It’s looking like 2016 will be the year virtual reality hits the mainstream now that Oculus Rift is on the brink of shipping and Google Cardboard is into the millions of units sold. Now, we finally know when Sony is releasing its new VR headset too. GameStop CEO Paul Raines revealed the PlayStation VR will launch in the third quarter of this year during a live television interview. “We will launch the Sony product this fall,” said Raines, “and we’re in discussions with the other two players.” Shortly after blurting out the PlayStation VR release date, Raines redirected the conversation to GameStop’s dominance …

The IoT is gathering pace and, according to Matt Hatton, CEO at analyst firm Machina Research, this is only set to accelerate at a speed of 18% CAGR until 2024. By then, the company predicts 27 billion devices with some sort of internet connection, up from five billion in 2014. "Growth will be rapid. 69% of connections by 2024 will be of short range [with technologies such as PLC, Wi-Fi and Zigbee)," Hatton said. "Connected living and working, which includes smart home, building automation, etc, will dominate 83% of the market." CBR lists the top ten trends driving the IoT market towards that …

The fairy tale performs many functions. They entertain, they encourage imagination, they teach problem-solving skills. They can also provide moral lessons, highlighting the dangers of failing to follow the social codes that let human beings coexist in harmony. Such moral lessons may not mean much to a robot, but a team of researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology believes it has found a way to leverage the humble fable into a moral lesson an artificial intelligence will take to its cold, mechanical heart. You can read the paper here.

In an industry plagued by buzzwords and acronyms, few will lament Cisco’s decision to use ‘digitisation’ instead of the ‘Internet of Everything (IoE)’ at its conference this year. The fact that Cisco had persisted with IoE instead of the almost universally used Internet of Things (IoT) was an illogical and pedantic annoyance for many, not least because the IoT is, of course, a marketing term itself, representing a group of technologies. At last year’s Cisco Live event in Milan, the company endeavoured to explain the difference between IoT and IoE. The IoT, it said, connects objects, but IoE uses a network …

Domino’s is furthering its image as a driver in mobile ordering with the addition of the Apple Watch to the bevy of channels where customers can pay for and order products. The pizza chain is working on continuously providing new and exciting retail methods and has taken significant time to streamline ordering through the Apple Watch. Customers can now order delivery and pickup through its app on the wearable device, in addition to previous capabilities limited to tracking orders.

Google wants to work with university researchers on short-term projects involving the use of its software and technologies in emerging Internet of things applications. The company this week announced an Internet of Things (IoT) Technology Research Award Pilot program under which it is seeking applications from academic researchers looking to explore "interesting use cases and innovative user interfaces" with Google. Google's chief Internet evangelist Vint Cerf and Max Senges of Google Research this week described the pilot program as mostly involving small-scale projects of between four and eight weeks in duration. Participants will be required to use one or a combination of Google IoT …

“If you build it, he will come,” whispered a disembodied voice in the 1989 fantasy-drama Field of Dreams. In time, Kevin Costner’s character grew convinced that “it” was a baseball field even though the “he” remained a mystery. So Costner plowed under his corn field and built the baseball diamond which he painstakingly tended until the arrival of whatever came next. The founders of The Things Network (TTN) are playing a similar game. This time, however, “it” is a subscription-free, community-owned LoRaWAN network that now blankets Amsterdam, and the “he” could be any number of possible solutions enabled by the diverse and unimaginably …

Over half of UK businesses – particularly those in the education, retail and telecoms sectors – plan to employ a chief internet of things officer (CIoTO) in the next 12 months to help plan and manage their growing IoT spend. With enterprises expected to spend 42% more on IoT projects in 2016, in a recent survey 54% of businesses said they needed someone to guide them through the process. The survey was commissioned by security supplier Webroot and datacentre organisation IO. The report said 68% of UK business leaders expected to reap tangible benefits from their IoT investments this year, and one in five were already seeing the …

Exterion Media has partnered with WPP-owned OOH agency Kinetic to encourage its clients to explore the benefits of using beacons to reach consumers via mobile with more relevant and targeted messaging. As part of the strategy Exterion Media, Europe’s largest privately held out-of-home (OOH) advertising business, will attempt to install beacons across the nationwide Bus and Rail network, Westfield and the London Underground. 

Department store chain Barneys New York is offering its consumers an elevated shopping experience by embracing in-store technologies at its newly opened Chelsea flagship. Barneys’ new downtown New York flagship opened its doors Feb. 15 and while increasing Barneys’ footprint within the city by 55,000-square feet, the space also acts as a kind of homecoming for the retailer. Located between 16th and 17th Streets along Seventh Avenue, the block-long store is situation on the same block where Barneys first opened in 1923.