Panasonic

February 15, 2006 Increased adoption of wireless technologies by healthcare organizations requires a wide variety of device types, depending on the clinical or business application. Yet, according to Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney in a May, 2005 report ("Healthcare Device Category Selection Guide"), there "is a product void in the 1-kilogram weight range." This void, between traditional PDAs, which offer limited functionality, and standard clamshell or tablet PCs, which can be too heavy or cumbersome for regular bedside use, is to now be addressed by Panasonic’s Toughbook Wireless Display, which designed to offer an optimal combination of size, weight and functionality for point of care applications. Panasonic announced the new computing device specifically designed to support e-health initiatives, improve clinical care and enhance business performance at the 2006 HIMSS Conference & Exhibition in San Diego yesterday.  Read More

January 5, 2006 Panasonic will begin showing a super-large-size prototype 103-inch plasma display panel (PDP) at its booth at the 2006 International CES later today. The 103-inch PDP has 1080p (progressive) HDTV resolution and can deliver more than two million pixels (1,920 x 1,080) of performance – not surprisingly, it’s world’s largest plasma display, edging narrowly ahead of the 102-inch Samsung shown at CES last year. Given Samsung’s penchant for having the largest and mostest of everything, we suspect it won’t take long for the Korean giant to leapfrog back into the lead, but for now the record goes to Japan and Panasonic (and ultimately to Matsushita, Panasonic’s parent company).  Read More

December 27, 2005 Last week it was the prospect of 5 terabyte drives, but the buzz of the Gizmag Christmas party was the news that Panasonic has modified its existing pilot production line for single-layer Blu-ray Discs, called BD-ROM, so that it is able to replicate dual-layer BD-ROM discs with 50 gigabytes (GB) of storage capacity. The 5 TB drives are still five years away, but the new pilot replication line is happening NOW at the Panasonic Disc Manufacturing Corporation of America, located in Torrance, California and is sure to be one of the talking points of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas next week (January 5-8, 2006). Single-layer Blu-ray Discs have 25 GB of storage capacity for holding video and other data, while current DVD discs have 8.5 GB of storage at most.  Read More

June 20, 2005 It’s often joked that you never really appreciate a computer until it goes down on you, which is precisely why the market for ruggedised computers exists. As we find more ways to depend on the computer, it’s inevitable that stories of computers withstanding incredible punishment will surface and such is the case with a recent Everest ascent by the ultra-ruggedised Panasonic Toughbook CF-18. On May 31, 2005, Australian Rex Pemberton reached the summit of Mt Everest and at 21years, became the youngest Australian to stand on top of the World’s tallest mountain. Rex’s Toughbook was his constant companion for the months leading up to the successful ascent, and was used for over two months on the mountain to type his daily diary, read e-mails from home, store digital photos and video footage taken on the climb, and to make notes for a book and documentary on the expedition. With the Toughbook connected to a satellite phone, the diary was e-mailed back to Australia for uploading to his web site.  Read More

April 18, 2005 The digital camera market continues to grow at an astonishing rate and the major competitors continuing to shoehorn new features into new cameras at an ever more affordable price – one example of just how far we have come in such a short period of time is the Panasonic FZ5, a camera we recently spent some time with. The 5.0-megapixel FZ5 LUMIX has a 12 times zoom lens – that’s equivalent to a zoom lens on a traditional camera having a ranbge from 36mm to 432mm. As it is TINY, and weighs 320 games with battery and memory card included, Panasonic has also included an Optical Image Stabilizer to compensate for handshake. The result is a camera that’s more than good enough for professional quality imagery – at a street price under US$450.  Read More

Wednesday August 27, 2003: The first in a Panasonic's new generation of pocket-sized AV products branded "D-snap", the SV-AV20 SD is 4-in-1 Multi AV device that combines a digital video recorder, a digital still camera, a digital audio player, and a voice recorder in a palm-sized package weighing just over 90 grams.  Read More