Forty-two percent of the 150 million U.S. consumers who plan to shop for the holidays on Super Saturday, the last Saturday before Christmas, plan to do so exclusively online, said the National Retail Federation Thursday. Twenty-one percent of holiday shoppers this year plan to give an “experience” gift, down from 25% last year and the lowest since NRF first asked five years ago. “The pandemic has impacted ‘gifts of experience’ this year,” said Executive Vice President-Strategy Phil Rist of Prosper Insights. The firm surveyed 8,092 consumers Nov. 25-Dec. 4.

Next year will likely bring more North American "power users" of broadband who consume 1 TB or more of data per month, with the group reaching 10%-11% of subscribers, a 14% increase over 2020, OpenVault CEO Mark Trudeau blogged Wednesday. He said such power users could become as high as 13%-14% while pandemic lockdowns remain: A conservative estimate of average monthly broadband use in North America in 2021 would be 430-445 GB per subscriber, a 10% increase, but monthly averages already are going past 480 GB and could hit 500 GB. The executive said those numbers likely will recede after pandemic conditions ease.

Google's proposed acquisition of Fitbit can proceed, with conditions, the European Commission said. There was an investigation of the transaction and the companies' complementary activities, it said Thursday. Fitbit has limited market share in the smartwatch segment in Europe, where there are many larger rivals, such as Apple, Garmin and Samsung, so the acquisition will lead to "very limited horizontal overlaps," the EC said. The probe focused on data collected by Fitbit wearable devices and the interoperability of those devices with Google's Android operating system for smartphones. The EC was concerned Google would acquire Fitbit's database on users' health and fitness, plus the technology to develop a similar database, making it hard for rivals to match Google's services in online search advertising. Other worries were that Google might restrict competitors' access to Fitbit's web application programming interface, to the detriment of European startups in the emerging digital healthcare space, and that Google could put competing makers of wearable wrist devices at a disadvantage by degrading their operability with Android smartphones. Google has offered commitments on advertising, web API access and Android APIs to run for 10 years and be monitored by a trustee to be appointed before the transaction closes, the EC said. "This deal will spur innovation in wearable devices and enable us to build products that help people lead healthier lives," emailed a Google spokesperson. "We understand that regulators wanted to look closely at this transaction, and we have worked constructively with them to resolve their concerns, including the set of legally binding commitments the" EC accepted. The spokesperson cited his company's past "assurances" about the takeover and privacy and working with other stakeholders.

Qualcomm and Google extended Project Treble to enable more Snapdragon-based platforms to run the latest Android operating system with fewer resources and a “predictable software lifecycle,” said the companies Wednesday. OEMs can upgrade mobile devices without modifying Qualcomm software, and use a common Android software branch to upgrade Snapdragon-based devices, they said. Android users “will have the latest OS upgrades and greater security on their devices,” said David Burke, Google vice president-Android engineering.

Qualcomm’s 678 mobile entertainment platform, which follows the 675, offers a 460 CPU core clock speed up to 2.2 GHz, improved graphics processor performance and support for triple camera photos with up to 48 megapixels and zero shutter lag, said the company Tuesday. Its artificial intelligence engine features bokeh, low-light capture and laser autofocus, allowing users to enhance photos, it said. It enables 4K video capture, slow motion, 5x optical zoom and dual-camera support up to 16 megapixels. The platform supports advanced carrier aggregation with downloads up to 600 Mbps and uploads up to 150 Mbps.

MicroLED’s biggest advantage is potentially very high brightness, which would be “useful” for augmented reality applications, Kopin CEO John Fan told Insight Media President Chris Chinnock in Q&A posted Monday. Done successfully, it “could be the ultimate display,” Fan said. Using the technology in microdisplays is “in an early stage of development,” he noted.

