French high-resolution music streaming company Qobuz, which expects to launch in the U.S. this month, is looking toward 5G to deliver its product. David Solomon, chief hi-res music evangelist for the company, said Friday that 5G could eliminate the need for 1 gigabit-per-second fiber. As a wireless network backbone, “5G is going to be so awesome” that Qobuz may be able to stream hi-res music “portably or at your place -- but over the airwaves,” he told us at a conference in Denver. Qobuz has its eyes on the 5G future and 1 gigabit fiber going into homes capable of delivering the necessary bandwidth. “It’s really easy to get the speeds that are required to have a strong enough backbone to not need additional compression methods, even if it’s not compressed fully,” said the former Tidal executive.

Amazon’s coming Fire TV Stick 4K has Dolby Vision and HDR10+ support, the company said Wednesday. It responds to customers’ requests for a compact and “complete 4K solution,” said Marc Whitten, Amazon Fire TV vice president. It incorporates new antenna technology, a quad-core processor and 802.11ac Wi-Fi, said to deliver a robust streaming experience even in congested network environments. HDTV antennas also are available in a bundled deal.

The Computer & Communications Industry Association and Information Technology Industry Council supported a trilateral trade deal the U.S., Canada and Mexico reached this weekend. It's “a significant step toward creating a foundation for North America’s economic prosperity for years to come,” said ITI CEO Dean Garfield. “We’re encouraged this plan will build upon the prior economic success of NAFTA and adapt it to the fundamentally digital economy in which we live through new rules on digital trade, intellectual property, and trade in goods.” The tech industry likes the "digital trade chapter that removes barriers to cross-border data flows," said CCIA CEO Ed Black. The group also likes "protection for intermediaries to ensure U.S. internet services can be exported around the world," he said.

Smart speakers with voice assistants will penetrate 47 percent of U.S. broadband homes by 2022, said Parks Associates Thursday. Its surveys found 43 percent of U.S. broadband homes consider voice control “an important feature when selecting their next streaming media player or smart TV."

Sony landed U.S. patent 10,083,288 for a method of unlocking a smartphone using a “simulated parallaxing” 3D scene on the touch screen, Patent and Trademark Office records show. It describes dragging a finger on the parallaxing 3D scene to reveal a hidden “predetermined target object.” Manipulating the object through finger “gestures” can “satisfy the input requirements to unlock the electronic device if the revealing of the hidden object is accomplished by two or more distinct motions performed in a predetermined order,” it said. Sony didn’t comment Wednesday.

Powercast started shipping its PowerSpot wireless-charging transmitter, calling it the first “far field” product of its kind to charge multiple wireless devices at distances up to 80 feet.

Thursday saw Amazon Alexa-based product launches of new voice-enabled devices as varied as an Echo for the car to an Alexa-controllable microwave oven. Later this year, all Echo devices will be able to receive the Tidal music service, Amazon said. The company began taking pre-orders for a “companion DVR that lets you easily watch, record, and replay free over-the-air TV programming” on Fire TV, Echo Show and compatible Fire tablet, iOS, and Android devices. Aimed at cord-cutters, it works with an HDTV antenna, said the company. A car Echo has eight-mics for in-car acoustics and speech recognition technology and is said to let Alexa hear users “over music, A/C, and road noise.” It connects via smartphone.

Smartwatch shipments will reach 46.2 million this year, up 39 percent, growing to 94.3 million by 2022, IDC reported Thursday. Apple’s fourth-generation Watch (see 1809120055) will appeal to cardiac patients, said the researcher, with FDA and American Heart Association approvals. Wearable shipment growth will fall 6.2 percent this year, the first single-digit growth, due to softness in basic wearables, IDC said. Vendors are “slowly moving beyond first-generation devices" as they combine devices, partners and applications, said analyst Ramon Llamas. Analyst Jitesh Ubrani said the shift to smartwatches “is well on its way.”

Apple’s annual September product launch lacked the typical surprise and any word of the AirPower wireless charging pad first mentioned last September to charge an iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods simultaneously (see 1709120062). Wednesday's event streamed from the company's Cupertino, California, headquarters focused heavily on camera features in the three new iPhones and on medical capabilities of the Apple Watch Series 4. The largest Apple phone to date, the iPhone Xs Max, has a 6.5-inch display, leading industry analyst Ross Rubin to tweet: “As if there were any doubt left why Apple killed the iPad mini.” The latest iPhones start at $749 for the iPhone XR, due in October, at $999 for the iPhone Xs and $1,099 for the iPhone Xs Max, slated for Sept. 21 shipping. Good news about the new iPhones is they are 600 MHz compatible and will use the spectrum T-Mobile bought in the TV incentive auction, an executive of the carrier said later that day (see 1809120031).

Bank of America estimated iPhone prices would increase by as much as 20 percent if Apple followed through with President Donald Trump’s call for it to shift its factory operations to the U.S. “Apple prices may increase because of the massive Tariffs we may be imposing on China -- but there is an easy solution,” Trump tweeted Saturday. “Make your products in the United States instead of China. Start building new plants now.” Moving production “(100 percent of final assembly) to the U.S.,” the company would need “20 percent price increases to offset the incremental labor costs,” analyst Wamsi Mohan said.