Rebecca Day

Samsung is headed into 2014 with a multi-pronged strategy for home audio based on multiroom audio, TV sound, Bluetooth speakers and home theater, said Jim Kiczek, director-digital audio and video, on a pre-CES audio briefing webcast. The company plans to exploit market opportunities in soundbars and wireless audio, as consumers trend toward soundbars and away from 5.1 and 7.1 home-theater-in-a-box systems and to Bluetooth speakers at the expense of docking systems, Kiczek said.

While Samsung and LG have been engaged in pre-CES jockeying over launch announcements for 105-inch curved Ultra HD TVs, Samsung’s corporate website is trumpeting global availability of the company’s 110-inch Ultra HD TV.

Target said Friday in an update on the security breach that affected some 40 million credit and debit cards used in stores Nov. 27-Dec. 15 that PIN data from debit cards was included in the breach. Initially the company said compromised data included only cardholders’ names, CVV (card verification value) on credit cards, account numbers and expiration dates (CED Dec 20 p4).

An FCC order approved last February requiring a redesign of cellphone signal boosters has booster-makers scrambling to bring products up to spec in time for CES, which opens Jan. 7 for a four-day run. Among the changes required by the order are threefold reductions in power limits and automatic shutoff features to avoid interference with cellular towers and wireless networks, John Crook, marketing communications manager of booster maker Cellphone-Mate, told Consumer Electronics Daily. Cellphone-Mate is redesigning its SureCall line of cell signal boosters to comply with FCC specs set to go into effect March 1, Crook said, and four products are undergoing the testing process required by the FCC. The company supplies cell signal boosters for residential, automotive and commercial applications. Prices for 2014 SureCall products haven’t been set because the company hasn’t factored in re-engineering costs in the “thousands of dollars” along with $10,000-per-product testing fees, he said. Costs required to make boosters compliant could shrink the number of U.S. booster suppliers, Crook said. “It will be interesting to see how many companies remain in the U.S.,” he said, citing the “huge costs” involved in making existing product compliant. The ruling could deliver more booster sales for Cellphone-Mate because at a lower wattage, more boosters will be required to serve a large space, he said. Long term, the ruling is positive for booster-makers that can weather the costs because as more customers cut out landlines in favor of cell services, marginal coverage areas will require signal boosters, Crook said. Those aren’t just in rural areas, he noted. Customers in large cities such as San Francisco struggle to receive a good cell signal due to large buildings and hilly terrain. Current SureCall residential booster kits -- including indoor and outdoor antennas, cables and the booster itself -- run in the $900-$1,000 range, he said. At that price, “you really have to want it,” he said.

Shoppers waiting for post-Christmas CE deals had bundles of options to choose from -- and longer store hours awaiting them -- we found in a scan of websites Thursday.

Target’s support infrastructure for handling fallout from a massive credit card data breach was woefully inadequate the day after the retailer acknowledged that some 40 million credit cards had been compromised between Nov. 27 and Dec. 15, Consumer Electronics Daily found. Holders of Target’s own REDcard debit or credit card who tried calling the toll-free number on the back of the card were stymied through a second day as calls got a busy signal. The REDcard website was virtually inaccessible Thursday after Target released the news, and was very slow to respond Friday.

Target’s credit card phone line and website were overwhelmed Thursday as customers tried to access account information following the retailer’s confirmation that its payment system had been breached, compromising 40 million credit and debit accounts spanning a significant chunk of the holiday shopping season. Accounts affected by the breach included Target REDcards and cards issued by other banks that were used in U.S. Target stores between Nov. 27 and Dec. 15, a Target spokeswoman told us. The issue is exclusive to U.S. stores and has been resolved, she said.

The phase-out of incandescent light bulbs -- which began in January 2012 with 100-watt lamps -- will be complete on New Year’s Day when 40-watt and 60-watt bulbs can no longer be brought into or manufactured in the U.S. But according to a survey commissioned by Lutron, two out of three Americans aren’t aware that the century-old light bulb they know is on the way out, and only 10 percent know about next-gen bulb options including compact fluorescents, halogens and LEDs.

Amazon’s original film and TV production unit, Amazon Studios, plans to shoot all 2014 original series in 4K Ultra HD, it said Monday, joining Netflix as a streaming video provider getting a head start on broadcasters and cable networks to 4K content distribution.

Channel Master launched a DVR for over-the-air programming that’s designed to boost its antenna business while giving rural TV owners a DVR option and cord-cutters another reason to abandon cable or satellite TV service. It’s the company’s third-generation DVR, said President Coty Youtsey, who said it has “learned from the past two iterations some of the idiosyncrasies involved” in working with broadcast and guide data that can make a CE device freeze. “We've got that under control now,” he said, which he said is an advantage Channel Master has over competitive products coming to market. Especially when dealing with over-the-air broadcasts, “It takes several years to get the software to the point where it’s consumer-friendly enough and stable,” he said.