A Silicon Valley firm says it wants to eliminate the promotional paper trail in retailing. MoBeam, a new Cupertino, Calif.-based division of technology company Ecrio, is trying to stir interest in a keychain-based device that it dubs “the first practical digital wallet.” The company will demonstrate its “numi” key at the “CEA Line Shows” conference this week in New York with the hope that its LED-based technology will find interest among CE manufacturers and retailers.

As Paul’s TV expands a store-within-a-store format with furniture retailers, it has run into a roadblock in Michigan. The dealer launched the concept in 2008 at five-store Living Spaces Furniture in the Los Angeles area and added four-store Jordan’s Furniture in Massachusetts last year. But a similar agreement with 30-store Art Van Furniture brought conflict with ABC Warehouse, which shares many strip malls with the furniture dealer.

Cable operators can use any set-top box with an Internet Protocol-based connector to output video in a format other devices can receive, instead of the required FCC IEEE 1394 interface that some consumer electronics makers have said is outdated, the FCC Media Bureau ruled Friday afternoon. The waiver responds to requests for exemption from the IEEE 1394 standard made late last year by Intel, Motorola and TiVo. But any set-top box maker that manufactures compliant devices can take advantage of the waiver, which applies to any cable operator, said a bureau order. Operators won’t need to apply for individual exemptions, it said.

A tightening of bank credit and rapid-fire compression of advanced technology to mass market prices is dealing a blow to CE specialty retailers, industry executives said. Ken Crane’s and Flanner’s Home Entertainment are the latest specialty retailers to liquidate amid a drying up of the once-lucrative custom install business and increased consumer appetite for lower-priced products, they said.

LOS ANGELES -- Casio is going after the core gamer market for the first time with its line of Green Slim projectors that shipped early this year, Bill Dickey, general manager of the company’s projector division, told Consumer Electronics Daily at E3 here. It was the manufacturer’s first time exhibiting at E3, he said.

A sharply divided FCC on Thursday approved a notice of inquiry seeking comments on Chairman Julius Genachowski’s proposed “third way” broadband reclassification proposal. FCC Republicans Robert McDowell and Meredith Baker dissented sharply. Debate on the NOI showed deep divisions among the commissioners in their view of the broadband market and whether the FCC needs to reclassify Internet service under Title II of the Communications Act, while effectively keeping Internet content and applications under more light-handed Title I.

Seeking to steal a march in 3D-capable notebook PCs, Lenovo launched sales of an upgraded IdeaPad Y560d in China and will have it available through its U.S. website by month’s end at $1,199, said Michael Littler, a spokesman for Lenovo’s IdeaPad worldwide strategic marketing group.

Heralding the arrival of 3D in set-top boxes, Broadcom is delivering firmware upgrades to its decoder/processor chips, enabling them to deliver half-resolution 3D, Stephen Palm, technical director for broadband communications, told us.

The Advanced Television Systems Committee’s 3D planning team will meet for the first time next month as part of a process to determine the viability of developing a technical standard for terrestrial 3D broadcasts, ATSC President Mark Richer told us in an interview Thursday. The 3D planning team is one of three the organization has put together, along with those covering next-generation television broadcasting systems and Internet-connected TV technologies.

LOS ANGELES -- Nintendo of America (NOA) Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing Cammie Dunaway wouldn’t confirm at E3 if the coming Nintendo 3DS handheld system uses stereogram technology as Namco Bandai said (CED June 17 p3), or whether Sharp is supplying the panels and parallax barrier 3D technology as an informed source told Consumer Electronics Daily early this year (CED March 25 p1). Providing that information “doesn’t necessarily help sell more,” she said with a laugh.