The security services could remotely take over children's toys and use them to spy on suspects, MPs have been told. The draft Investigatory Powers Bill would place a legal duty on internet providers to assist in hacking devices. But it would not be restricted to phones and PCs, a tech industry chief told the Commons science and technology committee. Antony Walker, of techUK, said anything that connected to the internet could "in theory" be hacked into. In the future, this could include driverless cars or household appliances connected to the internet - the so-called Internet of Things - said Mr Walker.

The forever war over the office thermostat has a new beachhead: the “Comfort Suite” at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, where researchers are chasing detente between the half of the office that wants the air conditioning on maximum and the other half shivering in their cubicles, huddled under sweaters, pointing their toes toward wan little electric heaters. In the suite—actually a 250 square-foot office simulator in NREL’s Golden, Colo. headquarters—engineers and ergonomics specialists are testing all kinds of technologies to see if they can improve comfort while reducing the energy an office building uses. Desk chairs warm up and cool …

LG Uplus, the nation’s third-largest mobile carrier, has developed a smart parking control service based on the narrowband long-term evolution (LTE) technology. The telecom company said Monday it started testing the service at its fifth-generation technology test center in Sangam-dong, western Seoul. The telecom said it would expand its services by tapping into industrial Internet of Things (IoT) technologies such as remote parking control and smart lighting systems based on diverse LTE frequency bandwidths. “Starting from the smart parking control service, we plan to apply the narrowband LTE technology to industrial IoT devices including corporate electricity meters and security systems that can …

As the senior vice president of global strategy at cross-device services firm Tapad, Nick Jordan oversees product decisions and works with advertisers and publishers on broader initiatives. Jordan spoke with eMarketer’s Lauren Fisher about cross-device targeting moving onto newer arenas like television and the internet of things (IoT). eMarketer: What are some of the big trends you’ve seen unfolding in cross-device targeting over the past 12 months?

Absolut is making headway in its bid to harness the Internet of Things, planning trials for 2016 that will test the theory that the future of marketing is predicated on creating services rather than buying media. Each year around 100 million bottles of Absolut are shipped worldwide but they’re "static” and can't extend the customer relationship post-sale. Finding a way to exploit that opportunity is key challenge for many FMCG companies and Pernod Ricard is no different, spotting a chance to use the Internet of Things trend to help make its marketing more service-led. The solution is to turn the bottle into …

Until now, Apple has chosen to make phones ever thinner, frustrating many who would like to be able to use their phones for longer and who would barely notice if their phones were a millimetre thicker. They'll certainly notice the additional thickness of the iPhone 6s Smart Battery Case, which appears to add about 7 mm to the 7.1 mm iPhone 6s, to judge by the photos Apple has released. Had Apple chosen to make the iPhone 6s that much thicker to begin with, it may well have been able to boost the phone's battery life by 400 percent, not …

In the near future, all of our shower accoutrements will be connected. In fact, everything from your soap to the loofah will talk to your e-Shower head if Hamwells has anything to say about it. The e-Shower, which launched today onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt London, is basically a standing shower that can massage you and saves water by recirculating it and dousing you in a delicious misty spray of filtered moisture. The enclosure fits on most current shower setups. The truly unique part of the system is the mixing filter. Water you’ve used to make yourself clean is sucked back up into the shower and …

My colleague Megan Wollerton was out at the CNET Smart Home, about a 40-minute drive from the office where we both work. She was working on a video project, and needed an essential shot of the smart lock in the front door turning on its own. The problem? The app on her phone wouldn't pair with the lock. The fix seemed simple. The lock was the Schlage Sense Bluetooth deadbolt, a smart lock built to work with Apple's HomeKit protocols in iOS devices. The Apple HomeKit products in the CNET Smart Home are all tied to my iCloud account, and Megan …

“Don’t believe the hype.” That’s the message a majority of respondents to Design News' latest Quick Poll are sending about the Internet of Things (IoT). More than 43% of the 352 audience members who responded to the poll, which asked what they think of the IoT, said it is just a lot of hype, with some questioning its validity or overall importance in poll remarks. “Being able to control devices from any location is a neat gimmick for the first few days of ownership, but of limited usefulness,” said a reader who called himself "Battar." “Most controllable devices require physical interaction, and extreme remote …

Target is introducing a new series of connected devices powered by mobile applications for its Open House retail space, continuing a mission to bring the Internet of Things into customers’ homes. The interactive display space allows consumers to interact with connected products controlled primarily by apps to give a better understanding of how they work and attempting to drive sales. The new update features a variety of innovative tech products such as Flic, SmartThings, Sense by Hello, Automatic, Roomba 980 by iRobot, Sonos Play:5, Yonomi, Kinsa, Muzzley and If This Then That.