Apple and Santa Barbara-based Sonos announced earlier this week that Apple Music will finally be available via Sonos’ popular Wi-Fi speakers. According to Forbes, a public beta will launch December 15, and general availability is expected in early 2016. While Sonos already offers other streaming music services through its app, the Apple Music integration will introduce new features including “For You,” “Radio” and “My Music.” Sonos, which launched 13 years ago, has become the biggest brand in connected audio. “This will be Apple’s first integration into third-party hardware for its music streaming service,” notes Forbes.

As part of a software upgrade, Verizon’s FiOS TV service has been introducing DVR Anywhere features in select markets that enable subscribers to view their stored content on more screens. “DVR Anywhere will allow FiOS TV subs to access their recordings on Internet-connected mobile devices,” reports Multichannel News. “Additionally, the software update enables in-home streaming of the full live TV lineup on the FiOS Mobile app.” The updates position Verizon’s service closer to features offered by TiVo and Comcast’s X1 platform. Verizon says the rollout of new features is scheduled for all FiOS TV markets by mid December.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has been working with U.S. banks, energy firms and other private companies to test possible solutions to cyber attacks and learn more about how attackers view external systems and infrastructure. According to Krebs on Security, the efforts “are part of a little-known program at DHS designed to help ‘critical infrastructure’ companies shore up their computer and network defenses against real-world adversaries. And it’s all free of charge.” National Cybersecurity Assessments and Technical Services (NCATS) provides testing through two programs — a “Risk and Vulnerability Assessment” and “Cyber Hygiene” evaluation.

Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, announced yesterday that they plan to donate 99 percent of their Facebook shares over time to charitable purposes such as “personalized learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities.” The couple’s holdings are presently valued at $45 billion, notes The New York Times. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative will be established to manage the money. News of the charitable plans was unveiled in a letter to the couple’s newborn daughter Max posted on Facebook. Zuckerberg also recently joined the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, a multibillion-dollar clean energy initiative organized by Bill Gates.

While retailers have extended their special online deals before and after Cyber Monday this year, yesterday’s sales are still poised to break records. Adobe reports that by 10:00 yesterday morning, shoppers had already spent a record $490 million. When the numbers are finalized, Adobe predicts the day will represent the biggest e-commerce day on record with $3 billion in sales. Mobile shopping is also on the rise; Adobe notes that 41 percent of shopping visits originated on smartphones and 12 percent from tablets. Continue reading Cyber Monday Sets Sales Records, Mobile Shopping on Rise

About 160 million U.S. adults — or 74 percent of holiday shoppers — plan on purchasing tech gifts this season, according to the Consumer Technology Association’s 22nd Annual CE Holiday Purchase Patterns Study, which predicts holiday tech spending will reach $34.2 billion this year. Top gifts include smartphones, headphones, tablets and portable Bluetooth speakers, while 12 percent of shoppers indicate they plan to purchase a wearable device. CTA has identified six types of tech shoppers that could help retailers better understand the preferences of today’s consumers. Continue reading CTA: Tech Spending to Increase This Holiday Shopping Season

According to Engagement Labs CEO Bryan Segal, “a retailer’s entire year is often determined in the months leading up to the holiday season.” While marketers are launching new online campaigns and tapping social media influencers, “it’s really the unprecedented power of word-of-mouth brands are really looking to leverage,” reports SocialTimes. Engagement Labs and market research firm Keller Fay have ranked the top retailers in social media and word-of-mouth. “Nordstrom, Macys and Hollister topped the list on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram respectively,” notes the article. Clothing brands are doing well with visual-centric social platforms, while retailers such as Costco, Amazon, Kroger and Target are leading in word-of-mouth.

A new Interactive Advertising Bureau study suggests that “showrooming” is still a popular trend, especially with younger consumers. According to IAB, half of adult shoppers (and more than two-thirds of Millennials) will regularly perform research on products via their mobile devices while shopping in a brick-and-mortar retail store. “The study found that shoppers usually end up buying a product in a physical store after researching it on mobile while in store, but it is often not the same physical store where the mobile research began,” reports VentureBeat. “The next most likely scenario is to buy the product from another store’s website after leaving the store, using either a mobile phone or a personal computer.”

Last week’s start to the holiday shopping season marked the most social on record with 1.4 million tweets during the week leading up to Black Friday. However, sales in retail stores on Thanksgiving and Black Friday fell about $1.4 billion this year, with more consumers opting to pursue deals online. Black Friday saw a 14 percent increase in online sales over last year, for a total of $2.72 billion, while Thanksgiving online sales jumped 25 percent. Adobe estimates that shoppers spent $4.45 billion online Thursday and Friday combined. Continue reading More People Shopped Online Than in Stores this Black Friday

Sony announced that it has now sold 30 million PlayStation 4 consoles worldwide since the product’s launch, bringing this year’s sales up to 9.5 million. By comparison, VGChartz notes that Microsoft has sold 15.6 million Xbox One consoles since its launch. Both consoles continue to outsell Nintendo’s Wii U, which has struggled this year selling 1.9 million units for a 10.6 million total since its debut. According to Digital Trends, “Call of Duty: Black Ops III” is helping drive sales; “VGChartz claims over 3.7 million PS4 copies have been sold on the opening week, compared to 2.2 million on Xbox One. ‘Need for Speed’ is another better seller on the PS4, with 470,000 copies sold compared to 135,000 on Xbox One.”

Seoul-based LG Display Co. plans to spend more than $8.7 billion to build a new manufacturing plant and expand its “production of a newer type of display that can be used to cut power use, make thinner devices and show brighter colors,” reports Bloomberg. LG says that by 2018 it will produce new OLED displays for TV sets, smartwatches and automotive displays. Reports also suggest the OLED tech could replace smartphone LCDs, with Apple on board to adopt OLED for its iPhones beginning in 2018. LG explains that OLED offers a brighter and sharper image than LCDs in addition to saving space and power since they do not require backlight.

Apple has acquired Zurich-based startup Faceshift, which could further Apple’s role in the virtual reality tech space. Faceshift’s motion capture technology creates animated avatars and figures in real-time that reflect an individual’s facial expressions. While Apple has confirmed the acquisition, specific plans have yet to be announced. However, TechCrunch points to three possibilities: for use in gaming avatars “for a more immediate and realistic experience,” as a tool in film production for “animating characters to more closely mimic the actors’ facial movements” (it was used in the latest “Star Wars” film), and even as potential enterprise applications that could incorporate “facial recognition for identification or security purposes.”

Juniper Research forecasts 1 billion people will access their bank accounts via mobile devices by the end of this year. The researcher suggests that banks should start directing their efforts toward wearable devices such as smartwatches, which are expected to reach 100 million banking sessions in five years. While the number of mobile banking sessions via wearable devices is expected to grow tenfold by 2020, Juniper predicts the number of mobile banking users will double to 2 billion. The Wall Street Journal reports: “Banks hoping to gain customers under the age of 30, or to prime the population younger than that, must expand into wearable devices, as well as develop a substantive social media strategy, said Nitin Bhas, head of research.”

ETC coverage of the upcoming 2016 CES begins on December 7 with a 3-week series of previews on the top trends and technologies expected to be on display. CES, presented by the newly re-named Consumer Technology Association (formerly CEA), runs from January 4-9 in Las Vegas. At CES, ETC will have a team of dedicated reporters and analysts preparing twice daily email briefs and delivering breaking news as it happens. Following the show, ETC publishes a comprehensive report that distills from the massive trade event the key themes most likely to impact the media and entertainment industry. Continue reading CES 2016: ETC Begins Show Coverage with December Previews