Apple recalled three-prong AC wall-plug adapters included in Apple World Travel Adapter kits sold before February 2015, said the Consumer Product Safety Commission Wednesday. The adapters were also sold with Mac computers and iOS devices. Apple has received six reports from other countries of wall-plug adapters breaking and consumers incurring shocks, including reports of two consumers who required medical attention, it said. No reports of incidents or injuries were reported by U.S. consumers. The kits include three- and two-prong plug adapters for different electrical outlets worldwide, with the recalled adapters made for use primarily in the U.K., Singapore and Hong Kong. The recalled three-prong AC wall plug adapters are white with no letters on the inside slot where it attaches to an Apple power adapter; redesigned adapters are white with gray on the inside portion that attaches to the power adapter, said CPSC. The kits were sold at Apple stores, apple.com and other home electronics stores nationwide January 2003-January 2015 for about $30. Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled wall plug adapters and contact Apple for free replacements, it said.

Dialog Semiconductor announced its first Wi-Fi networking SoC for battery-powered IoT devices Tuesday. The FC9000 enables direct connectivity to Wi-Fi networks, said the company. It's said to address pain points for manufacturers and end-users for IoT network compatibility. The chip’s power-saving algorithms operate on a few microamps, increasing overall battery life for end-devices, Dialog said.

Global smartphone shipments are facing “another challenging” year in 2019 with volume forecast to retreat 1.9 percent from 2018, the third consecutive year of market contraction, IDC reported Thursday. It cited “highly saturated markets” in developed countries and slower churn in some emerging markets. First-half shipments will be down 5.5 percent from the year-ago period, said IDC, but second-half shipments should rebound with 1.4 percent growth -- despite a 5 percent decline in China -- driven by 5G acceleration, lower-priced premium phones and continued uplift from India and other markets. Developing markets have upsides, but some momentum has been lost as the transition from feature phones to smartphones slows, it said. Pricing in all markets is a “critical decision factor” for consumers, creating opportunities in mid-range price points, but the most uncertain market factor is how the U.S.-China trade war will play out over the year, said IDC. 5G smartphones will start slowly this year, capturing 0.5 percent of total 2019 shipments, but will ramp up quickly in all markets, reaching 26.3 percent of worldwide shipments by 2023, said the research firm. A challenge is rising demand for smartphone functionality at the same time consumers' tolerance for higher priced devices is dropping, said analyst Sangeetika Srivastava, saying affordable products are key to reinvigorate growth. Android's smartphone share is forecast to nudge up to 86.7 percent this year, from 85.1 percent in 2018, on new launches, including a handful of 5G devices. Android average selling prices are estimated to grow 5.8 percent this year to $269. Volume of iPhone shipments is expected to fall 12.1 percent this year to 183.5 million. Apple isn’t expected to have a 5G phone this year, but that isn’t likely to affect its market share “given that many telcos and markets are still trying to figure out their 5G strategy,” IDC said.

Sales of connected consumer devices will exceed 520 million units by 2022, reported Parks Associates. While service providers are well-positioned to deploy, maintain and service the smart home, they generally don’t want to develop and maintain a proprietary system to do so, said analyst Brad Russell in a Wednesday email blast. Partnerships with vendors that offer turnkey solutions can enable providers to serve present and future use cases, he said. Michael Weening, executive vice president-field operations for Calix, said leaders are “starting with tools that provide visibility into the home and supporting systems so they can deliver best-in-class whole-home Wi-Fi coverage.” Parks found 24 percent of U.S. broadband homes subscribed to professional monitoring at the end of 2018, more than 50 percent of consumers with professionally monitored security systems had basic interactivity and 10 percent owned at least one networked camera.

Nearly half of U.S. adults have some familiarity with robotics technology, and 84 percent are eager to use it in “everyday life,” a CTA study found. CTA canvassed 2,000 adults online in late April and found 90 percent expressing appreciation for the convenience of products such as robotic vacuum cleaners. There's “widespread enthusiasm” for educational robotics, it said. Though few consumers reported firsthand interaction with robotics in the retail or hospitality sectors, 83 percent of those surveyed said they “would be open to using the technology for services such as in-store assistance and room service.”

Dolby is hoping pay-TV operators and consumers will create demand for set-top boxes with Dolby Vision, Chief Financial Officer Lewis Chew told an investor conference Wednesday. Growth in the segment has been relatively flat in recent quarters compared with three years ago, he said. The first Dolby Vision-enabled set-tops are expected to begin rolling out this year (see 1905020062). On why U.S. household penetration of Dolby Vision isn’t broader in TVs, Chew called it “still a relatively new technology,” comparing it to anti-lock braking systems that appeared first in luxury vehicles and are now standard. Availability of more content in Vision will drive more TV adoption, he suggested: “It’s very encouraging to see big players like iTunes, Amazon Prime and Netflix adopting Dolby Vision as a way of putting out their content.” The company sees “lots of opportunity ahead.” Samsung adopted Dolby Atmos in the latest Galaxy smartphones after some years ago taking Dolby out, Chew noted. Apple adopted Vision, though not Atmos, for iPhone 8 and later phones, and recent iPads.

The FCC OK'd General Motors pulling the company's waiver bid to not provide some real-time texting functions (see 1904260002), via an order Friday by Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau Chief Patrick Webre. It's in docket 15-178. Some dozen groups backed the automaker's reversal to not seek exemption of providing some RTT in Cruise shared autonomous vehicles (see 1905080055).

Retain use of the entire 5.9 GHz band for auto-safety services, the Association of Global Automakers asked the FCC. Chairman Ajit Pai had been poised to circulate an NPRM on the band last week, but postponed seeking a vote after the Department of Transportation asked for a delay (see 1905150053). The automakers asked the FCC to keep five principles in mind. Ensure a “fact-based approach for evaluating interoperability; evolution and backwards compatibility; and the potential coexistence of multiple [vehicle-to-everything] technologies in a technology-neutral manner,” the group filed, posted Friday in docket 13-49.The band plan should guard against interference to existing services and require that all V2Z-equipped vehicles and infrastructure are able to provide for "communication of the Basic Safety Message,” the group said: “The regulatory framework must promote investment in deployment of lifesaving V2X services for the benefit of the driving public now.”

Sony Mobile will launch the Xperia 1 July 12 on Verizon at Best Buy, Amazon, B&H Photo, Focus Camera and other retailers, it said Thursday. The $949 smartphone will be the first to include a 4K OLED display, said Sony.

Though the FTC hasn’t released comments it received by the April 30 deadline for the “Nixing the Fix” inquiry into manufacturer restrictions on third-party repairs, one advocate for third-party repairs did. IFixit believes device owners “should have the right to repair, modify, and tinker with the things they own.” iFixit blogged that it was posting its comments online for download “in the interest of full transparency” for people who thought right-to-repair was just “a fringe issue that only affects the tech-savvy DIYers among us.” The agency wants to know whether the limitations can thwart consumer protections under the 1975 Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, (see 1904220039). The FTC will post the high volume of submissions it received “at some point” on the agency’s Nixing the Fix “event page,” emailed a spokesperson Thursday. “It may take a while since we have to review it all.” The FTC has said it will use the comments to shape the agenda for the Nixing the Fix workshop it will host July 16. Tech groups, including CTA, for years have lobbied heavily against state right-to-repair laws on various grounds, including that they wrongly impose government regulation on the relationship between OEMs and equipment repair facilities. CTA didn’t comment Thursday.