Sixty-one percent of consumers rank smartphones and smart TV remotes (45 percent) as top devices for voice control, said a Thursday Syntiant report based on a Caravan survey. Over a quarter of consumers, led by Generation X and baby boomers, cited smart thermostats, doorbells and microwave ovens as devices they control by voice vs. touch screens or other tactile interfaces. Millennials (28%) and Generation Z (18%) consumers control gaming devices and smartwatches by voice. Privacy (27%) is the top concern consumers have about voice control, followed by security (23%), functionality (19%) and ease of use (15%). The survey was done April 22-24.

Smartphones could overtake TVs within a year as the most-owned tech product in U.S. households, said a Wednesday CTA report. Smartphones are now owned by 92% of homes -- a point higher than 2019 -- while the number of U.S. homes with a TV dropped 2 points, said a poll of 2,612 U.S. adults March 31-April 6. Household laptop ownership was 76%. Smart home technologies gained household penetration, with smart speakers having the highest penetration at 39%, up 8 points. Some 22% of households plan to buy a smart speaker over the next 12 months -- 69% repeat owners, 31% first-time buyers. Products with the highest level of buying interest are portable battery chargers (39% of households), smartphones (36%) and wireless earbuds (27%). Twenty-four percent plan to buy TVs, 23% laptops and 21% videogame consoles, it said.

Dialog Semiconductor's ultra-low-power Wi-Fi SoC can enable up to five-year battery operation from continuously connected devices, it announced Monday. The DA16200 was engineered for devices including connected door locks, thermostats and security video cameras that require “always on” Wi-Fi connectivity, it said. The company also announced the DA16600 module, which combines Wi-Fi from the DA16200 and Bluetooth Low Energy capabilities from its SmartBond TINY DA14531 SoC. The combo Wi-Fi and BLE module is said to eliminate issues caused by the coexistence of two radios at 2.4 GHz in the same design.

Commercial deployment updates in 12 categories of ATSC 3.0 products and services are included in the new 3.0 “progress report” (see 2004220004) going live Monday at the ATSC website in time for the virtual NAB Show Express event Tuesday and Wednesday. More than four dozen ATSC members submitted a total of 80 entries.

Energous announced availability of the PowerHub developer kit to manufacturers for integration of wireless charging at distances up to 1 foot. Target products include smart speakers, game consoles and access points, said the company Thursday. The kit incorporates non-beamforming technology with one antenna and a power amplifier, similar to one certified by the FCC last month (see 2004210058); manufacturers have to secure regulatory certification for products in markets where they are sold. The kit broadcasts power to multiple receiving devices. CEO Steve Rizzone said on a Wednesday Q1 call the Primo-W hearing aid from NewSound (see 2002280015), expected to ship last month, was delayed by COVID-19. It should start shipping to consumers in a few months. Energous said American Equus announced a health tracking sensor with its charging technology for equestrians that measures a horse's vitals; it’s due in Q4. Energous shares closed down 8.6% Thursday to $2.01.

TiVo announced availability of the Stream 4K media dongle it launched at CES that allows cord-cutters a path to live TV -- but not broadcast TV like traditional TiVo boxes -- via Sling TV. The $69 device is available at a limited-time price of $49 with no TiVo subscription fee, said the company. Sling TV offers a free seven-day trial on Stream 4K for its service that starts at $30 monthly. A TiVo differentiator is it brings together shows and movies from favorite platforms -- “live or streaming," it said. Users can easily switch between, say, CNN and Netflix. Stream 4K integrates with Amazon Prime Video and Google Play. Dolby Atmos and Vision are included on the Android device, which supports Google Assistant voice control on the supplied remote.

Vizio hired Adam Townsend, ex-Showtime, as chief financial officer, part of the TV maker's pivot "from a sole focus on hardware to a new vision for a complete media offering," it said. (See also personals section.) CEO William Wang cited Townsend's financial operational experience with content, advertising and streaming-based businesses. Townsend said Vizio will capitalize on the shift toward digital video consumption through hardware, software and data analytics.

Smartphones continue to be chips' largest driver, with demand weak and focused on 4G, IDC reported Monday. IDC expects 5G volume will grow this year despite COVID-19. The virus will shelve an expected “bottom and general recovery” of the semiconductor market, the firm predicted: It will slide 4.2% to $401 billion in 2020 as the global economy fights to recover from “this unprecedented crisis.” Every one point drop in smartphone unit volume expectations will have a couple of percentage points of impact on overall semiconductor revenue for the year, said the researcher. Its current view is for a 10% drop in smartphone shipments vs. 2019 to 1.6 billion; the pessimistic one is a 20% plunge to 1.4 billion. Value of mobile semiconductors is forecast at $111 billion; that drops to $99 billion in the worst case.

Intel bowed its 10th-generation Core S-series desktop processors with maximum speeds of 5.3 GHz. The Core i9-10900K, with Thermal Velocity Boost, has up to 10 cores, 20 threads and DDR4-2933 memory speeds, it said Thursday. The processor enables more tuning control, faster multitasking and smoother gameplay, said Intel.

Consumers “have made it clear that they would prefer access to all voice assistants from all devices,” Juniper Research reported. Alexa is considered good at shopping, Google Assistant at knowledge, and Siri is locked into the iPhone: “Consumers want it all,” the researcher said. “Microphones are everywhere” and access to voice assistants has become “ubiquitous,” it said. Voice commerce growth will outstrip e-commerce growth through 2024, providing a mostly hands-free touch point for shopping “from anywhere,” the trends-watcher said Tuesday. Voice payment authentication has been a challenge: current modes are biometrics or a four-digit PIN that can be read aloud, it said. Strong customer authentication (SCA) requirements in Europe could be a challenge for retailers using voice payments; customers’ payments could be declined due to stricter authentication measures that will be enforced by Dec. 31, the firm said.