Don't require stations moving to ATSC 3.0 to HD simulcast or take up proposals from public interest groups to subsidize consumer compatible equipment purchases from broadcasters' ancillary service fees, said NAB in a call Thursday with FCC Media Bureau Chief Michelle Carey. “Rules regarding derogation of service have not proven controversial or unworkable in any way, and there is no compelling reason for the Commission to adjust those,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 20-145. Don’t “inject” retransmission consent matters here, NAB asked. “There is simply no reason for the Commission to consider, let alone adopt, regulations to prevent a harm that has not yet materialized associated with services that are not yet being offered.”

August semiconductor revenue reached $36.2 billion globally, up 4.9% from a year earlier and 3.6% higher than July, reported the Semiconductor Industry Association Monday. It was the seventh straight monthly year-over-year increase, “demonstrating the global market so far has remained largely insulated from ongoing global macroeconomic headwinds,” said SIA CEO John Neuffer. He cautioned there’s “still substantial uncertainty for the months ahead.” August sales into the Americas “stood out,” he said, rising 23.6% from August 2019.

Google’s Pixel 5 is the latest smartphone to employ reverse wireless charging, allowing the phone to serve as a no-wire power bank for Qi-based low-power devices. A photo at Google Store shows a Pixel Buds case piggybacking on top of the 5G Pixel, available for preorder and due this month. Use of the Battery Share feature “significantly reduces Pixel battery life,” Google said, and cases can interfere with charging and reduce charging speed. When a Pixel phone is plugged in and charging, Battery Share turns on automatically for a short period; if the Pixel 5 phone doesn’t sense another device using its power during that time, it turns off, said the company.

The Zigbee Alliance launched a Europe Interest Group to strengthen standards globally, with a focus on the Connected Home over IP project (CHIP), it said Thursday. CHIP membership is open to all alliance participants and promoters, it said, including those with interests in the commercial IoT market. Group chair is alliance board member Ulf Axelsson, IoT architect, Ikea.

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.”

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.

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.

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.