Software developer and blogger Harishankar Narayanan describes on his tech blog CodeTiger an incident that exemplifies the loss of control many users experience over their own devices. His smart vacuum cleaner, the iLife A11, suddenly stopped working—after he blocked its data transmissions to the manufacturer. The case exposes how deeply manufacturers of cloud-based devices can interfere with the autonomy of their customers.
I had promised myself not to write yet another article from the “Internet of Trash” category, lamenting how helpless we all are when the cloud goes down. But fate had other plans: On October 20, 2025, a large-scale outage of the AWS Cloud demonstrated how vulnerable the Internet has become to a single disruption. Ironically, resilience against individual failures was once the very foundation of an indestructible communication network.
Following Baidu and Lyft, Waymo is now planning its own move into the European market. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, the Alphabet subsidiary intends to deploy autonomous taxis in London starting in 2026. This would mark Waymo’s first market launch outside North America and Japan – and another step in the global race for driverless mobility services.
A sentence everyone should remember: those who believe they’re buying something future-proof when purchasing a “smart” device are fooling themselves. The shiny new world of the Internet of Things is showing its true face: once again, manufacturers are literally pulling the plug on their customers – not because the devices are technically obsolete, but because keeping them alive is no longer profitable.
In Dubai, the 45th edition of GITEX Global has begun – one of the world’s largest technology trade fairs. From October 13 to 17, more than 6,800 exhibitors and around 2,000 startups from over 180 countries are showcasing their solutions for Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and digital infrastructure at the Dubai World Trade Centre. In parallel, the innovation platform “Expand North Star,” focused on startups and venture capital, is taking place at Dubai Harbour.
The monetization of smart products and applications is taking ever stranger turns: the days of “buy once and own forever” are over. Subscription models and ad placements have become popular tools to generate ongoing revenue over a product’s lifetime. In return, providers promise free updates. Recently, Amazon seems to have gone too far with its “Echo Show” smart displays.
More and more smart devices lose functionality as cloud servers are switched off. From Amazon and Apple to Devolo and Neato – manufacturers end services and turn working hardware into electronic waste. This article highlights examples, explains the causes, and calls for an end to cloud dependency – demanding open interfaces and locally controlled smart home solutions.
A recent research article in the Journal of Engineering and Applied Science presents an improved optimization approach for routing in wireless sensor networks (WSN) within IoT scenarios. The Enhanced Archimedes Optimization Algorithm (EAOA) aims to save energy, reduce delays, and extend network lifetime. The authors report better results compared to conventional methods, but note that the findings are based solely on simulations. Practical tests on real hardware are planned but have not yet been carried out.
Criminals are exploiting unsecured cellular routers in industrial environments to send massive amounts of phishing SMS messages. According to a report by the IT magazine Ars Technica, based on analyses by the cybersecurity company Sekoia, devices from the Chinese manufacturer Milesight IoT Co., Ltd. are primarily affected.
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the “Transparency in Frontier Artificial Intelligence Act” (SB 53) at the end of September 2025. The regulation requires developers of particularly powerful AI models to disclose safety measures and report incidents in the future. The goal is to monitor the risks of so-called “Frontier AI” systems — AI models whose computing power and capabilities go far beyond previous applications.
