Qualcomm said its Qualcomm Atheros subsidiary expanded distribution with Arrow Electronics for the U.S. and China and Codico for Europe in an effort to broaden support for QCA4002/4004, its low-power Wi-Fi platform designed for the Internet of Things. Qualcomm Atheros is offering an IoT development kit to enable low-power Wi-Fi in a range of connected products including light bulbs, home automation devices and security systems, it said. The kit includes support for AllJoyn, an open-source software and services framework from the AllSeen Alliance; a hosted mode for designs that pair the QCA4002/4004 with a microcontroller; 21emetry’s IoT platform, ThingFabric, which provides secure communication between devices and the cloud; peer-to-peer connectivity via Wi-Fi Direct; and Green Transmit to dynamically adjust output power, Qualcomm said Thursday.

Local Corp. settled its patent infringement case against Fry’s Electronics, Local said Wednesday. The terms of the settlement are confidential, it said. Local Corp. sued Fry’s in 2012 for its alleged infringement of Local’s U.S. Patent No. 7,062,453, which covers “'methods and systems for dynamic networked commerce architecture,'” it said. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court of Central California, said a Local Corp. spokeswoman. “We are very pleased with the outcome of this settlement, and we believe this further validates the significant unlocked value of our robust patent portfolio,” Local Corp. CEO Fred Thiel said. Fry’s didn’t comment.

Parks Associates plans a free webinar on “The Technology to Deliver Millions of Connected Homes,” at 9 a.m. CDT Sept. 25, addressing challenges of scalability, interoperability, usability and integration of data analytics for the future connected home. Coverage will include strategies smart home vendors are using to leverage product connectivity so they can reduce cost, extend functionality, add services and provide an integrated user experience, Parks said. Presenters will include Alertme.com founder Pilgrim Beart and CEO Mary Turner.

CEA on Thursday hailed President Barack Obama’s appointment of Megan Smith as U.S. chief technology officer and Alexander Macgillivray as deputy CTO. “Smith became known for pursuing next-generation projects such as balloon-borne Internet service, drone delivery and solar-powered automobiles” while at Google, CEA President Gary Shapiro said. Macgillivray is a “well-known advocate for an open and uncensored Internet” based on his time at Google and Twitter, Shapiro said.

Gracenote said it bought film and TV information and services company Baseline for $50 million (http://bit.ly/1qozazG). The acquisition strengthens Gracenote’s existing video metadata by adding movie and TV information for more than 300,000 movies and TV projects, information on nearly 1.5 million TV and film professionals, and box office data for 45 territories, it said Wednesday. Baseline’s subscription-based The Studio System platform expands Gracenote’s reach into the studio and TV network communities with data and services targeted to entertainment industry professionals, Gracenote said. Baseline’s licensed data powers video search and discovery features and TV Everywhere apps for satellite operators, on-demand movie services, Internet companies and online streaming providers including Hulu and Vudu, it said. Gracenote was bought by Tribune Media Co. earlier this year.

Onkyo will release a firmware update enabling Dolby Atmos sound on the Onkyo TX-NR636, TX-NR737 and TX-NR838 network AV receivers Sept. 29, the company said Wednesday. Onkyo’s high-end TX-NR1030 and TX-NR3030 network AV receivers -- and the flagship PR-SC5530 network AV controller -- will ship in mid-October with support for Dolby Atmos enabled from the factory, the company said. The HT-S7700 network home-theater-in-a-box system will ship with Atmos built in at the end of the month, it said.

TCL announced at IFA Wednesday a 55-inch 4K Ultra HD TV that delivers full NTSC color gamut performance from an LCD TV at one-third the cost of OLED TVs. The TCL TV, launching first in China before rolling out to other markets, uses Color IQ quantum dot (QD) technology from Lexington, Massachusetts-based QD Vision that’s said to provide deeper, sharper and more natural color than standard LCD TVs. The QD plus LED TV “shatters the prohibitively high price barrier of OLED TVs,” the “only other technology to provide consumers with the richness of a full-gamut color viewing experience,” the companies said in a news release (http://bit.ly/1lzodez). QD Vision describes Color IQ as semiconductor nanocrystal technology that enables a liquid crystal display to achieve 100 percent NTSC color performance. The company can achieve full-gamut color in LCD TVs due to its in-house, “high-volume manufacturing operations,” it said. The company cited research indicating that “colorfulness” is the most important perceptual factor in viewers’ judgment of picture quality. Most mainstream LCD TV designs have had to sacrifice color quality, achieving typically 60-70 percent of the NTSC color gamut standard, the companies said. Color IQ can deliver 100 percent of the NTSC color gamut, and it works with all major LCD applications, QD Vision said, providing “superior color performance and high system efficiency.” The ability to deliver vibrant and accurate color using a cost-effective technology makes quantum dot technology “poised for universal adoption in the coming years,” QD Vision said. Adding full-gamut color at an affordable price “creates a really strong differentiator,” for TCL, said QD Vision CEO Jason Carlson. On a retail show floor, TVs with full-gamut color stand out, and “customers can easily tell the difference in performance,” he said. Carlson called the TCL TV a “world-class system that sets a high bar for the rest of the industry.” The addition of QD technology to TCL’s 4K TV lineup will offer “great value to consumers who want to enjoy the advanced picture quality with vivid colors and sharper images,” said E. Hao, CEO, TCL Multimedia. Price and availability weren’t given. Queries to U.S. tier-one TV makers about plans for quantum dot technology weren’t immediately answered.

