Target is pushing holiday season pricing on first-generation smart home devices into the new year. Friday's email blast promoted the Echo Dot for $24 (down from $39) and its rival Google Home mini for $29, from the regular $49. A Google Home mini bundle is two for $50. The original Google Home speaker is selling for $89, down from $129, and the Google Home Hub is $50 off, to $99, Target said.
Wireless charging company Ossia worries about the impact of the government shutdown and its ability to secure timely FCC approval for its RF-based technology, an executive told us at CES Thursday in Las Vegas. Ossia announced a phone sleeve at the show combining Qi and RF wireless-charging-at-a-distance technology under its Cota brand. It showed a 2.4-GHz solution and is working on a 5.6-GHz version that could charge at distances up to 30 feet, both of which are awaiting FCC approval, said Chief Technology Officer Hatem Zeine. “We are working with the FCC very closely." With the shutdown, "we’re sort of waiting for things to happen, but we anticipate that this year will be the year that the FCC starts moving stuff.” Ossia announced at CES it's working with accessory maker Spigen on a charging case, which Zeine expects to reach the market in 2020. Ripple effects from the lengthening government closure could “stymie new product launches and even foil coveted Super Bowl advertising slots” for technology companies planning to begin marketing devices that haven’t received final approval through the FCC, warned Ronald Quirk, a Marashlian & Donahue attorney, in Law 360. A key FCC database is offline as part of the shutdown, meaning certification bodies authorized to work with product developers and labs can’t extend final authorization to new electronics (see 1901110017). Quirk cited a Tuesday tweet from FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel (see 1901080023): “The agency certifies every innovative mobile phone, television, and computer that emits radio frequency before they can head to market," said Rosenworcel. "Guess what is not happening during the shutdown?” Friday, she expanded on that as she sought the shutdown's end.
ABI Research forecasts the global smartphone market will rise 4.1 percent to just under 1.6 billion shipments in 2019, with 5G and flexible displays the “catalysts” that will “galvanize” the industry and drive replacement-device growth. For 5G to become the “silver bullet” that smartphone vendors are pinning their hopes on will require that they adopt new consumer messaging strategies, it said Wednesday.
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group formed a subgroup for companies adopting Bluetooth mesh networking for smart home devices. It will create additional mesh model specifications for smart home and related applications, said Bluetooth SIG. Mesh models comprise the application layer of Bluetooth mesh networking and define the behavior of devices connected to the network, it said. Over 60 member companies are participating in the new smart home subgroup including Alibaba, GCT Semiconductor, Lierda, MediaTek, Midea Group IoT, Nordic Semiconductor, Novel Bits, S-Labs, Telink Semiconductor, Synopsys, UL Verification Services and Xiaomi, it said Tuesday.
3D, as much a buzzword at CES nearly a decade ago as artificial intelligence and 5G today, is attempting a revival by way of Philadelphia-based Stream TV Networks. The company is planning 16 million-pixel panels -- between 4K and 8K resolution. It’s looking at a North American launch under the SeeCube brand in 2020, Duncan Humphreys, head of broadcast, told us. It's banking on the library of available 3D content, and through a relationship with William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, it's looking to partner with studios and content owners to deliver media. Watching TV is a shared experience that wearing glasses interfered with, Humphreys said, saying SeeCube doesn’t involve glasses and promises a group-friendly 140-degree viewing angle. He said 3D tablets and smartphones may come next.
Xiaomi announced at CES it's developing Bluetooth smart home products incorporating Silicon Labs’ Wireless Gecko mesh networking platform. The XiaoAi smart alarm clock in the company’s Mi ecosystem serves as the gateway for a smart home to control smart Bluetooth lights via voice commands.
Smart assistant-compatible devices such as light bulbs, thermostats and door locks will grow to 1.6 billion units over the next three years, Canalys reported Monday. Improvements to usability and the arrival of less expensive devices will fuel growth, it said. Device sensors will give smart assistants new “senses” to make them aware of their environment, broadening use cases to areas including kitchen and lounges, said analyst Jason Low. The growing use of devices where the smart assistants are embedded in hardware is baked into the forecast, which predicts the installed base of such devices will pass a billion by 2022.
In its first CES appearance since its purchase by Foxconn Interconnect Technology (FIT) for $866 million in May, Belkin and its Linksys and Wemo brands announced Apple-weighted audio, USB-C, mobile power and connected home products at CES. Linksys introduced a tri-band mesh router promising speeds up to 2.2 Gbps. Parental control subscriptions are available for $5 per month beginning February, and network security subscriptions will be $2 per month when available later this year. New Wemo light switches are HomeKit-compatible and leverage Apple’s software authentication for HomeKit compatibility without the use of other hardware, it said.
Qobuz, after a soft U.S. launch at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in October, said Tuesday it’s registering initial U.S. market beta testers and accepting additional names for the waiting list. The Hi-Res streaming and download service has a track list of over 2 million titles available on Android, iOS and Mac. Pricing starts at $10 per month ($99 annually) for 320 kbps MP3-quality streaming, $20 per month ($200 annually) for 16-bit CD-quality streaming and $25 per month for unlimited Hi-Res streaming along with 40-60 percent discounts on purchases from the Hi-Res download store, it said.
NAD Electronics unveiled a BluOS-enabled amplifier, it said Monday at CES. The $2,499 streaming amplifier offers the LE version of Dirac Live Room Correction to tailor sound to a room, along with Audio Return Channel for integration in a home theater system, MQA decoding and compatibility with home control systems from Apple, Crestron, Control4, Lutron and others, it said.