The internet already plays an indispensable role in the everyday life of billions. Yet the surface is only being scratched. The potential to bring new and more advantages to individuals around the world, and to benefit billions more people as they gain access, has few limits. Many of these benefits could have their biggest impact in emerging markets; unfortunately, these are the countries in which internet penetration and use often lag.

Ford Motor Co. is moving to automatically update its cars' infotainment systems using Microsoft's Azure cloud service.

Autonomous vehicles are successful here and now, but you are unlikely to meet one because the successes are in the upper atmosphere, open cast mines, nuclear power stations, underwater and in other relatively inaccessible places - not in driverless deliveries of packages to your door, as some have predicted. Not yet.

Cosmetics company Sephora is rolling out a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacon solution to provide content related to a shopper's proximity when that customer uses Sephora's app on an Apple iPhone. The beacon system is slated to be rolled out to all of the company's stores following a pilot of the solution that began in the fall at two San Francisco-area sites. The retailer has not indicated the timeline for the installation rollout. The beacons and content-management software are being provided by Gimbal.

Worldwide public Wi-Fi hotspot deployments reached a total of 5.69 million in 2014, and will grow at a CAGR of 11.2 percent between 2015 and 2020. This includes public Wi-Fi hotspots deployed by mobile and fixed-line carriers as well as third-party Wi-Fi service providers. ABI Research expects the number of worldwide carrier Wi-Fi hotspots will reach 13.3 million in 2020.

When the term "cloud" came into popularity about a decade ago, it was so vague, encompassing so many different types of services. We prefer somewhat more precise terms, such as Software-as-a-Service. However, the term cloud took on a life of its own and everyone and their brother wanted to be known as a cloud solution provider (thus stretching the definition even further).