Android Wear smartphone owners will soon be able to control music from the iHeartRadio streaming app from their wrists, iHeartMedia said Thursday. Users who sync an Android Wear smartphone -- including the Samsung Gear Live, Moto 360 and LG G Watch -- with a compatible Android phone will be able to access the iHeartRadio app via voice activation, iHeartMedia said. Features that will be available through Android Wear integration, effective Oct. 15, include voice search, access to favorites, customized recommendations and a thumbs up/thumbs down feature, the company said. IHeartRadio also has announced integrations with Amazon’s Fire Phone, Amazon’s Fire TV, Android Auto, Apple’s CarPlay, Chromecast, Qualcomm’s AllPlay, Samsung’s Gear 2 Smartwatch and auto partnerships with AT&T Drive, General Motors, Jaguar Land Rover, Kia, Subaru and Volvo, iHeartMedia said.
Nearly four in every 10 U.S. broadband equipped homes “regularly use transactional services,” such as online video rentals and downloads, for over-the-top video, Parks Associates said Thursday (http://bit.ly/1EzsXHt). “The vast majority of consumers making these a la carte purchases also have a streaming video subscription, emphasizing the potential role of transactional services to supplement subscription OTT,” it said. For example, about two-thirds of Amazon Instant Video subscribers also rent or buy titles through the service, and “their average expenditures are increasing,” it said. “By contrast, expenditure on downloads among Netflix subscribers is decreasing.” Though subscription services “are the most popular form” of OTT video, transactional services that offer a wide selection of titles and are easy to use “can score with consumers and create new revenues,” the company said. “However, the lack of content can be the death knell for a service.” For example, Redbox Instant by Verizon “failed in large part because only a limited number of titles were available to rent through its streaming library,” it said. “What the service needed was a large selection of online titles, with easy access for streaming."
The MIPI Alliance will use the AES convention Saturday in Los Angeles to present a technical paper on MIPI SoundWire, a new audio interface spec for amplifiers, mics and audio codecs used in smartphones, tablets, mobile PCs and other devices, the group said Thursday (http://bit.ly/10WrwmP). “Companies can apply the specification as needed to best fit their particular systems integration requirements.” It said more than 25 companies “from across the audio technology ecosystem” took part in developing MIPI SoundWire. Ratification of the spec is expected to be done by year-end, but products based on it “are already in development and IP, silicon components and test tools based on the specification are expected to become commercially available also by year-end 2014,” it said. MIPI SoundWire is a hardware interface and transport protocol that companies can apply “to add intelligence to audio peripherals, increase the number of peripherals attached to a link and optimize their implementations without compromising product cost, pin count, power consumption, software complexity, or key audio metrics,” it said. “The boundaries between mobile phones, tablets and PCs are converging but until now, standardized audio interfaces have been specific to the individual market segments,” it said. “The fragmentation has made it very challenging for firms to scale their product designs for use across segments. MIPI SoundWire was developed to provide a common interface to overcome this challenge.”
High-resolution audio is “hitting the market at the right time," but it has hurdles to overcome, said DisplaySearch analyst Ben Arnold in a blog post Thursday. Sony is the “lone official hardware supporter” of high-res audio, which is “still in search of broad backing,” Arnold said. For awareness of high-res audio to gain traction, more audio companies need to help promote the feature and build awareness beyond the audio enthusiast base, he said. According to an NPD headphone study, 58 percent of premium headphone buyers said sound quality is an important purchase motivator, and 89 percent of wireless speaker owners said sound quality was the leading motivator in their purchase decision, with market numbers indicating some consumers are paying more in support of those trends. Wireless speakers priced above $150 have shown 103 percent sales growth over past year, and soundbars above $600 grew in sales by 44 percent, Arnold said, showing a “growing market for premium, better sounding audio products.” While legacy AV receiver sales as a whole have declined 12 percent in the past year, sales of those above $1,000 grew by 4 percent, he said. Another limiting factor for high-res audio is scarcity of content, Arnold said, citing HD Tracks and iTrax as the most widely known distributors of lossless digital music downloads. But popular streaming services including Pandora and Spotify and marketplaces including iTunes and Google Play Music don’t currently offer “true hi-res” music files or streaming options, Arnold noted. “If the true test is hearing the difference between standard MP3 files and lossless hi-res music, consumers have few places to listen,” he said. While hardware specifications and bitrate statistics may move some consumers to step up to higher quality audio, the majority of consumers need to listen to the difference before they can be swayed, Arnold said. “This requires a broader alliance of industry partners with manufacturers, retailers, and content providers all playing a role,” he said. Music listeners have indicated they want the best quality audio experience possible, he said, “but without the opportunity to hear for themselves, the days of good enough quality are here to stay.”
