but ‘lively’.  When combined with our cloud services, these objects become active, reflexive and responsive.

Xively evolutionOne of the promises of the Internet of Things is an interconnected system of objects that can communicate not only with users, but with each other. This communication will inform and control their actions and interactions with the physical world, creating a system that is reflexively responsive to stimulus. With Xively’s Connected Object Cloud™, data and control can be securely and selectively shared between applications, users and even other objects.  Xively empowers an interconnected world, where intelligent machines – Xively objects – make reflexive, micro and macro systemic responses to stimuli from users, applications, machines and other devices, and will be a key driver in the grand IoT vision.

Accounts, data, devices: An explanation

Xively launched yesterday and, as sometimes happens, there were some things that we didn’t fully explain about the new system and processes, which has left existing users a little confused about the status of their data and their devices. We’d like to apologize for not communicating this clearly enough, but hope you understand that, with such a substantial augmentation of the previous service there are some things that fell through the cracks. Apart from expanding and reformulating the service itself, we put a huge amount of effort into building new libraries, tutorials, documentation, hardware examples, and even a pretty amazing Test Drive (with which you connect your mobile phone to a Xively channel in realtime in less than a minute), but we didn’t do so well in communicating changes that existing users might expect.

The most important thing to say up front is that you own your data, and that if you were a Cosm (or even an original Pachube) user, your data is safe and you don’t have to change anything about the way your existing devices use the API. You’ll lose out on some future benefits if you don’t start moving over to the new system, but the fact is that at every step we’ve taken since the very first launch, we have always been careful to support legacy devices and protect your data. There are, even now, devices out in the world that still use our v0 API from 5 years ago and haven’t updated their firmware.

We have a new process now (which we’ll explain a little more below) but any ‘feed’ (to use the Cosm terminology) that was in Cosm is now called a ‘legacy feed’. Legacy feed history will not be truncated – you can carry on using any feeds you already created just as you always have. You will find your ‘legacy feeds’ listed at the bottom of your Developer Workbench (which you will find at https://xively.com/develop). We had some problems redirecting Cosm console URLs to Xively Dev Workbench, which unfortunately made it seem like feeds had been deleted, but this should be resolved shortly and we can assure you all your feeds and all of your data are still there. If you have any trouble finding them please contact support with your username and we’ll have a look ASAP.

The new Xively process involves two stages (and there’s a detailed explanation here). The first stage is to use your Developer Workbench. You no longer create ‘feeds’ and ‘datastreams’ via the API, but instead you create Development Devices, which have ‘Channels’ using the Developer Workbench. Everybody using one of our free Developer accounts can create an unlimited number of Development Devices. The only limitation on Development Devices is that their data is deleted after 30 days – the principle being that these are devices you are experimenting with and have only transient need for data.

Then, once you have finished prototyping, the second stage is to deploy a working device as a Production Device (which you access via the Management Console). Production Devices have no limitation on their history (just like ‘feeds’ in Cosm). Users of our free developer accounts and those that purchase commercial service can both deploy Production Devices – the difference being that free users are limited to 5 devices with a total of 30 Channels while commercial customers can buy as many channels as they require. We think it’s really important to be able to use exactly the same tools and APIs to build one device as you would use to scale up to millions.

To reiterate, if you were a Cosm user your ‘legacy feeds’ are different to Development Devices, Production Devices and Channels, and therefore are not subject to these limitations, or having any history truncated. So, existing Cosm users have both ‘legacy feeds’ with unlimited history as well as up to 30 Channels of Production Devices with unlimited history.

A word about URLs: in Cosm you could visit a feed page, at a URL something like cosm.com/feeds/504. The same is true of Xively: you can find information both about ‘legacy feeds’ and Development & Production Devices at xively.com/feeds/504 (or whatever its ID is). Now, the data presentation will update in realtime as the values change. (Graphs require a click on a channel to expose). If you go to https://xively.com/feeds/YOUR_FEED_ID/workbench (which you will access directly via your Developer Workbench) you will have the same view, but with additional developer and debug tools to make working with them easier. Our focus has been to make it easier to build your products and manage your users or communities.

