Westone launched an iPhone app that uses BBE’s Sonic Maximizer, an audio technology designed to improve the smartphone listening experience. According to Westone, BBE’s technology “restores the natural warmth and definition” that can be lost in the digital listening experience.” Using the app, listeners can hear deeper, richer low notes, more clarity and improved upper harmonic detail, the company said. To use the $2.99 SonicMax Pro app, users select a playlist, pick a preset and hit play to engage the technology. The app automatically uploads playlists from the user’s library, Westone said, and users can perform play, pause, shuffle, skip and repeat functions from the app. Seven EQ settings are included, and users can customize three additional settings, the company said.
Channel Master launched a DVR for over-the-air programming that’s designed to boost its antenna business while giving rural TV owners a DVR option and cord-cutters another reason to abandon cable or satellite TV service. It’s the company’s third-generation DVR, said President Coty Youtsey, who said it has “learned from the past two iterations some of the idiosyncrasies involved” in working with broadcast and guide data that can make a CE device freeze. “We've got that under control now,” he said, which he said is an advantage Channel Master has over competitive products coming to market. Especially when dealing with over-the-air broadcasts, “It takes several years to get the software to the point where it’s consumer-friendly enough and stable,” he said.
A federal court ruled the government’s phone surveillance is likely unconstitutional, spurring members of Congress to call for action limiting surveillance. The ruling came as the White House received a set of recommendations from its appointed surveillance review group, with potential action to follow in January. Larry Klayman, the founder of Freedom Watch, initiated the case.
A federal court ruled the government’s phone surveillance is likely unconstitutional, spurring members of Congress to call for action limiting surveillance. The ruling came as the White House received a set of recommendations from its appointed surveillance review group, with potential action to follow in January. Larry Klayman, the founder of Freedom Watch, initiated the case.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler made the broadcast incentive auction more feasible by delaying it Friday (CED Dec 9 p4), but the first-of-its-kind auction won’t be easy, according to interviews Monday with former FCC chiefs from both parties, as well as with broadcast and wireless lawyers and public-interest officials. Not holding the auction until mid-2015, rather than the 2014 timetable that then-Chairman Julius Genachowski planned, gives Wheeler more time to resolve issues like limits on bidding for the top-two U.S. carriers and holding two other wireless spectrum auctions this year, they said.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler made the broadcast incentive auction more feasible by delaying it Friday (CD Dec 9 p1), but the first-of-its-kind auction won’t be easy, according to interviews Monday with former chairmen of both parties, broadcast and wireless lawyers and public-interest officials. They said not holding the auction until mid-2015, later than the 2014 then-Chairman Julius Genachowski planned, gives Wheeler more time to resolve issues like limits on bidding for the top-two U.S. carriers and holding two other wireless spectrum auctions this year.
All spectrum is important, said panelists at a Practising Law Institute session on wireless developments, but there was some disagreement over how valuable low-band spectrum is on its own. Panelists also agreed that a 180-day shot clock on merger review, proposed by FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai, is a good idea, if the agency gets some flexibility to pause the clock.
The World Wide Web Consortium-backed Do Not Track talks moved toward the first deadline for closing out definitions -- “tracking” and “party” -- since creating a new timeline last week, according to interviews with participants and a public email forum. The new tracking preference expression-focused path forward has caused in-group tension, prompting the chairs to clarify their new strategy. But in the group’s weekly Wednesday call, dissention remained over the group’s new direction -- even over the decision to first close out a definition for “tracking,” which is supposed to be wrapped up by Nov. 20, said co-chairman Justin Brookman, director of Center for Democracy and Technology’s Project on Consumer Privacy.
The World Wide Web Consortium-backed Do Not Track talks moved toward the first deadline for closing out definitions -- “tracking” and “party” -- since creating a new timeline last week, according to interviews with participants and a public email forum. The new tracking preference expression-focused path forward has caused in-group tension, prompting the chairs to clarify their new strategy. But in the group’s weekly Wednesday call, dissention remained over the group’s new direction -- even over the decision to first close out a definition for “tracking,” which is supposed to be wrapped up by Nov. 20, said co-chairman Justin Brookman, director of Center for Democracy and Technology’s Project on Consumer Privacy.
Bang & Olufsen on Tuesday officially launched the BeoLab 17 compact speakers ($3,990 a pair) with Wireless Speaker and Audio (WiSA) capability it previewed at CEDIA Expo last month, along with the BeoLab 19 geometric subwoofer ($3,395) and flagship BeoLab 18 speakers ($6,590). BeoLab 18, designed after the company’s iconic BeoLab 8000 speaker that debuted in 1992, adds a slatted wood grill option ($1,390) that brings a mixed-material strategy to the line combining aluminum and wood, said CEO Tue Mantoni. The speakers, sub-branded Immaculate Wireless Sound, will ship at the end of November, Mantoni said.