FBI Director James Comey is frustrated with Apple and Google over security measures meant to bar law enforcement access to data even with a court order, according to comments made to reporters and later confirmed by a bureau spokeswoman. The FBI is meeting with the two companies to discuss the issue, Comey said. “What concerns me about this is companies marketing something expressly to allow people to hold themselves beyond the law.” Apple and Google have been public about increased encryption measures they added since revelations about government surveillance programs. Apple also promoted a feature on its recent iOS 8 update that makes the company unable to comply with government requests to turn over user data (CED Sept 19 p7). Apple and Google did not comment.
Intel will invest up to $1.5 billion for 20 percent ownership ofthe Chinese holding company Tsinghua Unigroup to expand the adoption of Intel-based mobile devices in China, Intel said Thursday. Tsinghua Unigroup owns Spreadtrum Communications and RDA Microelectronics, Chinese fabless semiconductor makers that produce mobile chipsets for smartphones and other CE products, Intel said. “China is now the largest consumption market for smartphones and has the largest number of Internet users in the world,” said Intel CEO Brian Krzanich. The partnership with Tsinghua Unigroup will “enhance our ability to support a wider range of mobile customers in China and the rest of the world by more quickly delivering a broader portfolio of Intel architecture and communications technology solutions,” he said. To begin, Intel and Spreadtrum will jointly create a line of Intel-based system-on-chips for smartphones that both companies will sell starting in 2015’s second half, Intel said.
House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., worries the FCC “is relegating broadcasting to the past, rather than working to give broadcasters a chance to compete in the modern content marketplace,” he planned to tell the Oregon Association of Broadcasters Friday, according to prepared remarks. Walden enumerated multiple issues of concern around “a number of its actions,” pointing to the agency’s “ban on joint sales agreements, changes to the UHF discount, and a persistent delay in processing those petitions for allocation changes from VHF to UHF filed prior to the Middle Class Tax Relief Act,” all of which are “troubling,” he said. He insisted that broadcasters that do not wish to relinquish spectrum in the broadcast TV incentive auction should be allowed to make that choice. “I intend to ensure that the Commission properly implements the provisions of the Act to preserve a vibrant post-auction broadcast environment,” Walden said. “That includes ensuring that broadcasters who wish to remain broadcasters can do so; ensuring that the FCC makes all reasonable efforts to maintain coverage areas; ensuring that the FCC coordinates with Mexico and Canada; ensuring that the FCC does not unnecessarily impact LPTV and translators; and, ensuring that the FCC raises enough money to compensate stations that return spectrum, to reimburse those that relocate, and to fund FirstNet.” Walden criticized the laws governing broadcasting as particularly old, and slammed the broadcast media ownership rules, saying he plans to take aim at the rules in a planned overhaul of the Communications Act: “It is our intent that the #CommActUpdate take a hard look at the current state of the market and have a serious conversation on how we can remove unnecessary government intrusion into broadcasting and let broadcasters compete in the 21st century.” Walden criticized FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler for “having taken it upon himself to unilaterally ‘reform’ industries without regard for the consequences to consumers, to jobs and the economy, or to the innovation that has been the hallmark of the American communications industry” and referred to the FCC’s “seeming disregard for transparency and process.”
TomTom launched a GPS sports watch for golfers Friday that packs golf course data from 34,000 courses around the world. Course graphics show distances to hazards and layups along with the best approach to the green, the company said. A golfer can keep track of the score, distance and time of a round on the TomTom Golfer and can use GPS technology to find the next hole and discover nearby courses, the company said. Suggested retail price is $249, and the watch is due in October.
Sony used the listening party at Avatar Studios in New York Thursday for the Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga Cheek to Cheek album as the U.S. launching pad for its $299 NWZ-A17 portable music player due in November. Sony’s debut of a high-res portable music player comes during the same month when Apple pulled the iPod Classic from its website store. Cheek to Cheek, released earlier in the week, was recorded in 24-bit Hi-Res Audio and supports codecs including AFF, WAV, ALAC, FLAC, DSF, DFF and MP3, said album information in the software. Sony played the title through its Hi-Res Audio lineup at several stations, including through the $1,999 HAP-Z1ES music server. Sony will launch the NWZ-A17 player through Amazon, Crutchfield, Sony’s website and other large online retail stores, said Michael Woulfe, Sony senior vice president-sales & marketing, sound division. The November delivery meant “a lot of retailers’ floors were already set” for the holidays, Woulfe told us. Sony is thinking about bundling opportunities with Hi-Res Audio content providers but no deals have been announced, he said. Cheek to Cheek was selling as a download through HDTracks in 96/24 in AIFF format for $22.98 Friday, and Acoustic Sounds listed it in FLAC for $24.98. Target, meanwhile, was selling an exclusive CD version with two extra songs, for $15.99. Sony also launched its marketing campaign with Interscope Records/Streamline Records/Columbia Records for Hi-Res Audio that will run through early 2015. The campaign has a target of 23 million impressions and includes a mix of digital and print advertising, Sony said. LG, meanwhile, is using the same collaboration of Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga in its sponsorship of the 4K live concert featuring the duo performing at Lincoln Center in August. The event will be the first concert to appear in 4K when it streams from Amazon Instant Video later this year.
