Ionics Develops 4G LTE Device for Verizon Wireless

LAS VEGAS, BASKING RIDGE, N.J., and CALAMBA CITY, PHILIPPINES – From the 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Ionics EMS Inc. (PSE:ION) said today it has enhanced its 4G LTE service gateway device for Home Monitoring and Control Solutions to take advantage of the power of the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Mobile Broadband network.

The Ionics EMS solution is a server with full processing capability and a new built-in battery for back-up power. With a smaller form factor, the smart device is now more compact and robust than previous versions.

The Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Mobile Broadband network, launched in December 2010, is the fastest, most advanced network in the United States, providing speeds up to 10 times faster than Verizon Wireless’ 3G network. Verizon Wireless’ 4G LTE Mobile Broadband network currently reaches one-third of all Americans, with plans to expand the network to the company’s entire 3G coverage area over the next three years.

The 4G LTE device will enable home security monitoring with a security camera and energy management and home appliance monitoring from a Web portal and a wireless handset. The collaboration was first fostered in 2009 at Verizon Wireless’ LTE Innovation Center, and further development has readied this home product for a commercial rollout in the future. “We are excited Verizon Wireless has launched its 4G LTE network and are looking forward to the technology solutions it will bring to customers. With the demand for faster speed and more data for the ‘Internet of things’ development, the Ionics’ Plug Computer-Service Gateways provide the connectivity to intelligent sensors to build a smarter world,” said Larry Qua, Ionics EMS, Inc.’s founding chairman and chief executive officer.

The 4G LTE solution will be highlighted from Jan. 6-9 in Verizon Wireless’ booth (#35216 in the South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center) at CES. For more information about the LTE Innovation Center and Verizon Wireless’ 4G LTE network, visit http://www.verizonwireless.com/lte.

Summer Clean Up Drive

The Ionics mountaineering group made us proud one beautiful summer day when they decided to devote their time, energy, and resources to giving back to the environment.

Pico de Loro is a mountain 85km from Manila that’s known for having Cavite’s highest peak. The summit boasts breathtaking 360 degree views of the lush nature surrounding it. It’s no wonder that mountaineers come out in droves from all over the country just to climb it. Over the years, its popularity has created huge piles of litter from visiting travelers. In an effort to preserve the beauty of this mountain, a group of volunteers (and avid mountaineers) from Ionics decided to take it upon themselves to stage a clean up drive. Every little bit counts.

We think they did a fantastic job and wanted to showcase their efforts for the blogosphere to see. Here are a couple of pictures from their efforts. (Click on the slideshow/view all images to check out the photos)

Meet the Ionics Plugs (video)

For CES 2010, we thought that it would be a great idea to make a short 5-minute informational video about the features of our different plugs. Given the general logistics of the booth, having people sit and watch the quick vid while waiting to talk to the next available representative seemed like an efficient use of time. A great little production house helped us with this super simple video and even came up with the original score.

Enjoy!

And for the curious, a brief clip of the Plug Pavilion booth at the CES. note our video playing on two screens in the background. Pretty cool stuff.

Ionics EMS Collaborates with Verizon Wireless

CALAMBA CITY, PHILIPPINES– Ionics EMS Inc. (SGX:ION) is collaborating with Verizon Wireless to demonstrate a Home Monitoring and Control Solution together with 4Home, Marvell, Sercomm and LG Electronics.

The solution will be comprised of wireless LTE (Long Term Evolution)-enabled products, which will provide home security monitoring with a security camera, as well as energy management and home appliance monitoring from a web portal and a wireless handset. The collaboration was fostered at Verizon Wireless’ LTE Innovation Center, which provides an environment for diverse companies to work together in developing innovative products that will leverage 4G LTE technology.

Ionics EMS customizes the hardware and firmware platform to integrate LG’s LTE module and Secomm’s IP security camera as driven by 4Home’s smart software.

The Ionics EMS solution is a derivative of Marvell’s Sheeva Plug Computer platform, a full-featured processor-server in a compact and robust form factor designed for managing and securing digital assets in the cloud computing environment.

“We are delighted to be working with Verizon Wireless in this project. We believe the plug computer is the next big thing in the world of computing, with a myriad of applications for a wide variety of users”,said Larry Qua, Ionics EMS, Inc.’s Founding Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

The LTE product will be demonstrated in conjunction with the International CES organized by the Consumer Electronics Association being held in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA from January 7 to 10, 2010.

