Denon launched two hi-fi components -- an integrated amplifier and a CD player -- that will be in stores next month. The 70-watt-per-channel PMA-600NE integrated amp ($399) has a user-selectable analog mode that can disable digital and Bluetooth inputs to avoid high-frequency interference from digital sources, it said. The DCD-600NE CD Player ($299) supports CD, CD-R/RW, MP3 and WMA formats, it said.
Nearly eight in 10 U.S. consumers plan to use 5G as the springboard to expand their video-streaming activity, IHS Markit found. IHS canvassed 2,030 consumers late May on which types of activities they’re likely to increase with the arrival of 5G, and most ranked video streaming first, ahead of video calling, social media, mobile gaming, virtual reality and augmented reality. “The promise of faster video streaming through 5G is generating enormous enthusiasm,” it said. “Interest is particularly high for those younger than 50, with 81 percent of survey respondents in that age range citing video streaming as the top activity for 5G.”
Bose introduced a portable Bluetooth smart speaker with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant built in. AirPlay 2 lets Apple customers play music directly from an iPhone; Spotify Connect enables direct listening via the Spotify app, it said Thursday.
Stepping down as HP president-CEO “to tend to a family health matter” (see personals section of this issue) was a decision Dion Weisler made “following a great deal of reflection” and was “among the hardest choices I’ve ever had to make,” said Weisler in opening HP's fiscal Q3 call Thursday. “There is nothing more important to me than my family.” Serving as HP’s first CEO after the 2015 separation from HP Enterprise “has been the honor of my career,” he said. The HP board “has had a rigorous succession-planning process since day one of our company," he said. The process. he said, "led the board to exactly the right leader” in Enrique Lores, president of HP’s imaging and printing business, who becomes CEO in November. The stock trended 6.2 percent lower after hours Thursday at $17.75.
Consumers should have the freedom to buy spare parts and “choose who performs repairs” when their devices fail, commented Californian Gary Linsky in the FTC’s Nixing the Fix proceeding, posted Monday in docket FTC-2019-0013. The agency is probing whether manufacturers’ third-party repair restrictions undercut the consumer protections in the 1975 Moss-Magnuson Warranty Act (see 1903130060). It’s accepting comments in the docket through Sept. 16. Right to repair is “good policy” for “keeping prices competitive and reducing waste,” said Linsky. As a former consumer electronics retailer, “I have seen countless examples of devices and equipment worth hundreds of dollars scrapped due to hindered access to repairs,” that easily could have been fixed “with a part that costs a few dollars at most,” he said. “Consumers think little about these impediments” when buying a device “but feel stuck when faced with a need for repair,” he said. “Without the access to parts and outside repairers the manufacturers are in effect leasing you the product until a fault occurs, at which time, by controlling repair access and price, they economically prematurely obsolete your device.” Most retailers have phased out repairs, and the “major national chains” tell their customers to fend for themselves with the manufacturer, said Linsky.
Apple announced availability of its virtual credit card Tuesday. The virtual card, which has no annual or late fees, is stored in the Wallet app on an iPhone; a "titanium" hard version with a chip can be used at locations that don't have Apple Pay, but it doesn't have identifying information. Users who want to use Apple Card to buy an item online will find their card number, PIN and expiration date in the Wallet app on their phone. Because of the security and privacy architecture created for its credit card, Apple “does not know where a customer shopped, what they bought or how much they paid,” said the company, which is using Goldman Sachs as its issuing bank and Mastercard for its global payments network. Owners of iPhone 6 and later phones can apply for the card via the Wallet app. Users can reach customer support 24/7, said Apple, which uses machine learning and Apple Maps to tag transactions to merchant names and locations in Wallet.
Hardware could play a pivotal role in streaming music’s next phase of growth, blogged Futuresource Tuesday. With music streaming reaching mass adoption in numerous markets, its next frontier is to win over radio and casual listeners who have been slower to convert to streaming due to price, convenience and awareness, said analyst Alexandre Jornod. To awaken the “massive passive” market segment, a “seamless device” that replicates the accessibility and simplicity of radio will be an important part of the transition, Jornod said. Older consumers tend to own a smart speaker before a streaming subscription, he said, which highlights smart speakers as “a key driver of streaming subscriptions, especially in age groups with traditionally slower music streaming adoption.” That means Spotify, recently surpassed in listeners in the U.S. market by Apple, will continue to have to rely on partnerships with smart speaker makers to grow its listener base vs. competitors Amazon and Google, which add free versions of their music services to their Echo and Google Home smart speakers, said the analyst. Although Apple has HomePod, it has grown its streaming music business by making Apple Music the default streaming app on the iPhone: in the four markets where Apple Music is estimated to have over 3 million subscribers -- the U.S., U.K., Canada and Japan -- Apple has at least 30 percent of the smartphone market, Jornod noted. An estimated 50 million Echo speakers are in use, and a recent Futuresource survey indicated Echo owners are three times more likely to subscribe to Amazon Music Unlimited than other respondents: music is a core smart speaker activity and Amazon is able to upsell users directly on the device. Google, meanwhile, has been leveraging its Google Home devices and Pixel phones to snare YouTube Music subscribers by offering six free months of the service.
Amazon’s Ring home security company joined the Z-Wave Alliance as a principal member and will take a board seat, said the association Tuesday. Ring President Mike Harris cited the alliance’s work toward interoperability, security and simplicity in the smart home and said the company will work with active alliance members and the board on new ways to make smart home security more accessible to a broader consumer base. Ring’s Alarm Security Kit -- with a base station, contact sensor, motion detector, keypad and range extender -- comprise the first product set to support SmartStart (see 1709270006), a feature designed to simplify setup that’s required for devices built on the new Z-Wave 700 platform. The alliance also announced a change to certification for the next generation of Z-Wave IoT devices, saying Z-Wave Plus v2 certification includes new features designed to improve the smart home setup experience. Other alliance board members include ADT, Alarm.com, Silicon Labs and SmartThings.
ScoreStream, a crowdsourcing platform for local sports coverage, is teaming with Amazon to bring “hyper-local” high school football scores from thousands of games across the country to Alexa users in “real time,” starting this fall, said the companies Friday. Users need only speak the names of their favorite teams for Alexa to deliver updates on various local games in their area, they said.