Jan 06
Coming out of CES 2014, Panasonic has introduced their latest model Toughpad. This one is arriving as the FZ-M1, and similar to other models in the lineup, this one is … Continue reading
Jan 06
Panasonic Teams Up With Mozilla For Firefox OS-Powered Smart TVs & Open Standards Push
Posted in: Today's Chili
Hours after LG unveiled its webOS-powered smart TV interface at CES, Panasonic has spilled the beans on its own mobile-inspired TV plans — announcing a partnership with Mozilla to use the latter’s Firefox OS (FFOS) and open Web standards ethos to open up the living room’s primary screen.
Firefox OS can currently be found cooling its heels on some low-end phone hardware — mostly in Europe and developing markets in South America. The HTML5-based mobile OS has a mountain to climb in competing with the dominance — and reach — of Google’s Android OS. So Mozilla seeking to push it beyond mobile hardware to expand the ecosystem’s reach makes some sense.
Whether the FFOS interface is going to be compelling enough to bag Panasonic smart TV buyers at the expense of other offerings, or for developers to rally behind an open platform banner for building TV apps and integration remains to be seen.
“Mozilla and Panasonic will work together to promote Firefox OS and its open ecosystem,” the pair said in a press release today. ”This development aims to deliver more expansive access into smart TVs by leveraging the HTML5 and Web technologies already prevalent on PCs, smartphones and tablets, to offer consumers more personalized and optimized access to Web and broadcasting content and Web services.”
Yuki Kusumi, Director of the TV Business Division of the AVC Networks Company of Panasonic, added in a statement that the partnership with Mozilla will be aimed at ramping up the interactivity and connectivity of its smart TVs — “both inside and outside of the home”.
“Panasonic had been expanding content and services dedicated for Panasonic TVs on our own portal site and our collaboration with Mozilla on Firefox OS will further accelerate various innovations and encourage many new services,” he added.
The forthcoming FFOS-powered Panasonic smart TVs will make use of Mozilla WebAPIs for hardware control and operation — meaning they will also be capable of monitoring and operating other devices, such as smart home appliances.
At the time of writing, Mozilla was unable to provide any screen shots of the FFOS TV interface but the pair talked up the potential offered by cross-leveraging Internet, cloud services and broadcast content, and using HTML5 to write native TV functions instead of having to create embedded programs.
With the launch of this new open platform, next generation smart TVs will gain full compatibility with Web technologies and HTML5 standards used for cloud services and various future networked devices, enabling data from Web services and devices to be easily mashed up on a single application. This ensures flexibility for developers to create new applications and services by using cross-leveraged content from the Internet and broadcasting.
In next generation smart TVs, basic functions, such as menus and EPGs (Electronic Program Guide) which are currently written as embedded programs, will be written in HTML5, making it possible for developers to easily create applications for smartphones or tablets to remotely access and operate the TV. In addition, through the Web services, next generation smart TVs can display personalized user interfaces, featuring the user’s favorites and even add new functions for multiple users sharing the same screen after devices are purchased.
“We are very excited to partner with Panasonic to bring Firefox OS to more people on more platforms. As we see more partners supporting Firefox OS and the open Web, Firefox OS helps solidify open Web standards for smart screen solutions,” added Dr. Li Gong, Senior Vice President of Mobile Devices and President of Asia Operations at Mozilla, in a statement.
“This new platform enables developers and service providers to create a wide range of applications and services to deliver a new user experience. We see a strong alignment between the visions of Mozilla and Panasonic, and by combining our collective expertise and know-how, we will create amazing products together.”
As well as committing to release next generation smart TVs powered by Firefox OS, Panasonic — itself also a mobile maker, albeit last year it announced would be withdrawing from the smartphone market to focus its manufacturing efforts elsewhere — said it will work together with Mozilla to promote the Firefox OS and its open ecosystem approach.
Jan 06
Panasonic is working on a new kind of smart TV that seems, at least, slightly less grossly useless than the typical smart TV ends up being once you connect it to, oh, say, anything. It’s going to be in all the new Panasonic TVs this year.
     |
Jan 06
Panasonic’s Toughpad line-up has always been durable, but not exactly full of lookers. The 7-inch FZ-M1 may not be winning any beauty pageants, but it’s at least a little more sleek than what you’re used to.
| |
Dec 28
Panasonic, the Japanese giant that has done its bit to make sure that darkness is eradicated in different parts of the poorest regions of the world, by launching the “Cut Out the Darkness” project which will see the delivery of solar lanterns and shades which are based on designs that have been contributed by participants to homes and schools in the non-electrified regions. In fact, Panasonic is right now on the lookout for folks worldwide to be involved in this very project, all the while hoping to make the participants aware of the various issues in these regions that do not have the luxury of electricity.
