Superstitious? Big fan of omens? Love messages sent by the universe? Can’t wait for the ancient prophecies to come true? Maybe this week is what you’ve been waiting for, since the five major planets have lined up for the first time since 2004. Grab your binoculars and ponder if this predicts the apocalypse or lower gas prices.

AWS fans should be excited now that AWS IoT ExpressLink is now generally available. Darn near plug-and-play devices to the cloud.

Microsoft’s IoT certification efforts, like the Edge Secured-core designation for the Azure Certified Device program, is attracting major players like ASUS, Lenovo, and Intel.

MachineQ, a Comcast company, released MQflex, a multi-sensor device certified for LoRaWAN networks. The modular design supports a wide range of sensors.

Lexmark reports IoT use in printers resulted in a 30% reduction in support truck rolls, a significant improvement. Organized into the Optra IoT platform, Lexmark’s expanding IoT into non-printer devices now.

Parks Associates dives into the growing demand for better and smarter security for the connected home, which is growing because 79% of consumers are concerned about data privacy and security. But wait, there’s more! Those home devices might connect through a hybrid edge-cloud architecture.

The LoRa Alliance says it leads global, at-scale LPWAN network deployments no matter how you measure them.

Another data point for LoRaWAN? Abeeway and Murata just released a new geolocation module, with innards from Semtech and STMicroelectronics.

PYMNTS.com looks at IoT in cars, including BlackBerry’s new IVY intelligent vehicle data platform partnering with Amazon Web Services (AWS). BlackBerry’s QNX software is already used in 24 of 25 electric vehicles.

Another look at IoT in the automotive industry, this time from Financial Express.

Forbes predicts the next big trends in Home IoT, including smarter security, robots, and IoT in furniture. Finally, smart recliners!

Johnson Controls bought Tempered Networks and teamed up with Accenture to address new ways to make buildings smarter securely.

No Jitter believes tying IoT into unified communications will help companies in a variety of ways.

Flat-rate connectivity network provider 1NCE now connects devices in 140 countries.

Federal News Network catalogs some of the ways the government is using IoT, from health care to disaster support.

RFID Journal gives us this week’s IoT 101 roundup.

Global asset tracking devices are getting smaller, with the new U-blox GNSS module, the MIA-M10, checking in at 4.5 x 4.5 mm.

What do you do with data from IoT devices? Get AI involved, to learn, predict, and improve performance.

One device that might help AI integration is the new line of SolidRun’s system-on-module products based on the RZ/G2 family of SOCs from Renesas.

From our friends at Hackster.io:

Hate litter? Trash on the side of the road aggravate you? Then this Litter stamp with a Blues Notecard and Edge Impulse should turn that frown upside down.