The fingerprint sensor market -- energized by the introduction of the iPhone 5s last year and by the Samsung Galaxy S 5 in the spring -- is expected to reach $14.35 billion in 2020, said a report from MarketsandMarkets (http://bit.ly/1qfw1Ro). Among the drivers fueling the fingerprint sensor market are increasing demand for simple, secure user access to mobile devices, mobile commerce and high adoption rates of smartphones, the company said Tuesday. Laptops own the highest share of fingerprint applications, but the segment will be surpassed by smartphones by 2020, with smartphone sensor sales expected to grow at a projected compounded annual rate of 56 percent from now until 2020, it said. Reductions in size of fingerprint sensors will enable integration in smartphones without sacrificing other functionality, it said.

Next month’s IBC2014 show is expected to feature numerous demonstrations of 4K content delivery using HEVC compression. In one such demo, Taiwan’s Chunghwa Telecom will team with Broadpeak, which supplies content delivery network technologies to pay-TV operators globally, to use IBC2014 to showcase trials of a new Chunghwa 4K HEVC streaming service, the companies said Wednesday. Streaming 4K video content “takes up a lot of data,” Chunghwa said. “Leveraging the HEVC standard, we're able to efficiently compress 4K content without losing any of the video quality, making it easier and more affordable to store and transmit.” IBC2014 opens Sept. 11 in Amsterdam for a six-day run.

More than 70 percent of Americans surveyed in a Harris Poll smart home study commissioned by Lowe’s said they wished they could control something in the home from bed using a smartphone, according to findings released Wednesday by Lowe’s (http://bit.ly/YXpv8V). Forty-four percent of users listed controlling temperature first, followed by adjusting lights at 39 percent, while 27 percent wanted to turn on the coffee pot before they get out of bed in the morning, the study said. A little over half, 52 percent, said having a smart home is at least “somewhat important” to them, compared with 21 percent who said it was very or fairly important. Half preferred do-it-yourself solutions with no service fees versus 21 percent who would opt for professionally installed technology with a monthly monitoring fee, Lowe’s said. Fifty percent of respondents said security was the top benefit of a smart home system, while 46 percent cited home monitoring while they're away. Lowering energy bills was the top benefit cited by four out of 10 people, followed by convenience at 35 percent. Twenty-nine percent said protection from fire and floods was the top benefit of a smart home, and 13 percent said a smart home would make them feel more tech savvy, Lowe’s said. On purchasing considerations, 56 percent of respondents cited cost or fees as the most important determining factor -- 31 percent named fees and 26 percent cited equipment costs -- 13 percent pegged ease of use as most important and 11 percent cited security concerns as the primary driver for buying a smart home product, said Lowe’s. On protective technologies for parents, 61 percent said they planned to monitor their children aged 3-17 in some way when they go back to school; 35 percent planned to buy their children a cellphone; 19 percent planned to use in-home cameras; 17 percent planned to receive a text informing them their child arrived home from school; and 13 percent planned to put a GPS monitoring device in their children’s backpacks to keep them safe, Lowe’s said. The online study surveyed 2,088 adults ages 18 and older in the U.S., July 10-12.

Jabra Sport Pulse Wireless, billed as the world’s first stereo earbuds with a built-in biometric heart rate monitor, is available for pre-order for $199 at Jabra’s online store, the company said Wednesday. The earbuds also will be available in store and online at Best Buy starting in late September, it said. Jabra commissioned Campbell University in Buies Creek, North Carolina, to verify the accuracy of the heart rate monitor in the earbuds, it said. Runners on a treadmill were tested on the earbuds against a medical electrocardiogram machine, it said. The results showed a 99.2 percent correlation rate between the two devices, it said. Jabra called that “extraordinary accuracy” for the earbuds.