Draft provisions updating personal data transfer rules to non-EU countries brought cheers but also some concerns from stakeholders. A European Commission consultation on updating standard contractual clauses (SCCs) ended Thursday with about 150 responses. SCCs required modernization under the European Court of Justice in Schrems II, which threw out trans-Atlantic data transfer mechanisms in the Privacy Shield (see 2009100001. The draft clauses, floated Nov. 23, aim to align SCCs with the EU general data protection regulation and the court judgment (see 2011200003). Stakeholders generally welcomed several aspects of the draft. ICANN, the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), the European Internet Services Providers Association (EuroISPA) and the Information Technology Industry Council, among others, praised its risk-based approach to situations where data importers subject to foreign data disclosure laws may have to gauge whether they're likely to receive such requests in deciding whether to use SCCs. That approach "lies at the heart of ICANN community's efforts to develop a mechanism for enabling access to non-public generic top-level domain registration data," the internet body said: "Following this approach seems to be both a realistic and reasonable route to enable global data transfers while meeting other important objectives ... such as public security, crime prevention and investigation, or the enforcement of civil law claims." EuroISPA and the European Consumer Organisation, however, worried the draft SCCs would require companies to take into account the specific circumstances of a transfer, including subjective factors, when the European Data Protection Board and the ECJ said they must rely on objective factors when assessing the law in a data importer's jurisdiction. Vodafone pressed the EC to give companies tools and assurances on how to assess whether surveillance laws and practices in countries without an EC data protection adequacy decision put data subjects' privacy at risk, it said. Several commenters, including the Software & Information Industry Association, BSA|The Software Alliance and CCIA, said the one-year transition period to the new SCCs is too short and would unfairly burden smaller companies. ACT|The App Association, which represents small and midsize application developers, said: "Due to their complexity and implementation burdens, the updated SCCs would not and cannot serve as a replacement for the Privacy Shield for our small business members."

California will join DOJ’s antitrust lawsuit against Google, state Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) announced Friday: “Google’s anticompetitive behavior has unlawfully maintained the company’s monopoly on internet search and search-based advertising at the expense of consumers.” The platform’s market dominance leaves little choice for consumers and small businesses, he added. “By using exclusionary agreements to dominate the market, Google has stifled competition and rigged the advertising market.” Eleven Republican AGs initially signed onto the lawsuit (see 2011180032).

NTIA plans a virtual meeting Jan. 13 at noon EST to discuss progress in the multistakeholder process on promoting IoT software component transparency, says Friday’s Federal Register. “Modern development practices” such as code reuse and an information technology marketplace with many mergers and acquisitions “make it challenging to track the use of software components,” said the agency. IoT “compounds this phenomenon” with the layering of smart connectivity features on new devices, it said: “The sheer quantity of software means that some software products ship with vulnerable or out-of-date components.”

Consumers International, Carnegie Mellon University, Zigbee Alliance, UL, Arcelik and Libelium are launching a global coalition Thursday to “improve the trustworthiness of consumer IoT devices and help consumers better understand the benefits and risks associated with these products,” said the World Economic Forum Wednesday. It cited the need for stronger security and privacy in the IoT as connected devices proliferate and for technologies to “become a force for shared societal benefit.” The organizations will focus on building consensus on device safeguards and standards for connected CE devices, such as voice assistants, security cameras and wearable technologies, it said. Work will be complemented by an emerging partnership with Helpful Places, Digital Public Square and Boston, which are working to increase transparency and signage for the use of digital technologies in public spaces, it said. Brazil, Colombia, Kazakhstan, South Africa and Turkey are working together to help build the technological capability of small and medium-sized enterprises with an aim to support more than 5,000 companies within three years. Thirty-six cities, including Buenos Aires, Istanbul, London and Mexico City, will pioneer a global policy road map for responsible and ethical use of connected technologies as part of the G20 Global Smart Cities Alliances, including the launch of privacy, security and digital infrastructure policies. “With the emergence of 5G and IoT, we are on the cusp of unleashing the power of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and enabling the digital transformation of industries around the world,” said Qualcomm President Cristiano Amon, co-chair, Global IoT Council. “COVID-19 has accelerated digitalization at all levels in our society,” but to make technology accessible, it’s necessary “to ensure inclusive and understandable privacy at all levels, making sure that nobody is left behind,” said Alicia Asin, CEO of Libelium.