Rebecca Day

With lack of live 4K sports content a major hurdle to widespread consumer adoption of Ultra HD, Sony will give consumers a peak at what the future of sports in 3840 x 2160 resolution will look like this summer at Sony stores, the 350 Sony Experience sections in select Best Buy stores and at specialty AV dealers. Sony Electronics President Mike Fasulo said during an all-Sony panel on Ultra HD Wednesday that Sony will ship a thumb drive to dealers with FIFA highlights 48 hours after a match airs, with 11 matches slated for 4K production and delivery to dealers. Dealers will be able to show the matches, but the content won’t be available to consumers for sale, Fasulo told us. Sony will make a Blu-ray disc with highlights of FIFA matches shot in 4K available to consumers later this year, Fasulo told us, but the content will be limited by container restraints of the Blu-ray format, since there’s no Ultra HD standard for physical media. Fasulo referred to the balancing act Sony has taken on, trying to push Sony Pictures’ content that’s been mastered in 4K by noting it on the back of a Blu-ray Disc while not confusing consumers into thinking that a 4K TV is required to play the disc. The backside of the package reads “Mastered in 4K,” he said, so consumers know the disc will be compatible with the next-gen format, he said. Fasulo deflected a journalist’s question on what’s standing in the way of the industry developing a next-generation Blu-ray format for 4K movies, referring instead to a recently launched Blu-ray player that will upconvert to “almost native 4K.” Hugo Gaggioni, chief technology officer-Sony Broadcast and Production Systems, said the National Association of Manufacturers and Blu-Ray Disc Association have been investigating various technologies and compression formats for over two years and that “very good progress” has been made. Gaggioni didn’t provide a timetable for when a standard might be implemented.

Seiki is gearing up for the holiday selling season with a 32-inch smart TV in its new Muse line that will debut as a doorbuster on Black Friday, Sung Choi, vice president-marketing, told Consumer Electronics Daily at its CE Week booth. The Wi-Fi-enabled HDTV will include apps from Netflix, Pandora, Vudu and YouTube and will sell for below $200, Choi said.

GM’s program to offer 4G LTE data plans across a broad swath of vehicles -- with data plans starting at $5 per month -- is part of a strategy to reach the millennial car buyer who demands a connected environment, said Tim Nixon, chief technology officer, Global Connected Consumer.

High prices as of Tuesday became less of an excuse for consumers postponing an Ultra HD TV purchase, as No. 1 TV maker Samsung confirmed $999 pricing for its HU6950 40-inch UHD TV due to ship later this month (CED May 27 p1) and second-tier brand TCL announced a 40-inch UHD TV for $499.

The race is on toward the next phase of surround sound at a time when sales of five- and seven-channel AV receivers have been trending downward. Denon, Onkyo, Marantz and Pioneer announced Monday Dolby Atmos-enabled AVRs, which deliver up to 11 channels of audio, including channels for height to create what the companies call a multidimensional surround-sound experience.

CHICAGO - Audio quality continues to be a key differentiator for Sprint, which announced Monday nationwide availability of its HD Voice service, following last week’s announcement of a high-res music sampler offer from music download company HDTracks. At a news conference at the Museum of Broadcast Communications to promote its Framily Plan and Spark enhanced LTE service, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse called HD Voice “the greatest improvement in the history of wireless voice.”

Samsung’s launch of premium 8.4- and 10.5-inch Galaxy tablets comes amid a period of “no growth” in the high-end segment of the Android tablet market, NPD analyst Stephen Baker told Consumer Electronics Daily.

New York-based e-cycler The 4th Bin is seeking to broaden its service portfolio to help offset the high costs of responsible recycling, co-founder John Kirsch told Consumer Electronics Daily. The 4th Bin sent a letter to clients last week promoting the company as a “full-service firm” that provides “a range of end-of-life solutions” for retired electronics. Additional services included on- and off-site data destruction, IT asset value recovery and consulting on sustainability practices to meet state, federal and international laws, it said in an email. Challenging 4th Bin is the dearth of “legitimate [recycling] companies out there,” which is both good and bad for 4th Bin, the only New York City recycler to have certifications from both e-Stewards and R2, Kirsch said. “We went to great lengths to get the highest certifications,” he said, but consumers and businesses largely don’t know what that means. Kirsch referred to what can be a “very shady industry” involving recycling exporters and importers who want to acquire equipment to ship it to brokers, and it’s not always clear where product winds up if it hasn’t gone through e-Stewards-certified companies, he said. As an e-Steward recycler, certified by Basel Action Network, “it’s highly regulated, you're audited yearly, all of your vendors are looked at and you have to abide by these rules,” Kirsch said. That’s costly for a company like 4th Bin that uses 10 vendors that have to be regularly vetted, he said. Kirsch wouldn’t quantify costs but said, “it’s not cheap.” Another trend affecting the e-cycling business is downsizing of electronics, he said. “Laptops are hard to recycle” because they have to be taken apart, he said. Also, a reduction in metals in manufacturing has affected metals-recovery income in recycling, he said. The 4th Bin’s income primarily comes from its pick-up fee per product, which can range from $50 to $10,000, he said.

Following a trial run in the Boston and San Jose markets, Duracell Powermat and Starbucks said Thursday they've begun a national rollout of Powermat wireless charging counters, with a launch in Starbucks stores in San Francisco. The companies plan to expand Powermat wireless charging -- a free service -- to more major markets next year, with a full rollout in counters in Starbucks company-owned stores and Teavana Fine Teas + Tea Bars “planned over time."

NAD Electronics is hoping to find a niche in the premium audio market, somewhere between mid-fi electronics and the esoteric high end as it looks to refresh its customer base, the company said during a media tour in New York. John Banks, chief brand officer for NAD parent Lenbrook International, called new products in NAD’s Masters series a “significant shift” for the company, because the series incorporates a digital, rather than analog, amplifier and a modular design using swappable cards for functions including streaming audio via Bluetooth and HDMI inputs that can be changed and upgraded over time.