Hasta La Gadget!

All photos: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

Panasonic’s new little black plastic box is a pocket media server which will stream video and music direct to your iPhone or iPad, or other compatible device via Wi-Fi. But given its high price and limited functionality, it’s hard to see who will buy it.

The DY-PS10 is little more than box with a li-ion battery (ten hours life), an 802.11b/g router and an SD card slot. You pop in a card loaded up with media (Panasonic’s DIGA DVD players will rip copies direct to the right format and copy them to the card) and you can then stream to your iDevice. And that’s it. The box — launching first in Japan — will cost ¥11,800, or $154.

Why would you buy this? You have to convert movies anyway, so you may as well convert them and just copy them straight to your iPad. Not enough space? Then you should have taken that $150 and put it towards a larger capacity iDevice.

Perhaps it’s useful for viewing a movie you just shot with your Panasonic camera? You could just pop the memory card into this box and stream the movie to your big-screen tablet. Except that you could pop the card directly into the iPad using the $30 camera connection kit.

Or you could buy a MiFi personal hotspot, which has all of the above features (including a card slot) plus a 3G modem. This little box really seems to be a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.

The DY-PS10 launches in Japan on September 15th.

DY-PS10 product page [Panasonic via Slashgear]

See Also:

• Western Digital's TV Live Hub Is the Anti-Apple TV
• iPad Buzz Player Streams and Converts Movies From Network Storage …

Despite an optimistic launch, Google TV sales have proven less than wow-worthy

Consumers aren’t going as gaga for Google TV as manufacturers had hoped. In fact, people are flocking to return the smart TV set-top box.

Logitech International, maker of the Revue Google TV unit, announced that Revue profits were “slightly negative” last quarter as more people returned the device than purchased it.

In response, Logitech said it is going to drop the price of the Revue from $250 (a price cut from the original price of $300) to $100.

“We launched Revue with the expectation that it would generate significant sales growth in spite of a relatively high price point and the newness of both the smart TV category and the underlying platform,” Logitech chairman Guerrino De Luca said in a conference call on Thursday. “In hindsight, there are a number of things we should have done differently.”

Google TV is available through Logitech’s set-top box and a Sony HDTV and Blu-ray player. It provides access to the internet, live television programming, on-demand programming, recorded shows, pay TV, and online video clips. When Google announced Google TV last summer, the launch was surrounded with praise and positivity: smart TVs are the future of television; Google TV put Apple TV to shame. But Google TV was soon plagued by problems from major broadcast networks, preventing their content from being streamed by the set-top box and opposing a legislative proposal that would provide Google TV with easy access to cable content.

Google is not the only player in the space — there are plenty of ways to turn your TV into a web-connected powerhouse, but some are just more convenient or more fleshed out than others. For instance, LG has a similar smart TV upgraded set-top box, and Yahoo! and Samsung also have web-integrated TV offerings.

Hopefully, Logitech’s lowered price point will help spur consumer adoption of the Revue. Other set-top boxes, like the Roku box, fall in the $100 price range, a pricing level most people are better able to swallow than the close to $300 the Revue was selling at.

“There was a significant gap between our price and the value perceived by the consumer,” De Luca said during the conference call.

It’s not totally clear why users were returning the unit. In Wired.com’s roundup of HDTV streamers, the Logitech Revue came out on top, despite its hefty price tag. However, Geekdad felt that the Boxee Box was easier to use for the average consumer. The Revue was said to be the more intriguing option “if you’re a tech-head.” De Luca posited that “Google TV has not yet fully delivered to its own promises.” And perhaps, in such a tight economy, customers just felt they weren’t getting their money’s worth.

“Google TV has a number of issues beyond the demand for Internet connected televisions. There is a lot that needs to be sorted out for this type of platform to succeed and the issues are centered around business models more than around technology,” says Van Baker, Research Vice President for Gartner.

Google plans to update the Google TV software later this year.

Toss your iPhone into your AirPlay Express to stream any music you want to your home stereo speakers. Photo courtesy of Spotify

You can now play over 15 million Spotify songs on your computer for free in this country — partially because Spotify counts on the fact that if you get addicted to listening to music and building playlists on the service, you’ll want to play those playlists and listen to that music on other devices: your smartphone and your home stereo.

We count at least five great ways to play Spotify Premium within the home. This is no trivial matter for Spotify users, because music is greatly enhanced by the mechanics with which it is reproduced (which is why headphones are really important too).

The following Spotify players for the home are listed alphabetically under what we like to call the “different strokes” principle. For example, not everyone uses Apple iOS. What might be right for you might not be right for some.

Apple AirPlay

If you own an Airport Express or Apple TV (or AirPlay-enabled speakers or sound systems — more on those below), you can use Apple AirPlay to stream anything in the Spotify iPhone app to the best speakers in your house, whether they’re standalone, connected to your home stereo amplifier, or connected your television’s surround sound box. From where we’re sitting, Apple offers the best option for Spotify in the home if you already have the remote control (an iPhone or iPod Touch) in your pocket.

Maybe this is why Apple figures it doesn’t have to sell its own music subscription. It can sell more iPhones, iPod Touches, iPads, Apple TVs, Airport Expresses, and AirPlay-licensed hardware to subscribers to Spotify and other AirPlay-compatible music services — and even collect part of that subscription revenue in the process.

Denon and Marantz

Certain Denon receivers have built-in AirPlay support, as do some Marantz receivers.Photo courtesy of Denon

This one’s also for Apple iOS users. Certain Denon receivers have built-in Apple AirPlay support, as do a few from its sister brand Marantz. By running the Spotify Premium app on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad, you can stream Spotify to a wide range of Denon receivers starting at $600 the last time we checked.

