This week’s Smart World Series features a smart battery’s integration with Facebook Inc.’s new Internet of Things (IoT) platform, new smart garden lights that are powered by the sun, tiny smart homes and more.

For those who missed last week’s Smart World Series, here’s a chance to catch up on the exciting developments in the connected world.  Each week, SiliconANGLE rounds up the top news trends regarding smart homes and cars, smart data centers and IT, smart infrastructure and all things related to the Internet of Things.

Smart garden lights and the latest cloud-powered smart home team up

If you’re looking to spice things up in your garden, the Playbulb garden smart lights may be for you. These solar-powered, color-changing garden lights automatically turn on when the sun sets, and turn off at sunrise.  Light colors can be controlled using a smartphone app and when fully charged, the Playbulb garden can emit light for up to 20 hours.

Also featured in this roundup is the partnership between Alarm.com and cable provider Suddenlink to offer secured smart home services and SyFy and Philips’ third partnership to bring a more immersive viewing experience.

Learn more about these products and partnerships in our Smart Living roundup.

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Human nature in a virtual world: Living with our Avatars (Part 3)

Will virtual reality make people more apathetic to the real world? If you ask research scientist Nick Yee, the answer to that question would be a big, fat no. Though virtual reality presents us with new worlds to explore, it doesn’t necessarily provide an escape from the real world. Virtual worlds instead act as another form of communication platform where people can freely express themselves and meet like minded individuals.

Read more about Lee’s views on virtual reality and how it fits in our future here.

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Health apps that assess wounds, keep travelers healthy

Fresh out of surgery and wondering if your wound is healing correctly? It’s hard to monitor wound healing when you’re not sure what signs to look for, but that’s all about to change thanks to E-Kare’s wound assessment app. The app would allow users to take 3D photos of the wound using a sensor that attaches to an iPad and the images can be sent to healthcare workers to help patients assess their wounds.

Also featured in this roundup is Reward Me, a fitness app that really rewards a user when goals are met, and My Travel Health, an app that tells you how to stay healthy when travelling to other countries.

Read more about these amazing new apps in our Smart Health roundup.

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Tiny, luxurious smart homes

Tiny homes have become popular in our post-recesion economy, and now they’re getting smart.  Tiny Heirloom Homes is delivering all the bells and whistles of a smart home, scaled down for smaller budgets. And for the new generation of telecommuting road warriors, these tiny homes can be taken just about anywhere as they’re categorized as a travel trailer, not an RV (which requires special parking permits).

Also featured in this roundup is GreenPeak Technologies’ new Passive Infra-Red sensor for smart home, open car platform Mojio raising $8M in a Series A round of funding, and Icontrol One, a solution directed at independent security dealers.

Read more about what the tiny smart home has to offer in the second installment of our Smart Living roundup.

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Roost smart battery integrates with Facebook’s Parse IoT

Smart Wi-Fi battery maker Roost has announced its pioneering integration with Facebook’s Parse IoT, choosing its as its cloud infrastructure provider not only for the smart battery but future smart home products as well. Also featured in this roundup is SmartBear Software’s acquisition of Swagger API and Azul Systems’ new OpenJDK-based Java platform Zulu Embedded.

Read more about these announcements in our Smart DevOps roundup.

Tune in next week for more interesting stories, discoveries and innovations in the world of smart and connected things.

Image via Tiny Heirloom Homes