Staples Connect platform provider Zonoff expanded operations Friday with the opening of a 35,000-square-foot headquarters in Malvern, Pennsylvania. The new facility triples the size of the previous space and includes hands-on demo area for potential and existing clients, the company said. Zonoff recently completed a $31.8 million round of funding, which allowed it to double staff size over the past 12 months and plan for an additional 50 percent increase by year-end, it said. Recent additions to the executive team are Kevin Garton, chief marketing officer, who joined from Context Asset Management; Chris Hughes, CFO, from Shunra Software; and Doug Bellenger, vice president-product, who held similar roles at LifeShield and DirecTV, Zonoff said. Peter Gerstberger, general manager-retail, joined from Staples and was tapped to bring his Staples Connect expertise to help build out more Zonoff channel partners, the company said.

“People need to trust that their data stored in the cloud will remain accessible to them and to those they designate, while not being disclosed to others without their permission or knowledge,” Brad Smith, Microsoft executive vice president-legal and corporate affairs, wrote in a blog post Wednesday. Microsoft has participated in the World Economic Forum’s Digital Infrastructure and Applications 2020+ initiative for the past two years to “ensure a healthy, growing digital ecosystem,” Smith said, and commends the forum’s recently released report on “the needs of users to securely access and transport their own data with appropriate privacy protections.” In February Microsoft became the first major cloud provider to adopt the world’s first international standard for cloud privacy, he said. “Compliance with this standard ensures that enterprise customers are in control of their data,” Smith said. Microsoft is also “active in the development of the ISO/IEC 19941 standard to address cloud interoperability and data portability, which benefits customers by assuring them they won’t be locked into any single cloud vendor,” Smith said. “Standards like these are key to addressing the ‘sources of friction in transporting, using and accessing data’ referenced in the Forum’s report as barriers to user adoption of networked, cloud-based applications and services,” he said. Smith said uncertainties in “cross-border legal regimes create another important source of friction,” and laws around the world are “woefully outdated.” Microsoft is part of a broad coalition of companies and associations in the technology, telecommunications, manufacturing and cloud computing sectors advocating for passage of common-sense updates to laws to “better balance the protection of public safety and personal privacy,” Smith said.

Screen Innovations (SI) said NASA chose the company to develop a portable 65-inch projection screen for use on the International Space Station (ISS). The ISS ViewScreen was among the cargo on the Dragon supply ship that launched from Cape Canaveral last week bound for the ISS. The zero-gravity screen will replace 13-inch displays crew members have been using to communicate with NASA Mission Control, the company said. Crew members also will use the screen for video chats with their families and to conduct training and simulated operations previously done on laptops, it said. It took nearly eight months for the SI engineering team to overcome the space and bright lighting challenges of the interior of the ISS, SI said. A permanent installation wasn't an option, so the company had to develop a screen that could be easily stored when not in use, which SI Technology Specialist Tom Nugent called a “difficult predicament in zero gravity.” When collapsed for storage the screen couldn’t be larger than a standard mailing tube, the company said. The storage tube measures roughly 3 feet long by 2 1/2 feet in diameter, it said. SI’s Slate screen material was chosen for its ability to reject ambient light, SI said. The company didn't know the brand of the laser projector paired with the screen.

On April 19, 1965, three years before co-founding Intel, Gordon Moore put forward what became Moore’s Law, predicting that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit would double roughly every 24 months. In recognition of the 50-year anniversary of Moore’s Law, Intel Product Evangelist Ryan Tabrah said in a blog post that Moore’s projection became a layman’s explanation of the "exponential" introduction of new devices and technology over the past 50 years. Putting Moore’s comment into historical perspective, Tabrah noted that at the time the computer mouse was still a prototype; DRAM hadn’t yet been invented; development of Arpanet, forerunner to the Internet, hadn’t begun and no one had received a Ph.D. in computer science. Moore said the theory wasn’t about technical hurdles but about the associated economics, and Tabrah reminded engineers and developers that economics should inform the way the industry views the IoT market and “the eventuality of technology.” Competition, advancements in technology, and scale will automatically provide more affordable and smaller computing devices, he said. Those devices will continue to become less about “nice to have” and “more of a vehicle, forcefully driving human advancement and raising the standard of living for everyone on earth,” Tabrah said. Recalling the anniversary of Moore’s Law, Tabrah urged tech society “to think about how we use these economies of scale.” With the much-anticipated Apple Watch on pre-sale, Tabrah referred to “everyday technology enthusiasts struggling to get the latest digital watch that costs more than most people in the world make in a week.” He urged enthusiasts to “take some time to pause and think about the rest of the world: how are most going to get clean water tomorrow, or survive tomorrow’s traffic as millions of people stress overloaded transportation infrastructures.” He said we should all try together to “create and extend computing technology to connect and enrich the lives of every person on earth,” which he called the “truly amazing legacy of Moore’s law.”

Autonomic named Baker International Group to direct its international expansion. Autonomic Director-Global Sales Aaron Chisena said whole-house entertainment is “rapidly growing” internationally and the company looks to 25-year custom electronics sales representative Pete Baker to expand its brand visibility in global markets.

