Home energy monitoring company Sense warned consumers how vampire power can lead to expensive utility bills. Consumer electronics and other “always on” devices make up 23 percent of power consumption in the average U.S. household, costing residents an average $335 per year, it said, and about 10 percent pay more than $1,000 annually "to keep their gadgets on all the time.” Entertainment centers and audio systems are some of the biggest energy hogs, using $25-$60 a year in "vampire power," even when off, it said. “An Alexa here, a camera there, a couple laptops charging adds up,” said Sense, saying homes with 15 or more devices can spend $585 annually on vampire power.

With 90 percent of U.S. laptops and more than 75 percent of smartphones sourced from China, “there is simply insufficient capacity in the rest of the world to absorb production shifts of these high-demand devices in the short term,” commented the Software & Information Industry Association, posted Tuesday in docket USTR-2019-0004. If the List 4 Section 301 tariffs on those products are implemented, “U.S. producers would have to either sacrifice profits on U.S. sales or pass increased costs on to consumers by raising prices,” said SIIA. “In the low-margin and high-risk consumer hardware business, few if any U.S. firms would be able to absorb a 25% surcharge on products without losing significant market share to foreign competitors who are not burdened by such additional costs.” SIIA fears “many smaller U.S. firms in these sectors would simply go out of business, while larger firms would become less competitive globally." And "raising prices at this time of year further risks missing production goals for the critical holiday season.” That can “damage annual sales targets” and risk compromising the “the long-term viability of a product,” the group said. Post-hearing rebuttals were due Tuesday, ending the List 4 rulemaking proceeding. President Donald Trump put the List 4 tariffs on hold after agreeing to resume trade negotiations with China (see 1907010070 or 1907010015).

Sprint’s third 5G device, the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G, went on sale in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston and Kansas City and will be available in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix and Washington, D.C., in the coming weeks, said the carrier. Separately Friday, a court heard preliminary information about states seeking to block the carrier being bought by T-Mobile (see 1906210033).

Enterprises and healthcare want to free smartwatches from cellular, while carriers push subsidies or financing options for watches with cellular service, reported IDC Wednesday. Half are expected to be connected to a cellular network in the next four years. Wearable devices, on track for global shipments of 222.9 million units this year, are expected to reach 302.3 million in 2023. Smartwatches and ear-worn devices will be more than 70 percent of all wearables. The category is diversifying by connectivity and distribution, said analyst Jitesh Ubrani. Apple is expected to continue to lead in watches, with 25.9 percent share in 2023 vs 41.2 percent today, while the category overall grows from 91.8 million units in 2019 to 131.6 million. Mature markets such as North America and Western Europe are expected to have declining shipments in wristbands as users transition to smartwatches.

ON Semiconductor completed its Quantenna Communications cash buy with an equity value of $1.07 billion, it said Wednesday. Quantenna’s Wi-Fi technologies and ON's power and analog semiconductors creates "a formidable platform" for connectivity in industrial, automotive and carrier markets, said ON Semiconductor CEO Keith Jackson. ON announced the plan to buy Quantenna in March (see 1903280049) and antitrust authorities cleared the acquisition in April (see 1904230053). Quantenna will be integrated into ON's analog solutions group, headed by general manager Vince Hopkin.

Corning wants to double sales of its Gorilla Glass cover glass for smartphones to $2 billion by 2023, “even as the smartphone market matures,” said John Bayne, general manager of Corning Gorilla Glass. It's based on increasing the amount of Corning glass content built into the average device, he said Friday at the firm's investor day. In 2016, “we were selling into a handheld device that used a single piece of Gorilla Glass 3,” said Bayne. “We sold that glass in sheet form to a finisher who made it into a part.” Corning “was capturing” 50 cents of revenue on the average device, he said. This year, it sells to smartphone OEMs that use a piece of Gorilla Glass 6 on the front of the device, plus a second on the back, said Bayne. “For the glass on the front, we’re making and decorating that part.” Revenue capture on the average device is $12, he said. The company plans to continue bringing “innovations” in mobile devices to market, including those “that we believe can help to solve some of technology challenges facing the first generation of foldable products,” said Bayne. Samsung's April postponement of its Galaxy Fold launch validated CEO Wendell Weeks' forecast that foldable smartphones wouldn't be ready for prime time soon (see 1904220028).

Google Fiber's trying to justify waiver of some audio accessibility set-top box functions because they're supposedly less used "is insultingly dismissive" of the visually impaired, the National Federation of the Blind said in an FCC docket 12-108 posting last week. It doesn't oppose the amended limited waiver petition (see 1905140066), but will watch to see if further waivers are filed in the near future. NFB said the FCC should deny any that ask for further extending the deadlines. The frequency of a particular feature's use is irrelevant when its presence is to ensure everyone can use the program or service, it said. Google Fiber emailed Thursday that accessibility "remains a priority." "Our video product provides accessibility-compliant solutions for most of the critical features our customers most frequently use, and we continue to focus on developing innovative solutions for these few remaining features to provide the most inclusive experience for all of our customers," it said.

Antennas made of carbon nanotube films are as efficient as copper for wireless applications, while being tougher, more flexible and can be “painted onto devices,” reported researchers Monday at Rice University’s Brown School of Engineering. The conductive films can match the performance of copper films while being made thinner to better handle higher frequencies, which could have application in 5G devices, said researchers. At target frequencies of 5, 10 and 14 GHz, the antennas “easily held their own with their metal counterparts,” when extending to frequencies that “aren't even used in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth networks today, but will be used in the upcoming 5G generation of antennas," said Amram Bengio, lead author of the research in the Rice lab. Bengio founded a company to further develop the material. The new antennas could also be suitable for unmanned aerial vehicles where weight is a consideration, as wireless telemetry portals for downhole oil and gas exploration and for future IoT applications, researchers said.

Advanced Micro Devices is “working through” the U.S.-China “trade situation” as “an industry,” Ruth Cotter, senior vice president-marketing, human resources and investor relations, told a Bank of America Merrill Lynch investor conference Thursday. The chipmaker is “partnering” with the Semiconductor Industry Association “and others” to mitigate the impact of the List 3 Section 301 tariffs on Chinese goods, which increased to 25 percent May 10 (see 1905090018), she said. “We're watching it carefully and ensuring that we are somewhat risk-mitigated as it pertains to tariffs and managing that for our customers.” AMD sources products from two “foundry partners” based outside China, she said. It also has “some backend manufacturing assets” and “test and assembly” operations in Malaysia, “so some of that is outside of China as well,” she said. “So kind of well-positioned from that perspective. I would say we're watching and monitoring the situation carefully.”

EnGenius Technologies announced the ESR580 tri-band mesh 802.11ac Wave 2 wireless router, said to provide a stable internet connection to remote parts of a home. The router has a dedicated band for the network backbone connection, ensuring smart devices maximize the internet connection, while enabling uninterrupted 4K video streaming and bandwidth-demanding online gaming, said the company Thursday. Cloud access is included, it said. When consumers connect an external hard drive, they can access stored documents, photos, music and video files from anywhere, said the company. It’s bundled in a two-pack for $249.