This week, the announcements came thick and fast from Google and Amazon. Google Clips and a talking fish that can connect to Alexa make headlines, Snap is launching an augmented reality art platform, and at IBM we've been busy at the Genius of Things event in Boston. Read on for the latest news from the connected world. At a conference in San Francisco yesterday, Google let loose a flurry of announcements covering everything from smart, wearable cameras to new phones. Of the smart devices, first up is the Google Mini – it's got all the know-how of the Google Home, but crammed into much smaller packaging.

Welcome to the weekly IoT round-up! This week, we get a sneak peek at the new Star Wars VR experience (coming soon to Disney Parks), and there's good news for autonomous vehicles as California DMV rules to allow testing of driverless vehicles. IBM's thought leadership program'Science and Star Wars' explores how close real world science has come to Star Wars tech. Last week, it was time for droids to have a moment in the spotlight. In Episode 2: Droids, we met R2 Builders Club members Mike Senna and Michael McMaster, who introduced us to their very own R3-A3 droid, built with a Raspberry Pi and imbued with a personality courtesy of IBM Watson.

This week, the connected world brings artificial intelligence and augmented reality to medicine, robots have a go at music making and Matternet's autonomous drones ditch their human minders and successfully refuel themselves. Autonomous drone delivery service Matternet has developed an automated base station where drones can refuel and swap payloads by themselves. There's no human involvement at all – instead, packages ready for pick-up carry a QR code detailing their destinations, and are collected from a drawer on the Matternet Station by the drones. The startup has been transporting blood and pathology samples to labs in an effort to start commercializing its technology. Computer-assisted surgery has a new player in town: an augmented reality headset specifically designed for surgeons performing spinal surgery.

It's all about Apple this week, as the unveiling of the iPhone X and Apple Watch 3 are greeted with mixed reactions. In other news, we've been putting in a showing at Frankfurt's international motor show (IAA), where autonomous tech and cars that combine transport, PA capabilities, entertainment systems and retail hubs in one are all the rage. Read on for the latest from the world of connected things. Tuesday saw the advent of the Apple Watch 3, which will be available from 15th September. The new smart watch has cellular and GPS capabilities, so you can leave your phone at home and still receive calls and messages.

Welcome to the IoT weekly round-up – your link to the latest from the connected world. This week, customers in Canada and the U.S. can use Google Home to make phone calls, Microsoft's been testing autonomous gliders, and machine learning could help unearth new species of plant life from among centuries of unclassified data. Google has got its hands on AIMatter – a startup that has created a neural network AI platform to see and process images, which it then uses to run programs. The Belarus company has also built an app for photo and video editing, so that users can apply masks, backgrounds, colour-swaps and other creative wizardry to their photos. Early information about the deal suggests that most of AIMatter's employees will move over to Google, though it's not clear whether that will mean they have to relocate.

This week, we're patting ourselves on the back as the Watson IoT blog pockets Platinum and Gold dotCOMM awards. We swiped Platinum and Gold dotCOMM awards last week from the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals, and are rather proud of ourselves, thank you very much. Without wanting to toot our own horn too much, we can tell you that IBM has some pretty impressive numbers to offer this week where AI training methods are concerned. What this means in practical terms is that IBM is working towards breaking down deep learning problems into bitesize chunks – in order to achieve faster model training for customers.

This week sees the end of giant tech show CES 2017 and the beginning of NAIAS – the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. The connected world is full of news about AI, robots and smart vehicles (including sensor-studded skateboards). The world's biggest technology show came to an end on Sunday, after five days of exhibitions, mind-blowing new technology, keynotes from industry leaders and much more. More than 3,800 companies exhibited their latest innovations to around 165,000 attendees from all over the world, including some of IBM's IoT team. As one conference ends, another begins.