One other evolution we would like to describe here is how we handle data that users elect to make public. In the past, we haven’t had an explicit license applied to this data and there has been strong demand to formalise this. So, in Xively, if you make data public a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal license is applied (both on its page and in headers when requested via the API), which expresses your ownership of your data but your desire to make it much more useful and usable to others that might access the data. Read more about CC0 here.

There have been many questions about Air Quality Egg and other community projects. We will be updating those communities directly, but again the principle is that existing service will not be disrupted.

We hope this helps clear up some of the confusion about the status of people’s data and accounts. We know people have lots of questions about our plans for graphs on device pages – we have some advancements coming soon, please stay tuned. As always, if you have any questions please drop support a line and we will try to answer as quickly as possible.

Living Like the Jetsons – Brooklyn, NY – May 22nd, 2013

Connected devices like those seen on “The Jetsons” have been around for years, but only recently have such technologies dramatically transformed the way we engage with the physical world around us. The introduction of sensory technologies into our everyday lives continues to expand, blurring the lines between virtual and material and revolutionizing everything from our home appliances to marketing initiatives to eco-friendly efforts that could help save the planet.

Join Huge and our guests Bug Labs, Tellart and Chad Jones, VP Product Strategy with Xively to see what is currently being developed within this landscape, what the future may hold, and the implications it could have on our increasingly digital physical world.

HUGE
45 Main St. Suite 220 Brooklyn, NY 11201

6:00 – 6:15 PM | Panelists arrive @ Huge
6:15 – 6:45 PM | Discussion overview
6:45 – 7:05 PM | Doors open: Mingling & Networking
7:05 – 7:10 PM | Introductory remarks from Michal Pasternak
7:10 – 7:15 PM | Panelist I speaks
7:15 – 7:20 PM | Panelist II speaks
7:20 – 7:25 PM | Panelist III speaks
7:25 – 8:00 PM | Moderated discussion
8:00 – 8:15 PM | Audience Q&A

https://www.internetweekny.com/panels/126#/?filters=on

Xively and ARM announce strategic collaboration, release jumpstart kit.

LogMeIn and ARM Announce Collaboration to Accelerate
Commercial Products on the Internet of Things

LogMeIn’s Xively Jumpstart Kit combines Xively Cloud Services with
ARM’s mbed platform to reduce time and cost of bringing new IoT products to market

The Innovation District, BOSTON, May 14, 2013 – LogMeIn, Inc. (NASDAQ: LOGM) announced today its collaboration with ARM® to simplify and accelerate commercial development on the Internet of Things (IoT). As part of the agreement, the companies are cooperating on LogMeIn’s Xively Jumpstart Kit, a rapid prototyping-to-production bundle that significantly reduces the cost, complexity and learning curve required to bring IoT-based connected products and solutions to market.

This announcement coincides with the release of LogMeIn’s Xively Cloud Services, a new commercial IoT Public Cloud, unveiled today.

The IoT enables a world where devices, data and places are interconnected with applications and users over the internet, transforming how people discover, interact and experience their world.  It is made possible through a rapidly growing class of small, inexpensive yet powerful processors, ubiquitous connectivity, mobile computing and interaction platforms. The IoT market, which is predicted to generate between $1.2 trillion1 and $14.4 trillion2 in revenue and represent over one trillion connected objects by 20203, has captured the imagination of businesses and consumers around the world.

LogMeIn’s Xively Jumpstart Kit combines ARM mbed™, a platform for rapidly building connected devices using ARM-based microcontrollers, with Xively’s cloud platform, making the IoT a practical reality for anyone wanting to build Internet-connected devices and associated cloud-based applications, from small entrepreneurs to established Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). With ARM mbed for product development, combined with Xively Cloud Services, developers and businesses can focus on their own innovations rather than on infrastructure and platforms. This results in accelerated time-to-market, as developers can rapidly progress from prototyping to volume deployment.