Lutron will continue to be owned by the Spira family, after last week's death of chairman and founder Joel Spira, the company said in a statement Monday. Ruth Spira and her daughter, Susan Hakkarainen, will be Lutron co-chairmen and will lead the company with Lutron President Mike Pessina and the current management team, it said. The announcement is in keeping with the wishes of founders Joel and Ruth Spira that the company “remain a private family owned and run business,” it said. Hakkarainen has been with Lutron since 1996, most recently as chief marketing officer. The Spiras started the work behind Lutron in a spare bedroom of their New York apartment in the late 1950s with Joel Spira’s first invention, a rotary dimmer that could vary the intensity of the lights in homes, according to company history. The Spiras incorporated Lutron in 1961 with the goal of enabling people to control light in their homes. Lutron holds more than 2,700 worldwide patents and Lutron innovations include the first solid-state dimmer, the first electronic dimming ballast for fluorescent lights and the first self-contained preset lighting control system. Messina said in the statement: “We are deeply saddened by the passing of our Chairman and Founder, Joel S. Spira. He was our leader, our guide, our mentor, our strategist and our friend.”

Qualcomm said its “opportunities remain strong” after widely covered reports Monday that influential shareholder Jana Partners was urging the company, a major provider of smartphone chipsets, to spin off its chip business. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Jana sent a letter to Qualcomm pressuring the company to spin off the chip unit from the patent-licensing business, which accounts for most of Qualcomm’s profit. Jana, with a $2 billion stake in Qualcomm, is one of its largest shareholders, said the Journal. According to Reuters, which said it had seen portions of the letter, hedge fund firm Jana called Qualcomm’s chip business "essentially worthless" at current valuations and was pushing the company to spin it off to "restore investor confidence." Jana also wants Qualcomm to cut costs, accelerate a share buyback, improve disclosures and refresh its board, according to reports. In its statement, Qualcomm said it “welcomes input from our stockholders,” including Jana Partners, and it's “firmly committed to maintaining an active dialogue with all stockholders and to acting in their best interests.” The Qualcomm board reviews the corporate structure periodically and has concluded in the past that “alternative corporate structures” weren’t in the best interests of shareholders, it said. The company will “continue to evaluate opportunities to enhance stockholder value and are committed to pursuing the right course of action for all of our stockholders,” it said. Qualcomm’s innovations “have made smartphones the most pervasive technology of our time,” said the company. “They come to market through our inclusive licensing program and our cutting-edge chipsets and continue to play an integral role in the expansion of the mobile industry,” it said. Qualcomm’s mobile technologies are now extending to new areas including automotive, healthcare, networking, smart homes, smart cities and wearables, it said.

TCL said it's developing a content ecosystem in partnership with Tencent and Future TV with the goal of becoming a “global smart products manufacturing and Internet application services organization.” The collaboration combines TCL’s hardware design capabilities, Tencent’s "vast range" of exclusive premium video content, and Future TV’s Internet TV prowess, it said Wednesday. At a news conference in China, TCL showed products developed under the Double + strategy announced last year, including the flagship curved quantum dot H8800 TV, said to have a color gamut of 110 percent and a Harman Kardon sound system. The new Idol3 smartphone has JBL supplied sound, and a new smart watch boasts 24-hour health monitoring and information alert capabilities, remote camera controls, 2 1/2-daylong battery life and iOS and Android compatibility. TCL, which had a 44 percent bump in March year-over-year in smartphones and other smart devices, said in an earnings release Tuesday that it plans to use the smartphone as an entry point to the smart home. The company's sales volume of smartphones and other smart devices grew by 44 percent year-over-year to 3.3 million units, accounting for more than half of the group’s shipments for the month, it said. TCL will preload its Smart Butler app on phones, enabling users to monitor and control products on the TCL platform using a 3D home network layout showing TCL TVs, refrigerators, air conditioners, air purifiers, routers, lamps and other smart appliances, it said.

Assist by AOL is a “single-source,” round-the-clock tech support service that rolled out Monday to resolve “any number of issues on almost any device out there, no matter who made them, where they were bought, or how old they are,” the company said in a Monday announcement. “With the ever-changing landscape of consumer electronics and the constant introduction of new technology, we realize it can be challenging to ensure that all of our devices are working properly and achieving their maximum potential.” The company said Assist by AOL tech experts will be U.S.-based and are trained to “teach a customer how to set up a new device or solve problems with products they already own.” Two pricing options -- a one-time fix and monthly membership -- will be available. A $19.99 monthly plan comes with a free 30-day trial, while the $59.99 one-time-fix plan is “perfect if you occasionally come across tech problems that are just a little too complicated to handle alone,” the service says.

An article published in the Economic Times/India Times​ was “erroneous” when it reported that Sunil Nayyar, who heads Sony’s sales operations in India, will be taking over Sony’s CE operations in the U.S., Sony North America said in an email circulated Wednesday to employees and provided to Consumer Electronics Daily by Sony representatives. “The contents of the article are untrue and will be corrected immediately,” said the email, saying the errant report was “not an April Fool’s joke.” The email said Nayyar will join Sony’s Home Entertainment & Sound team in the U.S., effective May 1, “working under Taka Fujita and working on TV Product Marketing.” Fujita is a Sony vice president based in San Diego, and like Nayyar, formerly worked for Sony in India.