Rebecca Day

After a delay from fall, Bowers & Wilkins began selling its PI7 and PI5 headphones Wednesday, its first true wireless designs. “We were in a position late last year where we could have considered launching,” Andy Kerr, director-marketing and communications, told Consumer Electronics Daily, but the company’s in-house software development team, brought in to create a music app for the Formation line, highlighted areas where the user experience for the earbuds could be improved, he said. That, combined with COVID-19 supply chain and “manufacturing resource issues,” affected timelines, Kerr said. With both items addressed, the company is in full production on the in-ear headphones that have Siri and Google Assistant voice support. The high-end PI7 ($399) model supports Qualcomm aptX Adaptive Bluetooth transmission from compatible mobile devices and has 24-bit/48kHz wireless transmission between each earbud. The PI7s also have adaptive noise cancellation to automatically monitor, analyze and adapt to surroundings, making the PI7 one of a few true wireless headphones to support hi-res audio from music source to the user’s ears, said the company. Users can connect the PI7’s smart charging case to an external audio source -- such as an in-flight entertainment system -- by 3.5mm or USB cable and then wirelessly retransmit audio from that source to the earbuds, said the company. The $249 PI5s have standard aptX. B&W decided to stay out of the true wireless category “until we could access new technologies that would help us deliver the performance we wanted,” Kerr said. He noted the company also leaned on lessons from its five-year history in the wireless headphone category. On why B&W limited voice assistant support to Google and Apple, Kerr said voice support is linked to users’ phones rather than embedded in the devices. “So owners of iOS mobile devices access Siri and owners of Android phones get Google Voice Assistant,” which he called sufficient voice support for most mobile phone users. He noted that B&W’s Formation wireless multiroom music products now have Alexa Skills included because Alexa support is suited to home audio applications. The earphones are available from B&W's e-commerce site and authorized dealers.

The first iMac and iPads to use Apple’s M1 chip, more powerful iPad Pros, a next-generation 4K Apple TV and a Tile-like location tag for the Find My network highlighted Apple hardware introductions during the company's virtual event Tuesday. Products go on preorder April 30 with late May availability, said presenters.

Over three-fourths of respondents in a year-end 2020 survey said they shopped more online due to COVID-19, and 86% of those plan to continue shopping online post-pandemic, said delivery management software company Metapack.

Target continues to see “surprising strength in stores” and “much more optimism” from consumers as COVID-19 vaccines are more broadly distributed, but it would be “false precision for us to apply any type of growth factor to stimulus in an environment that’s so rapidly changing,” said CEO Brian Cornell on a Thursday investor call.

Staggering numbers stood out in Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ final shareholder letter as CEO, in Thursday's posting, citing the e-commerce pioneer’s revenue growth, employee expansion and towering stock price rise from its opening $18 per share valuation when it went public 12 years ago next month. Bezos will transition in Q3 to executive chairman, relinquishing the CEO post to Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy.

Sonos’ partnership with Audi for a Sonos-tuned sound system in the upcoming Q4 e-tron and A1, Q2 and Q3 vehicles (see 2104140052) doesn't include a Sonos software integration, a company spokesperson said. That means features including Trueplay, Sonos Radio and integration into the current Sonos platform won't be available via the Audi vehicles, he said. Sonos launched its current S2 operating system in June. The company hailed software integration when it introduced the Roam portable speaker last month, including the ability for users to “throw” music from the portable speaker to other S2-based speakers in the home. The company wouldn’t share details on its future automotive road map but said “of course we see opportunities in the in-car experience.” The Sonos sound system will be part of a premium trim package when the Q4 e-tron launches in June. It didn’t share details on manufacturing location of the Audi system products.

Roku updated its operating system, adding features that let customers get to content faster and customize the user experience, said the company Tuesday. Roku OS 10 improves network and input configurations and performance, it said, and adds support for Apple’s AirPlay 2 and HomeKit.

Face masks will be required at all times at CEDIA Expo 2021, said show owner Emerald Holding in a health and safety plan sent Monday to prospective attendees. Masks will be provided for attendees “if one is needed.” Conferences are to begin Aug. 31, and the Expo is scheduled for Sept. 1-3 at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis.

Privacy and cybersecurity need to be factored into connected home building amid the growth in consumer adoption of connected devices, reported Frost & Sullivan Friday in a research project for the Continental Automated Building Association. The $130,000 project was funded by CABA members Acuity Brands, CommScope, Community Smart Living, CSA Group, CTA, National Research Council, Resideo Technologies, SnapAV and UL with the goal of setting a “measured response plan” for the industry to fast-track solutions that treat cybersecurity protections “as the norm.”

Computer malware detections were down over 43% year on year in 2020, partly due to work-from-home trends, said Rick Meder, solutions architect at SonicWall, at a Home Technology Specialists of America session Monday, referencing the company’s annual cyberthreat report. But remote desktop protocol attacks soared from just over one per day worldwide in January 2020 to eight attacks per second in September, Meder said at HTSA's virtual spring meeting.