Best Buy this year will continue scaling back expansion of its full-size U.S. stores as it adds 75 to 100 Best Buy Mobile locations, senior executives at the chain said Thursday on a quarterly earnings call.

Oculus 3D, a supplier to movie theaters of a 3D system that uses 35mm film (CED March 24 p5), is ready to launch that system now, CEO Marty Shindler told us in an e-mail. Oculus is “in active discussions with the various studios to gain their content in our format,” he said. When the system does launch, the 3D glasses with biodegradable frames that Shindler discussed at last week’s ShoWest convention in Las Vegas will be ready on Day One, he said.

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- IPv6 is gaining momentum, said representatives of Comcast and Netflix on an Internet Society panel at the Internet Engineering Task Force meeting this week. But Geoff Huston, chief technology officer of the Asian Regional Internet Registry, APNIC, said uptake of IPv6 in the market is still much too slow, with IPv4 numbers (less than 10 percent of the 4.3 billion are unallocated) running out in 2012.

The coming Nintendo 3DS handheld system will use Sharp’s 3D LCD technology, an informed source told Consumer Electronics Daily Wednesday. The method used by Sharp, commonly referred to as parallax barrier, “is well known but expensive,” the source said. The same source is predicting that Sony Computer Entertainment will release a 3D version of the PSP by year-end that, like the 3DS, won’t require glasses, though it’s unclear what method Sony would use for the PSP’s 3D effect.

Microtune’s MT3141 analog demodulator/silicon TV tuner will start production this year, aimed at replacing can tuners by matching their prices for the first time, Microtune Chief Financial Officer Justin Chapman said Wednesday at the Sidoti & Co. investor conference in New York.

U.S. consumers want Energy Star to adopt a tiered approach that differentiates products with the highest efficiency levels, a study found. More than 90 percent of respondents in a study by marketing firm EcoAlign said it’s a “good idea for Energy Star to differentiate tiers of energy efficiency with new categories and labels.” As part of changes to the Energy Star program, the EPA is weighing the introduction of a top tier “Super Star” program that would recognize the most efficient models in a product category. The EcoAlign study was based on 2,000 online interviews in February, the company said.

CE and IT companies, retailers, utilities and advocacy groups said they're forming a coalition to drive consumer adoption of smart-grid technologies. Founding members of the coalition, called the Smart Grid Consumer Collaborative, include Best Buy, Control4, GE and the Gridwise Alliance. The coalition comes about after research has shown that only 4 percent of consumers have heard of the smart grid or have some understanding of it.

The EPA has ruled out “grandfathering” existing Energy Star set-top boxes when a new specification takes effect. But Energy Star boxes that are in consumer homes after a new specification can retain their labels as long they continue to meet the specification for which they've been certified, agency officials said at a meeting to consider revision of the set-top box specification.

Initial items in the National Broadband Plan that may get FCC proceedings include recommendations that the agency take steps to make all cable, DBS and telco-TV providers offer gateway devices and that CableCARDs be easier to install, numerous agency and industry officials said. Commissioners may vote as soon as next month on two related and forthcoming items, they said. One would likely begin an inquiry on how to mandate all subscription-video systems be able to be accessed by a simple gateway device that could also get online content. Another would resolve some CableCARD problems.

Opinions were mixed Tuesday among analysts and others we polled about Nintendo’s coming “3DS” handheld game system that the company said will achieve 3D effects “without the need for any special glasses."