Retailers know the Internet of Things (IoT) is coming and will bring significant changes. But their preparedness for it is less certain. According to a new survey from RSR Research, “The Internet of Things in Retail – Great Expectations,” 42% of surveyed retailers strongly agree and another 38% agree that IoT will drastically change the way companies do business in the next three years. IoT is generally as a network of “smart” devices with Internet connectivity that can automate many retail functions, such as ordering products or sending alerts when they need repair or replacement. In addition, similar percentages of respondents strongly …

Cambridge speech technology business VocalIQ has been acquired by Apple for a sum between $50-$100 million. VocalIQ, a speech-related artificial intelligence specialist, says its technology is critical to the delivery of the Internet of Things. It recently opened a satellite office in San Francisco to support its Silicon Valley and North American clients and is preparing for a public technology launch in the current quarter. Apple has just taken leases on new space in San Francisco and Cambridge. No comment was available from either VocalIQ or Apple at the time of writing.

The University of Lodz is using a beacon-based system that helps its international students to navigate their way around campus and the Polish city of Lodz, as well as manage their classes and schedules. The solution, installed in April of this year, consists of an app developed by proximity-based technology company Linteri, in addition to Bluetooth beacons provided by Kontakt.io. The university has approximately 1,200 international students from around the world, many of whom are new to Poland, the university and the Polish language. Prior to the adoption of the app, known as SmartUni, these students had to visit administrative offices to receive a variety of …

It’s been a pretty big week for tech + privacy, with Apple overhauling the privacy-related info it pushes out to users — sharpening its pro-privacy positioning as a marketing differentiator for its devices and services. And NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden stepping into the public arena by joining Twitter as, well, himself — with the verified account status to prove it. (Who knows if Snowden was lurking on the service under an assumed name prior to uncloaking as @Snowden. Someone has probably DMed him to ask but he clearly has a big backlog of messages to get through…)

Google’s decision to spend $3.2 billion on Nest Labs last year was more than just purchasing a company that made a name for itself by delivering “sexy” Wi-Fi connected thermostats and smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. Presumably Google was buying into Nest’s longer-term vision for what Nest refers to as the “thoughtful home.” On Thursday, Nest outlined more of that vision, built around tools aimed at developers, and a new online Works with Nest store to help consumers find Nest-compatible products, from smart door locks to lights. The store opens in November.

The ‘damn breaking’ Nest Weave invention is a new IoT-connected Linus Locke by Yale. Nests’ web site lists a variety of device manufacturers working on devices that can use the Weave communication protocol. Weave was designed specifically to overcome the communications challenges faced when working with power-constrained devices and those that need conditions of low latency and redundancy. The Nest Weave can run over Wi-Fi and Thread but its simplicity makes it more reliable, compact, secure and scalable than existing IoT protocols, according to Nest. Thread helps it create a self-healing mesh network so that if a device crashes or Wi-Fi …

Marketers are taking a slower approach to developing Apple Watch applications as the benefits of doing so are not apparent yet, and those that do foray into the technology must set clear goals before jumping into production, according to new research from Strategy Analytics. It is still unclear whether or not there are significant added benefits to developing an Apple Watch app, and while the technology is relatively new, marketers do not want to take the risk. 

There's no denying the Internet of Things ecosystem is a complicated mess right now. Manufacturers are releasing one-off ideas with little regard to how those ideas communicate with the rest of the ecosystem, and often times less regard for how securely that communication happens. Google is one of several companies looking to simplify this messy ecosystem with an underlying communication layer called Weave, but their Alphabet sister company Nest beat them to it in the least helpful way possible. Nest Weave is being announced today as an entirely separate product from Google Weave, and it focuses on building a proprieta

Although some restaurant chains, including McDonald's, are exploring beacon technology, most are still trying to figure out how and when to use it. A panel last week at Networld Media Group's CONNECT Mobile Innovation Summit in Chicago discussed beacon technology's role with restaurateurs and retailers today. It's a complicated issue, to say the least. The panelists pointed to several reasons why retailers have yet to embrace beacons, ranging from consumers' hesitation to be pinged while shopping to organizations lacking the necessary personnel or foresight to implement and manage a successful program.

While half of consumers polled in a recent survey think that they are "adequately" protected from online threats on their computers, tablets, and smartphones, only 37% think the same protection is in place for their connected-home devices, such as IoT, gaming consoles, smart TVs, and thermostats. "Consumers find their digital world expanding at an astounding pace with more and more Internet-connected 'things,'" Nominum says of the report. "Many feel less secure," though.