“ARM is increasing opportunities for innovation across the Internet of Things with easy-to-use platforms and standards that accelerate the creation of low-power, end-to-end solutions,” said John Cornish, executive vice president and general manager, System Design Division, ARM. “LogMeIn’s Xively Jumpstart Kit harnesses ARM mbed to support the development of new IoT products. We are pleased that LogMeIn shares our vision for an increasingly interconnected, innovative and energy efficient world.”

“The Internet of Things signifies the next major wave of the Internet, one that we believe could even eclipse both the web and mobile waves combined, and presents a massive opportunity for businesses that want to create a new generation of compelling connected products.  In order to make this happen, they need a simple, affordable way to experiment and innovate through a platform that will enable them to seamlessly move from prototype to commercial product, and then scale as demand grows,” said Michael Simon, CEO of LogMeIn. “By working together with leading vendors like ARM, a company that’s been a driving force in the enablement of the IoT, we can deliver a powerful, easy way for companies to jumpstart their IoT-based connected products and turn them into reality.”

“We are seeing real traction in the Internet of Things market. Three forces are converging: connectivity, innovative new device designs and a new generation of technology tools that let manufacturers focus on their core product innovation instead of on building Internet of Things infrastructure from scratch. This can be a hundreds of billions of dollars opportunity.  Xively Cloud Services organizes a true end-to-end chain of tools, support, partners, and infrastructure for smart systems on the IoT,” commented Glen Allmendinger, President of Harbor Research Inc.

Allmendinger added, “With its new commercial offering, LogMeIn is proving it understands the creative evolution of the Internet of Things. As the value of connected devices becomes more apparent and the market matures, players like LogMeIn that can provide complete solutions to enable pervasive interactions between people, things and systems, will be well-positioned to take the lead and reap the full benefits of the opportunity.”

The Xively Jumpstart Kit and Xively Cloud Services are available today at www.Xively.com.

About LogMeIn, Inc.

LogMeIn (NASDAQ:LOGM) transforms the way people work and live through secure connections to the computers, devices, data, and people that make up their digital world.  The company’s cloud services free millions of people to work from anywhere, empower IT professionals to securely embrace the modern cloud-centric workplace, give companies new ways to reach and support today’s connected customer, and help businesses bring the next generation of connected products to market.

LogMeIn is headquartered in Boston’s Innovation District with offices in Australia, Hungary, India, Ireland, the Netherlands, and the UK.

###

 

1 “The Connected Life: A USD4.5 trillion global impact in 2020,” Machina Research, February 2012

2 “Embracing the Internet of Everything to Capture Your Share of $14.4 Trillion,” Cisco,

3”What the Internet of Things (IoT) Needs to Become a Reality,” ARM Inc. and Freescale Semiconductor Inc., September 2012

 

Media contact: Craig VerColen, LogMeIn, Inc., 781-897-0696, Press@LogMeIn.com

LogMeIn Launches Xively, New Public Cloud for Commercial Internet of Things Offerings

 Purpose-built IoT Platform as a Service helps accelerate time-to-market, reduce costs for commercial IoT products

 The Innovation District, BOSTON, May 14, 2013 – LogMeIn, Inc. (NASDAQ: LOGM), today announced it has launched Xively Cloud ServicesTM, the industry’s first public cloud platform purpose-built for developing and managing commercial products on the Internet of Things.  The new offering — formerly known as Cosm in its beta form – is designed to help companies simplify the development of a new generation of connected products that can be quickly deployed on the IoT, easily interact with other connected offerings, and effortlessly scale to billions of devices.  As a result, businesses and entrepreneurs can focus on their innovations while significantly reducing the resources, costs and time required to bring new connected offerings to market.

The Xively launch coincides with the announcement that LogMeIn and ARM are collaborating to spur creation of commercial IoT products with the Xively Jumpstart Kit, released today.

