Here's a summary of recent company, product, market and technology news from the past week or so.

Companies and Products

Analog Devices joined MIT's Solve program as the founding member and primary sponsor. Solve is a consortium of thought leaders, researchers, students and change agents that will develop technology solutions to society's difficult challenges. You may register for one of the public sessions.

Anokiwave announced that Richardson Electronics will be their global distributor.

Still struggling, BlackBerry plans an Android phone in a move to counter the continuing decline of the company. The Priv, as it's called, is a slider phone with a curved screen.

CommScope completed their acquisition of Airvana, a supplier of 3G and LTE small cells. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

Also on the M&A front, GigOptix completed their acquisition of Terasquare, a fablesss datacom IC supplier based in Korea. GigOptix paid $4 million for the company and assumed $1.15 million of Terasquare's debt.

Google launched two new Chromecasts, one for TV and the other for speakers. To improve Wi-Fi streaming, the new design uses four antennas.

MACOM released a 16 channel non-blocking 28 Gbps crosspoint switch for 100G Ethernet, EDR InfiniBand and OTN network standards. The switch includes clock and data recovery, adaptive continuous time linear equalization and decision feedback equalization and can compensate for signal loss in backplanes and copper cables up to 32 dB at 12.9 GHz. MAXP-37161 product data.

Also, MACOM announced it is sampling the industry's first 46 Gbaud, 4-channel, SMT modulator driver, designed for 200/400G optical networks.

NuWaves released a connectorized PA that provides 13 W (typical) output power (10 W minimum) across 1 to 2.5 GHz, with 40 dB gain and 30 to 50 percent power-added efficiency.

Pasternack announced three threshold detectors covering 2 to 40 GHz, with an input range from -45 to 0 dBm and +/- 0.5 dB flatness.

Skyworks released a single-stage pHEMT LNA covering 200 MHz to 3.8 GHz. At 2.7 GHz, the device achieves 1 dB noise figure, 17 dB gain, 16 dBm P1dB and 29 dBm OIP3. SKY67159-396LF product data.

TI launched three wireless, embedded processor evaluation kits to speed the development of applications for the Internet of Things (IoT). The processors are certified to run Microsoft's Azure IoT Suite code.

ViaSat received FAA certification for their in-cabin Internet and TV distribution system, the first of two they have applied for. The second, for their hybrid Ku- and Ka-Band antenna system, is expected during the first quarter of 2016. If you fly Virgin America, you're using ViaSat's system.

Markets and Technology

Cellular — Apple announced that sales of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus topped 13 million units during the first three days they were available, setting a new sales record.

After years of expectation, are we seeing the inflection point in small-cell deployment? Stephane Daeuble at Nokia thinks so.

At the PT Expo Comm in Beijing last week, Ericsson and Qualcomm demonstrated 300 Mbps data rates via LTE-U, combining 20 MHz cellular and 5 GHz unlicensed channels.

Microwave Radio — Ericsson released Microwave Towards 2020, a report projecting the future for microwave radio. Ericsson sees increasing data rates, E-Band growth and multiband systems keeping demand strong. Karolina Wikander, who heads the radio business unit at Ericsson, shares highlights of the report:

IoT — AT&T is tracking more than 290,000 Maersk refrigerated shipping containers, one of the largest industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) deployments according to AT&T. Each container has two-way connectivity almost anywhere in the world, incorporating a system with a 3G high temperature SIM card, GPS, ZigBee radio and antenna and multiple interfaces for connecting into the refrigerated container’s controller.

China — Chinese president Xi Jinping's visit to the U.S. led to an airing of concerns and some agreement on an approach to cyber relations. Now let's see whether cyberattacks actually decline. WSJ assessment

India — Beyond China, is India the next opportunity for tech? Indeed, some think it's the next market for social media and mobile apps, with a government that is much friendlier than China's. That means increasing data consumption and attendant opportunities for network infrastructure. New York Times article.

Technology and Society — Is our networked culture making us less empathetic? Read an interesting viewpoint on how our phones are affecting relationships. Surprised? Probably not, if you're at all engaged with the technology.

Have a good week. And remember to have more face-to-face conversations.