LVMH-owned Tag Heuer is going up against Apple Watch with the debut of an 18-karat rose gold Connected smartwatch. Being released just in time for the holiday gifting season, Tag Heuer is demonstrating that a connected timepiece can be just as luxurious as any other Swiss-made analog watch. Tag Heuer developed the Tag Heuer Connected watch in partnership with Intel and Google, bringing luxury sensibility to the wearable category.

Deli meat purveyor Hormel Foods is reaching especially deep into its bag of tricks to promote its premium bacon line, crafting a ‘multisensory bacon experience’ based in virtual reality. The Black Market is designed to promote Hormel’s Black Label Bacon— its premium thick-cut bacon line— and is a continuation of the brand’s overarching We’re Always The New Black campaign. The VR videos include original content created by Hormel that takes users through a variety of ‘flavorscapes,’ introduces new users to Hormel’s array of exotic bacon varieties, and perhaps most importantly, allows them to initiate transactions within the experience.

Apparently Microsoft is not done with hardware introductions. The company plans to bring new low-cost mixed-reality headsets to market through its Windows Holographic platform for as little as $299.  The details came out at the big Surface launch event in New York earlier this week, but the news site Polygon got more details from Microsoft Technical Fellow and head of the HoloLens program Alex Kipman.

Ford Motor has hired a Silicon Valley executive with deep experience in connected devices and machine learning to bring self-driving cars to market, the latest signal that the automaker is accelerating its shift from research and development of autonomous vehicles to a full-scale business. Laura Merling will be vice president of autonomous vehicle solutions at Ford Smart Mobility, a subsidiary focused on developing the automaker’s transportation services such as car-sharing. Ford Smart Mobility is based in Palo Alto, Calif. and is headed up by Jim Hackett, former chief executive at Mich.-based office furniture company Steelcase. 

Intel has been investing in IoT for years, playing catch up to compete with companies like Qualcomm that got to the market early and saturated it with their chipsets. But a declining PC market pushed them to make more drastic moves, cutting 12,000 jobs back in April to refocus on IoT and data centers, which made up 40 percent of their revenue last year. Continuing that commitment, today Intel announced two new Atom processor lines: the E3900 series for connected devices and wearables along with the A3900 for smart auto apps. The E3900 will be …

Over the past few months Starbreeze’s StarVR headset has gone from an industry oddity to a genuine contender in the location-based VR scene. This week, the company is cementing that status with some major new acquistions. Starbreeze announced the purchase of Nozon, a Belgium-based visual effects studio for €7.1 million (about $7.75 million). Along with its special effects, the company is also working on some important features for VR video.