Voxx Electronics agreed to buy all Crimestopper assets from Rockford, it said Thursday. It will add Crimestopper to its Omega Research & Development Technologies unit, which includes vehicle security and advanced driver-assistance system products. The deal is expected to close this month.
Roughly half of U.S. broadband homes are willing to adjust lights during peak energy consumption periods, but 29 percent of all households are willing to allow a utility or manufacturer to make adjustments automatically, said Parks Associates Thursday. "Consumers don't like the concept of someone else controlling their household devices, which is inhibiting wider adoption of energy programs," said analyst Elizabeth Parks. Utilities and energy providers need to build trust with customers, convincing them that time-of-use and load-control programs won’t cause them inconvenience or loss of control of their home, she said.
Customer shift to unlimited data plans in rural areas is putting additional stress on wireless networks, affecting reliability for carriers that haven’t invested in 4G LTE wireless infrastructure, said a Thursday J.D. Power report. Wireless network problems are rising for customers in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and North Central regions, but problems decreased in the Southeast, it said. Suburban customers experienced fewer problems than rural or urban users. Verizon led the major carriers with the lowest network quality problems per 100 connections (PP100), in call, messaging and data quality in each region, J.D. Power said, and it tied on data with T-Mobile in the Northeast. Overall in the Northeast, Verizon led with a score of 10 PP100, followed by T-Mobile (11), AT&T Wireless (12) and Sprint (15), a pattern similar to that of the Mid-Atlantic states. In the Southeast, Verizon led with 8, followed by AT&T and T-Mobile at 11 and Sprint at 13. U.S. Cellular finished second (10) in rankings in the North Central region behind Verizon (8) and ahead of AT&T (11), T-Mobile (12) and Sprint (15). In the Southwest, AT&T tied with T-Mobile (12), just ahead of Sprint (13). In the West, T-Mobile (11), AT&T (12) and Sprint (13) followed Verizon (10). Verizon crowed Thursday in a news release, saying results showed “we’re doing many things right.” Mike Haberman, Verizon network vice president, credited last year’s rollout of LTE Advanced technologies including carrier aggregation, 4x4 MIMO and 256 QAM in over 1,500 markets for “faster speeds, better connectivity and more bandwidth for customers.” Other carriers didn’t comment. The study, fielded July-December, was based on responses from 32,159 wireless customers.
Wurl launched AdSpring, a server-based advertising insertion technology for connected TVs that lets video producers plug in mid-roll ads on linear and on-demand programming. Connected TV gets more than half of over-the-top viewing time, and AdSpring is said to give video producers a way to fill ad inventory with targeted messaging. It’s for video producers, priced as pay-as-you-go; producers pay for ads they insert. Video producers schedule location and duration of ad breaks and personally targeted, data-measured ads are stitched into the live video stream, Wurl said. AdSpring is pre-integrated with connected TV platforms in products from Samsung, Roku, Apple TV and others.
GameStop completed the sale of Spring Mobile to Prime Communications for $700 million, excluding fees and adjustments, it said Wednesday. The company, which owns 5,800 stores in 14 countries, reports holiday quarter earnings Friday.
Chat agents for Verizon Wireless pitched the carrier’s six-month free offer for Apple Music Wednesday, after the company announced Tuesday subscribers to its Beyond Unlimited and Above Unlimited plans would get the streaming music service for free beginning Thursday. “The promotion we offer is not a free trial, you get Apple Music free for 6 months if you have an Unlimited plan,” a chat agent told us. The monthly cost went up to $9.99 monthly after six months. Tuesday, Verizon noted it had been offering six months of Apple Music free to Unlimited customers and “starting January 17, Apple Music will be included in Beyond Unlimited and Above Unlimited plans,” plus tax. Customers opting for the lowest of the three Unlimited plans -- Go Unlimited -- will still be offered the six-month free offer for Apple Music, going up to $10 monthly after the promo period. Prices for the three subscription plans start at $40 per month for Go Unlimited (480p streaming, unlimited talk and text), $50 for Beyond (720p streaming and 22 GB data) and $60 for Above (720p streaming and 75 GB data). With the added Apple Music feature, subscribers to the top two plans can download songs or access streams on iOS and Android smartphones, smartwatches, smart speakers, computers and car playback platforms, said Verizon. “In times of congestion, your data may be temporarily slower than other traffic (only after 22 GB per month on Beyond Unlimited and 75 GB per month on Above Unlimited).” A Verizon spokesman didn't comment on the disparity in messaging but said for Beyond and Above customers who are signed up for the six-month Apple Music offer, "no action is needed for the new offer."
