Amazon is likely working on a home security camera in the same vein as Nest, Canary, Ring, Blink, and other products, according to a newly-discovered product photo that’s sitting on the company’s own web servers. AFTVnews found the image of some sort of easily-positionable camera, with a blue light circling the lens. Very Alexa-like. It’s got a white exterior design — the central camera area is black — and a pivoting base. There are two mics at the top, and at each corner of the camera, there are matching, smaller circles.

Japanese messaging service Line announced on Thursday a personal assistant, called Clova, in the mold of Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri. The app will communicate to Asian users through hundreds of different screens, including an Echo-like speaker. Line will bundle its messaging service, which integrates payment, ridesharing, and shopping, and Naver’s search platform into Clova. Users will be able to receive weather reports, news bulletins, and ask “complicated questions”, among other things.

As much as Amazon's  Echo home speaker/voice assistant has turned into a surprise hit and yielded a blizzard of positive media attention, the Alexa voice assistant powering Echo hardware is still in key respects at a strategic disadvantage relative to Alphabet/Google, Apple, and Microsoft's  rival offerings. Google and Apple's assistants each shipped with hundreds of millions of mobile devices last year, and Microsoft's perhaps on close to 200 million PCs. By contrast, Echo sales (judging by estimates) were likely only in seven figures. In theory, that would leave Google/Apple much better-positioned to create powerful third-party ecosystems for their assistants, as well as to optimize them in response to …

IoT devices from a Chinese vendor contain a weird backdoor that the vendor is refusing to fix, we're told. The vulnerability was discovered in almost all devices produced by VoIP specialist dbltek, and appears to have been purposely built in as a debugging aid, according to researchers at TrustWave. The infosec biz says that it followed a responsible disclosure process, but claims the manufacturer responded only with modifications to its firmware that leave access open. Trustwave claims the vendor then cut off contact with it. The security firm says it has since been able to write exploits that open both …

Cisco's Jasper Internet of Things unit landed partnerships with automaker Honda, Korea Telecom, wearable health tracking company Jupl, and completed live trials of a Narrow-Band IoT implementation with Australian telecom Optus. The news landed at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona where Cisco's Jasper unit outlined its progress since being acquired by the networking giant a year ago. Since the acquisition, Jasper's IoT management platform has extended its reach into more enterprises and service providers.

Yamaha is bringing Amazon's Alexa voice control to its MusicCast wireless multiroom audio products beginning this fall with more than 40 A/V products. The existing components will get a firmware update enabling control using spoken commands through Alexa-enabled devices. An Alexa skill that adds support for the MusicCast commands will simultaneously be made available for Alexa-enabled devices, including the Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, Tap and Amazon's Fire TV.

Lenovo is working with Amazon to get the Alexa voice assistant into a range of Motorola smartphones, and in the process, looking to depose Google's voice assistant technology. The partners will first focus on developing an Alexa "Mod," a block that will attach to a Moto Z modular handset. The companies will then integrate Alexa directly into a variety of Moto handsets and devices, Lenovo said during a press conference in Barcelona on Sunday. The Moto Z is much like Google's Project Ara, where individual parts like speakers and projectors can be added to boost the functionality of the handset.

It’s midnight. I’m on a business trip in Cupertino, California and after sending off a few final emails, I change into my pajamas, and then it hits me: I’ve forgotten my toothbrush. This is not the first time I’ve done this and most of the time, when I do, I swing by the front desk and grab one. But when it’s really late and I’m in my pajamas, I’m a little less inclined to head downstairs to model my choice in sleepwear for the folks still at the hotel bar. So I call the Aloft Hotel’s front desk …

Formula E's long-developing autonomous racing series, just unveiled its first self-driving race car at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. It's called the Robocar, and it doesn't look like anything we've ever seen before. If the appearance is jarring, just consider how much space you save when there's no need for a cockpit to hold a driver's seat (or, for that matter, a driver). The design was first teased last March in a tantalizing video that showed off the initial digital mock-ups. It's the brainchild of Daniel Simon, who's best known for creating the slick futuristic aesthetic of movies like Tron: Legacy and Oblivion. Here, he puts his …