Google is asking the FCC to allow it to do drone tests in New Mexico, consulting engineer Steven Crowley said in a blog post, citing a Sept. 12 filing by Google (http://bit.ly/1y81ITo). Crowley said key details were redacted from the filing, but Google proposes to use 910 MHz and 2.4 GHz spectrum, which is otherwise open for unlicensed use. “We don’t know what Google is doing with these bands, but Google says the 2400 MHz antenna is oriented such that vertical peak gain is 20 degrees below the horizon,” he wrote (http://bit.ly/1ph1wqz). “Similarly, the 910 MHz antenna is oriented 5-90 degrees above the ground plane. This suggests the higher band is for a drone-to-ground link, and the lower band is for ground-to-drone.”

Walmart became the second big retailer after Best Buy to declare its intent not to participate in the Apple Pay digital wallet system. “We currently have no plans at this time to participate in Apple Pay,” Walmart spokesman Randy Hargrove emailed us Friday. “That is the extent of what we are saying.” Two days earlier, Best Buy also spurned taking part in Apple Pay, suggesting it had something to do with the chain not having NFC systems installed at the point of sale in its stores (CED Sept 11 p1).

The recent launches of the Samsung Note Edge, Samsung Galaxy Round and LG G Flex “took the hype” surrounding flexible smartphone displays “one step closer to reality,” Strategy Analytics said Friday. But despite being made from flexible OLED materials, those first-generation phones “offer limited new functionality and in fact have curved rigid screens, rather than flexible screens,” it said. “Curved OLED screens offer a number of benefits over rigid LCD screens, including being lighter, thinner and supposedly more durable. In addition, the curved form factor of the screens may offer a more comfortable user experience.” In terms of their impact on display technology for smartphones, “they are a huge leap forward” and are likely the “precursors” to “truly flexible” smartphone displays in the future, when leveraging OLED’s flexibility “will enable a host of completely new designs and form factors to be developed, such as smartphones with tablet-sized foldable screens,” it said. Challenges abound in making “truly flexible and foldable” devices commercially available, it said. “More of the phone’s components need to be flexible to make a truly flexible phone, not just the display. This includes the cover material, the batteries as well as the semiconductors and other components. In addition, new tools and processes will need to be developed for cost-effective volume production.” Strategy Analytics estimated it will take three years for those challenges to be overcome. Once conquered, “it is likely that flexible OLED displays will become the preferred display technology in mass consumer products within the next 10 years,” it said.

The E-Label Act (S-2583) is among the dozen items the Senate Commerce Committee will consider at its Wednesday afternoon executive session, said an agenda the committee released Friday. The House unanimously passed the E-Label Act last week, much to industry satisfaction. “By granting device manufacturers the ability to use eLabels, the legislation eases the technical and logistical burdens on manufacturers and improves consumer access to important device information,” said Telecommunications Industry Association President Grant Seiffert in a statement after the House passage. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., is one of the backers of the Senate version of the E-label bill.

The ZigBee Alliance ratified its ZigBee Remote Control 2.0 standard, available for product deployment and able to be downloaded for free from the alliance’s website, the alliance said Friday (http://bit.ly/1qKfUwI). It also released a white paper (http://bit.ly/1sB8fkT) explaining the functionality of the new standard. The 2.0 spec includes a “find my remote” feature and the ability to connect to other devices in the smart home, the alliance said. The spec gives consumers the capability to directly control all devices in a home with one remote control, it said. “All parts of a ZigBee smart home network, including lights, heating, air conditioning, security and home monitoring can be operated with the same remote control,” it said. “It also enables telecom companies and cable operators to seamlessly integrate their smart home offerings with set-top boxes. These newest updates will allow companies to deliver innovative new products and services using ZigBee to improve comfort, security and convenience in the smart home."

Kaleidescape said it’s bowing a recommendation engine to make it easier for consumers to discover and download movies. Other movie recommendation engines utilize the purchase history from a single vendor, but the new Kaleidescape engine collects its knowledge data from the customer’s music collection, matches it to collections from other Kaleidescape users and then predicts which movies a customer will like using proprietary algorithms, the company said Thursday. In addition, Kaleidescape’s Digital Offers service enables customers to upgrade their DVDs and Blu-ray discs to downloaded digital copies, “eliminating the hassle of physical discs,” the company said. Consumers can find out which Digital Offers are available on the Kaleidescape Store or using the on-screen display, it said. The company also said it expanded its movie selection with content licensed from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, bringing its total number of licensed titles to more than 8,400 movies and 1,000 TV show seasons.

DirecTV is confident it will land the renewal of the NFL Sunday Ticket package of NFL games by year-end, said a Wells Fargo analyst who said she heard CEO Mike White use words to that effect at an investor conference. Lower-than-expected programming costs at DirecTV are mainly due to its not carrying some sports networks like that of the Los Angeles Dodgers, wrote Wells Fargo’s Marci Ryvicker in an email to investors. But DirecTV programming costs will grow by a double-digit percentage in 2015, Ryvicker said. Renewing the NFL Sunday Ticket deal is “important” for completing AT&T’s plan to buy DirecTV, she said. Under their merger agreement, AT&T is free to walk away from the deal if DirecTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket package isn’t renewed “substantially on the terms discussed between the parties,” AT&T has said in SEC filings (CED May 20 p1).

"Let Your Ears Be Loved” is the theme of a multichannel consumer campaign to support Sennheiser’s Urbanite headphones, the company said Friday. The campaign, which kicked off Friday and runs through November, “will engage” its target group of millennials with messaging that focuses on “their high demands and passion for sound in a humorous way,” it said. The campaign “has multiple components and will use social media and user-generated content to drive participation and viral uptake,” it said.

AFL-CIO backs the proposed AT&T buy of DirecTV, said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in a filing Friday at the FCC in docket 14-90. The deal serves the public interest and the interests of the workers who will be affected, the filing said. There are few antitrust concerns with the deal, which will result in a stronger competitor to the dominant cable industry, “providing consumers with more options, putting pressure on prices and improving service in the video market,” the filing said. It will “improve the economics for high-speed broadband expansion, which is critical to economic growth and job creation in rural and urban communities across our nation,” it said. It also will bring benefits to employees, and AT&T respects the rights of its employees “to make their own choice about union representation,” it said.

NAB is gearing up to “go head-to-head with the record labels at the Copyright Royalty Board over digital performance rights, said NAB CEO Gordon Smith at the opening of the 2014 NAB Radio Show Wednesday. NAB is working to convince the CRB “that they should set the rate at a level that encourages broadcasters to stream,” when the rates are reset in 2015, Smith said. NAB is also weighing in at the FCC on the possible expansion of online public file requirements, he said. “NAB has explained to the Commission that it is likely to be much more difficult, especially for small radio stations, to upload and continually update the public file.” Broadcasters should be “bullish” about the future of radio, Smith said. No other medium has broadcasting’s connection to local communities, Smith said. He said NAB’s support of an app that provides FM radio over smartphones -- called NextRadio -- is part of the association’s effort to provide a future for radio. NAB Labs is also testing the “all-digital mode of iBiquity’s AM digital radio system,” Smith said. “We have now conducted field tests of this system at seven different stations and are conducting lab testing as well.” The results are “encouraging,” Smith said Wednesday, according to prepared remarks released by the association (http://bit.ly/1lYwIjJ).