Android features that began rolling out this week include accessibility functions that allow users to control smartphone functions with facial gestures, blogged Google Thursday. Camera Switches turns a phone’s front-facing camera into a switch, replacing a keyboard, mouse or touch as an input option, said Angana Ghosh, product lead-Gboard.

Comcast is beginning rollout of the XiOne wireless streaming device to U.S. Xfinity Flex customers, said the MVPD Wednesday. The “plug-and-play” device supports Wi-Fi 6, 4K, HDR, Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. The voice remote supplied with the device is geared to streamers, the company said. The device launched first with Comcast’s Sky Q customers in Italy and Germany and was designed as a global entertainment device, it said. Comcast plans to make the device available via more channels and to its Xfinity X1 customers and syndication partners in the future.

Hopping onto the work-at-home trend, Facebook is pitching its portable video calling devices as videoconferencing tools. The company announced support Tuesday for Microsoft Teams, planned for December, for its Portal touch-based instruments. The company is creating a new account type, Portal for Business, with built-in Microsoft security, for small-to midsize businesses that will be available for Facebook work products over the coming year, it said. The service is in closed beta. Portal for Business also supports Zoom, Webex, GoToMeeting, BlueJeans and Workplace, it said. Facebook also announced Tuesday it's taking preorders for two new Portal video calling devices with an Oct. 19 ship date. A portable model, the 10-inch Portal Go ($199), has a 12-megapixel camera with ultrawide field of view and a speaker. Portal+, with a 14-inch HD tilting display ($349) also has a 12-megapixel ultrawide angle camera; it adds stereo speakers. Facebook referenced iHeartRadio, Pandora and Spotify as streaming music service options. Users can view Facebook and Instagram photos from a smartphone camera roll and share them with friends and family via shared albums on the smart displays, it said.

The semiconductor shortage shows major supply chain disruptions “don’t have quick fixes,” reported Bain & Co. Monday. The chips crunch is “unlikely to be the last tech supply chain disruption that affects multiple industries, as more products across sectors rely on components that share the same manufacturing capacity,” the consultant said. The “breadth and depth” of this shortage’s impact on the tech industry and the global economy is unprecedented, but “the reality is we’re going to see more of these disruptive events,” said the report: The shortage’s “hard lessons” show that “navigating future disruptions calls for a more holistic and proactive strategy, one that requires closer collaboration between suppliers and their customers.”

Panasonic completed its acquisition of the 80% share of supply chain software company Blue Yonder that it didn’t buy in July 2020, said the Japanese parent company Friday. It announced the $7.1 billion transaction April 23 with the goal of using Blue Yonder to enhance its response to COVID-19-induced supply chain management disruptions. Panasonic’s U.S. subsidiary will run Blue Yonder through its connected solutions business. It will keep the Blue Yonder branding and leadership team intact, it said.

Lack of foundry capacity is hampering growth in an “exploding” IoT market, Silicon Labs President Matt Johnson told us Wednesday. The challenge to increase chipmaking capacity is exacerbated by the long lead times required for fabrication plants, Johnson said. Demand has been increasing and capacity hasn’t grown at the same pace, he said. “Assuming there’s not a macro shift in demand, we’re looking at least a couple of years here of demand-supply imbalance.” It's not just the pandemic: The volatile supply chain phenomenon is the result of several years of demand and supply imbalance, Johnson said. “It’s hard to order anything right now and have it not be delayed,” he said, calling the situation “painful” for semiconductor companies. Johnson becomes CEO when Tyson Tuttle steps down Jan. 1; see our report here.

CES 2022 registration is open for those planning to travel to the physical show Jan. 5-8 in Las Vegas, said CTA Tuesday. It expects more than 1,100 exhibiting companies. That’s about a quarter of the exhibitor base that participated in CES 2020, the last physical show CTA convened before the COVID-19 pandemic rendered CES 2021 virtual-only. CES 2022 visitors need to be fully vaccinated; see our report here.

About 819,000 foldable smartphones were sold globally in Q2, up 147% sequentially and 0.3% growth year over year, reported Display Supply Chain Consultants Monday. In Q3, DSCC expects 215% quarter-on-quarter and 480% year-over-year increases to 2.6 million. It’s forecasting 46% quarter-on-quarter and 450% year-over-year growth in Q4 to 3.8 million. It credits the launch of Samsung’s “aggressively priced” Z Flip 3, $999, and the debut of Samsung’s “full featured” Z Fold 3, $1,799. “These attractive products are backed by a reported $2B spend by Samsung in promotions and marketing which are significantly increasing consumer awareness of foldable smartphones,” said DSCC CEO Ross Young.

Growth in connected TV households slowed to 1.2% in Q2, with 85% of broadband households now using CTV, TDG emailed Thursday. Broadband households grew 1.35 million in Q2 2020 and by 900,000 a year later. “When products and services near saturation, growth declines to the low single digits and the market becomes a zero-sum game,” said TDG President Michael Greeson. Penetration expansion will come in small increments within the home to additional rooms, he said. In CTV households, some 83% of living/family rooms have the devices vs. 77% a year ago, while CTVs in master bedrooms grew from 41% to 50%, and 22% to 28% in second bedrooms. As consumers upgrade primary TVs, they typically move replaced models to secondary rooms, he said.

Analog Devices will collaborate with startup Braveheart Wireless on an end-to-end remote patient monitoring system, said the companies Wednesday. Real-time and intermittent remote monitoring of a patient’s vital signs is possible through Braveheart’s wearable patch, paired with ADI’s sensor and signal-chain technology, they said.