The global expansion of low-power wide-area networks (LPWAN) is gaining momentum, and for a good reason. With demand in place, there are enough tangible opportunities to reward investment. Pick out a market application and you'll find that it's easy to think of ways in which using LPWA technologies could automate processes, locate goods, monitor infrastructure, and ultimately save on costs. 

u‑blox has introduced the toolset comprising the u-track software and the C030-R410M application board. The toolset is a rapid-prototyping platform that lets product designers test and optimise the position accuracy and power consumption of wireless location tracking applications that use LTE-M and NB‑IoT cellular networks, as well as Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) technology. The toolset targets product engineers working on batter...

u-blox has announced the ANN-MB multi‑band active GNSS antennas, tailored specifically to the needs of applications requiring centimeter-level positioning accuracies. ANN-MB offers product designers an attractively priced, easy-to-implement, and reliable multi-band antenna solution. The ANN-MB antenna series builds on u‑blox’s two decades’ worth of experience with high performance antennas for global navigation satellite syst...

u‑blox has announced that US Cellular has certified its ultra-compact LTE Cat M1 SARA-R410M module, the first of its kind to run on the US Cellular LTE Cat M1 network. The compact module offers developers of IoT devices and machine to machine (M2M) communication systems a simple way to implement a low-power air interface. Certification on US Cellular’s LTE Cat M1 network further eases the process of enabling wide-area wireless connec...

Have you ever considered where our beautiful new networked society is going? U-blox sat down to talk to Greg Williams, Editor-in-Chief of Wired, and Paul Gough, Principal, Corporate Strategy of u-blox, to look at some of the applications of tomorrow that could be made possible.

u‑blox has announced the SARA-G450, a cost-optimised 2G cellular module for machine-to-machine (M2M) applications, such as utility metering and tracking systems. Provided in the industry-proven SARA form factor, the SARA‑G450 quad-band GSM/GPRS module lets product developers easily migrate their products to 3G, LTE, or LPWA technology to meet a broad range of environmental and technological requirements.

Until someone has led the way, challenges often appear daunting – even impossible. Runners long considered the four‑minute mile impossible until Roger Bannister broke its spell. In the ensuing months and years, several others matched his feat. Could a similar phenomenon have been keeping women out of careers in STEM (Science Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)?

u‑blox has announced that Vodafone certified its multi-mode LTE Cat 1 LARA-R211 module with 2G fallback for global usage over its mobile networks. LARA-R211 offers data connectivity as well as VoLTE (Voice over LTE) and circuit switched voice service over 2G (CSFB). It is therefore suited for a variety of mobile and stationary applications that require robust data connectivity and voice service, such as alarm panels, home automation, and a...

When Regula Ochsner returned to Madagascar in 1998, two decades after having worked there, she was shaken. Entire forests, which she referred to as the Black Forest, ‘Schwarzwald’ in her native Swiss German, had all but disappeared. While some had been cleared for farming, most – roughly 80% – had been harvested for firewood. It was either lush green forests or an empty stomach. Both, it seemed, were impossible. 

With some things you can get away with the one size fits all mentality, but not when it comes to smart cities. Geographic, cultural, financial, and technical considerations that vary from city to city dictate how technologies can be applied to the smart city concept. Ultimately, however, the end goal is always the same: to use connectivity, the cloud, and data analytics – in other words, the Internet of Things (IoT) – to enhance ...

u-blox has announced its UBX‑P3 chip for vehicle-to-everything (V2X) wireless communication based on the DSRC/802.11p standard. The chip builds on THEO‑P1 and VERA-P1 V2X modules, and the company’s experience as a supplier to the existing V2X chip industry. Developed entirely in-house, the UBX-P3 takes u‑blox’s commitment to shaping the future of active safety and autonomous driving technologies to the level of industrialisation...

u-blox and Arduino have introduced four boards to their MKR family, delivering wireless connectivity options for IoT applications. Previously Arduino adopted u-blox for their MKR GSM 1400, now one of the most popular boards of the MKR family. Arduino introduced the MKR family and form factor to address IoT use cases by focusing on a standard blue print including a hardware crypto chip for enhanced security, a LiPo charger for power managemen...

Enabled by smart devices equipped with cloud‑connected wearable sensors, AI‑powered data analytics, and smart devices, connected healthcare has the potential to increase patient autonomy, assist doctors in delivering better care, and reduce the pressure on the healthcare system. But for connected healthcare to live up to its potential, healthcare cybersecurity has first to be seen as a key public health concern requiring utmost attention. In ...

Dockless shared bikes have become a growing phenomenon in major cities across the planet. Subscribers to their services can use their smartphone to unlock a nearby bike, ride it to their destination, and then just leave it there. Not only are dockless shared bikes affordable and convenient for their users, they’ve also been great business.

u‑blox and Qianxun Spatial Intelligence are joining forces to deliver high precision positioning solutions to the Chinese market. By coordinating their product offerings, they seek to meet growing demand for increased positioning accuracy for mass market applications. Some of the areas driving up demand for high precision positioning services in China are IoT tracking devices such as those used on shared bikes, as well as automotive, UAV, and r...

u-blox has announced the commercial launch of its SARA‑R410M‑02B LTE Cat M1 and NB-IoT module with global coverage. SARA‑R410M-02B utilises a multiband RF front-end solution to enable up to sixteen LTE bands within a single hardware version, which can vastly simplify diverse deployments worldwide and provide enormous operational efficiencies.

u-blox has announced the ZED-F9P multi-band GNSS module with integrated multi-band Real Time Kinematics (RTK) technology for machine control, ground robotic vehicles, and high precision unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) applications. The ZED‑F9P measures only 22x17x2.4mm and uses technology from the recently announced u‑blox F9 platform to deliver robust high precision positioning performance in seconds.

Within the past 15 years, standard precision GPS technology has found its way into countless devices you probably own. Your smartphone, your car navigation system, and your smart watch all use it to tell you where you are to within a few meters. Mostly, that’s been good enough, and for many use cases, higher accuracy would simply not have been affordable. The high cost of centimetre‑level positioning technology has limited its use to prof...

Thanks to its built-in secure boot and wide temperature ranges, the new NINA-B2 dual-mode Bluetooth 4.2 stand-alone module from u-blox enables IIoT applications. Pre-flashed with u-blox connectivity software which supports many common use cases such as Beacon, GATT client, GATT server, and serial port, NINA-B2 is configured easily using AT commands over UART, without requiring deep knowledge of the Bluetooth protocol. 

“It’s worth following the maker movement as it evolves,” said Massimo Banzi. As co‑founder of Arduino, Banzi knows what he is talking about. He’s been following the community for soon 15 years, and has been closely involved in developing much of the open source technology they use to power their projects.