Hasta La Gadget!

If a wireless light bulb wasn’t quite the Jetson’s style future you were hoping for, perhaps Panasonic‘s planned expansion of its smart home appliances will better scratch that itch. From next month, there’ll be an Android app to let you remotely operate appliances, view energy savings and program settings via NFC. Hardware-wise, the electronics giant is introducing connected air conditioners, refrigerators, washer-dryers as well as smaller devices such as blood pressure monitors and calorie meters. Along with remote control, there appears to be some supportive cloud-based services too, such as reporting device faults to customer service and generating reports (from the healthcare products). When can you get a taste of the future? September 25th if you live in Orbit City Japan. As for the rest of the world? We’ll just have to be patient.

Continue reading Panasonic expands smart home appliance line, adds Android Smart App, cloud services

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Panasonic expands smart home appliance line, adds Android Smart App, cloud services originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Aug 2012 05:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Panasonic Systems Communications Company Europe (PSCEU) has decided to upgrade the PT-DZ21K projector series with a new portrait mode capability. The portrait mode capability will enable the projector to be rotated horizontally for upright images. In case you didn’t know, the Panasonic PT-DZ21K projector is the company’s high-end projector that offers a 20,000 lumen of brightness. Stay tuned for more updates. [Akihabara]

Welcome to Engadget’s back to school guide! The end of summer vacation isn’t nearly as much fun as the weeks that come before, but a chance to update your tech tools likely helps to ease the pain. Today, we’ve got our optical viewfinders set firmly on digital cameras — and you can head to the back to school hub to see the rest of the product guides as they’re added throughout the month. Be sure to keep checking back — at the end of the month we’ll be giving away a ton of the gear featured in our guides — and hit up the hub page right here!

Your smartphone can take pictures, you say? Well, sure it can, but try snapping away at a frat party — you’re likely to walk away with a blurry mess. Your Facebook friends and future employers deserve an accurate account of those glory days, and you’ll need a proper snapper to get the job done. College is as good a time as any to learn responsibility, but don’t expect to walk out of the experience with all your gear unscathed. To that end, freshmen should look long and hard at our point-and-shoot picks, which include models that you won’t be afraid to toss around, or drop in the jungle juice. After that come the mirrorless ILCs, which should satisfy the more advanced photogs in the bunch, followed by our digital SLR picks, which, sadly, may be out of reach of all but photography majors and deep-pocketed private school types. Finally, you’ll have yet another opportunity to enter our fantastic giveaway at the bottom of the page, just after the break.

Continue reading Engadget’s back to school guide 2012: digital cameras

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Engadget’s back to school guide 2012: digital cameras originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Aug 2012 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While filmakers have gone gaga over huge sensor’d video cameras, there’s still a need for smaller chips and pro features — to that end, Panasonic has just announced the AG-AC90 AVCCAM. Destined for event and corporate users, it features three smallish 1/4.7-inch CMOS sensors (“3MOS” in company-speak), a 12X zoom, native 1,920 x 1,080 at 60p, 60i, 30p and 24p, and a five-axis image stabilizer. As for video quality, there’s a new “premium professional” recording mode with 28 Mbps throughput at 60p, on top of 24 Mbps and 17 Mbps modes. With two memory card slots, the camcorder supports Panasonic’s proprietary UHS-1 cards, and fortunately works with SDXC and SDHC to boot. It’s slated to arrive in “late fall 2012,” according to the company, and will ring the register at $2,250. So, if the first thing that pops into your mind is not DOF, but zebras, timecode and XLR inputs, check the PR for all those specs.

Continue reading Panasonic AG-AC90 professional camcorder: three CMOS sensors in a handheld package for $2,250

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Panasonic AG-AC90 professional camcorder: three CMOS sensors in a handheld package for $2,250 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Aug 2012 07:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What you see above does look rather professional, don’t you think so? Here we are with the Panasonic AVCCAM Camera Recorder AG-AC90 which was just announced, where it will finally hit the market this coming October. Basically, the Panasonic AG-AC90 memory card recorder is able to merge not only high image quality, but advanced functions and easy operation as well which are demanded by professionals, all of that coming in a stylish and easy-to-handle design.

The Panasonic AVCCAM Camera Recorder AG-AC90 will come with a zoom lens that will extend all the way from 29.8mm (a 35mm equivalent) wide angle to 12x optical zoom, sporting a high speed of F1.5 brightness. Not only that, Panasonic has also decided to throw in BSI (backside illumination) type 3MOS image sensors which are capable of exhibiting high sensitivity, Full HD resolution and a high S/N (signal-to-noise) ratio. The AVCHD recorder section will be able to support not only PS mode for Full HD progressive image production, but also pro-use PH mode as well.

The Panasonic AVCCAM Camera Recorder AG-AC90 offers the camera operator a fantastic field of view, image quality, and file/video formats that one needs for news gathering and image production. Apart from that, there are other professional operating features that will include Triple Manual Rings (focus, zoom and iris) which approach the versatility and feel of the interchangeable lenses, XLR Microphone/Audio inputs, and remote terminals to provide the system expandability that professional applications require.

The thing is, you will only be able to lay your hands on the Panasonic AVCCAM Camera Recorder AG-AC90 this coming October, where it will retail for €1,800 a pop. Those who want an earlier look at the AG-AC90 will be able to check it out at the Beijing International Radio, TV & Film Equipment Exhibition “BIRTV2012″ which is set to be held at the China International Exhibition Center (CIEC) from Wednesday 22nd to Saturday 25th August. Those living in Europe will also be able to catch a glimpse of it at the European International Broadcasting Convention “IBC2012″ that is happening at the RAI Centre in Amsterdam, Netherlands, from Friday 7th to Tuesday 11th September.

[ Panasonic AVCCAM Camera Recorder AG-AC90 announced copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]