Rebecca Day

Autonomic Controls is testing integration support for Amazon’s Cloud Drive service, which the company plans to release for its MMS-2 and MMS-5 Mirage Media servers in Q2, the company said Monday. Autonomic is testing support internally for Cloud Drive and expects to deliver free firmware updates to consumers within 60 days. The company is extending beta testing to qualified Autonomic dealers for in-house trials with demo MMS-5 media server systems, CEO Michael de Nigris told us.

A day following Sharp’s coming-out party for its $3,799 70-inch LC-70LE732U, the 120Hz LED-based LCD TV was already discounted by 22 percent at Sears and hhgregg, Consumer Electronics Daily found in an online search. In our survey, retailers who had the product were not shipping the TV from online sites but were directing consumers to retail stores instead. The Sears.com website didn’t list a price for the TV, but asked shoppers to use its Click to Call service for ordering information. We were directed to the Kings Plaza store in Brooklyn based on ZIP code and were told by phone that the store had two 70-inch models in stock at a retail price of $2,969.

Sidney Harman, 92, audio industry pioneer, Harman Kardon founder and former CEO of the Harman International empire, died Tuesday in Washington of complications from acute myeloid leukemia, according to a statement issued by his family. Harman, who was active in Newsweek operations until his death and was founder and chairman of the Academy for Polymathic Study at the University of Southern California, learned of his illness a month ago, the family said.

D&M Holdings has begun an initiative to design and develop products “from the outside in,” Bob Weissburg, president of sales and marketing, told Consumer Electronics Daily at a news conference in Weehawken, N.J., Tuesday to introduce 2011 Denon and Boston Acoustics products. “Listening to the customer” will be a key driver of the initiative, which includes dealers and end users, as the company moves away from a Japan-based engineering-driven strategy to a more localized approach based on individual markets, he said.

Controlling depth and limiting “gimmicks” were the goals of Prime Focus, the company chosen by Lucasfilm and its Industrial Light & Magic to convert Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace to 3D, Prime Focus CEO Namit Malhotra told Consumer Electronics Daily. The film, about 90 percent complete, is due to hit theaters Feb. 10, 2012. The most challenging aspect of the conversion was maintaining the creative vision of filmmaker George Lucas, who urged Prime Focus to “downplay the in-your-face aspects” of 3D, Malhotra said. He said audiences will be most impressed by seeing characters they know well “in an entirely new way, like they're right in front of them."

Casio launched its Tryx 12-megapixel slim-line digital camera Thursday night with exclusive retail partner Best Buy at a New York media event followed by a concert by female hip-hop artist Nicki Minaj. Best Buy has bragging rights to a white version of the camera, with a form factor similar to the iPhone’s but with a lens body that swivels inside a frame for shooting flexibility. A black version will be made available to Best Buy and other retailers, Nick Vilela, national trainer for Best Buy, told us. By video feed from Best Buy headquarters in Minneapolis, CEO Michael Vitelli told reporters that the unique Tryx design had been in the works more than a year. Despite the lavish debut in New York at the Best Buy Theater in Times Square, and the announcement that the $249 camera was available for preorder at Bestbuy.com, the Tryx didn’t make the Best Buy splash page Friday. It instead promoted smartphones, TVs, Blu-ray players, computers and appliances, along with the chain’s Buy Back program. Vilela told us the black version will be available April 17. Casio and Best Buy executives said the white version will be available “in the next couple of weeks.” The Tryx can be paired with an Eye-Fi SD card for wireless image transfer to a specified computer, Vilela said. The camera is aimed at 18-34 year-old consumers, the company said.

Internet music is changing the landscape of the multi-room audio business, said retailers and manufacturers surveyed by Consumer Electronics Daily. Some custom multi-room audio companies are being squeezed out of the cloud-based services world as content services look for high-volume distribution models, and installers are turning to affordable wireless solutions from Sonos and Logitech to satisfy consumers’ interest in Pandora, Rhapsody and other content services.

Citing “significant damage” from the March 11 quake and its aftershocks, Freescale Semiconductor said Wednesday it will not reopen its damaged six-inch wafer fab facility in Sendai, which shut down when the earthquake occurred March 11. The company estimated the total charge associated with the closing at $102 million, with the final amount to be reported as part of a business reorganization to be detailed in its Q1 operations statement. A company spokesman said devices produced at the Sendai plant -- microcontrollers, analog ICs and sensors -- are used primarily in automotive applications. The decision to close the plant accelerated a previously disclosed plan to cease operations there by the end of this year (CED April 4 p4). The breakout of the charges associated with closing is approximately $50 million for “asset impairment,” $14 million for damaged inventory and $38 million in “separation costs,” the company said. Production from Sendai is being transferred to other Freescale facilities, mainly in Chandler, Ariz., and Austin, Texas, and to foundry partners, the spokesman said. The company said it’s providing ongoing assistance to affected Sendai employees and their families including shipments of food, water, clothing and other emergency supplies, continuous payment of salaries to all Sendai employees and formation of the Freescale Relief Foundation. The Sendai plant was Freescale’s only production facility in Japan. The company’s distribution center in Narita, outside of Tokyo, experienced minimal building damage and is operational, the spokesman said.

Samsung announced a price cut and a promotion on 3D glasses that will outfit a family of four with the gear for $200. The moves announced Wednesday deal with a major point of consumer resistance to 3D TV. The company said it’s slashing the price of its $129 SSG-3100GB active-shutter 3D glasses below $50 May 1 and it will include two pairs at no charge with each Samsung plasma and LED-based LCD 3D TV bought starting April 24. No end date was announced for the promotion. The promotion applies to TVs that aren’t bundled with a starter kit including two pairs of glasses, a Shrek 3D Blu-ray collection and a voucher for Megamind 3D, the company said.

Semiconductor shortages related to the Japanese earthquake and tsunami will push 2011 world semiconductor revenue higher than originally forecast, IHS iSuppli said. In a report released Tuesday, the firm raised its projection to 7 percent from the 5.8 percent it offered in February. Revenue will reach $325.2 billion, rather than $320.1 billion, as shortages lead to higher prices for key DRAM devices, IHS said. The prices had been expected to drop 10.6 percent for the year. DRAM revenue is now predicted to decline 4 percent, IHS said.