Bluesound is running an October promotion on its Node 2i multiroom streamer at authorized dealers and Bluesound.com. Customers who buy the 2i through the end of the month get $100 off, bringing it to $449. The streamer has built-in Wi-Fi, AirPlay 2 and Bluetooth and supports hi-res audio formats up to 24-bit/192 kHz.

A Class II permissive change to Energous’ existing MS-550 FCC grant lets the company and its partners develop and market products that can be charged wirelessly within 1 meter of the transmitter, said the company Wednesday. The change allows expansion of Energous’ non-beamforming wireless charging technology, announced earlier this year, it said, adding it’s the first time a non-beamforming transmitter has been permitted with a charging zone of up to 1 meter under Part 18 guidelines. This broadens wireless power transfer applications that can be supported by the technology, “a less costly, less complicated path to commercialization,” said CEO Stephen Rizzone. The company continues to support its beamforming technology, he said. The pandemic “temporarily impacted” Energous’ ability to send engineering and application resources to customer sites, “slowing the advance of multiple product and sales cycles” that were expected to generate Q3 revenue, said Rizzone. He called the disruption a “delay.” Energous expects its WattUp-enabled products to be in commercial markets before year-end. “Over-the-air wireless charging has the potential to fundamentally change how we interact with everyday devices,” said Omdia analyst Dinesh Kithany. The research firm estimates 2 billion wireless power products will be shipped 2020-29.

Amazon One launched Tuesday in two Seattle-area Amazon Go stores as a “fast, convenient” way to use palms to pay, present a loyalty card, enter a stadium or "badge" into work. It's designed to be “highly secure and uses custom-built algorithms and hardware to create a person’s unique palm signature,” the company blogged. It's protected by “multiple security controls.” Palm images are “never stored on the Amazon One device” and are encrypted and sent to a “highly secure area we custom-built in the cloud where we create your palm signature." The retailer believes the technology has “broad applicability beyond our retail stores, so we also plan to offer the service to third parties like retailers, stadiums, and office buildings so that more people can benefit from this ease and convenience in more places.”

Thursday was the deadline for comments at the International Trade Commission on the public interest ramifications of the Tariff Act Section 337 exclusion order DivX seeks against LG, Samsung and TCL smart TVs and video processors from MediaTek, MStar and Realtek for allegedly infringing DivX adaptive bitrate streaming patents (see 2009160052). Realtek instead sought a 100-day ITC “adjudication” challenging DivX’s qualifications to bring a patent case because it’s “unlikely” DivX can satisfy “the economic prong of the domestic industry requirement” under ITC rules, said the chipmaker in Friday's posting (login required) in docket 337-3489. Realtek wants “expedited consideration” of the domestic industry requirement because a ruling against DivX “will likely avoid unnecessary and burdensome litigation,” said the filing.

Global smart home device unit shipments will grow 4.1% this year to 854 million, remaining “quite resilient” during the pandemic, forecast IDC Monday. Through 2024, that number will reach more than 1.4 billion, it said. Though the market lost some ground vs. pre-COVID-19 forecasts, smart home devices remained popular with consumers as they shifted spending from vacation, travel and restaurants. Video entertainment devices are expected to remain the largest category throughout the smart home forecast, generating 31.3% of all shipments in 2024 due to falling prices and advanced functions, including 8K video, higher refresh rates, HDR, large screen sizes and integration with smart assistants and streaming platforms. TVs are expected to hold 60% share in the category by 2024. In-home bandwidth requirements are growing as consumers spend more time indoors and add to the number of connected devices within the home, noted analyst Jitesh Ubrani. That will “force upgrades to the in-home network infrastructure and further drive the importance of Wi-Fi 6 in upcoming smart home devices." Market growth over the next few years will be limited by concerns about security and privacy, consumers' price sensitivity to upfront and ongoing costs of devices and services, and “the underlying uncertainty in labor and financial markets around the world.” Fear of missing out, along with security concerns, will drive demand for smart cameras, door locks and doorbells. Smart speakers are seen growing at a rate of 11.1% as emerging markets begin to adopt the voice-driven devices. IDC expects the category will be challenged for growth as smart speaker functionality gets incorporated into other device types and replacement rates stretch.

Huntkey bowed a fast charger ($16) for USB-C-equipped devices, including smartphones, tablets and notebook PCs. A dual-chip design allows it to adapt to global voltage inputs from 100V to 240V, said the company Friday: The 18-watt device can charge an iPad Pro in 3.5 hours.

Amazon’s hardware introductions (see 2009240052) Thursday “underscore a focus on the connected home as an entry into its ecosystem” Cowen analyst John Blackledge wrote investors Friday. They’re also “another opportunity” to leverage Amazon Web Services, he said. It's “going for multiple shots on goal with the burgeoning connected home, leveraging innovations in cloud computing (AWS) and machine learning (Alexa) that can be incorporated across nearly all of these devices.” Cowen estimates 31% of U.S. households own an Echo vs. 27% in Q3 last year. It predicts continued Echo share gains in Q4.

TCL's Signa smartphone began selling on Verizon Thursday. The prepaid $79 Android 10 device has a 5.5-inch 18:9 HD+ display, 8-megapixel rear camera, 5-megapixel selfie camera and 3000 mAh battery. The 32-GB phone has a dedicated Google Assistant button and supports a microSD card up to 256 GB.

Broadcasters will have “a lot" of new ATSC 3.0 deployments over the next five years, NAB Chief Technology Officer Sam Matheny told CTA’s virtual Technology and Standards Forum Tuesday. “You’re going to see a lot of stations that are taking advantage of the benefits of NextGenTV as it relates to better picture, better sound.” Sports broadcasting contracts will be up for renewal, and with that will come “increased pressure to start doing stuff in 4K,” he said. NextGenTV is now a “reality” in the U.S., said Matheny. COVID-19, "unfortunately," is “another reality,” he said. Broadcasters haven’t put NextGenTV “on the back burner” during the health crisis, he said. “Their commitment hasn’t wavered,” though the pandemic “has slowed the rollout,” said Matheny. Nine U.S. markets are live with 3.0, serving about 10% of TV households, he said. Stations in eight more markets have filed 3.0 license applications “with intentions to go on the air in the near future,” he said. “Things are changing rapidly,” though industry likely will fall 50% short of its 2019 NAB Show goal of launching in 60 markets by the end of 2020, he said. The CES 2020 “commitment” of LG, Samsung and Sony to debut up to 20 NextGenTV models collectively this year was “probably exceeded,” despite “quite a few challenges around getting products launched and shipped” during the pandemic, said Brian Markwalter, CTA senior vice president-technology and standards. Models run the gamut from sets priced below $1,000 to the most expensive 8K TVs, available both in OLED and "full-array" LCD, he said. CTA and NAB are “in the process now” of releasing the “next big revision” in the NextGenTV “test suite” for 2021-model TVs, he said. The suite involves 135 tests and more than 150 “unique assertions,” he said. TVs are required to pass to qualify for the NextGenTV logo, he said.

Microsoft will pay $7.5 billion cash for ZeniMax Media and its Bethesda Softworks, said Microsoft Monday. Bethesda “brings an impressive portfolio of games, technology, talent, as well as a track record of blockbuster commercial success, to Xbox,” it said. It expands Microsoft’s “creative studio teams” to 23 from 15 and enables Microsoft to bring Bethesda's franchises to the Xbox Game Pass subscription service the same day they launch for the Xbox console or PC, it said. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of fiscal 2021 ending late June.