FotoNation's portrait enhancement technology is included in the DJI Osmo Pocket handheld camera gimbal announced Thursday, said FotoNation parent Xperi. The portrait enhancement technology is said to provide realistic skin textures and consistent preview and capture for smooth editing. DJI is taking preorders for the 4-inch-tall Osmo Pocket ($349), which takes 12-megapixel images and 4K video and is due in stores mid-December.
Thanksgiving was the most mobile of the high-profile shopping days over the past week, blogged comScore Thursday. Mobile shopping’s share of total digital commerce reached 40 percent on Thanksgiving, continuing a trend from last year, wrote analyst Ian Essling, while in-store traffic on Thanksgiving and Black Friday was down slightly from last year. Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday all posted 28 percent or higher digital commerce spending vs. 2017, Essling said. Total digital commerce spending grew 38 percent on Thanksgiving to $3.4 billion, 36 percent on Black Friday to $4.8 billion and 28 percent on Cyber Monday to $6 billion. Eighty-one percent of all transactions during the week, and 90 percent of those from computers, had free shipping. Consumers visited more retail sites sooner and spent at a faster rate than in previous years, said the analyst. Total e-commerce visits grew 15 percent on Thanksgiving, 13 percent on Black Friday and 11 percent on Cyber Monday. A Monday survey showed 18 percent of online buyers bought an item from Amazon’s “Black Friday Deals Week” that they had originally intended to make later, which Essling said illustrated the power of early promotions.
Fifty-seven percent of smart thermostats were self-installed last year due to growing interest and easier installation methods, and 16 percent were purchased from an HVAC dealer as part of a new system, Parks Associates blogged Wednesday. Four percent of smart thermostat buyers were buying their second.
Machine learning startup Phiar got a $3 million seed funding round to develop a computer vision and deep learning navigation app for smartphones, with a 2019 launch date. It displays a driver’s real-world surroundings augmented with a colored path, said the company. Augmented reality overlays, based on computer vision and deep-learning artificial intelligence, can boost surroundings rather than distract users.
Qobuz, still beta testing after hoping for an October U.S. debut (see 1810090025), announced pricing Wednesday for its Hi-Res music streaming service but no launch details. “Drop dead” launch date is at CES in January, David Solomon, chief hi-res music evangelist, emailed us earlier this month, saying the delay is “only engineering.” Tiers are $299 per year ($25 monthly) for Sublime+, the full Hi-Res unlimited streaming plan with quality up to 24-bit/192-kHz audio and 40-60 percent discounts on download purchases from the Qobuz store; $199 per year ($20 monthly) for the Hi-Fi offering streaming at 16-bit CD quality; and $99 annually ($10 monthly) for 320 kbps MP3-quality streaming. Qobuz opened its U.S. headquarters in New York and has secured exclusive editorial content and hard-to-find jazz and classical tracks for its catalog, it said. On whether there’s a chance the 11-year-old French streaming audio company with presence in 11 European countries won’t launch in the U.S., Solomon said those chances are “small," and that "it’s looking good.”
Energous announced a receiver chip Tuesday targeted to earbuds, hearing aids and wearables. The DA2223, a four-port RF-to-DC wireless power chip, can be delivered in a single integrated circuit coupled with a matching circuit made from two discrete components and a 2mm x 3mm antenna, making it applicable for small electronic devices "where a coil-based wireless charging system is not practical,” said the company. The chip is produced by Dialog Semiconductor, which has a stake in the wireless charging company.
