ON Semiconductor announced Bluetooth SIG mesh networking support for its Bluetooth 5-certified RSL10 system-on-chip product line. It's targeted to smart home devices, among other applications, said the company.

Google's Project Soli, even at the higher power levels needed to make it effective, "can reasonably coexist" with other 60 GHz band users like remote sensing satellite equipment or radio astronomy, company representatives told an aide to FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, said a docket 18-70 ex parte posting Tuesday. Google said it needs higher peak effective isotropic radiated power and transmitted conducted power levels for U.S.-Europe operational equivalence than now allowed since current power levels result in more blind spots and missed motions for the hand gesture-detecting radar. It said 60 GHz Wi-Fi is "only marginally affected" with sometimes a 10 percent throughput reduction and that the Earth exploration satellite and radio astronomy applications won't see harmful effects from airborne use of Soli because of the attenuation from inside a plane to outside and slim odds of multiple simultaneous uses of Soli at low altitudes during landing directly above a radio astronomy site. Google is seeking a waiver to allow higher power levels (see 1803120031).

The U.S. mobile app industry is worth more than $568 billion in economic contributions, Deloitte reported recently. ACT|The App Association said Thursday its own report supports the estimate.

Charter Communications rolled out a Wi-Fi router with 802.11ax and said it's the first U.S. ISP to introduce the wireless standard. It's working on a converged wireless router for 2019 to use licensed spectrum and several IoT radio technologies, facilitating adoption of IoT applications. The cable operator said the routers will get Wi-Fi resource management capability for easier setup.

A bipartisan, bicameral group of lawmakers introduced legislation Thursday that would direct the National Institutes of Health to research technology’s impact on kids. The Children and Media Research Advancement Act would authorize $15 million for FY 2019-21 and $25 million each for 2022 and 2023 to study effects of mobile devices, computers, social media, applications, websites, TV, movies, artificial intelligence, videogames and virtual reality. The lawmakers are Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass.; Ben Sasse, R-Neb.; Roy Blunt, R-Mo.; Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii; Michael Bennet, D-Colo.; and Susan Collins, R-Maine; and Reps. John Delaney, D-Md., and Ted Budd, R-N.C. This “will inform parents and policymakers about how best to protect American children’s bodies and minds from issues such as tech addiction, bullying, and depression,” said Markey. Common Sense CEO James Steyer said that “parents urgently need independent scientific research into the impacts on our kids of growing up online.”

Sony plans to start sample shipments in September of the IMX586 stacked CMOS image sensor for smartphone cameras with the industry’s highest pixel count at 48 “effective” megapixels, enabling resolutions comparable with those of “high-performance SLR cameras,” said the company Monday. The sensor also has a world-first ultra-compact pixel size of 0.8 microns, it said. Sony set a sample price of 3,000 yen ($27) per IMX586 device.

Lattice Semiconductor is scuttling its millimeter wave business, a move expected to result in $25 million of mostly noncash restructuring and impairment charges in Q2 and a $13 million annualized reduction in operating expenses, it said Wednesday. The company doesn't expect a significant impact to its potential full-year 2018 revenue, citing strength in other areas. It will support customers’ product and support requirements during the transition, it said. Interim CEO Glen Hawk said millimeter wave was determined to be a noncore business, "unable to achieve the required near-term scale to be profitable or to warrant any further investment." The company will focus on improving operating efficiencies and accelerating revenue growth of its existing semiconductor solutions in control, connect and compute applications, Hawk said. In September, President Donald Trump signed an executive order blocking Canyon Bridge Fund’s $1.3 billion acquisition of Lattice Semiconductor on national security grounds (see 1709130056). Lattice's Q2 earnings call is July 26.

NTCA and WTA back the American Cable Association petition that some smaller MVPDs be waived from compliance with FCC Dec. 20 talking guide requirements (see 1806180050). In a docket 12-108 posting Tuesday, NTCA said the FCC assumed demand from big MVPDs would create supply of compliant devices, but "such has not proven to be the case" and full compliance would require some smaller MVPDs to largely re-engineer video distribution networks at great cost. WTA said the one commercially available option that covers all the accessibility features required is TiVo's Quattro system, but the cost of upgrades for small providers to deploy that is at least $100,000. WTA said more affordable options that use CableCARD don't cover all accessibility features, and analog systems can't use such plug-in devices. Rural Alabama MVPD Pine Belt Communications -- also backing the ACA petition -- said it looked into possible compliance offerings and didn't find one that doesn't involve a systemwide upgrade, which is "neither practical nor affordable."

Toshiba announced mass production of an analog output photocoupler that enables high-speed communications in automotive applications. The TLX9309 chip, designed for electric and hybrid vehicles, features a high-output gallium-aluminum-arsenide LED optically coupled to a high-speed detector, said the company.

Bosch launched smart sensor hubs for wearables, hearables, augmented and virtual reality and other mobile devices. The hubs combine micro-electro-mechanical systems sensors (MEMS) and low-power, high-performance sensor co-processors, said the company Wednesday. The BHI260 and BHA260 hubs enable always-on applications, while reducing system power consumption in mobile, battery-operated devices, Bosch said. Updated MEMS sensors and a new microcontroller are integrated in a small package with a variety of interfaces to connect external devices, it said. The company created an open development platform for the devices, including an integrated software framework in ROM, evaluation kits and a software development kit. Availability is Q3 for high-volume applications.