Black Friday week sales of CE and other consumer technology products fell 3.5 percent from 2009 in the U.S., NPD said. But analyst Stephen Baker said Thursday at the NPD blog site that “the pockets of strength we saw were surprising, and in my view encouraging, at least if [we] are willing to look beyond Dec 25.”

ORLANDO, Fla. -- 3D TVs with passive 3D glasses and the evolution of standards will mark 3D TV’s sophomore year, said executives from content creation company 3ality we spoke with at the 3D Vendor Testing Event at ESPN Wide World of Sports. “You'll start to see some consumer-priced passive models at CES” or “soon after,” said Steve Schklair, CEO of 3ality Digital Systems. And in contrast to previous conventional wisdom that passive 3D technology is inferior in performance and more expensive to produce, Schklair said, new technologies have overcome previous issues. “I've seen them, they look great, and they only add pennies to the manufacturing cost,” he said. He said the industry keeps talking about a standard for 3D active glasses, but “the easiest way to create a standard is to get rid of the process altogether."

The “upside down cost structure” of Zoran’s DTV and DVD businesses stems from long-term goals that are “unclear and misguided,” said Jeffrey Smith, a partner in Ramius, which wants to replace the company’s board. Ramius, which owns 8.3 percent of Zoran, is seeking shareholder support to replace six members of the board. Ramius said in an SEC filing that it questioned the board’s oversight in allowing Zoran management to pursue DVD and DTV businesses that are “unprofitable and structurally challenged."

BALTIMORE -- Asking the government to require FM tuners in cellphones, as the NAB has done, “brands” the radio industry as “desperate” for a bailout, CEA President Gary Shapiro said Thursday at the Arbitron-Jacobs Media Summit. Shapiro, who in the summer will mark his 20th year at the CEA’s helm, has no plans to run for public office, he told us at the conference.

Take-Two Interactive and its Rockstar Games development studio were sued yet again over their Grand Theft Auto videogame series. This time a rapper from the group Cypress Hill claimed the companies used his likeness in 2004’s Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas without his permission. Take-Two said the lawsuit is “completely without merit” and it will “vigorously defend itself."

LCD panel price declines eased, as U.S. LCD TVs in November posted the first year-over-year monthly retail sales increase since April, Corning Corporate Controller Tony Tripeny said at the Barclay’s conference in San Francisco.

Netflix will stream “hundreds” of episodes from ABC, the Disney Channel and, “for the first time,” ABC Family over the Internet as part of a new, expanded licensing deal signed with the Disney-ABC Television Group, the companies said Wednesday. The deal, brokered by Disney-ABC Domestic Television, “will add significantly to the growing selection of movies and TV episodes that can be streamed from Netflix,” the companies said.

THQ was “very pleased” with initial sales of its uDraw Gaming Tablet peripheral for the Wii, Chief Financial Officer Paul Pucino told a UBS conference in New York on Wednesday. After strong results over the Black Friday weekend, “our sales have not been tapering off,” which he said was “most compelling for us” because it’s “typical” to see strong sales over the holiday weekend and then a tapering off.

LOS ANGELES -- IMS Research, which hosted the Television 3.0 conference this week, predicts that by 2014 40 percent of U.S. households will have a 3D TV and worldwide penetration will be nine percent. To get there, though, someone will have to find a way to make 3D TV pay off, it said.

The EPA said it will take data submissions for Energy Star qualification for new IT products pending a test report through Dec. 31, prompting charges of discrimination against other electronic products. The agency said that for computers, displays, imaging gear and servers, it would “review for qualification product data constituting a complete submission, pending a test report, received by EPA through” Dec. 31. Manufacturers of these products must make available the lab report and other information by Jan. 31, failing which they would have to turn in their data to a certification body for review, the agency said.