Social media analytics company Talkwalker said Cyber Monday was promoted in the U.S. by more than 1.1 million social media mentions in the past 30 days, with 430,000 coming within a 24-runup to the online shopping day itself. Though it’s a U.S. event, the hashtag #CyberMonday was mentioned “hundreds of thousands” of times in Europe, it said. Amazon led in mentions with more than 90,000, followed by Walmart (20,000), Samsung (14,000), Xbox one (12,000 plus), Google (over 12,000), Nintendo Switch (8,000), plus Sony, new Cyber Monday entrant Alibaba, Android and PlayStation 4, each with over 7,000, it said. It seemed everyone wanted in on the traffic the buying day would bring in. In addition to the usual retail suspects promoting their goods, our Twitter search uncovered a Realtor’s “secret” home in the Dallas area for a CyberMonday price of $799,000 and a #riseupretail post demanding better wages from Walmart for those who make Cyber Monday happen and another post protesting Amazon's impending move to New York City that "will displace existing residents." Internet guardians also used the #Cyber Monday hashtag to warn about safe shopping. The FBI tweeted: "Beware of #CyberMonday scams. If a deal looks too good to be true, it probably is." It told users to report "internet crime & #fraud schemes" to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center. The Digital Citizen Academy tweeted tips for safe Cyber Monday Shopping: shop from a secure computer; shop using a secure connection; use trusted vendors; review credit card and bank statements regularly during the shopping season; and use unique passwords and logon information for every site visited. In 2017, 14 percent of all complaints to the FTC involved identity theft, it said.
CE makers not known for competitive discounting showed up on Black Friday, hoping to win consumer dollars on the biggest tech discount day of the year. Sonos took $25 off its latest speaker, the Alexa-enabled Sonos One, a price matched at Best Buy. Sonos also skimmed $50 off the popular Beam sound bar launched last summer to bring it to $350. It lopped $100 of the Connect Amp, soon to be replaced in the line, and $100 off its Sub wireless subwoofer. Bose trumpeted savings of up to 50 percent on its website for limited quantities of select items, including $50 off the SoundSport in-ear headphones (to $50) for Apple devices, $50 off the QuietComfort 35 wireless headphones to $350 and $50 off the Solo 5 TV sound system to $200. Apple, which in the past has limited promotions to Black Friday only, stretched this year’s offers through Monday. It’s giving away a $50 Apple Store gift card with the purchase of select SIM-free iPhones, a $100 store card with certain iPads, a $200 card with an iMac buy, and $50 with the purchase of an Apple Watch, HomePod or select Beats headphones. Buying an Apple TV nets shoppers a $25 Apple Store card, said the website.
Cheap TVs were all around at Manhattan's Best Buy Union Square location Black Friday when a Sharp 55-inch doorbuster TV went on sale for $249 ($200 off), we found in an 8 a.m. store visit. Sympathetic Best Buy staff let in the dozen hardy shoppers, who braved temperatures in the teens, some 15 minutes early to stake a claim to the limited-stock Sharp 4K Roku TV with HDR. We asked the Best Buy staffer tasked with exchanging doorbuster tickets for the Sharp TVs how many remained at 8:12 a.m., and he started to pull out a ticket for us, saying, “They’ll be gone soon.” The store had about 20 in stock for the 8 a.m. promo, he said, and we were surprised a few remained nearly half an hour later. Though the store had a low-key buzz with consumers jacked by steep discounts, it lacked the frenzy of Black Fridays we’ve experienced in the past. TVs were stacked in rows throughout the store for easy pickup, and we were stunned by the number of 55-inch TVs selling for under $400, 40- and 50-inch TVs priced under $300 and 32-inch TVs available for under $100. Boxed grab-and-go TVs were lined up throughout the store, positioned as if someone buying a Google Home speaker or a laptop might toss in a 43-inch TV as an impulse buy.
Centralite's 3 Series Micro motion sensor ($35) and Micro door sensor ($30) were certified to work with Amazon's Echo Plus voice assistant, it said Wednesday. Amazon recently added support for motion and door sensors to the Zigbee-based Echo Plus, so no third-party hub is required to integrate the sensors in a smart home system, Centralite said. In an August blog post, Brian Crum, senior product manager-Amazon Alexa, said customers can view connected sensors in the Alexa app, query their status and use them to activate routines involving other smart home devices. For example, a motion sensor would turn on lights in a room and then shut them off 30 minutes later if no motion is detected, wrote Crum, or a motion sensor inside a Wi-Fi camera could turn on a light and send a notification to a smartphone. Centralite plans to include Alexa and Echo Plus integration and support in its product road map, said CEO Sean Bryant, saying the long-time white-label smart home device maker hopes to build its consumer brand via Alexa voice control.