General Motors petitioned the FCC to OK the automaker's new request to yank its petition that sought a partial waiver on providing real-time texting functions (see 1812260053). The new ask came after speaking with a lawyer for disability group commenters that opposed the waiver. GM now called itself "deeply grateful to Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing" Inc. (TDI) and "corresponding groups" for "their thoughtful submission, which questioned the necessity of the Petition." The discussion "helped lead GM to agree that the Petition is not necessary," said the motion posted Thursday in docket 15-178. "Once available to the general public, the Cruise AV in-vehicle customer support function would provide non-interoperable RTT-to-RTT communication (as between AV riders and customer support personnel); non-interoperable transmission and receipt of RTT communication from public safety entities (with immediate intervention and assistance from customer support personnel), and non-interoperable simultaneous voice and RTT communication (as between AV passengers and customer support personnel)." Passengers can use smartphones for "interoperable communication," so the automaker doesn't need the waiver, it said. It cited "the in-vehicle service button or accessible devices" giving "blind, low-vision, deaf, and hearing-impaired passengers" always-on communications. GM noted RTT rules don't apply to the company's Cruise autonomous vehicles being tested in Detroit, Phoenix and San Francisco "because the vehicles will offer a non-interoperable, non-interconnected telematics service rather than interoperable, interconnected communication." Led by TDI, more than a dozen groups had opposed GM's ask as "either unnecessary or unwarranted, depending on a critical ambiguity in the petition." The Hearing Loss Association of America, National Association of the Deaf, Paralyzed Veterans of America and other groups' comments ask the FCC to consider "broader issues" of IoT "accessibility and 911 access implicated" here. A GM lawyer and the FCC declined to comment. TDI's lawyer praised GM's withdrawal request.

Apple said it’s recalling AC wall plug adapters designed for use in Hong Kong, Singapore and the U.K. The three-prong wall plug adapters could break and create a shock risk if exposed metal parts are touched, said the company Thursday. The affected adapters shipped with Mac and certain iOS devices between 2003 and 2010 and were included in the company’s World Travel Adapter Kit. Apple is aware of six incidents worldwide, it said. Customers who bought the adapters should stop using them and visit the Apple website for product exchange details. Customers can go to an authorized Apple service provider, make an appointment at an Apple retail store or contact Apple Support online. The recall doesn't affect Apple USB power adapters.

AT&T has deployed 5G in parts of 19 markets, with plans to cover 200 million POPs by the end of next year, Chief Financial Officer John Stephens said Wednesday on Q1 results. “Our plans for 5G are going quite well,” he told investors and analysts. “We’re very optimistic. We’re leading in 5G.” But the company won’t see an uptick in revenue until next year, he said. The stock closed down 4.1 percent to $30.79 as analysts said some results like video losses lagged behind expectations. The FirstNet build has hit 53 percent competition, with a goal of 60 percent by the end of Q3, Stephens said. “We’re well ahead of schedule.” Putting new spectrum in play is “working and it’s working in the quality of the network,” he said. Customers get that the quality of the network is improving, said CEO Randall Stephenson. “We’re not going out and doing a lot of aggressive promotions and we’re not doing pricing to try to get customers to stay,” Stephenson said. “It is happening just organically.” AT&T customers like the 5GE, or 5G evolution, service and are finding it to be faster than 4G, he said. “It is truly a step-change difference in product capability,” Stephenson said. “This is the No. 1 area that I am most pleased with.” FirstNet now has 570,000 subscribers at 7,000 agencies, with many new customers, Stephenson said. “This is driving a not inconsequential impact in subscriber gains,” he said. “We continue to be more enthused about [FirstNet] than when we won the bid.” AT&T reported 204,000 postpaid net losses in Q1 “with losses in tablets offsetting gains in wearables and phones.” The company added 79,000 postpaid smartphones, but lost 428,000 tablets and other branded computing devices. Postpaid churn was 1.17 percent, up from 1.06 percent the same quarter last year. DirecTV Now, AT&T’s streaming service, lost 83,000 subscribers and the number of premium video subscribers declined by 544,000. Stephenson warned that more losses are on the way. Net income attributable to AT&T fell to $4.1 billion, from $4.66 billion. Total revenue rose almost 18 percent to $44.83 billion compared with a year ago. Wells Fargo’s Jennifer Fritzsche saw results as mixed. “Mobility offered a pleasant surprise as the postpaid phone additions were in stark contrast to where the Street was looking,” she said. “While Entertainment Group financials were in-line, the video losses continue to be worse than expected.” New Street’s Jonathan Chaplin saw the results as “uninspired.” The quarter “was a mixed bag for AT&T: subs grew in Wireless, but were worse than expected in the Entertainment group,” Chaplin told investors.

