Rebecca Day

Specialty AV specialty retailer Bjorn’s in San Antonio is re-launching its Sony store-within-a-store space, Marketing Manager Kris Dybdahl told us. The store sent out an email invitation to its customer list Thursday inviting patrons to the grand opening of the 700-square-foot space, a redesign of a previous Sony-dedicated section that “never did what we wanted it to do,” Dybdahl said. Top billing for the event goes to Sony’s 84-inch Ultra HD TV. Sony-funded giveaways for the event include headphones, tablets, a Blu-ray player and movie tickets to a local Sony 4K theater, Dybdahl said. When Sony approached the store about a redesign, it jumped at the chance, converting what had been a dark home theater-oriented section focused on TVs into a brightly lit area showing a broad range of products, Dybdahl said. The initial Sony store opened four years ago and featured “mostly TVs” representing a “different time” in AV specialty retailing, Dybdahl said. The newer product selection branches out into categories including tablets, ES Series receivers, computers, camcorders, iPod docking systems and portable speakers, he said. The store is also featuring Sony’s G-Tank music system, a high-powered speaker with built-in pulsing LED lights that the store brought in last fall. “People freaked out about them” at an event last fall, Dybdahl said. “We sold out of them in a weekend,” he said.

Tely Labs hopes to build its customer base using what’s left of the Cisco umi subscriber list, which will be left without video service as of Jan. 31 when Cisco pulls the plug on the ill-fated and pricey umi telepresence service. Cisco’s umi components began at $599 when launched in 2010 and then took a price cut to $499. Amazon was selling the umi unit Thursday for $399. Reports began circulating a year ago that Cisco planned to stop selling the umi system -- comprising an HD webcam, console and remote -- but it was unclear what would happen to existing customers who were still paying the $10 monthly service fee for the HD service.

Worldwide tablet shipments will exceed those of notebook PCs for the first time this year, while the market leading iPad will lose share to an emerging class of 7-8-inch tablets, NPD DisplaySearch said in a report. DisplaySearch had previously forecast tablet shipments to surpass notebooks in 2015, Analyst Richard Shim told us, but an unexpected surge in shipments of locally branded tablets accelerated growth in emerging markets at the expense of notebook PCs. Small local brands in emerging markets are offering tablets “at much lower price points that are more attractive to first-time buyers,” Shim said. Analysts had expected the price-performance ratio of notebooks to support the category in emerging markets for several years, “but it turns out those buyers wanted convenience more” than performance, Shim said.

After reining in guidance for fiscal 2013 earnings projections on Monday -- largely on a 24 percent drop in TV sales for the holiday quarter -- hhgregg is holding a blowout TV sale this week with a “Playoffs Price Drops” promotion of up to 25 percent off “or more” on TVs over $499, it said in an email blast. Calling it a “Final Days” sale, hhgregg posted a Sharp 60-inch TV for under $1,000 and a Samsung 51-inch PN51E450 plasma TV at $549. The Sharp LC60LE600U is now tagged at $999, slashed 41 percent, or $700, when purchased in-store only, the ad said. The Samsung plasma was clipped by $100, or 15 percent.

Consumers who sign up for a one-month beta trial of the Redbox Instant by Verizon service might well be underwhelmed by the offerings of the $8-per month subscription plan, judging from our early experience testing the service’s offerings. The subscription service includes “access to thousands of popular movie titles,” according to its website. A subscription also includes rental of four DVD titles a month from a Redbox kiosk, but it does not include free access to titles available for rental or purchase, which we found to be a more desirable selection of movies.

Qualcomm Atheros and Wilocity launched the first tri-band reference design that combines 802.11ac and 802.11ad wireless capabilities on a single module, the companies said at CES. The module is based on Qualcomm Vive 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Wilocity 802.11ad 60 GHz WiGig (Wireless Gigabit) technologies, the companies said, and delivers tri-band Wi-Fi for connecting docks, devices, storage peripherals and displays at multi-gigabit speeds compatible with 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks. The wireless networking card enables multi-gigabit networking, data syncing, and video and audio streaming while maintaining wireless bus extension docking capabilities, the companies said. Vivek Gupta, vice president of computing at Qualcomm Atheros, said CE manufacturers will be able to integrate the technology into a range of products including TVs, game consoles and notebook PCs, enabling consumers to benefit from “the speed, improved reliability and range of 802.11ac with the multi-gigabit, in-room input/output and networking achieved through 802.11ad.” At CES, WiGig Alliance Chairman Ali Sadri told us the next-gen 802.11ad standard, based on WiGig technology, “is not a speed game anymore,” saying 11 Gbps is “more than enough” for Internet browsing. But the ultra-high-speed spec is necessary for data-intensive applications including audio and video streaming and synchronization with external storage devices. “Presumably all laptops will have WiGig built in,” he said, followed by docking stations. “Taiwan is the best place to create all sorts of gadgets for the technology,” he said. “I can’t even imagine what’s going to come out.”

LAS VEGAS -- MasterImage showed us its latest 3D LCD technology at CES, a passive 3D module co-developed with ODM Truly Semiconductors and built into a 10.1-inch Truly-built tablet for demonstration purposes. MasterImage, which provided the 4.3-inch 3D LCD display for “hundreds of thousands” of Hitachi 3D phones launched in Japan in 2009, is pursuing manufacturers for a range of touch-enabled 3D displays from 4.3 to 10.1 inches, said Matt Liszt, vice president-marketing.

LAS VEGAS -- Wireless audio was a major focus for Harman at CES because consumers “are looking to cut cables” and avoid “the nuisance of wires,” Chris Dragon, senior director-global marketing, told Consumer Electronics Daily. Among Harman’s high-profile introductions at the show were the JBL Charge, a $149 tube-shaped speaker sized to work with smartphones and tablets on a 12-hour charge. It has a USB port to double as charger for phones as well, Dragon said. Harman’s focus at CES was “portable, in a big way,” Dragon said, including “anything that connects to a Bluetooth-enabled device."

LAS VEGAS -- With Ultra HD the hot TV topic of 2013, “it might be a little bit too early for us,” Kevin O'Connor, general merchandise manager for electronics at Walmart, told Consumer Electronics Daily at CES. But he left open the possibility that the technology could reach virtual shelves at Walmart.com and at Sam’s Club stores this year.

LAS VEGAS -- Cloud-based software company People Power unveiled at CES an app for Android and iOS smartphones and tablets that will give users free webcam monitoring capability as part of the company’s plan to jumpstart the “Internet of Things.” The app, due to be available for the iPhone in March and Android devices in May, is being positioned as a way for consumers to reuse old smartphones. From the app, users can monitor elderly parents, sleeping babies, pets or the front door over a phone’s Wi-Fi connection, enabling consumers to give video monitoring capability to devices that would otherwise be recycled or “tossed in a drawer,” said David Moss, co-founder and chief technology officer.