Rebecca Day

H.h. gregg pre-announced Tuesday a net loss per diluted share of 25 cents for fiscal Q4 ended March 31, ahead of the company’s earnings call scheduled for May 20. The net loss includes about $4 million of pre-tax expenses related to inventory write-down for h.h. gregg’s exit from the contract-based mobile phone business and related expenses, it said in an SEC filing. The contract-based business historically was a drain on overall operating profitability and the shift away from it “better aligns with long-term strategic initiatives,” it said.

Sam’s Club expanded services and support for electronics purchases including a guaranteed upgrade buyback program for members who buy TVs, smartphones, tablets, and computers, the chain said Tuesday. It has also expanded protection plans, provided by SquareTrade, for other electronics including printers, gaming consoles, media players, headphones and coffee machines, it said. Under the program, Sam’s Club members who buy a TV worth at least $500 can buy a four-year SquareTrade protection plan for $99 that includes delivery, set-up and hauling away and recycling of an old TV, the retailer said. An exclusive add-on for Sam’s Club customers is a “guaranteed buyback program” that allows members to trade in their TV within six months of purchase and receive up to half the price back on a Sam’s Club gift card, it said. After six months, consumers can get a pro-rated trade-in value, according to the Sam’s Club website. Sam’s Club Plus members receive a fifth year of coverage under the $99 plan, it said. The extended coverage includes accidental damage protection to devices including smartphones and tablets from drops, spills and other accidents, Sam’s Club said. In addition, 24/7 technical support by Alorica is available for all products under the Sam’s Club Tech Experts program. The service plan section on the Sam’s Club website has a toll-free SquareTrade number for consumers to call with questions about service plans, but when we called, a sales representative wasn’t able to provide details of the Sam’s Club program and referred us to the retailer instead. Sam’s Club didn’t immediately respond to questions.

In advance of the New York International Auto Show that opens this week, Harman held one-on-one demos of its software technology that restores audio detail to compressed music. Harman first showed the technology under the Signal Doctor name at CES, but it since redubbed it Clari-Fi after market research indicated the word “signal” didn’t carry the intended meaning to today’s consumers who associated the term with a traffic signal instead of an audio signal, Jeff Poggi, vice president-global sales and marketing for Harman’s automotive audio group, told us. The new Clari-Fi name is more “approachable” and conveys the message of “clear sound” and hi-fi in one, he said.

Connected devices dominated the scene of CE gadgets at Pepcom’s DigitalFocus event in New York Thursday night as the annual mini trade event ushered in the dads and grads shopping season. Against a backdrop of The Graduate showing on a super-sized projection screen, exhibitors displayed a range of devices for personal use and home applications geared for the mid-year gift-giving season.

Sonos added Google Play Music to its streaming music service lineup, giving users the ability to play music from the Sonos software menu or to cast it directly from the Google Play app on a smartphone. Google Play is integrated into the Sonos ecosystem in the same way as other music apps, but the Google Play integration adds the ability to cast music from a smartphone to a Sonos speaker without having to switch apps, a Sonos spokesman told us. A user listening to a song on Google Play while driving in a car can now return home and “throw” the tune to the Sonos system by hitting the “cast” button in the Google Play app, he said. The music automatically jumps from the phone to the Sonos speakers, eliminating the need to stop the music, find the Sonos controller, navigate to Google Play and hit play on the device, which would likely start the song from the beginning. “It’s a seamless, quick way to keep that music going,” the spokesman said of the feature. Google Play is the second implementation of the technology, he said. The first was with Chinese streaming music service QQ Music. Sonos’s agreement with Google Play Music is its first global implementation of casting that will be available in the 25 markets where Google Play is available. As markets are added, they'll have the casting capability as well, he said. On plans for implementation with iOS, the spokesman said there’s no set timetable but it’s “definitely something we want to add.” Enabling the feature requires participation from both companies, he said.

"Sad news” is how Franklin Karp, chief operating officer at Audio Video Systems, characterized the news that longstanding lower Manhattan CE retailer J&R had shuttered its doors after 43 years. “It’s been brewing for a long time,” said Karp, former CEO of one-time J&R competitor Harvey Electronics, which closed in 2007. “Between 9/11 and [the impact of] Amazon, they never were able to adjust,” he said, citing J&R’s proximity to the World Trade Center and the 2001 terrorist attacks’ devastating impact on local businesses.

Prodea Systems, a connected home platform provider, launched in the U.S. Tuesday with the goal of enabling a range of consumer-facing companies -- including content providers, home builders, developers and retailers -- to offer Internet of Things (IoT) services to mass-market consumers for nominal recurring fees. The company calls its Residential Operating System (ROS) “the first managed service delivery platform to enable ubiquitous and simple access and interactions between people, data, services, and devices.”

Customer responses were mixed Friday over Nest’s automatic disarming in its Protect Smoke + Carbon Monoxide alarm of a feature that could cause the device to not function properly in a fire. The company issued a consumer safety notice Thursday alerting customers to a potential problem with the device’s Wave feature in case of fire (http://bit.ly/Por7nt). The story appeared in USA Today and other outlets before many consumers had seen the notice.

NanoTech Entertainment said Thursday its 4K Studios division signed an agreement with content distributor Multicom to repurpose some 30 full-length films that will be available on NanoTech’s 4K UltraFlix streaming service.

The Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) formed the Infrastructure Applications Group (IAG), a working group designed to drive adoption of Qi wireless charging locations in hotels, restaurants, sporting venues, and other “everyday” locations. It’s not the first time a wireless charging standards group has touted public charging venues -- the Power Matters Alliance (PMA) has promoted its partnership with McDonald’s, Starbucks, Madison Square Garden and Delta Sky Clubs, among others -- but widespread deployment of any public charging stations has been minimal due to practical and political considerations.