Barnes & Noble is cutting the price of Nook devices Friday-Sunday to jump-start the holiday shopping season, the company said Wednesday in a news release. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook will drop to $149 (from $199) with instant rebates for the 7-inch, and to $249 (from $349) for the 10-inch tablet, Barnes & Noble said. The Barnes & Noble Nook GlowLight eReader is getting a $20 permanent shave to $99 beginning Friday, it said. The promotions are part of Barnes & Noble’s Discovery Weekend, during which consumers who visit a Nook Boutique in a Barnes & Noble store Friday-Sunday can enter a contest to win a shopping trip for two to New York, a $1,000 gift card and a meet-and-greet with singer Nick Jonas.
T-Mobile is offering existing customers a free Alcatel Onetouch Pop 7 tablet beginning Friday, through Dec. 1, when they sign up for a qualifying data plan in what it called an early Black Friday deal. The tablet's regular price is $7 per month over 24 months for a total of $168, it said. The offer, which doesn’t include sales tax, extends to non-customers Saturday while supplies last, the carrier said. T-Mobile’s MetroPCS brand launched a limited-time buy-one-get-one-free deal Wednesday on a range of 4G LTE phones with the caveat that a new line is activated on the free phone, it said. The offer runs through Monday.
Corrections: Public Knowledge is no longer a member of the American Television Alliance, after leaving it earlier this fall (see 1411180049). PK Senior Staff Attorney John Bergmayer told us the organization still shares the coalition's enthusiasm for retransmission consent overhaul but doesn't support an ATVA-backed Senate Commerce Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization bill due to inclusion in the bill of the set-top box integration ban repeal ... AT&T's statement on next-generation 911 referred to a 911 location accuracy consensus plan filed Tuesday by the company, other carriers and public safety groups at the FCC (see 1411180051).
The ZigBee Alliance has unified its various wireless standards into a single spec that will be called ZigBee 3.0, the alliance said in an announcement Tuesday. ZigBee 3.0 "will provide interoperability among the widest range of smart devices," it said. It enables interoperability among devices for home automation, connected lighting, energy efficiency and other markets, "so more diverse, fully interoperable solutions can be delivered by product developers and service providers," it said. All device types, commands and functions defined in current ZigBee PRO-based standards are available to developers in the new standard, it said. ZigBee 3.0 is undergoing testing. A draft standard is available to alliance members and is expected to be ratified in Q4 2015, it said. ZigBee 3.0 demonstrations are planned for CES, it said.
The Electrolux brand bowed what it’s calling the world’s first digital vacuum cleaner, the World Wide Vac, "with the purpose of helping people clean their personal clouds." Available as a beta version widget for helping Gmail subscribers clean out their email inboxes, the widget analyzes the inbox to identify irrelevant emails and allows the user to choose among several levels of cleanup commands, the announcement said. "Each level of digital cleaning is built on different algorithms, allowing the user to set the cleanup ambition."
The 17 largest U.S. cable and phone providers added more than 700,000 net additional broadband subscribers in Q3, said a research firm Tuesday. Top cable companies have more than 51.2 million broadband subscribers, and top phone companies have nearly 35.4 million subscribers, Leichtman Research Group said Tuesday in a news release. Over the past year, there were more than 2.9 million net broadband adds, up from 2.54 million the previous year, it said. Comcast added 315,000 subscribers in Q3, and Time Warner Cable, which plans to sell itself to Comcast, added 108,000 subscribers, Leichtman Research said. Verizon added 69,000 subscribers, and CenturyLink added 8,000, it said.
Corrections and clarifications: ... Cablevision, not Charter Communications, was the second cable company that the Computer & Communications Industry Association invited to its Monday panel discussion on media issues (see 1411170037) ... The proposal FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler plans to circulate to increase the E-rate spending cap will be in the form of a draft order (see 1411170042) ...The Recording Academy believes that just as digital broadcasters should pay performance royalties for pre-1972 sound recordings, terrestrial broadcasters should also pay such royalties for pre- and post-'72 sound recordings, said Daryl Friedman, chief advocacy and industry relations officer (see 1411170043).
Corrections: An NPRM seeking comment on redefining multichannel video programming distributors to include over-the-top services does briefly seek comment on the obligations that go with being a cable system, said FCC Special Counsel for External Affairs Gigi Sohn, clarifying her statement at a Practising Law Institute conference last week (see 1411130040) ... Stéphane Boyera spoke about mobile payments in his role as World Wide Web Consortium Web payments group leader (see 1411140001).
Fujitsu Labs developed a technology for embedding and retrieving identification data in light that’s cast onto an object by LEDs, the company said Monday. By embedding data in light in a way that it is not detectable to the naked eye, an object that has been illuminated can convey data to a smartphone or other smart device, it said. "With previous technologies, data could only be conveyed to a user’s area, but with this technology, data can be conveyed at the level of an individual object," it said. "To capture the data, a user only needs to point a camera at the object. This technology enables products in a store, works of art, people, buildings and a variety of other objects to be the source of data transmission." The company plans to showcase the technology at Fujitsu Forum 2014, which opens Wednesday in Munich for a two-day run, it said.
Intel and fashion design company Opening Ceremony bowed Monday a high-end wearable — a designer smart bracelet — at a launch event in New York. The $495 bangle, due in early December in Barneys New York retail stores, does not operate with a smartphone, instead packing its own SIM card for use on the AT&T Wireless network. A two-year contract is included in the retail price, although the wireless fee beyond the contract period hasn’t been determined, executives from both companies said on a panel. The partnership with Opening Ceremony is part of Intel New Devices Group’s charter to contribute to the Internet of Things through “human-to-machines interactions,” Ayse Ildeniz, New Devices' general manager-strategy and business development, told us following the panel presentation. Citing the estimate many in the industry have forecast — 50 billion connected IoT devices by 2020 — Ildeniz said Intel plans to contribute to the IoT with intellectual property and innovation breakthroughs in how people “actually talk to that big world when it becomes a reality.” Wearables are a first step in reaching that goal, she said. Opening Ceremony is billing MICA (My Intelligent Communications Accessory) as a “luxury bracelet with embedded technology” that enables users to stay close to those important to them. The bracelet's features include the ability to link with Google Mail and to get Facebook and event notifications, Ildeniz said. Intel partnered with TomTom on the GPS side, which can give a quick read of time to destination. Through a partnership with Yelp, the bracelet can show nearby stores, restaurants and other points of interest. Opening Ceremony co-founder Humberto Leon noted the bracelet’s ability to “get macro” in telling how long it will take to arrive at a destination whether walking or riding in a vehicle. Users can “curate” a VIP contact list that filters notifications and text messages, and incoming alerts are indicated by a vibration, according to literature. Carol Lim, co-founder of Opening Ceremony, noted that the MICA is not intended to replace a smartphone. It’s not for people to check their Instagram accounts or to receive messages from everyone in their contact list, she said.