As we've reported, 3D has been the most trumpeted feature among TV manufacturers at CES this year. But even as channels like ESPN and Discovery make promises of 3D content in the near future, the retail cost of three-dimensional viewing in your living room remains an elusive factor.

In the video at right, Jim Willcox discusses the future of 3D TV and why—compelling as it may be—its conspicuous presence in American homes may be at least a year off.

For more Consumer Reports videos from CES 2010, check out our video hub.

If you find you're running out of wall sockets in which to plug in your netbook, e-reader, iPod, or cell phone, take a look at the innovative charger made by Pure Energy Solutions.  As Paul Eng demonstrates in the video at right, the device lets you charge your mobile gadgets simply by laying them on a conductive energy pad, juicing up your battery wirelessly.

A similar device at the show, the Powermat, also offers wireless charging via a pad.

Does this technology mark the end of bulky, wired chargers? We'll be keeping an eye on it.

For more Consumer Reports videos from CES 2010, check out our video hub.

"There's a looming crisis" over the capacity of America's broadband networks, says Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski in an interview session at CES.

"It won't be this week, or even this month or this year, but it's coming," said Genachowski, who used the interview to emphasize how important it is for the country to address and remedy the coming shortfall in broadband capacity or "spectrum."

"I think a lot of people in this room would say the crisis is here now, this week," joked Genachowski's interviewer, Consumer Electronics Association president Gary Shapiro. Shapiro was referring to the "broadband brownout" conditions many CES attendees experienced in Las Vegas this week–a problem I complained about as far back CES 2007 and which my colleague Paul Eng blogged on at this year's event.

Though the CEA president is customarily genial to the FCC chairman in chats that have become an annual staple of CES, Shapiro lavished Genachowski with unusually effusive praise. (He was considerably less kind in comments to another federal official who visited CES, telling President Obama's chief technology officer, Aneesh Chopra, that the Obama administration was "stifling innovation.")

Genachowski indeed demonstrated a deep and thoughtful grasp of the many issues confronting the Commission, and the country's "digital future," as he put it. But broadband dominated the conversation, with Genachowski repeatedly emphasizing his commitment to taking steps to ensure that all Americans enjoy universal access to affordable and high-quality broadband service, on wireless devices as well as in their home.

He did, however, also talk about other priorities, including assembling a diverse and effective team of FCC staffers to tackle his ambitious agenda. In particular, he singled out his hiring of a former Consumer Reports executive vice-president, Joel Gurin, to head up the Commission's Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau. He described Gurin as the "person who took Consumer Reports online," and "a wonderful person."

In an interview after Genachowski's speech, Gurin—who recently celebrated his one-month anniversary in his new job—said his top priority is to follow through on another commitment his boss mentioned during the interview: To ensure transparency and clarity for consumers in all aspects, and all types, of telecommunications service.

—Paul Reynolds