Cleer Audio, in an expansion of its portfolio, and a relocation from the Venetian suites to the South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center, unveiled a line of headphones and smart speakers at CES. Marketing Vice President Aaron Levine called the company's repositioning an “update to the existing brand” as the company moves from being a headphone brand to a “performance audio brand” that also offers smart speakers, smart displays and virtual reality. Notable among the new products were a cylindrical Alexa-based smart speaker, the 3.1-channel Mirage (Q3, $500), with a 7.8-inch flexible wraparound AMOLED display made by Royole. The Halo wireless neck speaker ($149, June) sits on the shoulders with upfiring speakers that send music up to the ears and not outward for others to hear, Levine told us. Halo is powered by the Qualcomm CSR8675 Bluetooth audio chipset with aptX, optimized for AAC support and Google Assistant voice control. Users have to press a button to engage the Assistant, he said. Other introductions included the Edge voice-controlled wireless heart rate monitor headphone ($169), based on the Qualcomm CSR8670 chipset, with Bluetooth 4.2 audio streaming, Google Assistant and cVc noise reduction technology, said the company. It also introduced the Flow II wireless noise-canceling headphone based on the CSR8675, saying the headphones provide "near-CD quality" audio streaming and 20-hour playback.
ERI and the Broadway Green Alliance plan a free e-waste collection in New York's Times Square 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Wednesday, they said Tuesday. Among what will be accepted: cellphones, copiers, desktops and laptops, DVD players, fax machines, monitors, printers, storage media and cables.
Pandora rolled out voice control, based on SoundHound's Houndify voice and conversational artificial intelligence platform, to select iOS and Android users, it said Tuesday, with general availability “coming soon.” Voice Mode is designed to be a more natural and conversational way for listeners to discover new music and enhance their experience in the mobile app, said the company. After using a Google-esque "Hey Pandora" wake phrase, users follow with a request to change stations, control volume, skip or pause music and other basic navigation commands. The voice mode uses natural language understanding technology to respond to requests based on users’ personal tastes, not just what’s popular, Pandora said. They can make open-ended requests such as “Play something different” or “play music for relaxing,” or request a specific artist, podcast or playlist, it said.
Samsung is highlighting displays as interactive retail tools at the NRF 2019 retail expo this week in what it calls a “more efficient approach” to customer service. The company showed a “connected associate,” based on Samsung tablets and smartphones that store employees can use to deliver “the expertise of a seasoned specialist,” said the company. It demonstrated a ruggedized tablet with apps from Harman. A security demonstration combined Samsung’s Knox security platform with the BricTech app from Sennco, showing geofencing and custom triggers “bricking” stolen or misplaced devices. The system can also send alerts or sound alarms when devices are taken beyond specified perimeters, it said. The company launched at Harman’s New York store, Nexshop, a cloud-based analytics dashboard and real-time behavioral sensing technology that captures customer traffic data to target customers with content tailored to them. When a customer tries on a headset in front of a Nexshop-enabled mirror, display and camera sensor, the display launches customized content based on the customer’s demographic, said Samsung. The technology also detects customer traffic patterns through heat-map analysis and measures dwell time and footfall, allowing the store to allocate staffers based on customer behavior.