Though the 5.5-inch screen of the iPhone 6 Plus is 38 percent larger than the 4-inch screen of the iPhone 5S, the iPhone 6 Plus costs only 15 percent more to build, said a preliminary analysis by the website Teardown.com (http://bit.ly/1mycAVA). The estimated combined cost of Apple’s new A8 processor with Qualcomm’s MDM9625M modem is the largest chunk ($59.50) of the phone’s total cost ($242.50), the site said. The 5.5-inch display and touchscreen assembly costs $51, while a Toshiba-sourced NAND flash device adds $9 and a Samsung DRAM chip, $5, it said. The site pegs no estimated cost for the NXP Semiconductor PN548 device that brings near field communication functionality to an iPhone for the first time. The same PN548 component is housed within the iPhone 6, which costs $227 to build, including $41.50 for the 4.7-inch display and touchscreen assembly, the site said. “Some key notes on the assembly included our analysts observing that the board design and the use of ’tried and true’ chipsets allowed Apple to maintain a high margin on the devices,” the site said. With a two-year contract, pricing starts at $299 for the iPhone 6 Plus, and at $199 for the iPhone 6, both for the versions with 16 GB of onboard storage. However, without the two-year activation, the phones cost hundreds of dollars more. Verizon, for example, has priced the iPhone 6 at $649 and the iPhone 6 Plus at $749 without the two-year contract.
Wearables, as the “advanced consumer face” of the Internet of Things, will rise at a compound annual growth rate of 24.56 percent and “cross” $11.6 billion in global sales in 2020, MarketsandMarkets said Friday in a report (http://bit.ly/1u3gc3e). The U.S. is more than 72 percent of the market, making it the “single largest revenue base” for global wearables, it said. The U.S. also “is expected to maintain its dominance” through 2020, but Asia-Pacific, “with China leading the way, is likely to grow at the highest CAGR during the next six years,” it said.
Insteon said it added voice interaction to its home automation platform via an update to the Insteon app for Windows Phone 8.1 (http://bit.ly/1stZ1sy). Support for Cortana, Microsoft’s personal digital assistant, lets consumers control and monitor smart home products via voice commands, a “major development in the evolution of the home automation industry,” Steven Guggenheimer, Microsoft corporate vice president, said Thursday. Adding Cortana support to Insteon products enables users to turn on and dim lights, lock and unlock doors, and open a garage door by voice while inside or outside the home. Users also can activate scenes by saying, for instance, “Insteon, leaving the house,” which could set in motion a series of events such as turning off lights, setting a thermostat to a lower temperature and locking doors, Insteon said. Other features of the app include Visitor Mode, which restricts access to the system by children or guests; enhanced camera support for multiple, simultaneous camera views; multi-house support to control a second home or business; and a dashboard that provides a view of a home’s status, it said.
DTS added SiriusXM to its rosterof music services, it said Thursday (http://bit.ly/1pu04Bn), which in the U.S. includes Pandora, Deezer and a partnership with Songza that’s yet to go online. Sharon Graves, vice president of DTS’s Phorus division, told us that Phorus’s Play-Fi platform is trying to add a new music service every 60-90 days “or faster.” Music services are looking for multi-room audio platforms with a “broad reach,” Graves said, and Play-Fi has been aggressive in signing hardware partners over the past few months. Sound United’s Polk Audio and Definitive Technology brands demonstrated new Play-Fi gear last week, while Martin-Logan and Paradigm brands joined McIntosh at the high-end of the audio market with Play-Fi partnerships. On Play-Fi’s plans to extend its entry-level reach, Graves said plans are in the works and a product will be announced “soon.” Graves noted that the Phorus brand of Play-Fi products serves that role. A deal with Hewlett-Packard will bring Play-Fi into notebook PCs and tablets in the near future, and the platform will extend to smartphones down the road, she said, declining to provide a roadmap or timeline. Play-Fi’s strategy for differentiation takes on market leader Sonos and the growing field of Sonos wannabes. As a Sonos alternative, Play-Fi “preserves the user experience” of streaming music service’s look, she said. Sonos creates a “very Sonos-like user experience, and the services get smooshed into it,” Graves said. In contrast, when Play-Fi customers go into a SiriusXM app, “it'll look very much like the native Sirius XM experience,” she said. Looking ahead, Play-Fi has no limit to reach and is “open to having us licensed by every brand out there if they're interested in doing multi-room,” she said. The primary selling point for Play-Fi is that it’s building a multi-brand platform for wireless multi-room audio, said Graves, calling that an advantage for retailers. “It’s confusing today to have limited sets from all these different manufacturers that don’t interoperate,” she said. For customers shopping for multi-room audio, “If you're able to walk in and [Play-Fi] is as ubiquitous as, say, Bluetooth ... and people are choosing based on brand loyalty, aesthetics and acoustics, that ... makes it simple for everybody,” she said.
CSR, a supplier of Bluetooth Smart connectivity chipsets, is teaming with Universal Electronics to add infrared setup and control functionality to remote controls based on Universal’s QuickSet platform, the companies said Thursday (http://bit.ly/1xnHYdi). Manufacturers that use the CSR1011 chipset can deliver remote controls with long battery life and that are compatible with their existing entertainment products, removing the need for multiple remote controls, they said. QuickSet IR command upload capability will be integrated into CSR1011-based remote control software development kits, they said. Choosing the QuickSet option in the CSR remote SDK enables TV and set-top suppliers to take advantage of Universal’s device control database of entertainment devices, “which gives users access to many of the control functions for virtually all digital entertainment electronics devices in the world,” they said. By adding low-cost IR LEDs in a design, CSR1011-based remotes “can now seamlessly work with the QuickSet application to detect, identify and control compatible devices traditionally operated via IR remotes with minimal, if any, user setup,” they said.