We are excited to announce that Binary Parser, a feature for Soracom Air devices that converts binary data into JSON, now supports MessagePack (hereafter MsgPack).

In many applications, a device may be configured to send data to a server or to the cloud using JSON format, often for compatibility with cloud services or simply to make the data easier to work with. However, sending data using JSON results in relatively high data usage due to JSON syntax requirements. MsgPack is a binary serialization format which allows a device to easily compress JSON data before it is sent, effectively reducing data usage.

Once data has been compressed and sent, it needs to be converted back to its original format so that a server or cloud service can understand it. With this update, you can now configure Binary Parser to convert MsgPack-compressed data back to JSON by simply entering @msgpack in the Binary Parser format setting. From there, the original JSON data can be sent to Soracom Harvest for storage and data visualization, or to Soracom Beam, Funnel, or Funk in order to forward the data to a server or a cloud service.

Since Binary Parser's conversion occurs after the data arrives at Soracom, cellular data usage can be reduced considerably.

Note: In order for Binary Parser to convert data, your device must be configured to send data to Unified Endpoint unified.soracom.io, or to the corresponding endpoint for Soracom Beam, Funnel, Funk, or Harvest. Data that is sent directly to a server or a cloud service will not be modified by Binary Parser.

MsgPack is available in more than 50 programming languages across many libraries, making it easy to implement in a wide variety of devices. For more information, refer to the official MessagePack site.

Custom Binary Parser formats can still be defined for bit-by-bit data conversion.

We have made architectural improvements to the User Console that reduces its loading time by about 50%. This improvement will take effect on January 13, 2022 and will be available for all users.

We will continue to strive to improve the user experience.

As of January 1, 2022, prices for the following Japan-only devices have been revised. Prices are in Japanese Yen (¥) and include Japanese consumption tax.

Cigar Socket GPS Tracker RT299 Starter Kit

• Old price: ¥21,780 (includes a ¥1,980 Soracom platform service coupon)
• New price: ¥22,880 (includes a ¥2,080 Soracom platform service coupon)

For more details, visit the product page (Japanese).

Vehicle GPS Tracker T366L Starter Kit

• Old price: ¥21,780 (includes a ¥1,980 Soracom platform service coupon)
• New price: ¥24,090 (includes a ¥2,190 Soracom platform service coupon)

For more details, visit the product page (Japanese).

When uploading a WASM module on the Soralet management screen on the User Console, an error message too many soralet versions will be displayed if the number of uploaded WASM module versions has reached the Soralet limit. In order to continue uploading a new module, you had to cancel the upload, delete one of the old versions, and retry the upload again.

With this update, if you have already reached the Soralet limit for the number of WASM module versions, you can now delete the an older version without cancelling the upload:

A "Delete and retry" button will now allow you to automatically delete the oldest unused module version and re-upload the new module.

Note that in order to prevent accidental deletion of an older version that is still in use, this action will only delete the oldest version that is not currently referenced in any group's SORACOM Orbit configuration. If you prefer to choose a different version to delete, you must still cancel the upload and separately select a version to delete.

As announced by multiple security authorities on December 9, 2021, the Apache Log4j Library Vulnerability (CVE-2021-44228) is a critical security issue that could allow a vulnerable system to be compromised by an attacker. The following is a summary of the impact of this vulnerability on the Soracom platform and actions taken by Soracom to prevent system compromise:

• We have confirmed that all necessary security patches needed to fix the vulnerability have been applied to the Soracom system components affected by this vulnerability.
• We have additionally performed an internal audit of system components to determine if any breach or exploit has occurred, and have confirmed that none of Soracom's systems, such as customer data, have been compromised.

At this time, all systems are operating normally, and there is no need for Soracom customers to perform any actions in response to this vulnerability.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this vulnerability, please feel free to contact the Soracom support team at your earliest convenience.

Every month, a billing notification is sent to your email address, as well as any additional email addresses configured to receive billing notification emails, to let you know that your monthly service invoice is ready. You can log in to the Soracom User Console and access the Invoices section to view your invoice, as well as to download a PDF version for your records.

With this update, you can now opt to have the PDF version of the invoice attached to the billing notification email. When enabled, a copy of the PDF invoice will be sent directly to your email, as well as your other billing notification email. This can be helpful in larger organizations where you would like the invoice to be sent directly to an accounting department, without the need to log in every month.

You can enable this setting by logging in to the Soracom User Console and accessing the Email Settings section.

Please note that the monthly billing notifications, as well as the copy of the PDF invoice if enabled, are only sent to customers using credit card payment, and only for monthly services provided in the Global Coverage region. For other payment methods, billing notifications will be sent according to the payment method terms. Billing notifications are not sent for services provided in the Japan Coverage region.

We are excited to release the S+ Camera Design, a new model of the S+ Camera series of edge AI cameras.

Compared to the original S+ Camera Basic, the S+ Camera Design brings a more stylish design and improved installation experience.

• Supported subscriptions: plan-D (built into the device)
• Availability: Japan only
• Price: 49,800 yen

For more information, please refer to the product page (Japanese).

We are excited to launch the S+ AI Market, a marketplace within the Soracom Mosaic console where you can purchase third party AI algorithms developed by Soracom partners and seamlessly install them in compatible S+ devices.

As of December 1, 2021, the Package20™ (Japanese) is available on the S+ AI Market, which provides a set of 20 image recognition algorithms developed by AI Dynamics Japan. Package20™ will be available free of charge during December 2021.

For more information on how to use the S+ AI Market, please refer to the S+ AI Market (Japanese) documentation.

Soracom allows you to register multiple email address to your account for various purposes, such as setting a recovery email address or specifying additional email addresses that will receive billing notifications.

With this update, you can now also specify Support Email Addresses. When you send an inquiry to the Soracom Support team, replies from the support team will be sent to both the primary email address as well as any Support Email Addresses that you have set. This can be useful in teams where your Soracom account is administered by one individual, but you would like other members of your technical team to receive messages from the Soracom Support team.

For instructions on setting up Support Email Addresses as well as important precautions, please refer to the Email Settings documentation.

Messages from the Soracom Support team can also be viewed from the Soracom Support page.

When a device connects to a mobile network, Soracom creates a record of the event (known as a "Session Event") containing various information about the connection such as the date and time of the connection, the event type (Created when connecting, Deleted when disconnecting, and Modified when the connection details change), the name of the network operator, the country and cell ID where the device is located, and the IMEI of the device (if reported by the network operator). This information can be helpful for checking device behavior and troubleshooting some connection issues.

Previous Session Event behavior

The Session Event history can be viewed from the User Console or retrieved using the following APIs, each of which previously had the following retention periods:

• Sim:listSimSessionEvents (used by the New SIM Management view in the User Console) - 14-day retention period
• Subscriber:listSessionEvents (used by the Old SIM Management view in the User Console) - no retention period (all session event history can be retrieved)

What has changed

With this update, the retention periods for these APIs have been modified as follows:

• The Sim:listSimSessionEvents retention period has been increased to 32 days (1 month + 1 day)
• The Subscriber:listSessionEvents retention period has been reduced to 32 days

Once a Session Event exceeds the retention period, it is archived and cannot be viewed on the User Console. Similarly, when retrieving Session Event history from the API, you will no longer be able to access older events that have exceeded the retention period.

Effective date

This update has gone into effect on November 1, 2021.

For more information about SIM or Subscriber session details, please refer to the Subscriber Status documentation.

Note

Session history is currently being deleted progressively in accordance with the new retention period. During this process, session history older than the retention period may still be temporarily available.