Australians are networking their homes at twice the rate of Americans and are eager adopters of the Internet of Things (IoT), according to Vish Nandlall, Telstra CTO. Speaking at Melbourne's American Chamber of Commerce in Australia, Nandlall said US homes had an average of four devices connected to the internet in 2014, a rate well below its tech-hungry Australian counterparts. "When you look what's happening within Telstra and our domestic network, you're seeing a lot more connected devices than you see in the US," Nandlall said. "We're seeing on average eight connected devices."

Location-tracking technology in apartment buildings could be the answer to avoiding lines at the gym or knowing when it's a good time to head to the laundry room. Chicago-based Mobile Doorman, which makes white-label apps for apartment and condominium buildings, is rolling out beacon integration that it thinks will help residents live smarter and property owners manage better. "Our mission is for you to feel like this app on your phone represents your apartment building," said co-founder Bob Matteson. Mobile Doorman offers customizable apps that allow residents to manage deliveries, place maintenance requests and pay rent, among other things. The company charges properties $1 a month per …

Intel has its eyes on making self-driving cars, robots and industrial equipment safer with a new acquisition. The chip maker has acquired Italian company Yogitech, which provides circuits and software tools for IoT devices to automate decision-making based on data patterns. Intel declined to comment how much it paid to buy the company. Intel will put Yogitech's technology to work in its IoT products, with an emphasis on safety for automated devices. The technology is designed to keep circuits functional and prevent device failure.

A flurry of interactive features on branded digital experiences show how marketers are broadly ramping up mobile-first utility by appealing to the key human senses of touch, hearing and sight.  Marketers are increasingly embracing Tinder-like swiping, image recognition and voice recognition for a variety of mobile-driven experiences that are easier and more convenient than ever. As opposed to the few standalone examples from previous years, there is a much bigger migration beyond desktop interfaces to embrace mobile-first approaches in 2016.   

Are you too lazy to open the door or switch on a light? Let Windows 10 and its Cortana voice-activated digital assistant do the job for you. Microsoft’s vision is to make home automation a breeze in Windows 10, and the company featured several related Internet-of-things announcements at its ongoing Build conference. Windows 10 will work with a wider range of devices and appliances by integrating new Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF) protocols, scheduled to be released in 2017. Additionally, Cortana will allow users to easily automate tasks using a Windows PC, mobile device, Xbox console or Raspberry Pi 3. Users will be able …

Gansha Wu was a veteran engineering manager at Intel Corporation and director of Intel Labs China when two events upended his world last year. First, he listened to the veteran technology writer Michael Malone tell an audience of Intel employees that if they were too cautious they would fail. Then he attended a leadership training session for Intel executives. The trainer told them that “to be a leader is to design a future that is unpredictable and which nobody bets on.” He couldn’t sleep at night, thinking about his well-ordered, 16-year career at Intel. So he decided to take a risk. …

Motley Fool contributor David Kline assembles a variety of sources -- IDC, Microsoft, McKinsey, Accenture, and yes, of course, Cisco -- to make the case and convince the less-than-connected.

Of all the improbable -- yet sublimely logical -- connected experiences, Italian ice marketer Rita's is leveraging beacon, mobile and social technology to target consumers individually when they enter one of the chain's 600 brick-and-mortar stores nationwide. App users seamlessly earn points that can be used for free items.

Volvo's North American CEO, Lex Kerssemakers, lost his cool as the automaker's semi-autonomous prototype sporadically refused to drive itself during a press event at the Los Angeles Auto Show. "It can't find the lane markings!" Kerssemakers griped to Mayor Eric Garcetti, who was at the wheel. "You need to paint the bloody roads here!" Shoddy infrastructure has become a roadblock to the development of self-driving cars, vexing engineers and adding time and cost. Poor markings and uneven signage on the 3 million miles of paved roads in the United States are forcing automakers to develop more sophisticated sensors and maps …

Dyson shot to fame for its bagless vacuum cleaners more than two decades ago, and in the intervening years the U.K. company has launched everything from hand-dryers and heaters to washing machines and air multipliers. Exactly a year ago today, Dyson launched its first ever air purifier — the device launched only in China at first, a country long plagued by pollution, with more than one million premature deaths attributed to bad air, according to some studies. Today, Dyson is introducing a brand new version of the air purifier to the U.S. and other markets around the world. The $500 Dyson Pure Cool Link is …