Pioneer will team with Treasure Data, a supplier of cloud-based data collection services, on a business alliance to develop telematics data services for the global automotive industry, the companies said Thursday. Using the Treasure Data cloud service, Pioneer will release new data and analytics-based services for automobile manufacturers and related businesses, including dealers, repair shops, insurance and rental car companies, they said. They also plan to “drive new research” on more effective use of automotive telematics data, they said in a news release (http://bit.ly/1lCfcRS).

Parks Associates plans a free webinar on “The Technology to Deliver Millions of Connected Homes,” at 9 a.m. CDT Sept. 25, addressing challenges of scalability, interoperability, usability and integration of data analytics for the future connected home. Coverage will include strategies smart home vendors are using to leverage product connectivity so they can reduce cost, extend functionality, add services and provide an integrated user experience, Parks said. Presenters will include Alertme.com founder Pilgrim Beart and CEO Mary Turner.

Local Corp. settled its patent infringement case against Fry’s Electronics, Local said Wednesday. The terms of the settlement are confidential, it said. Local Corp. sued Fry’s in 2012 for its alleged infringement of Local’s U.S. Patent No. 7,062,453, which covers “'methods and systems for dynamic networked commerce architecture,'” it said. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court of Central California, said a Local Corp. spokeswoman. “We are very pleased with the outcome of this settlement, and we believe this further validates the significant unlocked value of our robust patent portfolio,” Local Corp. CEO Fred Thiel said. Fry’s didn’t comment.

The CE industry “has a big problem” that’s evident at IFA in that “new sources of growth are not obvious and the next hot category is hard to imagine,” Paul Gray, DisplaySearch director-European research, said in a blog post Thursday (http://bit.ly/1pN9spD). “Perhaps the approach of audio, of slow re-invention and gradual re-valuation, is the right one,” he said. Panasonic’s relaunch of the Technics brand (CED Sept 4 p1) “would suggest so,” Gray said, but “whether the name resonates with someone aged under 30 is yet to be answered.” With the abundance of Ultra HD introductions at IFA, he said, “the big question is whether TV brands’ competitive responses will allow Ultra HD (not simply 4K) to grow, or whether the dynamics of the industry repeat the 3D bloodbath, in which nobody cared about the quality, the experience was compromised, and consumers were not convinced."

Bryston bowed the BDP-1USB digital music player ($1,795), designed for customers using external USB digital to analog converters. The BDP-1USB can manage music libraries of up to 30,000 tracks -- from MP3 to high-resolution files -- stored on external USB or NAS (network attached storage) drives, the company said Wednesday. The player can be controlled by iOS and Android apps. It includes a linear power supply and four USB ports. The player will ship in October, the company said.

Onkyo will release a firmware update enabling Dolby Atmos sound on the Onkyo TX-NR636, TX-NR737 and TX-NR838 network AV receivers Sept. 29, the company said Wednesday. Onkyo’s high-end TX-NR1030 and TX-NR3030 network AV receivers -- and the flagship PR-SC5530 network AV controller -- will ship in mid-October with support for Dolby Atmos enabled from the factory, the company said. The HT-S7700 network home-theater-in-a-box system will ship with Atmos built in at the end of the month, it said.

Gracenote said it bought film and TV information and services company Baseline for $50 million (http://bit.ly/1qozazG). The acquisition strengthens Gracenote’s existing video metadata by adding movie and TV information for more than 300,000 movies and TV projects, information on nearly 1.5 million TV and film professionals, and box office data for 45 territories, it said Wednesday. Baseline’s subscription-based The Studio System platform expands Gracenote’s reach into the studio and TV network communities with data and services targeted to entertainment industry professionals, Gracenote said. Baseline’s licensed data powers video search and discovery features and TV Everywhere apps for satellite operators, on-demand movie services, Internet companies and online streaming providers including Hulu and Vudu, it said. Gracenote was bought by Tribune Media Co. earlier this year.

Oral argument in broadcasters’ latest attempt to get a nationwide preliminary injunction against streaming TV service Aereo is Oct. 15, said an order issued in U.S District Court in Manhattan Tuesday. The broadcaster request for a preliminary injunction while the case against Aereo is tried on the merits is the same one that led to the ABC v. Aereo U.S. Supreme Court decision in broadcasters’ favor in June . Aereo has argued that the ABC v. Aereo majority opinion classified it as identical to a cable system, entitling it to a compulsory copyright license. “Aereo has paid the statutory license fees required under [Copyright Act] Section 111, and thus Plaintiffs can no longer complain that they are not being compensated as copyright owners,” said Aereo Friday in an opposition filing to the injunction motion. “Aereo is entitled to a compulsory license under the Copyright Act, and no preliminary injunction should issue on remand.” Aereo pointed to statements from CBS CEO Les Moonves that Aereo hadn’t affected CBS retransmission consent negotiations as evidence that the requested injunction wouldn’t be preventing any harm to broadcast businesses. The injunction request is also “overbroad” in targeting both Aereo’s offerings of real-time and time-shifted viewings of retransmitted broadcast content, Aereo said. Since the Supreme Court’s Aereo ruling didn’t overturn the Cablevision decision that provides the legal underpinning for Cablevision’s remote DVR technology, the injunction shouldn’t include Aereo’s time-shifted offerings, Aereo said. “Cablevision remains the law in this Circuit and Aereo’s time-shifted DVR is functionally identical to the Cablevision system."

Coupon site BluePromoCode launched a personalized iPhone app that funnels coupons to users from their favorite stores. With BluePromoCode, consumers can claim coupon codes, shop sales, and download in-store coupons, the company said. A goal of the app was to relieve pain points associated with mobile shopping, said CEO Michael Quoc. Consumers can complete the checkout experience with fewer phone taps while enabling them to “find and apply working discount codes in the process,” he said, and they can see which stores near them are offering in-store promotions that can be presented to a cashier straight from the app.

Costco will pay $335,000 in penalties for federal Clean Air Act violations as part of an agreement to cut emissions of ozone-depleting and greenhouse gas chemicals from refrigeration equipment at more than half of its U.S. stores, the EPA said Wednesday (http://1.usa.gov/1ppyWD7). Costco also will improve refrigerant management at 274 stores at an estimated cost of $2 million over the next three years, EPA said. The retailer violated the federal Clean Air Act by failing to repair leaks of the refrigerant R-22, a hydrochlorofluorocarbon and ozone-depleting substance, between 2004 and 2007, EPA said. The measures required by the settlement are expected to prevent the release of more than 105,000 pounds of ozone-depleting refrigerants that destroy the ozone layer, leading to dangerous amounts of ultraviolet solar radiation striking the earth and increasing skin cancers and cataracts, EPA said.