Release available on the Ionics Website as well as Verizon Wireless’s Press Page.

Ionics Launches Full Suite of Plug Computing Products

Ionics EMS Inc. Launches Full Suite of Plug Computing Products

IonicsPlug.com (Check it out!)

Ionics EMS, Inc. launches its range of Plug Computers developed in collaboration with Marvell’s Sheevaplug technology. These Plug Computers are full-featured processor-servers in a compact and robust form factor designed for managing and securing digital assets in a cloud computing environment.

The basic level devices under the Nimbus model are ultra-compact in size and robust in features with a 1.2Ghz or a 2Ghz processor and memory capacities of 512MB DDR2 and 512MB of NAND flash. Because it has the smallest form factor on the market, two or more units can be placed side by side to form a plug farm of varied applications on an extension cord without blocking the adjacent socket space.

The Cumulus Plug builds upon the smaller ultra-compact Nimbus Plug with a 1.2Ghz or 2Ghz processor with 512MB DDR2 400 MHz and 512MB NAND flash.  This new computing device comes with full WiFi (Access Point Router) functionality, 2 SATA ports and a USB2.0 port for expanded flexibility. It is ideal as a mini-server and router for home or small office, dedicated home file server, multimedia server for DLNA-enabled players, web proxy that enables fast cached access to your favorite web sites and much more.

The Stratus Plug, despite its micro-sized footprint, comes with full WiFi (Access Point) Functionality, Bluetooth, ZWave/ZigBee (optional) and extra USB 2.0 ports for expanded flexibility. With ZWave and ZigBee technology Stratus can create communications with the electronics in your house or office so you can control them remotely.

The most powerful Plug being offered in the collection is the Cirrus Plug which offers 2Ghz of processing performance, embedded WiFi, Bluetooth and a built-in hard drive. From streaming the latest winter vacation video to a connected TV in the bedroom to enjoying favorite music on a WiFi-enabled receiver in the living room, the Cirrus Plug Computer makes enjoying media on intelligent devices throughout the home easier, more mobile and more convenient than before.

Plug Computers are the next big thing due to their high-performance, always-on, always-connected, and environmentally friendly computing capability readily available for developers and end-users.  Plug computing has been quickly expanding, bringing users new devices, services, and value-added applications as well as delivering advanced avenues for network connectivity.

“We are delighted to work with Marvell to support and expand the plug computing ecosystem,” said Larry Qua, Founding Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Ionics EMS Inc. “We believe  Ionics’ plug design development offers an innovative and convenient solution for cutting-edge consumers to secure and manage their digital assets.”

The Ionics’s Plug Computers will be featured at the Marvell Pavilion at the Consumers Electronics Show at Las Vegas from January 7 to 10, 2010.  Development kits are available and can be purchased at www.ionicsplug.com.

Ionics touches down in Las Vegas for the CES

After 17 grueling hours of travel time and a couple of eventful mishaps our team has FINALLY landed in this crazy city for the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show (Jan. 7-10, 2010). We’re extremely excited to be here and have lots of intriguing things up our sleeves for this annual convention.

For those of you who want to check out our plugs, please check us out at the Marvell Plug Pavilion- South Hall, Booth #30344 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

If you want to schedule a private discussion/meeting with us please do not hesitate to contact us at sales@ionics-ems.com.

For more updates on our CES activities, stay tuned to our blog. We’ll be sure to give you the scoop on any noteworthy company-related activities. As for everything else, well, you know what they say…

“What happens in Vegas…” 😉

Sunshine Through the Rain

We here at the blog have been a little remiss in updating this little thing (oops! sorry!). It’s been a whirlwind of activity here especially with the year slowly winding down. Here’s what we’ve been up to for end of Q3-beginning of Q4.

(1) IDEX ASA-IONICS Agreement

At the end of Q3 we inked a licensing agreement with IDEX ASA providing us the rights to manufacture and sell fingerprint sensor products based on IDEX’s patented SmartFinger technology.

You can check out our blog feature here
And the more comprehensive press release here

(2) Typhoon Ketsana/Ondoy

Massive flooding

The Philippines experienced the worst rainfall and flooding in recorded history when Typhoon Ketsana/Ondoy swept through the country late September. The typhoon dumped more than a month’s worth of rain in just 12 hours, swamping entire towns, setting off landslides and leaving neighborhoods in the capital with destroyed houses, overturned vehicles and roads covered in mud and debris. Over 430,000 people were affected by this calamity. To make matters worse, 4 other typhoons have come and gone since then hampering relief efforts.