“We’re seeing tremendous interest in the Internet of Things from businesses across the board. While there are virtually unlimited ideas for connected products, the one thing they all have in common is the need for a secure, reliable infrastructure that enables interconnectivity and scale. Building this infrastructure would not only be difficult, expensive and time-consuming for businesses, it would also distract them from their main purpose—creating compelling connected products. This presents a great opportunity for vendors that can offer such a proven IoT infrastructure,” said Sam Lucero, Senior Principal Analyst, M2M and Connected Devices at IHS.

The IoT market, which is predicted to generate between $1.2 trillion1 and $14.4 trillion2 in revenue and represent over one trillion connected objects by 20203, has captured the imagination of businesses and consumers around the world.

“We believe that the Internet of Things has the potential to be even more transformative than the Web and mobile Internet before it.  And the goal of Xively is to change how businesses view and potentially capitalize on the IoT opportunity – in short, to make the promise of the IoT a near-term reality,” said Michael Simon, CEO of LogMeIn.  “Whether you’re an entrepreneur trying to build the next Nest-like device, an established manufacturer looking to differentiate through connected experiences, or a service provider looking to bring new connected services to market, Xively is designed to reduce the friction and accelerate time-to-market for companies of all sizes.”

A commercial IoT platform-as-a-service (PaaS), Xively is based on – and extends the capabilities of — LogMeIn’s proven Gravity Cloud platform, the secure, highly scalable cloud environment that underpins LogMeIn’s popular SaaS offerings, and connects hundreds of millions of devices and supports tens of millions of users in 240 countries. This first-of-its-kind commercial service simplifies and accelerates the interconnection of applications, devices, data, and places on the IoT with users through meaningful applications.

Xively Cloud Services speeds IoT-based innovations by offering:

  • An open, Platform as a Service that provides real-time messaging, directory services and data services, including a times-series database and analytics, all of which are accessible through a standards-based API that supports dozens of languages.
  • A frictionless developer experience that simplifies complex technologies through an intuitive Developer Workbench, Developer Center, libraries that support hundreds of platforms, millions of gateways and billions of devices, and highly scalable provisioning and management capabilities that can support one to one billion devices.
  • Granular and secure sharing combined with directory services that provide the ability to selectively share device data and control.  This enables a commons called the Xively Connected Object Cloud™, which allows selective interconnection of a business’ devices with third-party devices, into an exponentially capable solution and experience.
  • A simple “Pay as You Grow” pricing model that dramatically lowers the barrier to entry for innovators and established brands alike.
  • A fundamental philosophy written into the Terms of Service that specifies customers own their data and can choose whether or not to share all, part, or none it.

Availability and pricing:

Xively is available immediately with full pricing options available on the Xively website.

Additional materials:

About LogMeIn, Inc.

LogMeIn (NASDAQ:LOGM) transforms the way people work and live through secure connections to the computers, devices, data, and people that make up their digital world.  The company’s cloud services free millions of people to work from anywhere, empower IT professionals to securely embrace the modern cloud-centric workplace, give companies new ways to reach and support today’s connected customer, and help businesses bring the next generation of connected products to market.

LogMeIn is headquartered in Boston’s Innovation District with offices in Australia, Hungary, India, Ireland, the Netherlands, and the UK.

LogMeIn, Xively and Xively Cloud Services are trademarks of LogMeIn in the U.S. and other countries. ARM and mbed are trademarks of ARM Holdings plc in the U.S. and other countries. Nest is a trademark of Nest Labs in the U.S. and other countries. 

Media contact: Craig VerColen, LogMeIn, Inc., 781-897-0696, Press@LogMeIn.com

 

Introducing Xively

Today, LogMeIn unveiled what very well may be our most exciting offering to date. Simply put, Xively Cloud Services is the first public cloud designed specifically for the commercial Internet of Things (IoT). It’s an offering nearly 3 years in the making, and one that we believe could usher in an exciting new chapter for LogMeIn and for the IoT, as a whole. And while there’s been no shortage of hype around the pending arrival of this next major wave of the Internet, our goal with Xively is nothing less than to give companies the ability to deliver on that promise…today.

Some of you might be asking “Wait, what is this Internet of Things?” and/or “Why the heck is LogMeIn jumping into it?”

