Rebecca Day

Black Friday came early Tuesday in the form of Amazon Prime Day. The company’s two-day discount fair spawned me-too events at Best Buy, Target, Walmart and others and is considered the launch of the 2020 holiday season. GameSpot used the #primeday Twitter hashtag to direct shoppers to Best Buy’s “early Black Friday deals, just in time to compete with #PrimeDay." The Amazon event drew a wide range of tweets, including charities looking to benefit from purchases through Amazon Smile, customers complaining of lower prices prior to Prime Day and watchdog groups keeping their eye on the e-commerce titan.

Design, MagSafe wireless charging and photography features stood out among early Twitter responses to Apple’s Tuesday launch event for four iPhone 12 models and a downsized HomePod smart speaker. So did Apple’s removal of chargers and earbuds from the box, which the company couched in an environmental light. Customers already have more than 700 million lightning headphones, said a spokesperson.

An e-waste incident reported by the Basel Action Network “appears to have been the result of human error” at a Goodwill location in Washington, D.C., where Dell displays were donated, emailed a Dell spokesperson Friday. BAN said four of six LCD monitors exported as e-waste to Guatemala were in “likely violation” of the country’s import laws and Dell’s corporate policy (see 2010070066). The other two monitors went to disposal companies in Maryland. “These six displays were incorrectly sorted and sent to another partner and never entered the Dell Reconnect program,” the Dell spokesperson said. “This Goodwill location has committed to immediate actions to ensure errors of this type do not occur again, and to use this as a training opportunity for all program participants. Dell will also support Goodwill Industries International to ensure participating Reconnect partners are aware of the processes in place.”

The home entertainment industry expects a strong holiday quarter, riding the pandemic's spike in consumer tech spending, but dealers need to be thinking about what happens next, ProSource CEO Dave Workman told Consumer Electronics Daily. “The one question everyone needs to be thinking about is, when everything does open up, when does it turn in the other direction? And it will,” said Workman.

Consumers are more willing to share their smartphone data for contract tracing if they know someone who has had COVID-19, reported Parks Associates Wednesday. More than 80% of those who know someone infected are willing to share smartphone data, with privacy protections, vs. 65% who don’t.

Sonos and Logitech shares fell Tuesday on a Bloomberg report their audio products are no longer being sold in Apple Stores or on Apple.com. Our search for products from the three companies at Apple.com Tuesday brought up no audio gear. Sonos closed 7% lower Tuesday at $14.54. Logitech finished the day 6.1% lower at $75.83.

Fear during the pandemic has led to a spike in online security concerns, said Olli Bliss, business development manager of cybersecurity firm F-Secure, on a Parks Associates webinar Thursday. An employee who receives an email with COVID-19-related information from what appears to be her employer is "going to open up that spreadsheet that’s in there,” he said. Local authorities are using texts to send information to citizens, too, he said, which leads to opportunities for phishing scams that mimic official announcements.

"Biggest" and "earliest" were Amazon descriptors Monday for its holiday gift guides ahead of the Prime Day shopping event Oct. 13-14. The two-day event, delayed from July, is seen as kicking off the advanced holiday shopping season in a year stamped by the COVID-19 pandemic. The e-commerce leader pushed exclusive Prime Day deals in its electronics gift guides from CE heavyweights Apple, Bose, Samsung, Sony and HP, along with its refreshed line of Echo and Fire TV products in a Monday blog post. The electronics gift guide has more than 1,000 tech products, said the company. When we clicked through on the Sonos One SL speaker Monday, we found it was the same $179 price shown on the Sonos website, with an in-stock day of Oct. 16, post-Prime Day. Sony WH-1000XM4 over-ear headphones were in stock for $348, the same price shown at Crutchfield.com. The latest iPad mini, $399 at Apple.com, was $349 on Amazon. Several homegrown products went on sale early. Amazon cut the price of an Echo Dot two-pack from $99 to $39 and lopped $100 of the Fire TV Recast DVR to $129. A 50-inch Insignia Fire TV, borne out of partnership with Best Buy for Fire TVs sold under Best Buy’s private-label brand (see 1804180002), was $100 off to $249 in a “Prime Exclusive” deal. The model 50DF710NA21 4K TV was selling for $299 at Best Buy Monday.

Amazon raised the bar for music streaming Friday, announcing a partnership with Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group to remaster “thousands” of songs and albums in 24-bit with sampling rates from 44.1kHz to 192kHz, what Amazon calls Ultra HD. Amazon cited songs from artists including the Eagles, Marvin Gaye, Nirvana, Tom Petty, Diana Ross, Linkin Park, J. Cole, Waylon Jennings, the Ramones, 2 Chainz, Lady Gaga, The Notorious B.I.G., Ariana Grande and Selena Gomez as among those that have been remastered “to the highest quality streaming audio.” They are available exclusively on Amazon Music HD, Amazon said, and all titles resulting from the partnership will be delivered in 24-bit and 96 kHz or 192 kHz. Amazon Music HD subscriptions are $12.99 monthly for Prime Members, $14.99 non-Prime.

Personalized TV, a smart speaker for music enthusiasts and 5G phones highlighted Google’s fall product introductions in a Wednesday YouTube event geared to the increased time consumers spend at home due to COVID-19. Over the past five months, Americans increased the time they spend listening to music at home 61%, said Mark Spates, Nest product manager.