The near field communications technology (NFC) built into more than 500 million mobile phones can be tapped by retailers to boost the in-store shopping experience, the NFC Forum said last week, citing research from Strategy Analytics. According to the study, which included survey results from 1,000 end users, NFC technology was “overwhelmingly” preferred over competing communications technologies, including Bluetooth beacons and QR codes. Among the ways NFC suggested that retailers can implement NFC technology in stores are: for deals, Wi-Fi and rewards accounts; multimedia content and real-time store inventory; information about related products; NFC-enabled on-phone shopping carts; product information; and cartridge/toner refill and one-touch reorder capability.
Free Wi-Fi access will be provided to all guests staying at Hyatt-branded hotels and resorts worldwide as of Saturday, a Hyatt news release said. Guests will be able to obtain Wi-Fi for free on an unlimited number of mobile devices or laptops in guest rooms and social spaces at Hyatt hotels, it said. The sign-on process to access free Wi-Fi will vary by property. “It didn’t feel natural to put barriers around something travelers view as an essential part of their hotel stay,” said Vice President-Brands Kristine Rose. “Staying connected through technology is a critical part of productivity and keeping in touch with loved ones, especially while away traveling." Platinum and Diamond Hyatt Gold Passport members will be able to upgrade to premium Wi-Fi service for free whenever the upgrade is available. Guests not enrolled in loyalty programs can buy premium service, said the hotel chain. Marriott International was fined $600,000 by the FCC in October after that hotel chain was found to be blocking personal Wi-Fi networks at its Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville (see 1410060066). The hotel chain announced in January it would no longer block guests from using their personal Wi-Fi devices at any of its hotels (see 1501150064) in order to “protect personal data,” said Marriott International’s Global Chief Information Officer Bruce Hoffmeister.
Peak period mobile bandwidth consumption per user will increase fivefold in the next three years, said a mobile broadband bandwidth demand study done by ACG Research and sponsored by network specialist Ciena, a news release from Ciena said. Macro cell capacity requirements will increase from 260 Mbps to 1.5 Gbps in five years, the Thursday release said. Increased device penetration and new entertainment services and applications caused “growing bottlenecks” for service provider backhaul networks, it said. ACG’s study focused on peak period mobile bandwidth requirements (bits per second) instead of total data usage (bytes per month) to provide bandwidth projections, it said. Service providers should prepare to deploy mobile backhaul solutions that support 10 Gbps “to meet this projected bandwidth and ensure quality of experience,” it said.
EWTN Global Catholic Network is available on Amazon Fire TV, EWTN said in a news release Friday. Amazon Fire customers can watch live streams of EWTN’s TV and radio networks and video-on-demand of its daily homilies, devotionals, live shows and news programs in English, German and Spanish, it said. Customers in Germany, the U.K. and the U.S. can access programming through Amazon Fire or Amazon Fire TV Stick, it said. EWTN is located in the lifestyle category in Amazon Fire’s apps, it said.
Mitsubishi tossed its hat into the smart home space with the announcement it's deploying research and development efforts to apply smart home features to its home appliance business. Commercial applications haven't been determined, the company said. Mitsubishi Electric Smart Home will combine sensors, smart appliances and other household devices in a connected environment, it said.
Freeview, the U.K.’s subscription-free digital TV service, is being rebranded as Freeview Play “in preparation for a new product launch that will introduce a mass market connected TV offer,” said DTV Services, the consortium of BBC, Sky, Channel 4, ITV and Arqiva that runs the service. “The Freeview logo and visual identity have been refreshed to reflect the platform’s evolving service and will be introduced across Freeview’s product portfolio and brand marketing.”
Nvidia’s automotive platforms for the connected car “remain on a sharp upward trajectory, registering better than 80 percent growth” over last year, Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress said Wednesday on an earnings call. “More than 7.5 million cars with our technology are now on the road, up from 4.7 million a year ago.” At CES, the company bowed Nvidia Drive, “a computing platform for next-generation advanced driver assistant systems and digital cockpits,” Kress said. Nvidia Drive “is basically a mobile super chip, a mobile super computer, with a ton of software on top,” CEO Jen-Hsun Huang said in Q&A. The platform enables “a very advanced digital cockpit,” Huang said. “You know that we're incredibly good at computer graphics, and the things that we can do in the car with more and more displays showing up in the car is pretty wonderful.”
NAB will add an online video track to the NAB Show in Las Vegas April 11-16, the association said in a news release Wednesday. The online video conference, April 14 and 15, will cover advertising, cross-screen targeting, migration to over-the-top services, multichannel video programming distributors and new video platforms, it said.
Alternative early upgrade and no-contract wireless plans are disrupting the market’s traditional purchase model for handsets, said Parks Associates research released Thursday. A quarter of T-Mobile subscribers prefer the traditional two-year wireless contract model with a subsidized handset, while a third prefer to pay full price upfront and 31 percent would rather pay in monthly installments, Parks said. T-Mobile and AT&T “have tapped into the consumer desire for the latest and greatest smartphone with their early-upgrade programs,” said Harry Wang, Parks director-health and mobile product research. Some 14 percent of smartphone owners plan to upgrade to their next device more quickly than they did for their current device, with a quarter of them citing special operator incentives as the reason. “These alternative plans are one stone for two birds -- they help operators acquire new subscribers and retain loyal, high-value customers,” Wang said. The challenge for operators is to persuade smartphone users to upgrade early and buy more-profitable data plans while minimizing voluntary customer churn, he said.
Schlage Lock parent company Allegion is taking an equity stake in iDevices to bolster its position in the Internet of Things, the companies said in a statement Thursday. Allegion will leverage iDevices’ technology platforms and IoT knowledge to accelerate new product development, Allegion President-Americas Tim Eckersley said. Terms weren’t disclosed. Allegion and iDevices said they plan a joint technology agreement, and Allegion will receive an undisclosed minority stake in the company.