I don’t think it’s overstating it to say the Internet of Things is going to transform how people discover, interact and experience the world. You may hear others call it the ‘Internet of Everything’ or even ‘The Industrial Internet’, but semantics aside, the IoT invokes the use – and scale – of  the Internet in a different, much more powerful way. Instead of being about simply communicating and sharing information via smart devices, the IoT is about interconnecting an emerging class of small but powerful objects that produce data and allow control over almost anything in our physical world. Think about the ‘smart home’ and ‘smart city’ on steroids. We’re talking predictions of tens of billions of connected devices over the next decade. And even then, there are those, including us, who think those estimates may be conservative. In fact, firms like Forrester are forecasting this market to be valued at over $1 trillion by 2020.

So you can see why businesses would be motivated to jump into the IoT.  But, what about LogMeIn?

Well, if you know LogMeIn, you’ve probably realized a common thread across our offerings…and perhaps a logical evolution. Most of our half a million customers and tens of millions of users know us best for transforming the ways they work by connecting them to the devices, data and people that make up their digital lives. Fewer know that underpinning our popular apps and offerings is a common cloud platform, called Gravity, which has been continually refined, improved and extended to meet the changing realities of their digital world. What started with secure connections between PCs and Macs was soon extended to smartphones and tablets. We then added cloud data capabilities, ensuring that wherever you were – and whatever device you were on – connecting to your information was both simple and secure. Extending Gravity to empower the IoT represents the next significant evolution of this platform, and an important step beyond just connecting to new generation of devices.

The result is Xively, the only IoT public cloud built to simplify and accelerate the building of compelling, commercial products, and solutions for the Internet of Things. And the first offering aimed at helping thousands of businesses realize the promise of tomorrow’s internet, today.

We hope you’ll come along for the ride!

COSM Beta is Now Xively!

Welcome to Xively™!

LogMeIn is excited to announce that Cosm has come out of beta as Xively, the first Public Cloud for the Internet of Things!

Xively Cloud Services™ is an IoT platform-as-a-service (PaaS) that builds on the rich legacy of Pachube and Cosm to deliver a completely new development experience and highly scalable platform for commercial products and solutions.

We learned a lot in the beta period. Based on your input and feedback, we have added some exciting features as well as modified our service to ensure we focus on the exploding demands of the connected world.

As current Cosm users, you’ll notice some big changes when you come to the site:

  • Cosm.com now redirects to https://xively.com  and with that comes an entirely new look and feel.  Don’t worry, your login is still the same and you can access your account and data right now.
  • An intuitive Developer Workbench centralizes everything you need to create, debug and deploy your connected product and service innovations: https://xively.com/develop/
  • A comprehensive Developer Center with API guides, tutorials, videos and libraries that support hundreds of platforms, millions of gateways and billions of devices: https://xively.com/dev/
  • We’ve put a highly scalable provisioning and management service that can support one to one billion devices in the hands of every developer and we’ve made it easy for you to use with the Xively Management Console: https://xively.com/manage/
  • Our Terms of Service continue to put you in control – you own your data and can choose whether to share all, part, or none of it with who you want under the terms that you specify. You can view our terms of service here: https://secure.logmein.com/policies/privacy.aspx
  • You have the ability to selectively share data and control through the Xively Connected Object Cloud™, enabling you to interconnect devices, aps and services with third-party devices, aps and service to create exponentially capable experiences.
  • Any data feed that you choose to make public is indexed and available on major search engines including Google and Bing.
  • We are changing the way you follow feeds. We will be announcing more about this in the coming days. If you were following feeds, you will see a personal email from us that lists the feeds you were following and how you can use the new tools to follow them.
  • If you are a Current Cost customer, we are retiring the Cosm Current Cost Dashboard. Please use the Current Cost dashboard at: http://my.currentcost.com
  • We now offer commercial service with a flexible pricing model. Full details are right on the website: https://xively.com/pricing/

We are also announcing collaboration with ARM, one of the largest component manufacturers, and are offering the Xively Jumpstart Kit: mbed Edition.  This will pair a flexible IoT prototyping platform with Xively Cloud Services, giving you a clear path to create your connected product or solution.

