The CEDIA Expo 2026 website features a clock that is counting down the days until the show, and as of the time of writing the weekly KMB Comm Tech Week in Review, there are three days until the event begins.
Most of the home technology news cycle over the pasts couple of weeks has been dominated with Expo news, including product announcements, system demonstrations, and more. There is however news that is technology-related happening outside of the CEDIA Expo.
Looking at some of the noteworthy news outside of the technology integration market, here are some items from LinkedIn, eCoustics, SVConline, and Yahoo. The topics in these items include a trio of Apple posts, Amazon hardware price increases, “The Odyssey,” and Sony PlayStation news.
- eCoustics says “The Odyssey” home video release has been announced
- LinkedIn and Fortune says that Amazon is raising the prices on some of its products
- Yahoo Tech is reporting on the unhappiness of PlayStation account users
- Picking up a story from Bloomberg, LinkedIn says momentum is building for a foldable iPhone
- Sound & Video Contractor citing Bloomberg says that Apple is gearing up to focus on AI
- Yahoo Finance is reporting on the launch of new Mac Mini and Mac Studio computers
KMB Comm Home Technology News
Starting this week’s tour of residential tech news, is an item from eCoustics. In a story that posted mid-week, the enthusiast site says “The Odyssey” will be available in a physical media release as 4K Ultra HD/Blu ray/digital content.
The release will offer a native 4K resolution with HDR10 high dynamic range (HDR) and a 1.78:1 aspect ratio. Audio will be DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. eCoustics adds the most intriguing part of the release will be the aspect ratio. The story notes the film was shot using IMAX cameras. eCoustics says the 1.78:1 aspect ratio cannot show the complete 1.43:1 IMAX aspect ratio, but it may show more of the image than a 2.39:1 Cinemascope version on a 16:9 screen.
Next up in KMB Comm’s tour of residential tech news is a LinkedIn post that was picked up from Fortune.
The post via Fortune states that Amazon is increasing the prices on products such as Fire TVs, Kindles, and Echos due to the chip shortage that is impacting the technology market. The story says that price hikes could reach as high as 60% on some products.
Over in the world of gaming, Sony addressed its critics head-on according to a story from Yahoo Tech.
The Yahoo Tech story says that Sony sent an email to PlayStation account holders that underscored its Terms of Service. Those terms include the level of rights users have with digital purchases, and the email followed an announcement the company made on it ending physical media production.
Not surprisingly Yahoo Tech notes users are not taking Sony’s announcement well. Additionally other points that aren’t faring well with PlayStation users include Sony’s admission that it may track and record users’ activities on its PlayStation Online Services.
Lots of Apple News
Picking up a story from Bloomberg, earlier this week, LinkedIn has posted an item on the momentum building for the first foldable iPhone product. LinkedIn says the foldable iPhone could be priced at more than $2,000, and the story suggests this product could be the biggest new device in a long time from the California-based technology company.
Our next Apple news story comes from Sound & Video Contractor (SVConline).
According to SVConline’s story per Bloomberg, Apple has reduced the size of several of its development teams, including the team responsible for Apple Vision Pro. The report says that more than 200 people were let go, and among the staff members were people that worked on Siri and the Intelligent System Experience teams.
The reason for these layoffs, says SVConline from the Bloomberg story are that Apple is gearing up to focus its resources new products and AI.
Concluding the KMB Comm Tech Week in Review and the trio of Apple news items, is a story from Yahoo Finance on the launch of new Apple computer products.
The story states that Apple’s Mac Mini and Mac Studio are popular computing products with the AI community and can be difficult to find in stores due to their popularity. Earlier this week, Apple announced the latest versions of these computers.
Apple’s new Mac Mini incorporates a new M6 processor or M5 Pro chip, and the M6 can be ordered with up to 32GB of memory. The M5 Pro version can be ordered with up to 64GB of memory, and the Mac Studio will be powered by the M5 Max and M5 Ultra processors.
Pricing for the new Mac Mini starts at $899, while the Mac Mini with the M5 Pro starts at $1,699 says Yahoo Finance. The base Mac Studio pricing starts at $2,499 with the M5 Ultra version reaching the pricing plateau of $5,499.
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