Worried about what your dog is chewing on when you're at work, or whether your home is secure while on vacation? New apps can transform old smartphones into remote security cameras for home monitoring systems.

Presence, which was launched late last month, converts a spare Internet-connected iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch into a free video camera with real-time video and audio streaming, and motion detection and notifications.

Deutsche Telekom says it will announce more partners for its Global M2M Association (GMA) with France Telecom and TeliaSonera in the next two or three months.

Speaking to M2M Zone on the sidelines of last week’s M2M World Congress in London, Jurgen Hase, the head of Deutsche Telekom’s M2M Competence Center, said the new partners would help to expand the GMA’s footprint.

“We will announce some new partners from Europe in the next two or three months,” he said.

AT&T has launched a home security and monitoring service in 15 US markets, as it ramps up efforts to generate revenues from non-traditional sources.

The operator – which runs the second-biggest mobile-phone network in the US, after Verizon Wireless (New York City, NY, USA) – ultimately aims to generate $1 billion in annual revenues from the service, according to Reuters.

The operator reported first-quarter revenues of $31.4 billion.

Tired of checking the washing machine to see if a cycle has completed, or worrying that the lights were left on at home? Apps are increasingly helping people monitor and control objects remotely on their mobile devices.

From Internet-connected washing machines and smart refrigerators to bathroom scales, gadgets that connect to the Internet are on the rise in homes, and apps are the means to monitor and control them.

Demand for home energy management (HEM) services remains tepid, according to Pike Research, which expects the number of subscribers to HEM services in North America to reach nearly 900,000 by 2020.

HEM services are intended to help consumers lower or more efficiently control energy consumption – and thereby save money – and broadband service providers have increasingly been looking to add them to their home automation or home security packages.

Refrigerators are getting smart. A new model released earlier this month runs apps to help users browse recipes, create shopping lists and manage the expiration dates of items like yogurt and milk.

The T9000 refrigerator by electronics company Samsung (Seoul, South Korea) has a 10-inch Wi-Fi-enabled touchscreen and includes apps such as Epicurious for recipes and Evernote for note-taking.

Cisco Systems Inc is selling its home networking business to Belkin, the networking giant's latest move to exit the consumer business.

The companies did not disclose the financial terms of the deal, which Belkin (Playa Vista, USA) said on Thursday is expected to close in March.

With the sale, Cisco (San Jose, USA) sheds one of the last remaining pieces of its consumer business, following the shutdown of the Flip video camera business in 2011.

Earlier this month, Cisco said it would shutter its Umi online video-conferencing service.