To help you with this transition, we have created a few assets to help you including:

-        Transitioning from Cosm to Xively: https://xively.com/dev/docs/transitioning/

-        Using Xively: https://xively.com/dev/tutorials/xively/

We’re excited about releasing Xively, the first of our next-generation services to help you drive the IoT revolution and we hope you are too! We can’t wait to see what you build!   Come visit us now at: https://xively.com.

Sincerely,

The Xively Team

Good Night Lamp, a family of Cosm-powered internet-connected lamps now on Kickstarter

Many of us have been waiting months for this and it’s finally here: Alex Deschamps-Sonsino’s Good Night Lamp, a family of internet-connected lamps, is now up on Kickstarter with a funding deadline of February 6, 2013. With the Good Night Lamp, you get a Big Lamp and a Little lamp. Turn the Big Lamp on and the Little Lamps turn on wherever they are, so you can give one to a far-away friend, loved-one or team member and still feel connected.

Built on Cosm, the Good Night Lamp lets you keep in touch and stay connected in a small way, forming a physical social network. From the KS page:

Connecting to your loved ones around the world at the flick of a switch!

Keeping in touch with people has gradually become more than being “always on, sometimes off”. We would like to think that people can share parts of their lives with their families & loved ones in more subtle ways with the flick of a switch. A physical social network.

Why is this useful?

Home alone. Ever wanted to keep an eye on a loved one who lives alone? Give them a Big Lamp and watch your Little Lamp turn on as they come home or go to bed.

Global families. Live abroad and can’t seem to call your family at the right time? Let them switch a Big Lamp on when they’re around and can be called and vice versa.

Global teams. Have a team working around the world and want to see if they’re around for that conference call? Turn your Big Lamp on when you’re ready. Collect your colleagues Little Lamps and watch everyone join the call.

Connecting worlds. Want to connect home and work, turn the Big Lamp off when you leave work so your family knows you’re on your way.

Find Alex and the team at CES right now, LVCC South Hall booth 22036, or back the Kickstarter campaign here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/designswarm/good-night-lamp

Introducing CosmJS – Cosm Javascript Library

We are happy to announce a new library to ease the development of Cosm-powered applications built by Pete Correia. CosmJS is a lightweight but powerful Javascript library, still in its first iteration but nonetheless packing some great features that we know will make people happy. Here we’re going to show you some of its features which should help you get started using it for your website or application.

The Features

We set out to build a library that would cover our most popular API methods but also had some helper methods, becoming useful for both simple demos and complex applications.

Here’s what you get:

  • All API methods for Feeds, Datastreams & Datapoints
  • Socket Server support (realtime updates!)
  • jQuery plugin
  • ~ 2kb gzipped (~ 6kb minified)
  • CDN hosted

> Go to CosmJS

Basic Tutorial

This tutorial fully covers all the steps needed to get a datastream value, updating in realtime on a webpage using CosmJS. Even if you’re new to Javascript, we explain the concepts you need to know and the code is fully commented so you know how things work.

> Go to Tutorial

Sample App

We’ve built up a simple but powerful application that emulates a home dashboard where you control lights, TV, music and temperature and it’s fully powered by CosmJS and Cosm.
There’s also a simulation of the home so that you can preview how it would work in a real environment, all in realtime.
Tip: Try having both pages open and watch everything change in realtime!

> Go to Sample App

Playground

We tried to make it easy for everyone to easily preview CosmJS so it features a Demo page where you can experiment most methods and preview the response objects — useful for when you’re developing your own CosmJS app!

> Go to Demo

Documentation

All the information on which methods, arguments & structures that you’ll need to develop amazing apps with CosmJS. Soon there’s going to be sample code for every method so that’s even easier to use the library.

> Go to Documentation

Contributing

The library is open source so we encourage everyone to contribute to making it even better! To contribute, head on over to Github and submit a pull request.
We also encourage everyone to report issues by using the Issues page on Github.

> Go to CosmJS on Github