EPEAT came closer to adding TVs and imaging gear to its certification program (CED April 25 p4), with two IEEE working groups voting to send draft standards for the devices to the IEEE Standards Association for balloting. EPEAT, whose ratings are used by governments and institutions to make purchases of environmentally preferable products, now covers computers and displays. The vote was a “huge milestone” because “finding compromise and consensus” among diverse stakeholders is “frankly, really hard,” said Wayne Rifer, EPEAT director of standards and co-chair of the IEEE Environmental Standards Committee.

RadioShack is in “constructive” talks with T-Mobile to resolve a dispute, having extended an April 4 deadline for “curing” an alleged breach of contract, analysts said. RadioShack executives weren’t available for comment. But in an earnings release Monday, the retailer said it expects a settlement.

Many questions lingered Monday after Nintendo finally confirmed that it’s developing a Wii successor home console. For example, exact ship dates for each market, pricing, the system’s name and whether the device will indeed offer HD as long rumored were still not known. Nintendo said it will ship the system in 2012, will offer a “playable model” and some specifications at E3 in June, and that the Wii successor was not factored into the sales forecast it gave Monday while announcing results for fiscal 2011 ended March 31.

As Barnes & Noble updates the Nook Color software and adds a third-party developer program behind it, the bookseller will continue support for the E-Ink-based mono version, Claudia Romanini, director of developer relations, told Consumer Electronics Daily. Whether that support will include new versions of the Nook using E-ink’s electrophoretic display wasn’t clear. Romanini declined to comment on new product plans. E-ink has said it expects to commercialize color electrophoretic displays by year-end.

CSR Plc’s proposed $679 million acquisition of Zoran capped more than a year of discussions between the companies that started as potential collaboration in GPS, Wi-Fi and digital camera processors, CSR said in a proxy filed with the SEC.

Sony Computer Entertainment will continue producing and supporting PSPgo for North America, a spokesman said by email as the download-only version of Sony’s handheld game system was about to be phased out in Europe and Japan. He didn’t elaborate on the Sony Computer Entertainment strategy for the device, including whether it will phase out the system in North America before or after the coming NGP handheld system launch (CED April 21 p9).

Samsung raised minimum advertised prices $300 across six 60-inch LCD TVs, from those quoted at CES, said retailers canvassed by Consumer Electronics Daily. But our survey of websites Friday showed most sets were still being promoted on pre-order near the previous MAP after “price breaks” ranging from $280 to $430.

The upcoming EPEAT standards for TVs and imaging equipment will have multiple “reporting requirements and restrictions” for toxics but they will not address nano materials, according to an EPEAT official. Environmental groups like the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, who have launched a campaign to get electronics makers to reveal their use of nano materials in their products, say they faced pushback from manufacturers when they tried to get that done through EPEAT (CED Jan 24 p3). EPEAT now covers computers and display and is expected to finalize standards for TVs and imaging gear this year.

IHS iSuppli said it dropped its forecast for Apple iPad 2 shipments based on reports of manufacturing kinks, including LCD panel quality concerns and end-unit production shortfalls. The hitches caused IHS to downshift its sales forecasts for all 2011 iPad models by 9.1 percent to 39.7 million units, from the February forecast of 43.7 million.

Smartphones and tablets are driving growth for iNAND flash memory and microSD cards, Sanjay Mehrotra, CEO of SanDisk, said on the company’s Q1 earnings call. “The smartphone market remains as vibrant as ever,” he said, citing analysts’ forecasts of 250 new models launching this year. OEM tablet activity “remains strong” and SanDisk is seeing requests for 16 gigabyte-and-higher capacities for embedded tablet solutions, he said.