Atlantic Technology bowed a Dolby Atmos-enabled speaker built to the precise frequency response and directional sound radiation characteristics specified by Dolby for its object-oriented surround-sound technology. Atlantic’s 44-DA speaker uses a 5.25-inch woofer and 1-inch silk dome tweeter in a concentric driver array that fires up from the top of the speaker enclosure at a set angle. Atlantic used “controlled acoustic scatter” to broaden the sweet spot of sound reflected from the ceiling to allow for placement flexibility within the room, it said Wednesday. Measuring 5 ½ x 8 3/8 x 9 ½ inches, the 44 DA was designed to fit on top of Atlantic’s 4400 LR speakers to create an integrated, “one-piece” look, Atlantic said. The modules also can be used as Dolby Atmos-enabling speakers on top of other speakers or as stand-alone height speakers as part of a complete Dolby Atmos system, the company said. The speakers are slated for a Q4 release at $499 a pair.

More than 100 actions have been filed in state courts throughout the U.S. -- and one action in Canada -- on behalf of guests, payment card issuing banks, shareholders or others seeking damages or relief arising from Target’s data breach during Q4 2013, said the retailer’s 10-Q SEC filing. During the six months ended Aug. 2, Target recorded $175 million of breach-related expenses, against expected insurance proceeds of $46 million, resulting in net expenses of $129 million, it said Wednesday (http://tgt.biz/1lvZgB0). Overall since the data breach, the company has incurred $236 million of cumulative expenses, offset by expected insurance recoveries of $90 million, for net cumulative expenses of $146 million, it said. State and federal agencies, including state attorneys general, the FTC and SEC are investigating events related to the breach, including how it occurred, its consequences and our responses, Target said.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., praised the Department of Transportation for its work developing a proposed rulemaking to ban in-flight phone calls. “I'm glad the Department of Transportation is serious about putting the brakes on a bad idea before it takes flight,” Alexander said in a statement Monday (http://1.usa.gov/1tG9IFT). “Banning in-flight cell phone conversations would bring us one step closer to avoiding something that the two million passengers flying each day do not want: to be trapped by a seatbelt in 17-inch-wide seats thousands of feet above the ground listening to the same thing we hear in airports -- arguments with spouses, next week’s schedule, or last night’s love life.” Alexander had introduced legislation to ban in-flight calls late last year following the FCC’s announcement it would address the issue.

Spotify’s free mobile version is now available for Windows Phone 8 and 8.1 users, who can download the app from the Windows Phone Store, Spotify said Tuesday. Windows Phone users can participate in the standard 30-day free trial offered by Spotify, but only Sprint customers are eligible for the free three-month or six-month trials depending on their mobile plan, a Spotify spokeswoman told us. Previously, only the premium $9.99/month version of Spotify was available to Windows Phone users, the spokeswoman said. Premium subscribers get on-demand play, higher quality audio, uninterrupted music with no commercials and the ability to download music and listen offline, according to Spotify. With the free version, users can listen to and shuffle playlists, it said.

EBay is offering iPhone sellers a $100 coupon if their phones don’t sell on its site Sept. 1 to Oct. 24, eBay said Tuesday. In advance of the expected iPhone 6 launch in the next few weeks, eBay released an infographic presenting historical data to predict the impact the new iPhone will have on existing iPhones and the electronics re-sell market. According to eBay, with each new iPhone model, the selling price of the iPhone models 4, 4s and 5, after the 5c and 5s launched, “averaged at around $280.” Prices have reached up to $420 on eBay for a used iPhone, it said. Four previously owned iPhones were sold every minute after the 5s/5c announcement, eBay said, and 16,700 iPhones were sold on eBay the weekend following availability of the 5s/5c last year. Some 400,000 iPhones were sold during the release cycles of iPhone 4s and later, eBay said.

CEA’s index of consumer expectations, which measures consumer sentiment about the “broader economy,” climbed 1.2 points in August from July to reach 172.5, its 2014 high point, CEA said Tuesday. However, CEA’s index of consumer technology expectations, which measures consumer sentiment toward technology spending, fell 4.8 points in August from July, to 90.5, it said. Of the broader economy, CEA thinks that “despite continued softness in the housing market, fundamentals of the economy are slowly strengthening thanks to an improving labor picture and signs of positive economic growth into the close of the year,” it said. As for the sentiment decline in technology spending, it’s still above the August average for the past three years, CEA said: “This is a positive sign, as we head into the back half of the year. With new product announcements expected in September, we should see consumer sentiment about tech spending remain above average.” To compile the indexes, CEA interviews 1,000 consumers monthly and releases updated data on the fourth Tuesday of every month, it said.