Harman’s Digital Transformation Solutions business was certified for EN 9100:2018/AS9100D, the company’s first avionics certification, it said Thursday. The certification is the international standard for quality management systems for the aviation, space and defense industry, said the Samsung subsidiary.
SoundHound expanded its partnership with Snap to provide auto captioning services for Snapchatter videos, it said Thursday. SoundHound’s automatic speech recognition software and ability to convert speech to text in real time allows users to automatically add a transcription of the audio portion of the Snaps they create, it said. After a user records a video, she taps the quote icon in the toolbar to enable the feature. Other options are to edit the captions, drag, resize and rotate them.
Azzad Asset Management urged Apple shareholders to vote for a proxy proposal asking the board to revise the company’s transparency reports “to provide clear explanations of the number and categories of app removals from the App Store, in response to or in anticipation of government requests, that may reasonably be expected to limit freedom of expression or access to information,” said a Wednesday SEC filing on Apple's investor relations page. The investment firm believes Apple’s transparency reports “do not sufficiently disclose the types or categories of apps the company has removed from the App Store, nor do they examine the extent to which either company-initiated or government-requested app removals may limit human rights.” That inhibits shareholders’ ability to understand “whether and how Apple’s actions accurately reflect its stated human rights commitments in the face of attempts by authoritarian governments to exercise greater control over the internet and restrict free expression for millions of people who use Apple devices,” it said.
Apple will launch Tap to Pay on iPhone this year, allowing U.S. merchants to use their iPhones to accept Apple Pay, contactless credit and debit cards, and other digital wallets through a tap to their iPhone, with no additional hardware or payment terminals needed, the company said Tuesday. Stripe is the first payment platform to offer the service to business customers, including the Shopify Point of Sale app this spring, it said, and more payment platforms are due to follow in 2022. At checkout, the merchant will prompt customers to hold an iPhone or Apple Watch to pay with Apple Pay, contactless credit or debit card, or other digital wallet near the merchant’s iPhone; the payment will be securely completed using near-field communication technology, Apple said. Transactions made using Tap to Pay on iPhone are encrypted and processed using the Secure Element; Apple doesn’t know what is being bought or who's buying it, said the company.
Dolby is battling headwinds but in the short run should deliver revenue growth and “impressive" operating margins as supply constraints ease and demand improves, Colliers analyst Steven Frankel wrote investors Monday. The analyst modeled Dolby’s Q1 fiscal 2022 revenue at 8% lower to $375 million year on year. He cited expansion of the Dolby Atmos, Vision and Dolby.io universes at CES, noting Samsung is the sole major TV maker that has yet to commit to Vision. Dolby reports earnings Thursday.
Digital collectibles platform Blockparty is partnering with Warner Music Group to give artists access to non-fungible tokens (NFTs) via its decentralized exchange trading platform. WMG artists and creators will be able to participate in NFT swaps, trade and bundle-sell their NFTs and connect with fans in a new way, the companies said Friday. The partnership with Blockparty will allow WMG artists to “craft their own digital stories through NFTs,” said Warner Music Group Chief Digital Officer Oana Ruxandra. The first NFT drop will be with Warner Music Finland’s Stig, who plans to release a series of NFTs that capture his mustache and array of caps.
The Houston Dynamo Football Club signed fuboTV subsidiary Fubo Gaming as its official sports bettor partner for Major League Soccer’s Houston Dynamo FC and the Houston Dash of the National Women’s Soccer League. Along with the partnership agreement, Fubo Gaming inked a multiyear market access deal with the soccer club, pending legislation passing in Texas to legalize sports betting, it said. Fubo Gaming plans to launch its Sportsbook in Texas upon passage of legislation and regulatory approvals, it said Thursday.
Imax closed out Q4 grossing its highest quarterly global box office since 2017, riding the success of Spider-Man: No Way Home, which took in $83 million of the company’s $277 million Q4 total, said the company Monday. For the year, Imax posted $638 million in global box office, up 146% year on year, but under the pre-COVID-19 pandemic $1.1 billion global box office in 2019. Top performers in Q4 behind Spider-Man were Dune ($43.9 million), No Time to Die ($43.9 million), The Battle at Lake Changjin ($31.6 million) and Eternals ($25.2 million). The company expects 10 releases filmed for Imax for 2022.
Waverly Labs will demonstrate translation products and services at CES 2022, it emailed Wednesday. It will introduce a two-sided customer service counter display designed to facilitate COVID-19 “friendly interactions," the company said, and Audience, which allows speakers and lecturers to communicate with auditorium attendees. The company updated its Ambassador Interpreter, an over-the-ear device that provides “near-simultaneous audio and text translations.” The Waverly Labs booth is slotted in Venetian Halls A-C, booth 54844.
Roku expanded the Roku TV Ready certification program to new partner companies and the first international markets, it said Wednesday. Polk Audio and Westinghouse will join the program in early 2022; new partners for 2021 included Element, JVC, Pheanoo and Philips, joining existing partners Bose, Hisense, TCL North America and Polk Audio parent company Sound United. New partners will also launch in the U.K., Canada and Mexico. Roku TV Ready certification was designed to make it easy for AV and CE companies to support “seamless setup, single remote operations, and easy access to home theater settings on screen” when their products are connected to a Roku TV, it said. Roku supplies partner companies with a software development kit and test materials to streamline the process; it also offers a wireless soundbar reference design.