A Federal Trade Commission attempt to rein in a poorly secured IoT device is raising questions over whether the U.S. regulator has the power to crack down on vendors suspected of shoddy practices.

Retailers prepare for months for the all-important holiday season. According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), the holiday season can account for as much as 30 percent of an individual retailer's total sales. The NRF also notes that the holiday returns process accounts for about 24 percent of returns for the entire year.

Hotel guests have been employing radio frequency identification technology to access their rooms for about 10 years. Recently, however, access-control technology company dormakaba has taken the door-lock concept a step further with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) units built into its locks that allow guests to unlock their rooms using their smartphones.

A year after launching an enterprise-wide Internet of Things (IoT)-based tool to capture and manage radio frequency identification and other sensor data at 50 Boeing assembly sites, San Diego-based software company Tapestry Solutions is marketing a commercial version of the system. The new version, called Enterprise Sensor Integration (ESI), is aimed at large companies across multiple industries.

While more than 50 percent of respondents are not currently leveraging public cloud, 80 percent plan on migrating more within the next year, according to a study conducted by TriCore Solutions, an application management company.

Spyder, a ski and performance brand, will implement near field communication (NFC) technology within its latest U.S. Ski Team collection. Through a partnership with Smartrac, a provider of RFID-based Internet of Things tools, Spyder is powering a select collection of its U.S. Ski Team items to connect with NFC-enabled consumer devices globally.

IDC Manufacturing Insights has published its "IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Supply Chain 2017 Predictions," report to offer the 10 predictions that provide the framework for IT and line-of-business (LOB) decision makers' and influencers' planning and execution of technology-related initiatives in the year ahead.