A recent report from Argus Insights claims that demand for connected home products based on the IoT dramatically slowed in the first half of 2015 and continues to fall. This drop in demand is attributed to reported flaws in connectivity and installation, as well as a lack of innovative new products. Early adopters appear to have all that they seek: security cameras, home security kits, thermostats, and detectors and sensors. But the average consumer is not finding these products compelling. And reported issues of speed, performance and connectivity are contributing to the slow down in buying. Wearables still have consumer …

Many publishers add product links to articles to try to get readers to buy online. With a new shopping gambit, Elle magazine is driving consumers into actual physical stores. For the program, called Shop Now, Elle is making its editors’ product picks available to ShopAdvisor’s and RetailMeNot’s apps. (ShopAdvisor is a mobile proximity service and RetailMeNot is a mobile coupon app.) The apps’ users (25 million combined) who have opted in to get push notifications will get a push if they are within a mile of Levi’s, Vince Camuto, Barnes & Noble or Guess stores letting them know Elle’s suggested buys are near. If the customer opens the notification and goes to the store, she’ll get another notification with a promotion. One recent one gave …

A start-up retail logistics company and award-winning retail designer are behind an unusual — and very tech-savvy — new “smart” store model that has just opened its doors. Retail logistics start-up ShopWithMe (formerly called OrderWithMe) has opened an interactive retail store on M. Michigan Avenue in Chicago, devoted to merchandise from Toms Shoes and Raven+ Lily. The store, designed by Giorgio Borruso, is meant to showcase the supplier’s technologies, which were prominently used in the pop-up that Zappos opened last holiday season in Las Vegas. The merchandise is displayed on smart fixtures, such as glass top digital displays. Interactive mirror …

Women’s retailer Vanity is joining forces with mobile shopping companion shopkick to offer customers rewards for visiting the dressing room, a tactic which other brands may leverage to ramp up in-store sales. The fashion retailer is now offering shopkick users “kicks,” or rewards, for visiting a bricks-and-mortar location or making a purchase. In the near future, Vanity will also allow customers to receive additional kicks for trying on items in a dressing room, thanks to a beacon technology deployment at 150 of its stores in the United States.

Worldwide use of Internet of Things devices will see explosive growth over the next year but so will security breaches related to them, according to IDC’s global technology predictions for 2016. In a webcast held on Wednesday, IDC projected the number of IoT devices installed worldwide will double to a total of 22 billion by 2018. During the same period, over 200,000 new apps and services will be created specifically for IoT usage, and global IoT spending overall will grow by one-and-a-half times its current level.

South Korea passed the milestone of 4 million subscribers to Internet of Things (IoT) networks. The IoT customers base growth was mainly boosted by the increasing number of wearable device users, Yonhap news agency reports, citing data from the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning. South Korea ended September with 4.08 million IoT subscribers, compared with 3.96 million two months earlier. The number of South Koreans using wearable telecommunications devices reached 294,000 at end-September, amid the increasing popularity of smart watches in the country.

There's always something exciting about a brand-new technology - it's raw and rarely perfected, but often loaded with seemingly limitless possibilities. Right now, that about sums up wearable technology - its part 'Apple Watch' but also part 'underwhelmed consumers'. In fact, you're as likely to read an enthusiastic review of the Apple Watch as you are reasons why you shouldn't care about wearables yet. To many, they're brilliant but baffling, powerful yet puzzling. As with any new technology, wearables are surrounded by a busload of market hype. Even market research firm Gartner says as much. According to its latest yearly Hype …

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have produced a booster that might make smartwatches even smarter, enabling them with a technology that could let wearables process what the wearer is touching, holding or using — and could bring the Internet closer to merging with the real world. Developed in collaboration with Disney Research, EM-Sense is a system recognition software that utilizes body capacitance (aka the electrical conductive powers that the body naturally contains, thanks to our natural epidermic insulation and our ability to store an electrical charge) to allow a smartwatch to pick up on when the wearer touches a device …

Computer science research and development firm Galois, mobile ticketing firm GlobeSherpa and smart home startup IOTAS are teaming up on a project funded by the federal National Institutes of Standards and Technology. The effort could lay the groundwork for Internet of Things applications that will be secure and protect privacy. Galois, through its mobile security subsidiary Tozny, is the lead on the two-year project. So far, the government has committed $1.86 million to the first year of work. Menlo Park-based SRI International and 6 Degrees Consulting are also participating in the project.

An accidental breakthrough in a Stockholm laboratory 15 years ago could reap a fortune for the engineers who made it -- as long as they can win over some of the most demanding consumers: video gamers. Since John Elvesjo noticed a sensor tracking his eye movements in a lab experiment, the technology he developed with Henrik Eskilsson and Marten Skogo has helped disabled people use a computer by identifying where they are looking on the screen. The system uses invisible infra-red light to illuminate the eyes. Camera sensors capture the reflection off the retina and cornea to gauge where …