The market for streaming video devices priced at $99 and below is becoming increasingly crowded and competitive, with Apple, Amazon, Google and Roku competing for the top spot. Last year, Google shipped 8.7 million Chromecast sticks, beating out Apple TV’s 8.3 million units, analyst Paul Erickson of IHS Technology forecasts in a new report. Shipments of Chromecast sticks are expected to continue exceeding those of Apple TV by a close margin for the near future; though Apple TV has dropped to $69 neither its fundamental capabilities nor its iOS-centric market focus has changed, Erickson said. To beat Google, Erickson said, Apple needs to continue expanding overall capabilities and the selection of marquee content partners as well as release updated hardware.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., Wednesday is hosting a roundtable at Inrix, 10210 NE Points Dr., Suite 400, Kirkland, about the Internet of Things with Puget Sound and University of Washington, a DelBene news release said. The roundtable will focus on what businesses and government can do to help protect consumer privacy, it said. Guests will include Inrix's Bryan Mistele, Microsoft's Heidi Holman and Snupi Technologies' Jeremy Jaech. The congresswoman started a congressional IoT Caucus with Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., to educate lawmakers and the public on the development of Internet-connected devices and the privacy concerns that arise with technological advances. The roundtable will begin at 10:30 a.m.

Charter Communications improved its prime time Netflix performance by two spots to No. 6 among U.S. ISPs in February to an average speed of 3.29 Mbps, said the Netflix February ISP speed index released Monday. That was up from 3.14 Mbps for Charter the previous month. Also in the U.S., Verizon FiOS had the fastest speed at 3.53 Mbps and Clearwire the slowest at 1.10 Mbps. The average was 3.07 Mbps. Those speeds compared with the U.K., which saw the fastest streaming speeds at 3.62 Mbps and the slowest at 2.99 Mbps, with the average at 3.33 Mbps.

Limelight said 46 percent of respondents to a recent survey were most concerned about how distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks would affect their delivery of digital content. The survey was of more than 100 content delivery network customers. The second-most-cited concern, noted by 27 percent of respondents, was unauthorized access to content, Limelight said. Fifty-three percent of respondents said they believe their CDN provider is best equipped to help them detect and mitigate DDoS attacks. Thirty-three percent of respondents said a cyberattack would affect their brand’s image, Limelight said. “This survey highlights the immense pressure on enterprises to ensure content availability and protect brand reputation as cyberattacks increase and metastasize,” Chief Marketing Officer Kirby Wadsworth said in a news release.

SAP joined the Industrial Internet Consortium, which aims to accelerate and promote the business use of the Internet of Things, the company said in a news release at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Wednesday.

Yahoo is introducing contact cards that show a photo or logo, phone number, job title and links to social media profiles with each email, it said in a news release Wednesday. It said the data is gathered by Xobni, and will display information only according to the contact’s privacy settings.

Quickplay bought Roundbox, which will enable it to monetize viewing experiences on any device or network by using multicast or unicast technologies that leverage 4G LTE Broadcast, said the acquirer in a news release Wednesday. It said Roundbox’s cloud-enabled software makes it possible for Quickplay to deliver a range of new capabilities and mobile media experiences, as well as optimized video and data delivery and spectrum utilization.

Zero-rated offerings could help kick-start Internet adoption in some of the poorest parts of the world, the Progressive Policy Institute argued in a paper released Tuesday. Zero rating offers limited Internet access at lower rates and was one of the most sensitive issues before the FCC as it finalized net neutrality rules last week (see 1502250064). PPI cited the example of Africa, where fewer than 30 percent of its 1.1 billion population used the Internet in 2014. “The power of zero-rating to nourish an Internet ecosystem in poor and developing countries comes from its potential to increase connectivity by both people and businesses quickly and at low-cost,” PPI said. Free access to popular sites like Google, Facebook, Twitter and Wikipedia “encourages more people to sign up for data plans, and enables greater data freedom to explore local content,” the group said. The resulting increase in demand encourages local entrepreneurs “to create new online products and services -- for example, information on Ebola outbreaks, typhoon warnings, or even wait times at local stores and government offices.”

Toshiba America Electronic Components will start sampling two new Internet of Things application processors this month, the TZ1011MBG and TZ1031MBG, to help developers “meet the fast-growing demand for wearable IoT devices such as activity monitors, smart watches, bracelets and glasses,” it said Monday. The new application processors further expand sensing functionality to two IoT devices Toshiba launched last year, adding a 3-axis gyroscope to the TZ1031MBG and a 3-axis gyroscope and 3-axis magnetometer to the TZ1011MBG, the company said. “There has been an explosion of interest in services that monitor duration and level of physical activity, help improve nutrition and help prevent diseases related to lifestyle, all of which drives demand for wearable devices," it said. The new application processors "make it possible to realize wearable devices” without the need for any other components, “enabling a smaller form factor and, in turn, smaller, lighter wearables," it said.

Consumers with Lenovo tablets need to remove Superfish software, change their passwords, use caution when using public Wi-Fi networks and check their personal banking information, Aditi Jhaveri, FTC consumer education specialist, said in a blog post Friday. Lenovo shipped products that included Superfish software between September and December, but the software has been disabled since January, the company said in a statement last week (see 1502190046). Lenovo was hit with a lawsuit seeking class-action status by a blogger last week for alleged privacy violations stemming from its use of Superfish software (see 1502230061). “Although Lenovo has announced that they have discontinued pre-installing Superfish on its notebooks, some Lenovo notebooks sold today may still have Superfish pre-installed,” Jhaveri said.