Sony’s Android TVs are the first to offer expanded smart capabilities with Alexa through Amazon’s Alexa Music, Cameras and TV Control app, Sony said Wednesday. The app is installable from the Sony Select row on the TVs’ home screen, enabling users to view live video from compatible smart home cameras, including Ring and Wyze, Sony said. TV owners can use the app to voice-control music through Amazon Music, Pandora and, soon, Spotify, on the TVs. The app works with Sony’s Android TV skill for Alexa, allowing customers to use a paired Echo device to control movie and TV show playback from Prime Video and other apps installed on the TV. Customers can use Alexa to turn the TV on and off and change channels, among other functions, it said. The new app is compatible with select Sony Android TVs from 2016-2018 and all 2019 models, it said.
Lacking consumer awareness and “low perceived product value remain significant problems for the smart home industry,” blogged Parks Associates analyst Patrice Samuels Tuesday. Limited information about smart home products led to “purchase avoidance,” Samuels said, saying builder and multi-dwelling unit channels could expose benefits of the technologies to consumers through installations in model homes and apartments. A fourth of U.S. broadband households believe a “move-in-ready house” would include smart home devices, said Parks, and among MDU residents, 19 percent see them as an “important consideration.” Among consumers who don't own or intend to buy smart home devices, 54 percent don’t perceive that the devices will benefit their lives, Parks said. Nearly a quarter of broadband homes own at least one smart home device.
Yamaha announced home-theater-in-a-box systems built for 5.1-channel surround sound and Bluetooth streaming Tuesday. The YHT-4950U ($499) and YHT-5950U ($599), packaged around Yamaha receivers that can be purchased separately, are due in stores in July, and include five speakers and a powered subwoofer. The YHT-5950U integrates Yamaha’s MusicCast technology, which delivers music-streaming services over Wi-Fi to the system and to other MusicCast speakers in a home. The step-up model also supports Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri voice control; Alexa and Google control require Echo and Google Home smart speakers.
Sprint’s third 5G device, the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G, went on sale in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston and Kansas City and will be available in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix and Washington, D.C., in the coming weeks, said the carrier. Separately Friday, a court heard preliminary information about states seeking to block the carrier being bought by T-Mobile (see 1906210033).
ON Semiconductor completed its Quantenna Communications cash buy with an equity value of $1.07 billion, it said Wednesday. Quantenna’s Wi-Fi technologies and ON's power and analog semiconductors creates "a formidable platform" for connectivity in industrial, automotive and carrier markets, said ON Semiconductor CEO Keith Jackson. ON announced the plan to buy Quantenna in March (see 1903280049) and antitrust authorities cleared the acquisition in April (see 1904230053). Quantenna will be integrated into ON's analog solutions group, headed by general manager Vince Hopkin.
A new feature for Comcast cable customers allows eye control via the X1 remote, said the company Monday. That lets people with physical disabilities control basic TV functions with eye gazes. "Changing the channel on a TV is something most of us take for granted but until now, it was a near-impossible task for millions,” said Tom Wlodkowski, vice president-accessibility. X1 eye control is free and uses a web page remote control available to subscribers with login credentials. The feature works with existing eye gaze hardware and software, sip-and-puff switches and other assistive technologies, it said. To make eye control work, customers go to xfin.tv/access and use their credentials to pair the web-based remote with their set-top-box. After that, each time the customer gazes at a button, the web-based remote sends the corresponding command to the television, it said. Control examples include changing channels, launching the guide, searching for content, and setting a recording. Viewers can use a gaze to type out voice commands such as “watch NBC” or “action movies” via the X1, it said.
Smart security solutions will drive automation revenue totaling more than $57 million by 2024, up from $18 million this year, reported Juniper Research Tuesday. The “do-it-for-me” model -- based on vendors and integration specialists offering advice, installation, maintenance and cloud storage for monthly or annual subscriptions -- is gaining ground, said the research firm. Hive, Vivint Smart Home and TP-Link are among the industry players it cited offering subscription packages, broadening the smart home value proposition with extra cloud storage, devices or superior video quality. Insurers, utilities, mobile network operators and e-commerce vendors will look to carve out a spot in the smart home market by capitalizing on existing customer relationships where they have trusted brand names and established billing structures, but they will have to partner with smart home providers to make that business model viable, it said. The smart home is also attracting blockchain vendors who hope to solve interoperability and privacy issues hindering global smart home adoption. Blockchain could solve interoperability issues between devices, but it would also create interoperability issues between different distributed ledgers and add a level of unnecessary complexity to the fledgling smart home market, it said.
Corning wants to double sales of its Gorilla Glass cover glass for smartphones to $2 billion by 2023, “even as the smartphone market matures,” said John Bayne, general manager of Corning Gorilla Glass. It's based on increasing the amount of Corning glass content built into the average device, he said Friday at the firm's investor day. In 2016, “we were selling into a handheld device that used a single piece of Gorilla Glass 3,” said Bayne. “We sold that glass in sheet form to a finisher who made it into a part.” Corning “was capturing” 50 cents of revenue on the average device, he said. This year, it sells to smartphone OEMs that use a piece of Gorilla Glass 6 on the front of the device, plus a second on the back, said Bayne. “For the glass on the front, we’re making and decorating that part.” Revenue capture on the average device is $12, he said. The company plans to continue bringing “innovations” in mobile devices to market, including those “that we believe can help to solve some of technology challenges facing the first generation of foldable products,” said Bayne. Samsung's April postponement of its Galaxy Fold launch validated CEO Wendell Weeks' forecast that foldable smartphones wouldn't be ready for prime time soon (see 1904220028).
8K got a boost from Microsoft and Sony with news that next-generation Xbox and PlayStation game consoles will support 8K resolution, said Sharp Home Electronics President Jim Sanduski. He noted that 65mm film classics such as Lawrence of Arabia, 2001: A Space Odyssey and My Fair Lady have been rescanned into 8K and will be released in the future. HDMI 2.1 will deliver 8K resolution from a single cable and user-generated content will help boost 8K TV sales, he said at CE Week in New York Thursday.
Hi-Res music service Qobuz is now available on the Control4 platform, said the streaming service Wednesday. It’s Control4’s first certified Hi-Res streaming music offering, enabling 24-bit/192 kHz music streaming over EA series controllers and the Triad One streaming amplifier. Control4 users with version 2.10.2 and higher operating systems have access to the service; those with OS3 will be able to see the quality of the tracks they're listening to by bitrate and frequency.