Canonical last week announced plans to launch the Internet of Toys, an open source initiative calling on toy makers, hackers, Internet of Things fans and innovators to build the next generation of Web-accessing toys. The company is partnering with the Hybrid Group and Erle Robotics for the initiative. Participants will build the next generation of toys around open source tools such as Cylon JS, Gobot, Snappy Ubuntu Core, Snapcraft, ROS and Erle-Spider.

In the last year or so, we’ve stopped saying “the Internet of Things” and moved on to say “smart home” when referring to all those connected products we keep hearing about. It sounds like a similar catch-all phrase that encompasses everything from Bluetooth light bulbs to your Sonos audio system. Except it’s not. None of us live in a smart home, regardless of how many of those gadgets you already own. No, we’re a long way from that. We’re only barely living in a connected home, a netherworld somewhere between the IoT and the super cool smart home of the future. Don’t be fooled though. This …

Starwood Hotels and Resorts’ Element brand is driving stays at its properties and rewarding consumers with wearable device prizes as part of a collaboration with Fitbit that asks fitness enthusiasts to take a virtual walk around the world and log their milestones. The “Walk the World with Element Hotels, Powered by Fitbit” event is designed to incite a spark of travel interest in consumers by spurring them to log their steps on the road as part of a global challenge. Participant will automatically be entered to win rewards at particular milestones during the week, including Fitbit wearables and Starwood Preferred …

If you read tech blogs, you must have heard about beacons or iBeacons (Apple’s version) which are tiny Bluetooth 4.0-based devices. These devices have been witnessing a lot of hype and some adoption in proximity marketing solutions where merchants are putting up beacons to send offers, promotions, coupons, etc. in the form of proximity messages. Financial Institutions such as banks have also started using beacon technology to boost customer engagement and explore new revenue streams.  Following is a list of seven such banks who have either implemented or are in the process of implementing beacon technology to leverage their services and to increase …

Amazon Web Services, the retail giant’s web hosting arm, registered on Monday a slew of domain names for use as part of the so-called Internet of things, according to Domain Name Wire, a trade blog. These registrations suggest which products (or at least product names) the company is considering. Given that the move occurred during the company’s big AWS Re:Invent customer conference, at which Amazon typically makes big product statements, it bears examination. The blog listed five Internet of things-affiliated names that Amazon  AMZN locked up as it prepares to launch a cloud-based service for IoT this …

Gartner's top 2016 strategic trends for 2016 had a decided emphasis on the Internet of things, smart machines and the digital glue that will tie those technologies with the business. The glue included in Gartner's list, delivered at the Gartner Symposium ITxpo, is something called the device mesh. While a term like device mesh sounds trendy much like Gartner's nexus of forces tagline from two years ago the concept is sound. The general idea is that the digital mesh is a dynamic network linking various endpoints. Everything is a device.

The Internet of Things, which makes everyday objects smarter and connected, could bring electronic brains to more than 1.9 billion devices by the year 2020, according to a forecast by the tech analyst firm Linley Group. Linley Gwennap, founder of the Linley Group, told the crowd at the company’s annual chip conference that the term Internet of Things covers a lot of ground, from smart utility meters to smart cooking thermometers, making the forecast difficult to make. Industrial devices are leading the way, but Gwennap said he expects to see rapid growth in consumer devices starting around 2017.

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.

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 …

Amazon plans to announce a cloud-based service for the Internet of things this week at its AWS Re:Invent trade show, according to sections of a memo Fortune has viewed. The document implies that the new AWS service will mimic similar offerings from Microsoft, IBM, Ayla Networks and others that target developers trying to build connected devices in that it will link the AWS cloud platform to silicon from specific vendors. IBM and Microsoft have announced broad platforms and aggressive plans to support the Internet of things—billions of connected devices that collect data for consumer and industrial applications and typically pass it on to some sort of …