The FCC should grant cable operators that use TiVo set-top boxes a waiver of the requirement that they must include “an industry-standard, interactive, and recordable home networking interface,” the company said in a waiver petition (http://bit.ly/1vJGlFR) posted Tuesday in docket 97-80. TiVo had successfully sought an extension for the deadline for set-tops to fulfill that requirement because the Digital Living Network Alliance had not released industry standards for the boxes on time (CED April 7 p8). “TiVo could not anticipate the precise outcomes of the DLNA process or the timing and content of published specifications, and had to develop its own home networking solution in order to maintain its role in providing innovative solutions to retail consumers,” TiVo’s petition said. If TiVo has to change its technology to fit the DLNA standard, it could “hinder TiVo’s ability to compete on both a retail and a wholesale level,” the company said. If the FCC takes the position that the home networking requirement was invalidated by the EchoStar decision in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, TiVo said, its petition would be moot.

Origin Acoustics announced the Director collection, 13 in-ceiling speakers representing the company’s worldwide launch. The line, ranging $400-$5,000 a pair, was designed by SpeakerCraft founder Ken Humphreys to address challenges inherent in in-ceiling speakers, which Origin said Monday are limitations in bass response and limited dispersion. The speakers use a fixed woofer and a new mounting system that are said to “dramatically reduce” a speaker’s footprint by providing a 50 percent increase in cone area. An 8-inch speaker has the diameter of a typical six-inch speaker, and a 10-inch speaker fits the space of a typical 8-inch speaker, the company said. The speakers include a ZipClip tool-less mounting system that uses a rail similar to a zip tie to simplify mounting and cut down on labor costs. Origin products “are disruptive,” with smaller footprints, high-performance sound quality and improved aesthetics, CEO Jeremy Burkhardt said. Company patents will cover most aspects of architectural loudspeakers “and I hope to share them to support industry advancement,” Burkhardt said.

Super-low-price-TV marketer Sceptre now has until Monday to answer allegations in two separate complaints that it’s selling dozens of models of DTV sets without an ATSC or MPEG-2 license (CED July 7 p8), said a joint stipulation order in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles signed by lawyers for both sides extending the deadline (http://1.usa.gov/1qYBeyc). Sceptre’s legal team has just taken on a new lead attorney who needs more time to prepare for the case, said the order explaining the reason for the extension. The lawsuit alleging MPEG-2 patent infringement (case No. 2:2014-cv-04994) was filed June 26 by licensors General Electric, Mitsubishi, Philips, Sony and Thomson. The ATSC action (case No. 2:2014-cv-05150) was filed July 2 by license holders Panasonic, Philips and Zenith. U.S. District Judge Otis Wright, who’s presiding over the MPEG-2 case, declined a request that the case be transferred to U.S. District Judge George Wu, who’s hearing the ATSC case. It’s unclear from court documents which side made the request. The same legal teams are representing the two sides in both cases, documents show. None of the lawyers on either side commented. The transfer request had argued that leaving the cases separate “would entail substantial duplication of labor if heard by different judges,” because both complaints “arise from the same or closely related transactions, happenings or events,” and both “call for determination of the same or substantially related or similar questions of law and fact.” However, Wright ruled that “while both actions may invoke similar ultimate legal determinations, each action involves different patents,” his declination said (http://1.usa.gov/1tlYbhs). “There would [be] no substantial duplication of effort since each Judge would adjudicate the legal issues vis-a-vis different patents.” In addition to selling the TVs without an ATSC or MPEG-2 license, both complaints also allege that Sceptre has “induced” infringement of the same patents by retailers, distributors and other “downstream parties” that are selling or shipping the TVs, though neither action names or indemnifies those downstream parties. Walmart is one key retailer that maintains a big online presence for Sceptre TVs, we found Sunday when we visited Walmart’s e-commerce site (http://bit.ly/1tlUOqF). Our check of Walmart’s Sceptre-brand offerings showed 14 models of Sceptre TVs sized 19 to 50 inches were available for sale, all for well below $500. Its top-priced Sceptre model Sunday was a 50-inch 1080p LED-backlit set with 60 Hz frame rate that Walmart has listed for $468. Tagged as “Best Seller” was a 32-inch 720p LED-backlit set with 60 Hz frame rate and three HDMI inputs for $169. Walmart representatives did not comment on the complaints against Sceptre.

Home Depot is investigating a possible breach exposing customer credit card information, it confirmed to us after security reporter Brian Krebs initially reported Tuesday that a batch of stolen credit cards for sale might be linked back to Home Depot (http://bit.ly/1qlYRAZ). “I can confirm we are looking into some unusual activity and we are working with our banking partners and law enforcement to investigate,” a Home Depot spokeswoman said. “If we confirm that a breach has occurred, we will make sure customers are notified immediately.” Krebs reported those behind the allegedly stolen credit card info, which went up for sale Tuesday morning, might be the same group that was responsible for the data breach at Target (CED Dec 23 p1). Home Depot operates about 2,200 stores in the U.S., according to its Securities and Exchange Commission filings (http://bit.ly/1pFr1HZ).

