Pricewatch was asked to give a talk about the home of the future at the Ideal Home Show a couple of weeks back. The task seemed simple enough. We’ll just channel our inner Tomorrow’s World, we thought, as we conjured up images of jetpacks and robot butlers. And sure the home of the future will be a lot like the home of the present. After all, how much can things really change in 10 or 20 years? The answer to that one is “a lot”: the home of the future will be radically and sometimes terrifyingly different to what we …

Energizer elicited 411,641 in-store engagements through a beacon-powered campaign that served nearby shoppers, who were leveraging various shopping applications such as ListEase and Ziplist, an in-depth look at its EcoAdvanced batteries. The battery brand leveraged in-store beacons to get the word out for its new product by sending push notifications in shopping assistance apps ListEase and Ziplist, targeting consumers during the most effective time during their customer journey. Through various checkpoints within store locations, users were prompted to go down Energizer’s aisle to check out the product.

Xiaomi is sometimes referred to as the "Apple of China" — not only because of its fervent fanbase, butalso how similar some of its products, its marketing, and its CEO's mannerisms are to Apple's. Well, here's another parallel between it and the Cupertino company: It's launching a smartwatch! Xiaomi is sometimes referred to as the "Apple of China" — not only because of its fervent fanbase, but also how similar some of its products, its marketing, and its CEO's mannerisms are to Apple's. Well, here's another parallel between it and the Cupertino company: It's launching a smartwatch!

Swiss watchmaker Tag Heuer is showcasing the capabilities of its Connected timepiece in a fashionable way. The brand partnered with British GQ on a short social video, which shadows the magazine’s editor Dylan Bruce as he goes about his day in London. While Tag Heuer has previously aligned with sports stars and other personalities to promoted the Connected smartwatch, this latest collaboration will help the brand market the timepiece as a functional, stylish accessory.

For years now, we've been hearing about how the Internet of Things will connect every object in our homes. And for years, the vast majority of those objects stay dumb. "What companies are struggling with when it comes to the broad label of the IoT on the consumer side is what the actual problem trying to be solved is," says Rob Chandhouk, president of the sensor startup Helium. "Look at Samsung's new smart fridge, which they're marketing as the hub for your home. Do you think of your refrigerator as a hub?"

Owners of Fitbit's Aria internet-connected smart scales are being advised to install a firmware patch following the discovery of critical security flaws. Tavis Ormandy of Google's Project Zero was credited with finding the vulnerabilities in the Wi-Fi cyber-scales. While Fitbit isn't providing specific details on the nature of the flaws, it says that, in general, "critical" issues are those which "if exploited could allow attacker-supplied code to gain unrestricted access and potentially go undetected by the customer."

LeEco — a Chinese company with brash dreams of challenging Apple, Tesla and Netflix — on Thursday officially opened a North American headquarters smack in the backyards of its Silicon Valley competitors. LeEco’s office on North First Street in San Jose is a showcase for the company’s eclectic array of products, which range from smartphones and TVs to streaming video to a self-driving, electric sports car. No matter that U.S. consumers have never heard of the company or even know how to pronounce the name. (Although one executive said “le-echo” in an interview, a spokeswoman said the firm wants it pronounced “luh-E-co.”) …

Barneys New York is using iBeacon technology in-store to personalise its shoppers’ experience as part of a swathe of digital improvements. The chain of luxury department stores is connecting consumers’ online and offline behaviours to bring a first of its kind digital shopper experience, and power customer-centric personalisation for better service at its new outlet in Manhattan. IBeacons, integrated with a personalisation platform provided by RichRelevance, are helping Barneys to share relevant content with people who opt-in via the store’s clienteling app. As customers move around the shop floor, they are prompted with personal recommendations of editorial content via a purpose-built …