After the earth-shaking competition on Sunday 2/13, we have a winner: Amazon’s “Alexa Reads Your Mind,” starring Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost. It balances nostalgic sitcom couple’s humor and the terrifying technology used by our future robot overlords who rule us completely yet deliver packages in four hours. Lucky you, there’s no wait for today’s Go Rams! newsbits.

The Financial Times takes a detailed look at SoftBank’s attempt to dominate the world of IoT device chips by spending $31 billion on designer Arm, and the breakdown in the talks to sell Arm to NVIDIA.

Smart city projects remain under scrutiny to provide protections for privacy and managing the mountains of data they collect.

Yet we need smarter cities, and Rogers in Canada continues to pilot projects ranging from water leak detection to transit fleet management.

Smart cities get smarter bit by bit, such as the ioXt Alliance working to better coordinate vendors with its new Network Lighting Controls certification.

Community College of Allegheny County (Pittsburgh) is upgrading buildings across its four campuses with IoT tools for COVID-19 mitigation. Techniques include monitoring gatherings of people, improved air ventilation, and tracking sanitation progress.

Turkey’s first smart industrial zone will pilot gas usage monitoring with IoT, all connected via LoRaWAN across the 32 kilometer area.

Apple’s AirTag put asset tracking in the hands of consumers, and not surprisingly, some of them used the technology in improper ways. Changes include new privacy warnings during AirTag setup, and some warnings from tags about unwanted tracking.

The Journal of Petroleum Technology continues to address oil field IoT security issues.

Industrial pollution control company Anguil has developed an approach using the Industrial IoT (IIoT) to help companies make more while polluting less.

NIST published its “Recommended Criteria for Cybersecurity Labeling for Consumer Internet of Things (IoT) Products,” which suggests a “robust consumer education campaign” to spread the word. Good luck with that.

oT patent filings and grants dropped last year, but experts blame continuing COVID business upheaval more than the idea that “everything that can be invented has been invented.” The downward trend covers industries from power to mining, airport, automotive, and railroads.

Why in the world is Screen Rant running this week’s IoT 101? Startup.info’s “Is the Internet of Things Real?” has a similar vibe, but offers a more complete overview.

The good folks at RIoT in Raleigh, N.C., picked the next startup class in the RIoT Accelerator Program (RAP). Participants range from healthcare to hyper-local car rental agencies.

FreightWaves discusses how IoT is reworking the supply chain with tools like the Neurons for IIoT system from Ivanti.

From our friends at Hackster.io:

Consumer wearables are within the reach of most DIYers, says Hackster.io, and this “MutantW is an ESP32-Powered Open Source Smartwatch,” can be yours for a few hours and access to a 3D printer.