HiberSense began selling its smart climate solution through custom integrators and HVAC contractors, said the company Tuesday. Based on a smart hub, sensors and automated vents, HiberSense is designed to balance climate throughout a home or commercial location, it said. Sensors report temperature, barometric pressure, humidity, light and motion data from each room to the hub.
TP Link announced the Deco M4, a $179 three-pack Wi-Fi bundle priced to eliminate the cost barrier to mass consumer adoption of a mesh network system. Maximum range is given as 5,500 square feet with the ability to connect up to 100 devices. Deco’s seamless roaming technology allows devices to be under a single network name so users don’t have to reconnect when moving to a different area of the home, it said Monday. Adaptive path selection ensures that nodes always choose the fastest data stream and that the system directs devices onto the optimal Wi-Fi lane, said the company. If one of the Deco nodes in a multi-node mesh network drops, the system’s self-healing capability will reconfigure automatically to prevent network interruptions, it said. The system is compatible with Amazon Alexa and IFTTT (If This Then That).
8K Association founding members AU Optronics, Hisense, Panasonic, Samsung and TCL approved 8KA’s bylaws March 20. That, plus defining 8KA’s three membership classes, were the group’s self-identified prerequisites for seeking new enrollees (see 1903260002). Monday, it released details on joining. The group plans to form technical, promotion and certification and compliance working groups, said the bylaws. 8KA and its members “may choose to comply with the National Cooperative Research and Production Act,” it said. With proper notifications to DOJ and the FTC, the 1993 statute extends antitrust protections to members of industry groups (see 1703270055).
Hyundai Mobis is developing “deep learning-based" image-recognition technology for identifying vehicles, pedestrians and geographical features of the road, it said at the Kintex Seoul Motor Show Sunday. It hopes to develop the technology by year-end, with a goal of mass-producing front camera sensors that support deep learning-based high-performance image recognition technology by 2022. The company also plans to apply deep learning-based image recognition technology to a 360-degree surround view monitor, enabling automatic emergency braking to prevent front and broadside collisions during low-speed driving.
To mark the 46th anniversary of the first cellular phone call on April 3, 1973, Motorola is discounting the price of phones and moto mod accessories up to $220 in a limited-time deal. Wednesday-Friday, the 32 GB ($90 off) and 64 GB moto ($120 off) g6 smartphones are on sale for $199; the moto g6 play is $50 off at $149; and moto mods are 25 percent off, said the company. Through April 20, the moto z3 play will be bundled with a speaker mod for $349 ($150 off), and an Alexa mod bundle is discounted by $200 to $349; the moto x4 is discounted by $200 to $149 (32 GB) and $220 to $199 (64 GB), it said.
AirPower, Apple’s teased multi-device wireless charging mat, has been scrapped, said multiple reports Friday. TechCrunch Editor-in-Chief Matthew Panzarino tweeted a statement attributed to Dan Riccio, Apple senior vice president-hardware: “After much effort, we’ve concluded AirPower will not achieve our high standards and we have cancelled the project. We apologize to those customers who were looking forward to this launch. We continue to believe that the future is wireless and are committed to push the wireless experience forward.” The charging mat, first shown at the September 2017 iPhone 8 launch, had reached cult status as a product the company promised but didn't introduce as expected in spring 2018. As recently as Monday, Apple customers on Twitter were clamoring for the product amid Apple’s software launch of its news, video, gaming and credit card services. When Apple previewed AirPower 18 months ago (see 1709120054), Phil Schiller, senior vice president-worldwide marketing, said Apple believed it could make the wireless charging experience “even better” and “move the entire industry forward.” He said Apple hoped people would love it, “that it encourages others to create more advanced solutions based on technology like this.” Apple had planned to "incorporate these benefits into the future of the standards to make wireless charging better for everyone,” he said. The next month, the company bought a New Zealand-based wireless charging company, PowerbyProxi (see 1710250043). Apple didn’t comment Friday.
The global market for smart home devices will grow 26.9 percent to 832.7 million shipments in 2019, IDC projected Friday, increasing through 2023 to 1.6 billion devices as consumers adopt multiple devices and availability of products and services increases. Last year was about “getting products into consumers’ homes,” led by Amazon and Google with low-cost smart speakers and bundles across device categories, said analyst Jitesh Ubrani. This year, industry will focus on “tying the various devices together” to create a more cohesive experience and “layering in additional services,” he said. Amazon and Google will dominate the smart home market, but Apple is expected to gain traction, said IDC. Samsung “is worth watching” as its products extend into more categories, and the company continues to invest in Bixby and Tizen, said analysts. An important trend to watch is how smart assistants become integrated in the home, said analyst Ramon Llamas. "Smart assistants will act as the point of contact with multiple smart home devices and essentially become the cornerstone of the smart home experience,” Llamas said, noting the experience consumers have with smart speakers today “will eventually move on to appliances, thermostats, and all sorts of video entertainment."
Worldwide shipments of augmented reality and virtual reality headsets are forecast to reach 8.9 million units this year, up 54.1 percent year on year, said IDC Thursday. New headsets from Oculus, HTC, Microsoft and others will help fuel growth in the category expected to ship 68.6 million units in 2023, but two-thirds of the AR/VR market growth will come from the commercial side. VR headsets will reach 36.7 million 2023, said IDC, with stand-alone models comprising 59 percent of shipments in 2023, tethered head-mounted displays at 37.4 percent and screenless viewers the remainder. AR headset shipments, reaching 31.9 million units in 2023, will be led by stand-alone units with 55.3 percent share, HMDs at 44.3 percent and screenless viewers at less than 1 percent. VR pioneers “have wisely moved to embrace commercial use cases for the technology as they wait for more consumer-centric experiences beyond gaming and video to materialize," said analyst Tom Mainelli. The AR side has largely been enterprise-focused, a trend that's expected to continue.
Thirty-one percent of U.S. broadband homes have a smart speaker and more than a quarter of them use the voice assistants to control a smart device, said Parks Associates Thursday. Voice control, and its promise to simplify the user experience, could help overcome consumer confusion that has inhibited smart home adoption, said analyst Brad Russell.
Best Buy tapped the tax refund opportunity in an iPhone promotion Thursday. “Turn your refund into a reward,” said a customer email, pitching a $400 Best Buy gift card to customers who trade in select phones for an iPhone XR. Payment plans were $31.25 over 24 months at Verizon or a one-time $749 payment; $25 a month over 30 months, or $31.25, with Next Every Year at AT&T; and $31.25 over 24 months at Sprint, or as low as $15 per month over two years with a new line.