Commissioner Brendan Carr urged the FCC Tuesday to “immediately start the process” of adding China-based DJI, which has more than half the U.S. drone market, to the agency’s covered list. “The need for quick FCC action on this is very clear,” he told a virtual program sponsored by China Tech Threat. “What we’re seeing … is the potential for Huawei on wings.”

Energous received an FCC Part 15 grant of equipment authorization for a wireless power transmitter at any distance, an “inflection point” for wireless charging, acting CEO Cesar Johnston told Consumer Electronics Daily Tuesday. “You’re seeing the transition of the increase of power and the increase of distance, which effectively opens up now a potential market that did not exist before,” he said, citing retail, medical, industrial and consumer applications.

A battle about data sharing is brewing between content owners and distributors and platforms they’re on, said Nick Cicero, Conviva vice president-strategy, on a Parks Associates webinar last week. Cicero noted an uptick in media companies building their own devices, citing Comcast’s Sky Glass TVs unveiled this month by its Sky Group division in London (see 2110070026), plus Amazon’s Fire TV and Roku TV platforms.

Sinclair “provision of local advertisements” was disrupted by an apparent cyberattack over the weekend, said an SEC filing Monday. “The event has caused -- and may continue to cause -- disruption to parts of the Company’s business,” a news release said. Sinclair is No. 2 U.S. TV broadcaster, and Sinclair channels around the country appeared to have their local programs affected.

New AirPods, colorized HomePod minis, a MacBook Pro and M1 family chips highlighted Apple's Monday product launch event. The company also added a premium voice control feature for personalization of content for Apple Music subscribers.

Rising inflation and sluggish supply chains “remain a concern” even after consumer spending tipped to retail in September, said the National Retail Federation Friday. September spending “might have been higher if not for shortages of items consumers are eager to purchase,” said NRF CEO Matthew Shay.

A Microsoft shareholder proposal up for a vote at the Nov. 30 virtual annual meeting asks the board to “generally prohibit sales” of facial recognition technology to law enforcement and all other “government entities,” and to publicly disclose “any exceptions made,” said a proxy statement Thursday filed at the SEC. The board recommends voting against the proposal, saying the requested policy “does not advance the interests of Microsoft” or its shareholders and other stakeholders.

Amazon supports “expanded government authority” for federal agencies to share “pre-seizure enforcement information with the private sector” to help reverse the explosive growth in e-commerce trafficking of counterfeit goods, Christa Brzozowski, senior manager-public policy, told a Center for Data Innovation webinar Thursday. She’s a former Department of Homeland Security senior official for trade and security policy before joining Amazon last year.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. expects customers and the supply chain to “gradually” build a “higher level of inventory” at least for the rest of 2021, compared with “historical” trends, “given that the industry continually needs to ensure supply security,” said CEO C.C. Wei on a Q3 earnings call Thursday. The world’s largest foundry reported $14.88 billion in Q3 revenue, up 22.6% year over year and 12% higher sequentially than Q2.

Becoming a major player in the U.S. market has always been an objective in Italy-based Nice’s long-term plans, emailed Nortek Control CEO Edoardo Malfe after Nice’s purchase of Nortek last week for $285 million (see 2110050066). The purchase doubled Nice’s R&D capabilities, now at 16 centers globally, Malfe said, as the company looks to “develop integrated solutions for our customers that simplify their everyday movements.” Malfe was Nice's vice president-global operations before the purchase.