Now cars are crammed full of networks of computers with smart software controlling and monitoring things.
Smart software from companies like Citrix has helped make it cheaper to maintain a thin client network.
However, the smart software algorithms that can be employed today can take business automation and productivity to the next level.
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Smart software systems can analyze building information for trends and comparisons, and feed the results back into ever-improving energy reduction strategies.
Samsung is revealing what Smart software additions the Galaxy S 4 will bring to the table, and they're well beyond what's been rumored.
The founder of the company, Mounir Shita, envisions a network of connected devices that use so-called smart software agents to track your friends, suggest food at a restaurant and even find someone to paint your house.
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Mobile payment is not just about convenience and saving a few seconds at the checkout register, it is an opportunity to leverage smart devices and smart software to reinvent how companies do business with their consumers.
As Gillian also heard in compiling the Business Scotland programme, there are significant success stories in the sector - the rapid growth of Skyscanner, based in central Edinburgh and using some very smart software to eat up share of the vast online airline ticket booking market.
In October, T-Mobile began selling the G1, a handset built around Google's smart phone software.
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Google developed the Android operating system, Microsoft developed smart phone software, and Blackberry improved their Internet capabilities.
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And aside from security concerns, Prof Anderson believes that outside the lab, smart energy software fails to change people's behaviour.
If Apple starts selling its iPhone through Verizon, Apple chief Steve Jobs could damage the momentum Google has built up for its Android smart phone software, Oppenheimer analyst Yair Reiner wrote in a note to investors Wednesday.
Linksys plans to begin rolling out its new 802.11ac powered Smart Wi-Fi Routers, software features and Smart Wi-Fi mobile apps in spring 2013.
And chips designed by ARM, a British firm, dominate the market for application processors, which run software on smart-phones.
It turns out even poorly resourced religious zealots can exploit smart phones, encryption software and the anonymity of the Internet.
Super smart, ridiculously cheap software accessed through a mobile device that is always with you, everywhere you are, any time of the day.
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That said, the company is being smart and releasing a software development kit to encourage outsiders to hack away at new, creative uses for different smells.
At the time, smart money was pouring into software, chips, radios, glass and genes.
In the absence of its own software layer, Sony has partnered with a company called Symbian to develop software for "smart" cell phones.
With the rise of App stores and cloud centric software, these smart devices are quickly becoming a secondary part of the equation and the Apps themselves are taking center stage.
To the rescue come a handful of smart young companies such as Fortify Software, Agitar and Coverity that promise to clean up and strengthen code before it goes out the door.
With this new platform, Microsoft offers a fresh approach to phone software, distinguished by smart design and truly integrated experiences that bring to the surface the content people care about from the Web and applications.
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Mobile computing, the falling cost of software creation and distribution and smart computing algorithms are already here.
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The smart players will re-focus on software, even as new industry players rise up to challenge the familiar incumbents.
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The dream in Apple is software revenues from apps and smart phone advertising ramp up significantly in coming years.
Bozeman is awash with smart young people, just what any software startup needs.
Most of the smart people I talk to agree that software patents today are providing too much protection, and are hampering progress.
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The 2013 Smart Evolution kit includes a quad-core processor, GPU and memory for faster processing and multi-tasking, the updated Smart Hub and the latest picture display software.
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The update to Google's search application for the iPhone, which Apple will release through its App Store software distribution service for the smart phone, will allow users to ask a question and get an answer from the Mountain View, Calif.
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