We at Ionics organized our own outreach program in an attempt to help out one of the hardest hit areas in the south (near our factories). With the help of management and volunteers, we were able to put together food packages for over 1600 whole families (not individuals).  Just doing what we can to help those devastated by this catastrophic event.

Some pictures:

Ionics staff putting together relief packages

Ionics staff handing out relief goods

IDEX ASA and Ionics EMS Inc. Enter Into Strategic License Agreement.

One of the things we meant to update you on earlier is our exciting licensing agreement with IDEX ASA to manufacture their fingerprint sensor products. As the world gets smaller and technology becomes even more accessible over time, security threats tend to become more prevalent. These products are the answer to the growing demand for increased identity-security measures.

The strategic IP licensing agreement provides Ionics rights to manufacture and sell fingerprint sensor products based on IDEX’s patented SmartFinger technology. The Agreement entails transfer of IDEX’s sensor products to Ionics’ manufacturing plant enabling the partners to serve the high volume markets. Ionics possesses manufacturing expertise, supply-chain management skills and customer channels and is thus perfectly suited to advance the award-winning SmartFinger technology to cost-effective, high quality, high-volume production.

A little background on IDEX ASA — it is a Norwegian firm specializing in fingerprint imaging and recognition technology. It won the Frost & Sullivan “2009 Global Swipe Sensor Product Differentiation Innovation of the Year Award.”

As you can probably guess, we are thrilled about this agreement and are looking forward to a fruitful and successful partnership.

For more information on IDEX, Ionics and this agreement please visit: http://www.ionics-ems.com/idex_ionics.html

Ionics Plug Computer

Ionics Plug Computer

Cool. Compact. Compelling.

These 3 words epitomize this year’s hottest item proudly manufactured by Ionics EMS, Inc.

Personal computing has evolved from the desktop to laptop and now, the plugtop. The Plug Computer is a new and innovative device for end-users to secure, manage and share digital content seamlessly, conveniently and efficiently.

This small, powerful, fist-sized computer plugs into the wall socket and can run network-based services that normally require a dedicated PC. The plug uses low power and utilizes only a small fraction of the energy consumed by an always-on desktop computer or laptop, at a fraction of the cost.

It’s hard to believe that something so small and cutting edge can be so complete. We’re talking full feature memory capacities- 512Mb of DDR2 and 512MB of NAND flash, running at up to 1.2Ghz on Marvell’s 88F6281 ARM processor.

What else? It uses 5 watts under normal operations (compare this to 25-100 watts for dedicated PC), has one USB2.0 port with overload protection, a GigaLAN port that supports 1000 Base-T, 100 Base-T, and 10 Base-T and last but not least, a shielded RJ-25 connector with built-in LEDs.

Best of all, the size is so compact you can plug two of these devices side by side or form a plug farm on an extension cord without worrying about blocking the adjacent socket space. Yes, it’s that small. Have the freedom to use as many Plug Computers as needed without worrying about wasted space.

In addition, a software service can be bundled together with a plug computer and can be targeted at different market segments. Everyday consumers can use the plug for media sharing and backup services.

The “next” big thing is officially here, and it’s brought to you by Ionics EMS, Inc.

Development kits are available at the end of July. They come in white, black or the customizable color of your choice, and are available in US, EU and UK models.

Check out http://www.ionics-ems.com/plugcomputer.html for more information and drop us a note at sales@ionics-ems.com for orders and/or inquiries.

Midyear Makeover

Official Home Page 2009

We here at Ionics EMS believe in constant improvements. Whenever we see an opportunity to make something better, we seize it and do our best to blow everyone away.

After seemingly endless rounds of drafts and edits, our perfectionist marketing IT, and web design crews have finally unveiled a fresh new look for the official Ionics website.

Bathed in bold hues of deep blue we wanted the site to show the world the qualities of Ionics that our customers (and suppliers) have come to love. Sleek, serious, strong and sexy- Ionics means business and is up for any challenge you throw our way.

We are so proud of  and passionate over what we’ve accomplished during our 35 years of service.  We hope our hot, new website truly reflects and personifies all that we’ve achieved and more.

Tell us what you think!