Comments are due Dec. 8 in a Department of Energy rulemaking that proposes revising the DOE’s test procedure for external power supplies, the agency said in Thursday’s Federal Register (http://1.usa.gov/1t5oh9g). The proposed revisions would harmonize the “instrumentation resolution and uncertainty requirements” with the second edition of the IEC’s 62301 standard when measuring standby power along with other international standards programs, said the department’s notice. “These specifications will assist in ensuring that testing is performed with equipment that is capable of reaching these tolerances and that the resulting measurements are consistent.” The rulemaking also would clarify several testing set-up requirements, it said. DOE also is proposing an optional test to measure the active-mode efficiency of external power supplies at a 10 percent loading condition “and an optional recording of power factor at this loading condition and each of the other required loading conditions,” it said.
Verizon will be the first U.S. carrier to offer Sony’s Xperia Z3 series smartphone when the Z3v debuts through Verizon Oct. 23, Sony said at a New York launch event Thursday. The Verizon website featured the phone on its launch page (http://vz.to/1EzV1ug) after Thursday’s announcement, giving consumers the chance to “be the first to get product and launch details.” Sony reached across its areas of expertise with the premium phone, pulling in high-resolution audio, 4K video, 20-megapixel digital imaging and PS4 gaming features. The Z3v, announced at IFA last month, includes a waterproof rating, hi-res audio support, gaming through PS4 Remote Play beginning in November and 4K video operation with SteadyShot, the company said. The waterproof claim comes with several caveats: The phone is waterproof for up to 30 minutes in 1.5 meters of “fresh water” with all ports “firmly closed,” the company said. The phone’s Stamina mode is said to provide extended battery life, and built-in Qi technology allows for wireless charging with compatible chargers, the company said. With a 5.2-inch display, the phone will be available for $199 with a two-year contract, according to reports.
Crestron expanded its operating space in Dubai, opening a new office with a customer experience center and two training classrooms to meet growing demand for systems and skilled integrators in the region, it said Wednesday. The company will keep its regional base that houses sales, marketing, customer service and support in the heart of the city, it said. Crestron has added certification courses for 4K Ultra HD TV training, it said.
More than half of consumers frustrated during a mobile shopping app experience abandon their virtual shopping carts and leave the app, said a study by Contact Solutions, a cloud-based customer care technology company (http://bit.ly/1nZzKoR). Some 20 percent of users struggling with shopping apps stop using the app entirely, the company said. “Customers are using apps more frequently, but when they encounter problems and cannot get the help they need, the results are disastrous for retailers,” said John Hibel, marketing director, Contact Solutions. The company said three out of four shoppers shop online, and 30 percent shop on a mobile device “at least as much as they shop on a computer.” More than 90 percent of shoppers said it would be helpful to have customer care provided within the app to help complete a task, it said. The online survey was done with more than 1,000 adults in August.
After shrinking since 2012, global PC sales are expected to rise 5 percent in 2015 on replacement sales, said a report by Strategy Analytics (http://bit.ly/1sfD1Ah). Sales for this year are projected to fall 4 percent, it said. PCs remain “essential computing devices” despite the rise of tablets, Strategy Analytics said. Frequent tablet usage has grown by 22 percentage points from 2011 to Q4 2013, to 32 percent of all households, while frequent mobile PC usage has remained flat during the period, it said. Some 63 percent of all households said they frequently used mobile PCs, while frequent usage of all PCs, not including tablets, slipped by 3 percent but remained above the 90 percent level, it said. “Multiple PC ownership is falling as tablet sales supplant replacement demand for secondary PCs mainly used for casual tasks,” said Eric Smith, analyst. But PCs will remain essential devices as households replace primary PCs used for productivity tasks including spreadsheets, video editing and personal banking, he said. The tablet experience is extending to the PC through affordable 2-in-1 convertible PCs and new operating systems that “blend traditional PC and tablet user experiences,” said David Watkins, analyst.
Failing to address the overreach of U.S. government surveillance will create long-lasting damage for the digital economy, said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and tech executives from Dropbox, Facebook, Google, Facebook and Microsoft during a Wednesday discussion at Palo Alto High School, where Wyden went to high school in Palo Alto, California. “The cost,” said Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, “is huge in terms of knowledge, discovery, science, growth, jobs.” Countries around the world will start implementing data localization requirements, said Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith. In the last few months alone, 20 governments have either proposed or discussed such laws, said Dropbox General Counsel Ramsey Homsany. Cloud storage services like Dropbox rely on the ability to store data anywhere, the industry officials said. Requirements to keep individuals’ data stored locally would kill cloud-based storage, they said. In turn, the Internet slows down, becomes less personalized and costs are driven up as companies are required to put data centers in each country, said Facebook General Counsel Colin Stretch. Data localization also is a threat to civil liberties, he said. Insisting on local data storage could “result in quite possibly more access by state sponsored surveillance,” he said. Governments have been able to sell data localization as a consumer protection measure, Schmidt said, when in fact localization erodes “the architecture that all these companies and all the startups really need to have.” Wyden touted his industry-supported Digital Trade Act (S-1788), which would prevent cross-border data flow restrictions and prohibit localization requirements, as a first step toward ensuring the continued health of the digital economy. But it’s no fix for the “reckless broad surveillance,” which “hampers our ability” to convince countries to accept the free flow of data, Wyden said.