Bowers & Wilkins introduced the second-generation P5 headphones ($299) combining the hi-fi sound of the P7 headphones with the portability of the P5 model, it said Wednesday. The P5 Series 2 uses drivers with a suspended diaphragm that operates more like a traditional speaker than other headphones, delivering more precise movement, B&W said. The phones come with a Made for iPhone cable and a carry case. The company also launched the next-gen C5 in-ear headphones ($179) with sound quality improvements due to a small-scale drive unit design. The C5 Series 2 headphones keep the Secure Loop design of the Series 1 headphones but are 10 percent lighter for a more comfortable fit, B&W said. C5 Series 2 comes with a Made for iPhone Mic and Remote that’s said to offer improved ergonomics for more control.

Worldwide phablet shipments, defined as smartphones with screen sizes from 5.5 to less than 7 inches, will reach 175 million units worldwide this year, passing the 170 million portable PCs expected to ship during the same period, said International Data Corp. (IDC). Next year, phablet shipments of 318 million are forecast to top tablet shipments, projected at 233 million for the year, IDC said. Phablets began picking up volume in 2012, but the category has already put pressure on the smaller end of the tablet market, where growth of 7-inch tablets has slowed, it said. IDC expects consumer replacement cycles to shift to larger-sized tablets, but that trend hasn’t made up for the falloff in shipments of smaller-sized tablets, which has led to lowered expectations for the tablet market in 2014 and beyond, IDC said. Apple’s expected entrance into the phablet space with the iPhone 6 this month is expected to bring more attention to phablets “as larger screen smartphones become the new norm,” said analyst Melissa Chau. IDC expects phablets to grow from 14 percent of the worldwide smartphone market this year to 32 percent in 2018. While consumers in mature markets including the U.S. and Western Europe are likely to own a combination of PCs, tablets and smartphones, “in many places the smartphone -- regardless of size -- will be the one connected device of choice,” IDC said. Falling average selling prices (ASPs) for phablets and smartphones will help drive the trend, it said, noting that in 2013, phablet ASP was $568 versus a regular smartphone at $320. This year, phablet ASP will drop to $397 while smartphone ASP falls to $291, it said. “Consumers are still trying to figure out what mix of [mobile] devices and screen sizes will suit them best,” analyst Tom Mainelli said. “What works well today could very well shift tomorrow as phones gain larger screens, tablets become more powerful replacements for PCs, and even smart watch screens join the fray."

Oral argument in broadcasters’ latest attempt to get a nationwide preliminary injunction against streaming TV service Aereo is Oct. 15, said an order issued in U.S District Court in Manhattan Tuesday. The broadcaster request for a preliminary injunction while the case against Aereo is tried on the merits is the same one that led to the ABC v. Aereo U.S. Supreme Court decision in broadcasters’ favor in June . Aereo has argued that the ABC v. Aereo majority opinion classified it as identical to a cable system, entitling it to a compulsory copyright license. “Aereo has paid the statutory license fees required under [Copyright Act] Section 111, and thus Plaintiffs can no longer complain that they are not being compensated as copyright owners,” said Aereo Friday in an opposition filing to the injunction motion. “Aereo is entitled to a compulsory license under the Copyright Act, and no preliminary injunction should issue on remand.” Aereo pointed to statements from CBS CEO Les Moonves that Aereo hadn’t affected CBS retransmission consent negotiations as evidence that the requested injunction wouldn’t be preventing any harm to broadcast businesses. The injunction request is also “overbroad” in targeting both Aereo’s offerings of real-time and time-shifted viewings of retransmitted broadcast content, Aereo said. Since the Supreme Court’s Aereo ruling didn’t overturn the Cablevision decision that provides the legal underpinning for Cablevision’s remote DVR technology, the injunction shouldn’t include Aereo’s time-shifted offerings, Aereo said. “Cablevision remains the law in this Circuit and Aereo’s time-shifted DVR is functionally identical to the Cablevision system."