Development of open radio access network technology is progressing, with 48 specification documents released since July, said the O-RAN Alliance Friday. Its Global Plugfest has featured 77 companies at seven venues. “O-RAN technical specification effort progresses with healthy momentum,” the group said. It keeps expanding RAN standards "with open interfaces and intelligent RAN functions," it said. "All published specifications will soon be available to the general public."

The order backlog at Nordic Semiconductor “keeps increasing,” said CEO Svenn-Tore Larsen on a Q3 earnings call Thursday. It ended the quarter with a $1.3 billion backlog, “basically four times the backlog the same time last year,” he said. The chipmaker now worries its backlog will “stretch into '23,” he said. “The challenge we have at Nordic is to focus on the customer situation. We need to ensure we can give the Tier-1s the opportunity to grow the same as we keep our longtail customers happy.” The challenge is “very difficult with this constrained supply situation, but that's what we work on every day,” he said.

Global information technology spending will approach $4.5 trillion in 2022, increasing 5.5% from 2021, reported Gartner Wednesday. This assumes 2.3% growth in device spending to nearly $821 billion, it said. Global spending growth on devices is expected to spike 15.1% higher this year as remote work, telehealth and remote learning take hold, but Gartner expects 2022 will still show an uptick in enterprises that upgrade devices or invest in multiple devices “to thrive in a hybrid work setting.”

Energous got an FCC Part 15 grant of equipment authorization for a wireless power transmitter at any distance, an “inflection point” for wireless charging, acting CEO Cesar Johnston told us Tuesday. “You’re seeing the transition of the increase of power and the increase of distance, which effectively opens up now a potential market that did not exist before.” Energous' 1-watt Active Energy Harvesting transmitter can charge multiple devices at once, enabling over-the-air charging at any distance for IoT devices such as retail sensors, electronic shelf labels and industrial devices, said the company. It received similar approval from European regulators in May (see 2105110013).

The M1 family of chips was among highlights at Apple's Monday product launch event. And later this year, Siri is expanding support for multi-user voice recognition so “everyone in the home can set music according to their preferences," Apple said. The company bowed a premium plan for Apple Music that gives subscribers voice access to the service’s full catalog for an additional $4.99 monthly. Users can request music be played across Siri-enabled devices, including CarPlay, the company said. The company increased the power in its Mac chips, with the M1 Pro and M1 Max introducing a SoC architecture to pro systems for the first time.

Comments are due Nov. 15, replies Dec. 14, on FCC-proposed changes to customer proprietary network information and local number portability rules to require carriers to adopt methods of authenticating a customer before redirecting that customer's phone number to a new device or carrier, said Friday's Federal Register. Commissioners adopted the NPRM 4-0 at September's meeting (see 2109300069).

Chipmakers are challenged by “short-term imbalances due to interruptions in the supply chain brought on by COVID-19,” said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. CEO C.C. Wei on a quarterly call Thursday. “We also continue to observe the structural increase in long-term demand” fueled by the “industry megatrends” of 5G and high-performance computing (HPC), plus the “higher silicon content in many end devices,” he said. Quarterly revenue in TSMC’s largest end-market segment, smartphones, increased to account for 44% of the total. See here for Q3 materials.

Best Buy agreed to buy Current Health, a care-at-home technology platform that combines remote patient monitoring, telehealth and patient engagement, it said Tuesday. “The future of consumer technology is directly connected to the future of healthcare,” said Best Buy Health President Deborah Di Sanzo.

Microsoft’s agreement with the green group As You Sow to expand consumers’ options by the end of 2022 to repair their own devices (see 2110070030 or 2110070032) “is a step in the right direction for a major tech company,” emailed iFixit Policy Director Kerry Sheehan Thursday: “We'll be keeping a close eye on Microsoft to make sure they're living up to their commitments.” President Joe Biden’s July 9 executive order on tech competition “encouraged” the FTC to use its “statutory rulemaking authority” to thwart “unfair anticompetitive restrictions on third-party repair or self-repair.”

Microsoft agreed to expand consumers’ options to repair their own devices by the end of 2022, said As You Sow Thursday. The green group agreed in exchange to withdraw its shareholder resolution urging the company to liberalize its third-party repair practices, it said.