Lutron is building a far-field mic into lighting control keypads via an integration with Josh.ai that solves a quandary for integrators wanting to integrate voice control without compromising aesthetics. The Josh.ai Ready Wallplate incorporates Josh nano, an architectural mic, giving homeowners the ability to control lights with voice or touch via scene-based buttons, said the companies on a Wednesday product unveiling on YouTube. On-panel tabs enable customers to turn off the mics for privacy.

Store traffic returned to Target "in droves" in Q2 as comparable store sales grew 8.7% from Q2 2020, the company reported Wednesday. Overall comp sales growth of 8.9% was driven by traffic, which had a 12.7% year-on-year increase, said CEO Brian Cornell on an earnings call. Digital comp sales growth slowed to 10% from 195% in pandemic-led Q2 2020.

The FCC or FTC is likely to investigate, and possibly impose sanctions on, T-Mobile for a data breach, experts said Wednesday. The breach included information from about 7.8 million current T-Mobile postpaid customer accounts and the records of more than 40 million former or prospective customers, T-Mobile said. Data from about 850,000 prepaid customers was also exposed. A Dish Network spokesperson confirmed that Boost customers weren’t affected.

CEDIA Expo owner Emerald doubled down on the company’s commitment to hold the trade event in Indianapolis Sept. 1-3, even as exhibitors continue to abandon the event due to health concerns over the COVID-19 delta variant. Jason McGraw, Emerald Group vice president-CEDIA Expo and KBIS, told the company's CEPro trade publication Wednesday, “The show is 100% going on. Contrary to rumors out there, CEDIA Expo 2021 is still happening.”

ASPEN, Colorado -- Internet regulation is “overdue in many ways and justified,” Facebook General Counsel Jennifer Newstead told a Technology Policy Institute event Tuesday. She noted the tremendous attention on internet regulation, including privacy, online safety, content moderation, data sharing and competition. “We are advocating in a number of areas that there be a very careful and focused look at what changes might be necessary,” she said.

Walmart executives touted in-store shopping, its “modernizing” fulfillment operations and growing advertising business, on a Tuesday earnings call. Revenue grew 2.4% to $141 billion for the quarter ended July 31 on a 2.2% bump in sales to $139.9 billion. Comparable sales grew 5.2%, it said. Average ticket slipped 0.8% vs. growth of 27% in the year-ago quarter.

The Environmental Health Trust (EHT) and allies plan a push at the FCC in coming months to get the agency to take a deeper look at the health risks of RF, in the aftermath of Friday’s U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit remand of 2019 RF safety rules to the FCC for further work (see 2108130073). The group, during a call with reporters Monday, urged the FCC to accept new evidence as it addresses the remand.

With just two weeks before education and certification classes are due to begin at CEDIA Expo 2021, with exhibits to follow Sept. 1-3, Samsung and Sony cemented their withdrawal from the show Monday. "The health and safety of our employees and the public is our top priority," emailed Samsung Monday. "Due to the recent rise of infection rates, we have made the difficult decision to withdraw from exhibiting in-person at this year’s CEDIA Expo." The company will connect with industry partners directly in coming weeks to share its latest products and programs for the channel, it said.

ASPEN, Colorado -- Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen hopes to settle with T-Mobile over the satellite-TV company's concerns that the wireless carrier plans to turn off an older 3G network that serves Dish prepaid customers. Ergen told a Technology Policy Institute event he thinks something could be worked out. It's a message he repeated in a brief encounter with a T-Mobile representative who approached him afterward. Ergen also noted he hadn't heard of any T-Mobile data breach (see 2108160056).

TV imports to the U.S. approached 11 million sets in Q2, about 650,000 fewer than in the 2020 quarter, according to Census Bureau data retrieved Saturday through the International Trade Commission’s DataWeb portal. Higher panel costs and other inflationary trends rendered the average Q2 TV import nearly $99 more expensive than its 2020 counterpart. TVs shipped here in January-June averaged customs value roughly 25% higher than in 2020's first six months.