At the moment, around 1.32 billion people worldwide still do not have access to electricity, which is something that many of us take for granted, actually. In fact, many homes in the regions still fall back on kerosene lamps for lighting purposes, and it goes without saying that such kerosene lamps do pose as a serious fire and health threat. Being unable to obtain a sufficient amount of light, it also further restricts them to what they can do. With less or no electric lighting at all, it ends up affecting the health and education sectors, as well as the economy.
Solar lanterns could be the solution here, as users can use these to juice up electricity during the daytime, saving all of that power in the secondary battery, which will then be able to be called upon at night, which will do its bit to solve social issues in non-electrified regions while making sure that fire and health risks are curbed, not to mention to reduce the emission of CO2 by kerosene lamps.
If you want to participate in the “Cut Out the Darkness” project, its website will come with its own application which lets you design a cutout while checking out a virtual shade image on-screen as you work on the design. After the design is complete, submit it online and visitors will vote on how popular it is. The top 100 popular designs will be chosen and manufactured before being sent over to those far flung places that badly need such a basic infrastructure.
Press Release
[ Panasonic “Cut Out the Darkness” project launched copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
Dec 26
Last year it was consistently rumored that Sony and Panasonic will partner up to work on OLED HDTV technology, and that rumor ended up turning out to be true. Both companies did start working on OLED technology, they decided to utilize the core and printing technologies developed by each company to commercialize their own HDTVs. However, it appears that technological hurdles stood in the way of commercial production which is why both Sony and Panasonic have decided to end this partnership, this according to the latest by Nikkei.
Apparently they have given up on the partnership to individually focus more on 4K instead, the high demand technology is expected to be prominently showcased at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. It is also believed that uncertainty in the OLED market might have led to the end of this effort, with South Korean rivals LG and Samsung both struggling with sales of their OLED HDTVs, which were released earlier this year. On the other hand, demand for 4K TVs is likely to increase in the coming year, which is why it makes sense that Sony and Panasonic now want to divert as much time and resources as they can towards the next big thing. According to DisplaySearch, 4K TV shipments are expected to top 60 million units per year by 2017.
Sony And Panasonic To End OLED Partnership original content from Ubergizmo. 
| |
Dec 26
Sony and Panasonic tied up to build OLED panels for TVs in June of last year. The goal of the partnership was to develop mass produced tech for OLED TVs … Continue reading
Dec 09
When you hear the words ‘vacuum’ and ‘USB’ used in the same sentence, you probably picture a tiny keyboard cleaning tool with barely enough power to suck up crumbs. But Panasonic’s hybrid MC-HS700G—now available in Japan—is a full-sized vacuum cleaner strong enough to lift a bowling ball that can also be charged from a USB port giving you up to 20 minutes of suction without a tether to a wall outlet.
| |
Dec 02
When it comes to having a notebook, there is one particularly important aspect that many people look at – and that would be the battery life. Of course, sacrifices must be made – not only in terms of battery life but design and portability as well, so it is always a careful balancing act that one has to perform whenever one is on the go. Well, the latest iteration of the Panasonic Toughbook CF-C2 is said to carry a battery life of 14 hours, which can be attributed to the processor upgrade within that will now feature an Intel Haswell-based Core i5-4300U vPro 2.9GHz processor alongside Intel HD 4400 graphics.
The 14 hour battery life is an increase of approximately 3 hours from the original, while those who do not find any joy in using Windows 8.1 will be able to have the option of downgrading to Windows 7 Pro. As for the front webcam, it has received an upgrade to touch 1.2-megapixels alongside seeing the inclusion of a microphone, not to mention having multi-carrier LTE modem support thrown into the mix as well. The Toughbook CF-C2 will arrive in 128GB and 256GB SSD options, with prices starting from $1,999 depending on the configuration. Any takers for the updated Panasonic Toughbook CF-C2?
Panasonic Toughbook CF-C2 Battery Life Increases To 14 Hours original content from Ubergizmo. 
| |
Dec 02
Panasonic Toughbook CF-C2 updated with longer battery life and multi-carrier LTE
Posted in: Today's ChiliPanasonic has announced that it has updated one of its rugged convertible notebook computers. The machine is the Panasonic Toughbook CF-C2 semi-rugged convertible tablet PC. The machine has an attached keyboard and a screen that swivels to be used as a tablet. Panasonic updated the battery giving the notebook about 14 hours of run time […]
Who's in charge here?
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.