Twentieth Century Fox is trying to sow the seeds of virtual reality. The film studio giant said this week that it’s research arm, the Fox Innovation Lab, is partnering with the startup Felix & Paul Studios to co-create VR flicks and other interactive virtual reality entertainment. Felix & Paul Studios, which is backed by investors like Comcast Ventures   and the Phi Group, produces a range of documentaries and original interactive films that can be viewed in virtual reality headsets like the Facebook  Oculus Rift or Samsung Gear VR mobile headset.

Steve Wynn, chairman and CEO of Wynn Resorts, as well as the highest paid hotel CEO of 2015, is making a huge bet that guests will want to control their hotel rooms with the help of the Amazon Echo, an artificial intelligence-powered smart speaker. Wynn and Amazon together announced that soon, all 4,748 hotel rooms at the Wynn Las Vegas will be equipped with the Amazon Echo, with installations beginning to take place this month in the resort’s suites. The hotel expects to have all rooms outfitted with the technology by summer 2017. While other hotels, such as Marriott’s Aloft properties, have piloted voice-activated …

Lumus -- the maker of augmented reality displays for smartglasses -- just raised $45 million led by Taiwanese laptop maker Quanta Computer. “Israel-based Lumus makes the optical engine that empowers AR solutions,” Venture Beat reports. “AR is expected to become a $90 billion market by 2020, according to tech advisor Digi-Capital.”

Uber said Friday it planned to keep its self-driving cars on the streets of San Francisco, defying a state order to halt the test program. The ridesharing giant said it disputed the interpretation by the California Department of Motor Vehicles that the cars require a special permit, saying they had the same autonomy capabilities as Tesla cars which have an optional "autopilot" feature. Anthony Levandowski, Uber's vice president for advanced technologies, said that as with the Teslas, the cars driven by Uber still have a driver capable of assuming control at any time.

IBM’s Watson artificial intelligence system is perhaps best known for helping doctors identify cancer treatments and for beating previous champions at “Jeopardy!” Now, it might soon become known in the auto industry for helping to make vehicles safer and more personalized.

That's according to information Microsoft officials provided to the company's OEM partners at WinHEC 2016 in Shenzhen last week, in a session titled "Cortana and the Speech Platform," Microsoft Principal Program Manager May Ji outlined the ways that Microsoft wants its PC and device partners to make use of new "Wake on Voice from Modern Standby" and "Far-field Voice" support that's being added to Windows 10 with the Creators Update that's due out in the Spring of 2017. Wake on Voice from Modern Standby is a feature that allows Cortana to turn on PCs from off to a full-powered state on devices …

The National Football League is finally delivering on a feature fans have been clamoring for since the development of virtual reality: immersive in-game and postgame highlights.  The league has already rolled out the technology—powered through a collaboration between NFL Films and Voke, a VR production company specifically geared towards fan engagement for live sports and entertainment—in deploying the highlights of one game per week, and will continue on track through the end of the regular season. The NFL joins the NBA, MLS, and NCAA football in leveraging the technology, which was seen as a natural extension of sports consumption since …

Your eyes are more than just a window to your soul. They may be the window to your phone, too. Future passwords could be more secure than anything you type, and all you'll have to do is look at your device's iris scanner to unlock it. Your eyes would serve as a more secure form of biometric security than your fingerprints, which hackers have been known to fool with high-resolution photos. The goal of all biometrics is to spot what's unique about you. That includes the pores in your skin, the sound of your voice, the shape of your face -- …

Samsung, already occupied with an Internet of Things installation in Philadelphia, is now juggling a VR installation in New York's Herald Square as a part of its "Gift of Galaxy" holiday campaign. Samsung is dubbing The Night Before as an “immersive look at a classic holiday moment via Samsung Gear VR, powered by Oculus,” and one that will be joined by similar installations at The Grove in Los Angeles and at Samsung 837, brand’s flagship digital playground in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District. The installation will add to Samsung’s significant out-of-home presence this holiday season.

When Sabarish Prakash and his friends wanted to start a business they began scouting for ideas and sectors they could make a mark in. "We wanted to innovate in an area that was more or less left unchanged for the past 20 years. That is the kitchen. While new appliances do come into the market every holiday season, not much technological advancements happen in them. We found this as an opportunity," says Prakash. Prakash says, he along with his six co-founders started working together on creating Internet of things (IoT) devices from their days in college but the company was officially …