Some 31 Apple stores were shown closed on the company’s website Thursday, including seven in Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott (R) announced the state will pause further reopening phases amid the surge in COVID-19 cases. The Department of Health State Services estimated 50,774 active cases statewide. Apple showed all four Houston stores closed; the Texas Medical Center reported intensive care unit beds at 100% capacity Wednesday. Harris County, Houston's home, led with 25,786 confirmed cases Wednesday, said Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Seven states reported new highs for current coronavirus hospitalizations this week, said The Washington Post : Arizona, Arkansas, California, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. All six Apple stores in Arizona were temporarily shuttered. The state had the biggest upward trend of new cases, said Johns Hopkins. In Florida, Apple stores in Estero and Naples were shown closed, while four of five stores in North Carolina -- and both South Carolina stores -- were shuttered. Two of four Tennessee stores -- Germantown and Nashville -- were closed. Apple began a gradual reopening of U.S. stores last month (see 2005180043) after it temporarily shut all U.S. storefronts in March. The company didn't comment.
Federal and state governments should protect municipal control over the right of way and their ability to receive fair-market compensation for access to public assets, including for small cells, said a U.S. Conference of Mayors proposed resolution that was amended and adopted Thursday by the conference's Transportation and Communications Committee. It still needs OK by the full body. Partnerships, not deregulation and preemption, will bring universal broadband, it said. FCC preemption threatens localities’ ability to provide public safety and health services during the pandemic, it said. The resolution urged passage of various local government bills including HR-530, S-2012, S-3218 and HR-5659. The FCC didn’t comment. Cities challenged the FCC’s June wireless infrastructure order earlier this week (see 2006240060).
Rev launched live captions for Zoom virtual meeting users, said the speech-to-text company Thursday: Zoom quickly became the leading video conferencing platform during the pandemic (see 2006120054), previously lacking “a solution for on-screen captions.”
Analytics company Verint partnered with Viziblezone on COVID-19 contact tracing software for smartphones to help return employees to physical work spaces, said the Israeli startup Thursday. “While many global brands have already stated their intention to keep employees working from home, this solution has particular benefit for companies who require their workforce to be physically present.”
The “spike” in over-the-top “engagement” that began at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic “has since plateaued” but is "holding steady for now," reported Comscore Wednesday. Consumption of OTT content grew through the roof in terms of total homes and viewing hours. The researcher estimates 69.8 million homes used OTT in April, up by 5.2 million from the same 2019 month. The average home viewed 102 hours of OTT content in April, an increase of 17 hours from April 2019, it said: The use of “pure-play” vMVPDs to view OTT content jumped 70% in February through April, compared with the same 2019 period.
One-page technical abstracts are due July 3 for the annual Symposium on Vehicle Displays and Interfaces, said the Society for Information Display Wednesday. SID originally planned to hold the conference physically Sept. 29-30 in Livonia, Michigan, but COVID-19 forced it to convert it to a virtual event Oct.14-15. Organizers are seeking technical papers on a such subjects as trends in automotive displays and consumer acceptance of different display and interface technologies. Authors whose abstracts are chosen will be notified later in July, and their full papers will be due Aug. 17, said SID.
Mediacom, which provided unlimited data to broadband subscribers during the pandemic, starting in September will offer up to 100 Gb of additional data free to any customers who hit their monthly allotment, it said Wednesday. It's also extending through August its free access to all its Wi-Fi hot spots, free 60 days of its low-cost internet service for new qualifying families and 12 months of discounted Internet 60 service pricing to new customers.
The cancellation of the 2020 emergency alert system test is the first such cancellation in nearly a decade, blogged Fletcher Heald Tuesday. The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced the cancellation last week, pinning the move on the COVID-19 pandemic. FEMA “is moving the next national test of the system to 2021 out of consideration for the unusual circumstances and working conditions for those in the broadcast and cable industry,” the agency said. “Systems remain in place for rapid automatic transmission of the test message by broadcast and cable operators,” but “follow-on reporting activities associated with a national test place additional burdens on technical staff that are already quite busy maintaining as close to normal operation as possible.”
The Library of American Broadcasting Foundation won’t hold a 2020 Giants of American Broadcasting luncheon due to the pandemic, it said Wednesday.
Sonos is eliminating 12% of its workforce, said a Wednesday SEC filing. It didn't respond to questions on which departments will be affected. It's also closing its New York retail store and six satellite offices. The store was reportedly damaged during looting in the SoHo neighborhood associated with George Floyd protests last month. CEO Patrick Spence said in a statement "the pandemic and resulting economic impacts have caused us to have to make some hard choices, including reductions to our workforce. ... These changes are necessary in order for us to emerge from this period ready to take advantage of opportunities we see in the future." The board approved a 20% cut to Spence’s base salary July 1-Dec. 31. All directors agreed to forgo their annual cash retainers for that period.