Daily Video: BlackBerry Turns Its Focus to IoT, Wearables

Amid the many companies unveiling solutions aimed at the Internet of things during the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Blackberry also unveiled a cloud-based IoT platform leveraging its QNX software solutions as well as other assets. The smartphone maker also announced that its BBM messaging service will also support Android Wear smartwatches, and that its embedded platform will power NantHealth’s HBox, a smart portable medical device that can gather and send medical data between patients, doctors and hospitals.

Microsoft’s new G-Series Virtual Machines for Azure are now generally available, as was expected following its announcement of the VMs back in October. Corey Sanders, director of program management for Microsoft Azure, called the G-Series the new king of Azure VMs, saying it delivers the most memory, highest processing power, and largest amount of local SSD available in the public cloud.

Statistics released by Google are showing that the adoption of the company’s new Lollipop operating system has been slow during its first six weeks of availability. One analyst attributed the slow adoption rate to the fact that there are very few apps that operate only on Lollipop, which reduces the incentive for users to update their operating systems.

Cisco unveiled a number of new partnerships at the Consumer Electronics Show, suggesting the potential for new enhancements across the industry. Among the largest announcements was an expanded partnership with Belgian telecom and IT service provider Proximus, which shows the company’s continued push to expand its influence beyond networking gear. It also announced partnerships with Charter Communications, German cable provider Kabel Deutschland, and Europe’s Sky entertainment network.