Rakuten OverDrive’s Libby reading app is now compatible with Apple CarPlay, said the company Tuesday. The Libby app lets users with a library card listen to audiobooks for free. Once an audiobook is borrowed and on Libby’s shelf, users can access and control the title through CarPlay for play through the vehicle's speakers. The app is also available for Android Auto.
U.S. consumer tech retail revenue is expected to reach $401 billion this year, said CTA Monday in an upgrade of its January forecast. CTA announced at CES it expected 2019 industry sales to top $398 million. The new forecast downgrades TV industry sales, and smart-speaker adoption is expected to slow. “Growing popularity” of streaming services, plus artificial intelligence-enabled “emerging devices” and connected car technology will be 2019's leading growth drivers, said CTA. “Enthusiasm for AI-powered technologies is skyrocketing,” said President Gary Shapiro. The cloud of “unnecessary tariffs ... threatens to slow down our nation's economic momentum," said Shapiro. CTA expects 2019 sales of Wi-Fi cameras, smart thermostats, smart smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, smart locks and doorbells and smart switches, dimmers and outlets to reach 28.6 million units, up 19 percent, and $4.5 billion, up 16 percent.
Online tech spending grew 10 percent year on year in the 12 months through March 31, NPD reported Friday. "While consumers are increasingly shopping online, consumers aged 18-34, 35-54, and 55+ are prioritizing their spend across major technology categories differently." Those 18-34 are willing to pay top dollar for notebook PCs and headphones but lower prices for LCD TVs. “Despite these pricing disparities all consumers, especially younger ones, are shopping online for value," said analyst Stephen Baker. "We’re seeing that traditional retailers have been able to apply successful in-store models to their online presence to compete effectively in product and price with online retailers.”
TCL Communication announced the Alcatel Go Flip V flip phone Thursday. Features include a tactile keypad, HD Voice and Wi-Fi Calling and a secondary preview display to view calls without having to open the phone. Accessibility features include real time text, text telephone, and M4/T4 hearing aid compatibility, it said. The $99 flip phone, with a 2.8-inch display, is available at Verizon for $4.16 over 24 months, said the carrier.
The FTC’s “Nixing the Fix” half-day workshop July 16 about manufacturer restrictions on third-party repairs of consumer products will feature three panels heavily stacked with right-to-repair advocates, but no individual tech companies, according to a final agenda released at the agency Tuesday. Walter Alcorn, CTA vice president-environmental affairs and industry sustainability, will appear on a panel on the impact of self-repair restrictions on consumers and small businesses. CTA, along with other tech groups, has lobbied for years against state right-to-repair laws, saying they wrongly impose government regulation on the relationship between OEMs and equipment repair facilities (see 1704090001). Alcorn will share the panel with Vibrant Technologies CEO Jennifer Larson, whose firm refurbishes and resells used information technology equipment. Larson is a supporter of right-to-repair legislation in her native Minnesota because she argues the large tech firms are trying to put organizations like hers out of business through measures that include limiting free-market access to replacement parts. Another panelist, Theresa McDonough, who owns Tech Medic, an independent repair shop in Middlebury, Vermont, argued on a Vermont Public Radio podcast last year that all the big tech companies are “guilty” of building planned obsolescence and limited repairability into their products, making it difficult for operations like hers to survive. "The older-generation iPads, if you needed a new charging port, they had a pop connector, you could easily change them out,” she said. “But with some of the newer generations, they solder them in. I get that there are some technological advances that require soldering, but things like charging ports don’t need the micro-soldering.” Apple didn’t comment Wednesday. Other workshop panels will feature state legislators who have sponsored or backed right-to-repair bills, plus the Repair Association advocacy group and iFixit, one of its key board members. The FTC has said the workshop will examine whether manufacturer repair restrictions can undercut consumer protections in the 1975 Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, which it’s charged with enforcing. The commission will accept written comments through Sept. 16 in the Nixing the Fix docket but has been silent on what actions it might take on the public input it receives.
Nokia added the Beacon 1 ($129) to its network lineup to improve the Wi-Fi experience in homes with multiple connected devices, high-bandwidth use, interference from neighbors’ Wi-Fi or Bluetooth devices or dead zones due to building materials. Bridge mode connects a beacon to an existing gateway with routing functionality, it said Tuesday.
The one-time feud between Amazon and Google (see 1712280031) seems like distant history as the two tech giants have loosened restrictions preventing co-mingling of their hardware, software and platforms. Amazon.com is selling Google Chromecast devices -- which compete directly with its Fire TV sticks -- and as of Tuesday, Amazon Prime Video content can be viewed on Google’s Chromecast and Android TV devices, and the YouTube app is available on Fire TV, Google blogged. Amazon’s Prime members will have unlimited access to Amazon Originals and films on Google devices, while Google’s YouTube app will be available on “select” Amazon Fire TV devices: second-gen and 4K Fire TV Sticks, Fire TV Cube, Fire TV basic and Toshiba, Insignia, Element and Westinghouse Fire TV Edition smart TVs. Chromecast and Chromecast built-in users, with access to over 2,000 apps for content and games, can now cast content directly from their phone’s Prime Video app to a TV, said Google. Chromecast Ultra users will get access to 4,000 titles included with Prime at no additional cost, it said. Users will need the latest Prime Video app and Android 5.0 or higher or iOS 10.1 or higher on their phone or tablet to receive the update. In addition to the select Android TV devices that currently have Prime Video, “many more” Android TVs, set-top boxes and streaming devices will soon have the streaming service, it said.
Home energy monitoring company Sense tapped into Amazon Prime Day awareness to warn consumers how vampire power can lead to expensive utility bills. CE and other “always on” devices make up 23 percent of power consumption in the average U.S. household, costing residents an average $335 per year, it said, and about 10 percent pay more than $1,000 annually "to keep their gadgets on all the time.” Entertainment centers and audio systems are some of the biggest energy hogs, using $25-$60 a year in "vampire power," even when off, it said. Plasma TVs and amplifiers are the biggest culprits -- consuming five to 10 times as much -- or up to $350 a year, while a DVR can cost $30 a year in utility costs in standby mode. “An Alexa here, a camera there, a couple laptops charging adds up," said Sense, saying homes with 15 or more devices can spend $585 annually on vampire power. For Prime Day, the company recommended shopping for Energy Star-certified products and putting entertainment systems on smart strips that can be scheduled to power down when not in use.
Home energy monitoring company Sense warned consumers how vampire power can lead to expensive utility bills. Consumer electronics and other “always on” devices make up 23 percent of power consumption in the average U.S. household, costing residents an average $335 per year, it said, and about 10 percent pay more than $1,000 annually "to keep their gadgets on all the time.” Entertainment centers and audio systems are some of the biggest energy hogs, using $25-$60 a year in "vampire power," even when off, it said. “An Alexa here, a camera there, a couple laptops charging adds up,” said Sense, saying homes with 15 or more devices can spend $585 annually on vampire power.
The smart speaker market in Europe grew 23.9 percent in Q1, led by Google Home devices, which had 45.1 percent of shipments vs. 41.8 percent for Amazon Echo, said IDC Tuesday. Google continues to expand to new countries and support new native languages at a faster rate than Amazon, said analyst Antonio Arantes, noting Google Assistant was embedded in 49.2 percent of all smart speakers sold in Europe in the quarter. Amazon faced supply issues, with the Echo Dot out of stock in some countries for several weeks, he said. Some 21.3 million smart speakers shipped in Europe in the quarter; Western Europe had 88.3 percent share of shipments.