What's the latest inside poop from the Internet of Things, which has already brought us smart TVs, smart appliances and smart thermometers? A smart baby-changing pad. The Smart Changing Pad connects with an app so new parents can track their child's weight, sleep and even the number of diapers they use. It's debuting Monday at the ABC Kids Expo in Las Vegas, made by a start-up called Hatch Baby, which recently raised $7 million in early funding.

If you go to a Taylor Swift concert, you could have a front row seat to an Internet of Things use case. On Swift’s 1989 Tour that is criss-crossing the globe, concert-goers receive a wristband upon entrance to the venue. At some point during the show it magically lights up, coordinated to songs from the queen of pop music. What’s really going on here? As this Slate article explains, its powered by a company named PixMob, which specializes in wireless LED technology. The wristbands use infrared transmitters to control the LEDs on the wristbands (that’s the same infrared that’s used by remote controls …

According to a few of recent studies, Americans aren’t as aware or accepting of smartphone technology as some may expect. A Harris survey recently found that 64 percent of Americans admit that they aren’t very familiar with smart home technology. Another recent study conducted by Nielson found that only 53 percent of household decision makers report knowing what connected home technology can do. The Harris poll indicated that the most common connected home device is currently wireless speaker systems, which are found in about 17 percent of households. Wireless speakers are followed by smart thermostats (11 percent), smart home security systems (9 …

The future of internet technologies for businesses is not a matter of cost, it’s a matter of value. NCORITA’s fourth technology conference focused on “The Future of IT.”  Keynote speaker Carl Deal challenged attendees to think about how the technologies he was about to speak about could be applied to their world. “When we start talking about digital, start talking about the future, first of all is extinction,” Deal said. “Extinction is driven by the choices we make—it’s self-inflicted. The second is it’s inflicted upon us by the choices our competitors make, or don’t make, and the forces of natural selection in …

Best Buy has formed a retail partnership with the manufacturer of what is expected to be one of the hottest selling items in consumer electronics this holiday season. The retailer is teaming up with Yuneec International to offer the Typhoon drone series, which includes the Typhoon Q500 4K and Typhoon G multicopters, as well as the Typhoon Wizard, a new ultra-lightweight remote control drone. “We are excited to be launching a partnership with the country’s largest and most recognizable consumer electronics retail chain,” said Shan Phillips, CEO of Yuneec USA. “Yuneec offers options for every type of drone pilot or photographer with …

Day by day, appliance by appliance, “the internet of things” – that utopian notion that one day all objects, people and data will be interconnected online – quietly works its way into our quotidian routines, the clicks and whirrs of gleaming automata replacing that gurgling noise your dad used to make when he couldn’t get the VCR to stop blinking “00:01”. As Wired magazine and those Apple adverts where people dance to vintage soul in converted loft spaces keep cheerfully telling us, this march of progress into our homes should be regarded as a “good thing”. Yet surely I’m not …

He’s been Cisco’s CEO for a little over 5 months now, since taking over for John Chambers, and Chuck Robbins hasn’t been sitting on his heels. At the recent Global Editor’s Conference (GEC) at the company’s San Jose headquarters, the company’s leader told the invited group of journalists from all over the world, including little ol’ me, that Cisco is strong and now will use that strength to build a partnership-type economy and help facilitate growth throughout the IT, IoT and OT worlds. “I am incredibly bullish about where we are,” Robbins said. “Today, IT teams are shifting what they …

German automakers Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi are among the leaders in strategy and execution in autonomous cars, with Tesla and Jaguar a bit further behind, according to a new report by Navigant Research. Although fully self-driving cars are still at least a decade away, pieces of the technology are already being implemented into vehicles today, meaning that the battle to be first is already waging. Because of the safety and ease of such a vehicle, the first brand to release an effective, fully autonomous car could capture a sizable segment of the market.

Swatch Group AG is linking up with China’s banking giants to sell a timekeeper that can make payments at retailers across the country, posing a challenge to Apple Inc.’s and Samsung Electronics Co.’s smartwatches. The timepiece will allow users to make payments at stores that have China UnionPay Co.’s point-of-sale machines, according to the Biel, Switzerland-based company which is also teaming up with Bank of Communications Co., one of China’s big-five banks.

The so-called "Internet of Things" is an ever-expanding universe of connected devices, and with big players like Apple, Google, and Amazon in the mix, it's growing faster than ever. The dream is that everything will work with everything, making it easy to build the specific smart home you've got in mind. The reality, though, is that the walls are already starting to come up.