Virgin Media will be the first of Liberty Global’s European operations to integrate the Amazon Prime Video app into a set-top box. Customers will be able to access 4K content from the V6 set-top box beginning in summer, it said.

Dougherty & Co. analyst Steven Frankel highlighted TCL Q1 TV sales in a Dolby Labs research note to investors Tuesday. TCL’s 4K sets, including the Series 5 and 6 with Dolby Vision, were demand drivers for Dolby, jumping 83 percent year on year, he wrote. The TV brand was No. 1 or 2 for six consecutive weeks in North America during the March quarter, said Frankel, citing NPD. The analyst maintained a “buy” rating on Dolby, modeling $335.8 million in fiscal Q2 revenue ahead of May 1's financial report. He predicted 10 percent growth in license revenue and 12 percent growth in product revenue and referenced “potential benefit of the transition to ATSC 3.0.”

Arrow Electronics and Freelancer.com expect the first CE fruits of their ArrowPlus product design and engineering matchmaking service to appear in wearables at CES, Sarah Tang, Freelancer.com vice president-enterprise, told us Friday. The companies announced the ArrowPlus platform last month with the goal of accelerating companies' time to market through the Freelancer.com’s network of electronic and electrical engineers in 1,350 skill areas. Arrow’s portfolio includes more than 200,000 technology manufacturers and service providers, and its Certified Engineering network is designed to solve tech problems across a range of industries including CE, healthcare, IoT, hardware and connected products. The combined ArrowPlus helps companies find qualified experts, use Arrow “technology concierge” services and reach market more quickly at a lower cost than if they went in-house, Tang said. Services include ideation and prototyping; analog and digital design; printed circuit board design; bill of materials parts selection; custom requirements for product delivery; component consolidation and cost reduction; redesigning for smaller size; documentation and translation; firmware, driver and middleware development; real-time embedded software development; and integrated circuit design. A recent ArrowPlus customer was looking to develop a wrist-worn wearable -- from concept to prototype to mass production -- for measuring time, heart rate and other functions consumers would use at a gym, in time for CES in January, she said. ArrowPlus' “platform play” model lowers intermediary and search costs and creates matchmaking efficiencies between supply and demand that benefit smaller companies without the financial resources of large corporations. Quoting a McKinsey report, Tang said the top 10 percent of companies capture 80 percent of positive economic profit and said the ArrowPlus model enables smaller companies to disrupt that paradigm: “Imagine if you can accelerate your go-to-market by two to three times." Arrow calls the platform a “connected talent cloud.” Tang said the platform's cloud-based resources, available globally, means “anything you dream of can come to life."

Uber’s “continued success will come from stellar execution and the strength of the platform we have worked so hard to build,” said CEO Dara Khosrowshahi in an initial-public-offering SEC filing Thursday to raise $1 billion. Uber’s engineering and product teams “are solving some of the most difficult problems at the intersection of the physical and digital worlds,” he said. Uber’s 2018 revenue jumped 42 percent from 2017 to $11.27 billion and was 193 percent higher than 2016's $3.8 billion, said the filing. It had a $3.03 billion operating loss in 2018, 26 percent lower than in 2017, it said. Ex-Facebook executive Matt Cohler, general partner in venture capital firm Benchmark, is Uber's largest individual shareholder with 11 percent of the stock, it said.

Redbox is deploying TiVo’s content delivery platform on its Redbox.com, Redbox On Demand streaming apps and physical boxes nationwide, it said Monday. The platform includes search, recommendations and insights to help Redbox customers find personalized content. Redbox will also enable TiVo’s video and videogame metadata, including access to its library of enhanced entertainment metadata and high-resolution imagery to facilitate content discovery.

Sony’s decision to close its Beijing SE Potevio Mobile Communications (BMC) manufacturing plant in Beijing is part of a global plan announced in October to reduce operating costs incurred in fiscal year 2020 to about 50 percent of the level recorded in FY 2017, a Sony Electronics spokesperson emailed us. The Beijing plant was scheduled to cease operations by Sunday, said the spokesperson, and BMC offered a leave program to employees beginning March 20. Sony will continue to sell and market smartphones in China, “providing full company support,” said a company statement, and it will continue to manufacture phones in Thailand. U.S. tariffs didn’t factor into the decision to close the China plant, the spokesperson said.

AudioControl said product information for integrators and home theater specialists is available via the D-Tools Cloud. Dealers will have access to product specifications, unique dealer pricing, and other information that can be used as part of the sales, system design, documentation and procurement process, said the company Thursday. The software-as-a-service offering is designed to improve dealers’ project efficiency.