Lenovo is using this week’s IFA show in Berlin to introduce the TAB S8, its first 8-inch Intel-powered Android tablet, the company said in a webinar briefing last week. The tablet features an Intel Atom Quad-Core 1.83-GHz processor, in-plane-switching LCD infinity screen (1920 x 1200) and dual front-facing speakers with Dolby audio, the company said. At 0.31 inches thick and weighing 10.5 ounces, the TAB S8 is “super-thin and super-light,” said Andrew Barrow, Lenovo director-worldwide consumer product marketing. Its infinity glass “gives you a very clear view of the screen and the actual images you're looking at,” Barrow said. The display also has “a very wide viewing angle,” and a “super-slim bezel gives you the maximum picture it can for the size of the device,” he said. Lenovo has used infinity glass screens on its laptops to “eliminate gaudy frames surrounding your actual display area by stretching the display area to the very edge” of the frame, the company said in a “glossary of terms” on its website (http://lnv.gy/1qNUcaQ). “Multiple colors” and “a range of options” will accompany the TAB S8, which starts shipping this month at $199, he said. Lenovo remains the world’s biggest PC supplier, and has outperformed the PC industry “21 quarters in a row,” said Ray Gorman, Lenovo executive director-external communications. “Even in a tough market, we've grown our market share to 19.4 percent worldwide, and 12.5 percent in North America.” PCs “are still our core,” though “more and more we're becoming a competitor in the tablet and growing smartphone space,” Gorman said. “We now sell more smartphones and tablets than we do PCs.” Last quarter, Lenovo became the world’s third-biggest tablet supplier, “and we're currently the world’s fourth-largest smartphone supplier,” he said. “Just last quarter, we became the number one smartphone company in China for the first time ever, and we're shifting our focus beyond China to other markets.” Of Lenovo’s pending acquisition of Motorola Mobility from Google for $2.91 billion (CED Jan 31 p3), “this deal will make us the number three global smartphone provider,” Gorman said. “We're on track to close this deal, and we're excited to bring Motorola-branded products to new markets going forward.”

With speculation building toward Apple’s Sept. 9 announcement that the iPhone 6 will have sapphire cover glass, uBreakiFix, a smartphone and tech repair company, ran a series of drop tests to determine sapphire’s durability, the company said. It found that though sapphire is “remarkably hard,” it’s also “remarkably stiff” and “quite brittle,” it said. Its bottom line: “This brittleness may equate to broken screens. Sapphire may not be the indestructible cure-all that many have claimed it is.” In one trial, uBreakiFix said, it drop-tested a Kyocera Brigadier smartphone, which has a sapphire display, and found the sapphire screen remained intact when dropped from as high as 6 feet because the phone’s raised perimeter bezel protects the screen. When the display assembly was removed from the phone and dropped on its own, the screen cracked with a drop from only 3 feet, it said. “Our conclusion is that sapphire alone will not equate to an unbreakable iPhone,” it said, though hedging. “We can’t say if an iPhone 6 with a sapphire screen will be more or less durable overall. Clever engineering and protective features may still create a very durable device regardless of the use of sapphire.” GT Advanced Technologies, the Boston-area company that reportedly is supplying Apple with sapphire cover glass for the iPhone 6, didn’t comment immediately.

Fitbit is the early leader in the adoption statistics for digital fitness trackers, with nearly 40 percent of the market, Parks Associates said Friday. Parks canvassed 5,000 U.S. broadband homes during Q2 and found Fitbit adoption was far ahead of its closest competitors Samsung (14 percent), Nike+ Sensor (14 percent) and Nike Fuelband (8 percent). “Slightly more than 6 percent of U.S. broadband households have a digital pedometer or fitness tracker, so this market is still in the early stages of adoption,” Parks said. “Fitbit’s early success highlights several key factors for success in this market, including fashionable design, integration with mobile devices, and a variety of model options."

IDC downgraded its worldwide forecast for tablets and 2-in-1 mobile devices after a second consecutive quarter of “softer-than-expected demand” (http://bit.ly/1B0NmlW). The forecast is now for a growth rate of 6.5 percent to 233.1 million shipments, nearly half the 12.1 percent growth rate previously predicted, it said Friday. While tablet growth in mature markets including North America and Western Europe will be flat this year, “a good appetite” remains for tablets in other markets, where a 12 percent growth rate is forecast, said analyst Jean Philippe Bouchard. Average selling prices (ASPs) are expected to stabilize at $373 in mature markets this year due to a shift to larger screen sizes and cellular-enabled tablets, while ASPs in the rest of the world are forecast to decline 10 percent to $302. As an example of evolving tablet usage, IDC cited a built-in option of voice calling over cellular networks in tablets for the Asia-Pacific market (excluding Japan) that drove 25 percent growth in Q2. The trend, IDC said, suggests that users in that region are looking for a single device that handles voice communication and media consumption needs. “For some that single device is a tablet and not a smartphone,” IDC said. The rest of the world is expected to account for the majority of tablet shipments in coming years, said analyst Jitesh Ubrani, but medium- to large-sized tablets in North America and Western Europe will “still produce significant revenues,” he said.

Sprint launched another version of the HTC One Friday. The HTC One E8, available in white or gray, is offered with Sprint Easy Pay, which allows qualified customers to buy the phone for $0 down with 24 monthly payments of $20.84. Features include Android 4.4.2, a 5-inch display, 2.3 GHz processor, 13-megapixel front and 5-megapixel rear cameras, Wi-Fi Calling and HD Voice. The phone can be a 3G/4G hotspot, Sprint said.

CEDIA will observe its 25th anniversary at its September Expo in Denver. The association plans an anniversary celebration as part of the Expo, giving special recognition to founding members, it said. CEDIA has grown “from just a small group of 50 visionaries to more than 3,500 professional member companies, representing 22,000 professionals,” said Don Gilpin, executive director.