While self-driving cars are garnering lots of headlines right now, the more immediate opportunity and challenge for automotive brands in 2016 will be developing must-have mobile features and software that can win over drivers. Smart technology is overhauling the American vision of what it means to drive a car, from new ownership models to a reimagined in-car experience. While it is likely to be a few years before self-driving cars are a reality, more due to social acceptance and regulatory issues than anything else, automakers are clearly focused on building their software expertise. 

The Amazon Echo defies easy categorization. Amazon has placed the $180 gadget in its Home Automation Controllers category alongside remotes, security components, and hubs. On the Echo’s product page, however, it’s marketed first and foremost as a music player. But its most unique feature is that it’s primarily controlled by Amazon’s Alexa voice command platform. Alexa is what makes the Echo go. Speak, “Alexa, read me the news,” or, “Alexa, what are the baseball scores?” and she’ll tell you. She knows the weather, traffic and your stock prices. She tells bad jokes. (“Why was the ocean wet? It seaweed.”) She compiles lists: “Alexa, …

Connecting a webcam to your home or office network might seem like a harmless thing, but researchers have figured out how to turn that connected device into a backdoor. Researchers at Vectra Networks today released a report demonstrating how a $30 D-Link webcam can be abused by attackers and turned into a medium for sending additional commands or stealing data. Vectra Networks said it contacted D-Link in early December and the issue has still not been addressed. Chief security officer Gunter Ollmann said that such a threat is difficult to detect and remediate, especially on home networks.

Security researchers have discovered a glaring security hole that exposes the home network password of users of a Wi-Fi-enabled video doorbell. The issue – now resolved – underlines how default configurations of IoT components can introduce easy to exploit security holes. The Ring allows punters to answer people knocking on your door from your mobile phone, even when you’re not at home. The kit acts as a CCTV camera, automatically activating if people approach your door, letting homeowners talk to visitors, delivery couriers and so on.

Samsung Pay, the mobile payments system that uses NFC technology through the devices from the South Korean tech giant, will now be headed into a broader range of countries across the globe, expanding it well beyond its very limited initial release. In a recent tweet, Samsung expressed that while the NFC technology based mobile wallet is already available in the United States and South Korea, it will become available to millions of additional customers in the very near future. This is because it will be stepping into at least three new countries in the near future. The countries that have been identified, so far, …

Having just inked a deal to serve as a mobile and online payment platform for Walmart, MasterCard is looking to devices to widen its range in the digital payment space and has even launched a new grocery initiative. First, MasterCard is partnering with consumer electronics and financial software company Coin to bring MasterCard payments to a variety of fitness bands, smart watches and other wearable devices. This collaboration builds upon MasterCard’s October 2015 introduction of the Commerce for Every Device program to enable any consumer gadget, accessory or wearable to become a payment device. Atlas Wearables, which designs advanced fitness trackers, Moov, …

One of the trends to emerge so far this year is the growing number of opportunities to drive sales from a myriad of smart devices in the home and elsewhere. MasterCard and Amazon were two big presences at the Consumer Electronics Show last week as savvy brands race to grab a piece of the emerging opportunity to make it easy for consumers to repurchase everyday items from smart devices in their homes. Savvy retailers such as Target were also on hand in recognition of the growing demand from consumers for enhancing their homes with technology.

Seemingly onto something, Amazon is reportedly readying a smaller, portable version of its voice-activated tabletop Echo speaker. The move is “building off the device’s surprise success since it was released in November 2014,” The Wall Street Journal notes. “The new portable device is expected to sell at a lower price than the $180 Echo in part to attract more buyers.”

In 2010, Jerry Wilmink’s grandfather got up in the middle of the night for a glass of water. While he was up, something went terribly wrong: His grandfather fell and broke his hip. He was unable to call to his wife upstairs, and his injuries ended up being fatal. Wilmink was devastated and wanted to do something to prevent the same thing from happening to other seniors. So, in 2013, he launched a company called WiseWear in his garage. His original plan was to create a hearing aid that could measure when a wearer was at risk of taking a spill, and …

OMsignal, the wearable technology apparel company, has now announced the launch of two new offerings, one of which is a sports bra that comes with some traditional features as well as sensors that provide feedback on mobile devices. These biometric sensors have been worked into the clothing in order to allow it to be used as wearable technology. When worn, the sensors can track various functions such as running economy, heart rate, cadence, and fatigue levels among others. This sports bra works along with the other major offering from OMsignal, which is a running platform called OMrun. It is through that platform that …