When you think of Salesforce.com, you probably don’t think about the burgeoning Internet of Things, but Salesforce wants to help customers make sense of all of the data coming from the growing number of connected devices — often referred to as the Internet of Things. The company is announcing its brand new Salesforce Internet of Things Cloud at Dreamforce, its huge customer conference, which opens today in San Francisco. 

For most of us, the internet of things (IoT) might call to mind specific gadgets – slick innovations like Nest thermostats or the Apple Watch – that seem to owe their provenance to science fiction and promise a more wired world, as well as the inevitable automation of everyday life. Then there are people like serial entrepreneur Nova Spivack, someone who’s far less enamoured of the next IoT device than he is with something infinitely geekier: the data that can be captured.

With flashier announcements at this year’s WWDC, such as Apple Music or more hardcore developer news on the iOS 9 front, it’s easy to lose sight of a real game changer: watchOS 2, which is slated for release September 16. Would it be crazy to think this new OS could really make that big of an impact?

Intu, the UK's largest listed shopping centre operator in the UK, is rolling out a new app that sends offers to customers’ mobile phones based on their location. Users will be able to see their location as a blue dot on a digital map of the shopping centre, plan a route between stores and see which retailers along their path are offering deals.

That's the big picture, but here are five very specific ways in which the power of IoT and sensors can be used to build better customer relationships, courtesy of Altimeter Research, in its report Customer Experience in the Internet of Things: Five Ways Brands Can Use Sensors to Build Better Customer Relationships. Generally, the Altimeter report presents some compelling arguments for the power of IoT. Here is what it says.

Small drones are advancing quickly. They used to be little else but sophisticated remote-controlled toys and people love to complain when we call them ‘drones’ because that implies that they are at least semi-autonomous (and maybe able to bomb a terrorist (and a few innocent bystanders)). But what’s happening now is that the technology is catching up with the term. Drones are becoming increasingly autonomous and that means they will open up a range of new business opportunities for startups in the very near future.

Disney researchers have demonstrated that light bulbs can do more that just illuminate our rooms - they could communicate with each other, with objects and with the Internet, to create 'smart' environments. Transmitting signals via light is nothing new; Alexander Graham Bell showed that speech could be conveyed with light in the 1880s, years before speech was first transmitted via radio.   

Washington: Scientists have shown that a network of energy-harvesting sensor nodes equipped with on-board cameras can determine each camera's pose and location using optical cues, an advance that could be used in home security and infrastructure monitoring.

Zac Brown Band announced that it will use beacon technology at Friday's Wrigley Field concert in order to better engage with fans at the show. But rather than using the bluetooth technology to sell albums or t-shirts, it's asking fans to pledge their support for our country's veterans. As fans leave Wrigley tonight after Zac Brown's 9/11 show, they'll receive a push notification to support Warriors to Summits and to "respect, support and honor our veterans for being an example of courage and strength both in their service and their transition back home." 

GameStop, the Texas-based international games retailer which has taken a pioneering interest in many innovative in-store technologies, has been working with specialist firm Shelfbucks to install beacons in test stores. Seven to ten devices are now present in each of 150 stores – a big increase since the rollout began with just 35 locations last year – to give shoppers product information relevant to nearby displays, inform them about the availability of loyalty points, and provide information on individual shoppers’ loyalty profile to staff via their iPads.