California utilities and the Natural Resources Defense Council urged the Energy Department to develop a test method to measure the energy use of 3D technology as part of its TV test procedure rulemaking. Makers of some 3D TVs are including a “3D Boost” feature that automatically brightens the screen when 3D content is being viewed, the NRDC said in comments. That feature aimed at offsetting the dimness caused by the use of tinted glasses to view 3D content could lead to “significant increase” in TV power use, the group said, and sought the creation of a 3D test clip.

The plunge in LCD TV panel prices is expected to slow in Q4 as suppliers sell off excess inventory, but prices aren’t likely to stabilize until at least Q1, LG Display executives said on an earnings call Thursday.

AT&T added and retained more wireless customers in the third quarter than it had in any previous Q3, the carrier said Thursday. And it sold a record number of Apple iPhone handsets, though many were to subscribers it already had. AT&T mobile broadband “is approaching a $20 billion a year business, and the business is growing at 25-30 percent,” Chief Financial Officer Rick Lindner said on the carrier’s earnings call. Wireline isn’t achieving the same success, but Lindner said the carrier isn’t thinking about ditching the business.

Netflix thinks that “many of the same forces at play in 2010” will continue into 2011, including video store closures and increased competition, CEO Reed Hastings said Wednesday with the release of the company’s Q3 results. The company also expects to see more devices that can receive streamed Netflix content, as well as “improved Netflix user interface, more Netflix streaming content” and “more awareness of streaming” in general, he said.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Connected TV is a “survival game” for the industry, Gaurav Arora, senior manager of Broadcom’s consumer electronics group, said on a panel at this week’s CEA Industry Forum. The Internet-centric purchasers of five to 10 years from now are in college and if TV sets aren’t connected for them, “the product will die” and be replaced by an iPad, laptop or smartphone, he said.

The top-tier Super Star program proposed by the EPA would neither undermine the Energy Star brand nor confuse consumers, Energy Star Program Manager Maria Vargas said, citing research by the agency. Those were among the principal concerns raised by the CE industry about the agency’s proposal to debut a program that identifies the most efficient Energy Star products. The top-tier program will initially target TVs, clothes washers, dishwashers, refrigerators, central air conditioners and heating equipment.

Digital watermark developers Verance and Digimarc, whose technologies are at the heart of the AACS copy protection for Blu-ray, have renewed their legal battle: Verance seeks to have 22 Digimarc patents found invalid.

SAN FRANCISCO -- After last January’s exuberance over the next coming of 3D TV, the industry is undergoing a “reality check,” Dan Schinasi, the head of HDTV product planning at Samsung, said at the CEA Industry Forum. He spoke of “aspirations of selling 2 million 3D sets this year,” although CEA forecasters in a previous session had called industry projections for sales of 2.1 million units “an understatement at best,” a sign of the optimism-reality issues facing the nascent category.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Like the Home Technology Specialists of America two weeks ago at their fall meeting in St. Louis, members of the former PARA organization met at the CEA Industry Forum here with an urgent agenda for change. PARA, folded into CEA six years ago, had become an acronym, “and no one knew what PARA meant,” according to Vance Pflanz, owner of Pflanz Electronics and chairman of the newly named CEA Audio-Video Retailer division. The group took on the new name to improve its identity within CEA and better reflect its place in CEA, Pflanz said.

IPhone 4 demand “in all countries is absolutely staggering,” even higher than Apple had expected, said Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook on an earnings call. He said he couldn’t “predict when supply will meet demand.” Apple has boosted shipments and is working to do more, but “it will take some time to increase further,” he said. The company sold 14.1 million iPhones in Q4 ended Sept. 25, 91 percent more units than a year earlier, Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said. CEO Steve Jobs went after Google and other rivals on the call.