More than three-quarters of U.S. broadband homes use Wi-Fi for connectivity in the home, and half use 3G/4G services, said a Parks Associates report Thursday. With more CE devices connecting to home Wi-Fi and portable 3G/4G hot spots, the Wi-Fi network is playing a “significant role in supporting consumer digital lifestyle and home-centric IoT applications,” said analyst Harry Wang. Streaming video, smart TVs and gaming consoles are “commonplace” in most homes today, and along with smart thermostats and webcams are creating a need for a “robust and seamless Wi-Fi connection,” said Justin Doucette, Belkin senior director-product management, for Linksys & Wemo. He will speak on a connected home panel at Parks’ Connections conference in San Francisco next week.

Feit Electric introduced the IntelliBulb line of LED bulbs that offer smart lighting features without the need for special hardware, mobile apps, dimmers or switches, said the company Tuesday. The line offers five products ($8-$10 each) including an indoor-outdoor bulb with a built-in sensor that automatically turns on at night and off during the day. A motion-sensing bulb has a sensor that triggers the light to go on from up to 19 feet away, said the company. The dimming bulbs have three brightness settings, and the color choice bulb offers settings in warm white, cool white and daylight color temperatures. The rechargeable battery backup bulb ($15-$20 each) offers three hours of emergency lighting when power is out, said the company. Feit also introduced a line of dimmable LED glass color filament bulbs ($5 each) in red, blue, orange, green, pink, yellow and purple. The LED filaments glow through the colored glass bulbs and can be used indoors or outdoors, said the company. Feit bulbs are available at major retailers including Home Depot, Costco and ACE Hardware stores.

Linksys added features including a bridge mode and parental controls to its app-enabled router line, said the company in a Tuesday announcement. Bridge mode allows Linksys router users to configure the company’s Velop mesh Wi-Fi networking so they can keep their existing ISP-supplied router or gateway in place for other services such as IPTV, said the company. Other features that will work by enabling bridge mode: dynamic tri-band selection for the best Wi-Fi connection, a guest network, Amazon Alexa support and automatic firmware updates. Parental control scheduling had been available in the Linksys browser interface, but customers requested the ability to access schedules via the mobile device app. More features will be added to the app in coming months, it said.

Comcast is approaching 1 million customers for its Xfinity Home security monitoring and connected home service, said Daniel Herscovici, senior vice president and general manager, in a Friday blog post, calling Xfinity Home one of the fastest growing U.S. home security providers. Herscovici cited devices in the Xfinity Home portfolio in the consumer-facing post: the Zen thermostat, August door lock, Lutron Caseta wireless controller and dimmer, Chamberlain MyQ garage door controller, GE-branded smart switches by Jasco and Sengled connected LED bulbs.

Culinary brand Hestan bowed a Bluetooth-based cooking system designed to guide users through the cooking process, it said in a Monday announcement. Hestan’s Cue, developed over two years, uses sensors in the pan and induction burner to control time and temperature and give cooks of any skill level the techniques to create elaborate dishes, said Hestan. Android and iOS apps act as command center for the connected cooking process, said the company, and offer hundreds of recipes from Michelin-star chefs, kitchens and food scientists. The Hestan Cue smart cooking system, with an 11-inch fry pan and 1600-watt portable induction burner, is available from Williams-Sonoma for $649.

Within a few years, no newly developed set-top box platforms will use proprietary middleware because operators will opt for Android or some other open source middleware, said Irdeto Product Management Director Frank Poppelsdorf in a blog post Tuesday. He said some telcos have adopted Android TV or the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), but pay-TV operators -- while cautious -- are increasingly overlooking concerns about Google's influence on their businesses in favor of Android's benefits. He said a chief Android TV strength is its ability to cut costs and timelines for developing and launching a new set-top user experience, compared with middleware-based set-tops. Many operators favor AOSP because of the controls it allows on downloading a competitor's app, Poppelsdorf.

Haier’s GE Appliances brand integrated with Amazon’s Dash Replenishment program for automatic dryer sheet reordering, GE Appliances said in a Friday announcement. Owners of GE’s Wi-Fi-connected dryers can enable automatic reordering through the GE laundry app using their Amazon account and select the number of sheets they want automatically ordered. When supplies are low, the dryer will use Dash Replenishment to reorder the product selected, said the company. It also offers detergent replenishment for connected dishwashers and clothes washing machines.

Connected home solutions ownership remains an early adopter phenomenon, a Gartner survey found. Gartner canvassed nearly 10,000 online respondents in the U.S., U.K. and Australia and found that only 10 percent of homes currently have connected home solutions installed, it said in a Monday report. “Although households in the developed world are beginning to embrace connected home solutions, providers must push beyond early adopter use," said the firm. "If they are to successfully widen the appeal of the connected home, providers will need to identify what will really motivate current users to inspire additional purchases." The survey found that home security alarm systems, the more established of connected home solutions, have nearly double the adoption rates (18 percent) of newer connected home platforms such as home monitoring (11 percent), home automation or energy management (9 percent) and health and wellness management (11 percent). Overall adoption rates are 5-6 percent higher in the U.S., where the solutions were first marketed, compared with other developed markets, it said.

Millennials ages 18-29 are among those least likely to own an energy-related IoT product and participate in utility-driven energy management programs, said a report on a survey by the Association of Energy Services Professionals and Essense Partners. Energy-related IoT products in the study included smart thermostats, power strips, air conditioners and washing machines. The survey of more than 2,700 consumers asked people in various age groups whether they own IoT home devices and whether they participated in what the industry defines as demand-side management programs their utilities sponsor. Findings showed 85 percent of millennials didn’t own IoT home products or participate in energy-saving programs from a utility, compared with 79 percent of consumers aged 30-44, 81 percent aged 45-59 and 84 percent 60 and older. Though the association expected a lower rate of participation among younger people "who may not be homeowners yet,” the survey found a “consistent trend of higher participation rates as people get older” that will inform planning and design of participation programs, said AESP Chief Operating Officer Suzanne Jones. The highest participation rates were in Washington, Oregon and California, followed by Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey. The lowest participation rates were in Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana, it said.

D-Link Systems is asking a federal court to dismiss an FTC lawsuit that alleges the company sold insecure wireless routers and internet cameras, endangering people's privacy (see 1701060046). "This is a case of politicized government overreach without justification or any evidence of consumer injury," said attorney Patrick Massari, assistant vice president with the nonprofit Cause of Action Institute that's representing the company, in a Wednesday news release. The motion to dismiss was filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for Northern California. "To her credit, Acting Chairwoman [Maureen] Ohlhausen voted not to bring this case and has spoken out against the agency filing other lawsuits 'on the eve of a new presidential administration' that are based on a flawed legal theory and lack economic and evidentiary support," he said. Massari said the FTC doesn't have the authority to regulate IoT data security, so its "putative regulation is beyond its legal power." Commissioners in a 2-1 vote, with Ohlhausen dissenting, filed the complaint against D-Link, which has said it would fight the accusations, for alleged inadequate security measures in its devices, leaving them vulnerable to hackers and putting consumers’ privacy at risk. CoA's Massari said the FTC made "vague and unsubstantiated allegations" and speculated about consumers put at risk. He said the commission's suit also violates the company's "due process rights, and will no doubt have a chilling effect on innovation." An FTC spokesman said the commission doesn't comment on ongoing litigation. CoA previously defended LabMD against FTC in an ongoing data breach case that is now before the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (see 1701050044). Massari filed an amicus brief for LabMD on behalf of several physicians in that court.