While Google has Nest Labs and Apple has HomeKit, Samsung is reportedly looking to enter the home automation space by acquiring Internet of Things company SmartThings for $200 million, according to TechCrunch.

SmartThings is a home automation platform that allows users to connect devices such as lights or doorlocks to a system controlled by their smartphone. It has previously raised over $15 million from investors.

We’re still waiting to get our first glimpse of Apple’s upcoming smartwatch, but according to a new report, Apple is planning to release not one, not two, but three different models of the iWatch this fall.

Citing supply chain sources in China, the Economic Daily claims Apple will make the iWatch available by the end of 2014 with three different sizes to choose from, but you’ll probably want the fatty 1.8-inch unit, as it will supposedly be the most durable of the bunch.

Earlier today we reported on how Apple’s new iTunes Pass feature hints at Apple’s interest in mobile payments. However, Apple’s not the only company interested in this area.

Last night, PayPal updated its iOS client with one important new feature, allowing it to support loyalty cards. That means that PayPal’s app can become your one-stop-shop for payments and checkins for some of your favorite stores, including Starbucks, CVS, and others.

When I was a kid, we used to label everything: toys, boxes, file folders. My parents used one of those manual rotary label dispensers, the kind you had to squeeze hard enough to make each individual letter poke up through the hard plastic label tape. It was a good day when my brother and I got to use the label maker to title our shelves, toys and books (“Rob’s Stuff” was a common theme).

These days, printing labels is a lot easier thanks to computers and label printers like the ones from Dymo and Brother. Typically, you’ve got to connect these to a Mac or PC, and then use special software to send labels to the label printer.

The Brother P-Touch P750W (printer makers really need to work on their model names) is a label printer that can connect to your computer via USB, sure, but also connect either to your existing Wi-Fi network or create its own Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n network to print labels from any device, including iPhones, iPads, Android devices, Windows PCs and Macs.

Yeah, I’ve already labeled some shelves around the house. Old habits, it appears, die hard.

iOS 8 is just around the corner and, if the iOS 7 figures are any indicator, it’s likely to find near-total adoption.

Apple just released the latest figures for its current-generation operating system, saying iOS 7 is running on a massive 90 percent of devices. iOS 6, meanwhile, stands at just 9 percent, while earlier versions of iOS represent a minuscule 2 percent combined. iOS 7 was launched 10 months ago in September 2013, making it the fastest-adopted mobile OS in history.

SAN FRANCISCO — The latest innovation of the so-called sharing economy seems perfect for this city’s hypercompetitive rental market, where tiny apartments go for outrageous sums and space is at a premium.

Sort of like Airbnb for storage, new startup Roost connects people who need to stow some stuff — furniture, boxes of books, whatever — with individuals with room to spare in an attic or garage.

The company was founded by Jon Gillon, who came up with the idea after his older brother moved here from Texas with a Subaru full of stuff.

“We improvised,” Gillon told Cult of Mac. “I made room in my apartment in exchange for drinks and dinner. When his place was ready we were like, ‘This is a great idea.’ The light bulb went on.”

Shazam got a cool update today.

The song-recognition app that Apple is baking into Siri in iOS 8 can now play back full tracks thanks to a partnership with Rdio. Users with the Rdio app installed will be able to listen to a whole song tagged in Shazam without having to the leave the app.

Outspoken ex-Apple executive Jean-Louis Gassée has never been afraid to speak his mind, even when contradicting the most powerful Silicon Valley executives.

But even by Gassée’s usual standard, he doesn’t have kind words for Microsoft’s new CEO Satya Nadella. Having read his recent “3,100 plodding word” essay sent out to 127,000 Microsoft employees to describe the Windows-maker’s new vision, Gassée calls Nadella a “repeat befuddler” who could learn a thing or two from Steve Jobs on how to express himself.

A new report in Pediatrics claims that an iPad was the cause of a recent itchy body rash in an 11-year-old boy recently treated at a San Diego hospital.

The reason? Like many personal electronic devices — including laptops and cellphones — iPads may contain nickel, one of the most common allergy-inducing metals.

While nickel rashes aren’t life-threatening, they can be very uncomfortable and may require treatment using steroids and antibiotics if skin eruptions become infected. Dr. Sharon Jacob, a dermatologist at Rady Children’s Hospital, who co-authored the report, said doctors traced the boy’s long-running skin to an iPad his family purchased in 2010.

Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre just made billions off Apple’s acquisition of Beats Electronics, but the company is ready to squeeze out a few billion more from a ring of Chinese knockoffs.

Legal filings from Beats claim that cheap counterfeit headphones are screwing the company out of billions of profits by using the company’s popular “b” logo to rake in an ungodly $135 billion in sales. Now the doctor wants his cut.