Check out Denon’s line and Marantz’s line, if this approach of funneling Spotify through your iOS device to a home stereo system sounds right for you. One thing to keep in mind: Unlike the others, both Denon and Marantz charge $50 for an AirPlay firmware upgrade.

AirPlay-compatible speakers also include Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Air, JBL On Air Wireless, iHome AirPlay (coming soon), and we assume many other Apple partners to follow.

However, there are plenty of ways to play Spotify in the home over nice speakers even if you don’t use Apple iOS:

Logitech Squeezebox

Photo courtesy of Logitech

Logitech purchased one of the earliest innovators in home digital audio a few years back: Slim Devices, a company I first covered in its “two guys in a garage” stage approximately ten years ago. This resulted in Logitech’s Squeezebox line of devices, which allow Android and iOS devices to act as remote controls for any music service that supports Squeezebox hardware ranging from small WiFi radios to home stereo components — or you can use them without those apps, if you prefer the devices’ own controls and remotes.

All of these devices now play Spotify in the U.S. and Europe.

(History nugget: Slim Devices is the only company that ever asked me to remove a positive review because their manufacturing process couldn’t keep up with demand.)

Onkyo Network-Capable Receivers

Photo courtesy of Onkyo

Evolver.fm received word from Onkyo that it is offering a free firmware upgrade that adds Spotify support to “its 2011 network capable receivers beginning with the TX-NR609.” Longtime Onkyo spokesman Gordon Sell added, “Onkyo will also be introducing additional networked Spotify-ready products in the near future.”

This system does not use Apple AirPlay, and, in fact, does not require any smartphone at all. With Onkyo, Spotify lives natively within the receiver itself. You control it with the standard remote control and view the Spotify app on your television.

Sonos Digital Music Systems

Photo courtesy of Sonos

Longtime digital-music-in-the-home pioneers Sonos offers full support for Spotify Premium and many other music services — and claims that unlike Apple AirPlay, it can stream to multiple rooms at the same time without creating the muddy sound caused by phase cancellation (it’s complicated, but basically, if you want to listen in a bunch of rooms at the same time, just like the millionaires do, Sonos is the way to go).

You can control Spotify-on-Sonos using your laptop, Android, iPhone, or Sonos’ own remote control. The company offers a wide range of excellent audio home networking gear from standalone speakers to home stereo components.

Note: Spotify also partners with television manufacturers and services and other hardware companies, so this list will likely expand. (In fact, the company wants to hire someone in Sweden to manage those relationships.)

Bonus for Hacker Types: We hear that if you run Servify, you can bust out Spotify on a Boxee Box too.

Despite a plethora of 3-D films and television options, consumers aren't buying many 3-D TVs. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Despite Hollywood’s continued onslaught of 3-D films hitting the big screen, not many people are buying 3-D TVs.

Whose fault is that? Panasonic’s marketing director Andrew Denham blames Hollywood for making such bad 3-D movies.

“Hollywood damaged 3-D by rushing so many badly converted films out in Avatar’s wake,” Denham said at the recent Intellect Consumer Electronics 2011 show. “What we need now is the next level, the next Avatar. And that’s a big ask, I think.”

But according to an April report from NPD Group, a market research firm, prices of 3-D TVs and the need to wear glasses top consumers’ complaints about owning sets in the home. A June SNL Kagan report also pegged 3-D sets’ higher price points, as well as lack of content, the need for eyewear and issues about universal standards, as reasons for 3-D TVs’ failure to populate consumer’s homes in 2011.

In 2010, 3-D TVs were billed as the breakthrough technology of the year at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. But consumers only purchased 1.1 million units that year, and the Consumer Electronics Association projected sales of just under 2 million this year.

Unfortunately, eye strain, nausea and fatigue (not to mention the need to wear glasses just to watch TV) have historically made consumers weary of bringing a 3-D TV into their home.

Despite a growing number of offerings at reduced prices (dropping from $900 more than a comparable HDTV in 2010 to only $400 more in 2011), and more attractive 3-D eyewear offerings, the popularity of 3-D in the home continues to lag.

And it looks like — for now — Hollywood is at least partly to blame.

“3-D is right smack in the middle of its terrible twos,” said Dreamworks animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “We have disappointed our audience multiple times now, and because of that I think there is genuine distrust — whereas a year and a half ago, there was genuine excitement, enthusiasm and reward for the first group of 3-D films that actually delivered a quality experience.”

Of course, Katzenberg is primarily talking about box office sales, but a box office flop (particularly a 3-D blockbuster flop) is pretty unlikely to score big when it finally makes it to Blu-ray.

Both manufacturers Sony and Panasonic hope that increased broadcast television content will also spur interest in the technology. 3-D sports offerings, such as ESPN 3D, which is now in its second year, may be 3-D’s best hope.

But of the 2,000 respondents who were interested in 3-D TVs in the NPD survey, most were potentially interested in watching films. Approximately 68 percent cited Blu-ray movies as the type of content they would want to view on the displays.

Although the general outlook is cloudy, not everyone is down on consumer 3-D adoption. Market research firm iSuppli projects sales will expand 5.5 percent this year, and top nearly 160 million units by 2015 since “brands are marketing 3-D not as a must-have technology but as a desirable feature, similar to the approach they have taken with internet connectivity.”

Regardless, nobody’s going to buy a TV if there’s nothing good to watch on it.