Items tagged with Panasonic
For a long time it seemed as though display innovation was stuck in a rut, at least in the PC space. For several years a top of the line monitor was a 30-inch display with a 2560x1600 resolution. Not anymore. Display makers have been stepping up their game. That includes Panasonic, which has developed a new type of In-Plane Switching (IPS) liquid crystal panel with a contrast ratio of over 1,000,000:1 and peak brightness of 1,000 nits. You've probably seen higher contrast ratio numbers before, but those are dynamic ratings, not static or native numbers. Somewhat simplified, a contrast ratio measures the difference between a display's brightest and darkest image, going from white to black. The...
Read more...
Today's a big day for budding photographers looking for high-end options on a relative budget. In addition to the Fujifilm X-T10 introduced earlier today, Panasonic on Monday announced the Lumix DMC-G7 with an exclusive 4K photo feature that allows you to pause and extract high resolution pictures from 4K Ultra HD video.This is a camera based on the mirrorless Micro Four Thirds standard and is compatible with 24 compact lens options. Like Fujifilm's X-T10, the Lumix DMC-G7 fairly lightweight and compact for a high-end shooter. It also boasts a 16-megapixel Digital Live MOS sensor, Venus Engine image processor with quad-core CPU for high speed signal processing, and multi-process noise reduction.If...
Read more...
There's nothing wrong with being an early adopter of new technologies and products, you just have to understand that inevitably something better, faster, and/or less expensive will follow whatever it is you just recently paid a premium for. Case in point is Panasonic's 20-inch Toughpad 4K tablet -- the revamped standard edition model now sports a 5th Generation Intel Core i5 vPro processor and costs half as much as first generation Performance SKU when it debuted earlier this year.Less than a year ago, the Toughpad 4K was wielding an Intel Core i7 3687U vPro processor, a dual-core part clocked at 2.1GHz to 3.3GHz with Hyper Threading support and 4MB of cache. But now that Broadwell-U is here,...
Read more...
Do you want a rugged laptop or do you prefer a thin and light notebook? Typically you had to choose between one or the other, though Panasonic is looking to change the game with its new Toughbook CF-54, a semi-rugged system that's the thinnest and lightest Toughbook in its category. So, it has that going for it, but it's also well equipped with the latest 5th Generation Intel Core i5-5300U vPro CPU. The Toughbook CF-54 is a 14-inch laptop with HD (1366x768) and Full HD 1080p (1920x1080) display options, the latter of which uses an In-Plane Switching (IPS) panel with glove-enabled touch support. It's also viewable in sunlight, whereas the HD model uses a TFT panel to keep costs...
Read more...
With a name like "Gigafactory," it has to be good. Panasonic and Tesla have just announced an agreement that'll see the two firms construct a large-scale battery manufacturing plant right here in the United States. The name, as you'd guess, is Gigafactory. Bold, intriguing, and totally Tesla. Per the agreement, it'll be Tesla managing the land, buildings, and utilities, while Panasonic will manufacture and supply cylindrical lithium-ion cells and invest in the associated equipment, machinery, and other manufacturing tools based on their mutual approval. Per Tesla: "Tesla will take the cells and other components to assemble battery modules and packs. To meet the projected demand for cells, Tesla...
Read more...
Have you ever seen an iPad cry? Would you like to? It's easy -- just plop one next to Panasonic's Toughpad 4K tablet and start comparing specs. The same goes for any other tablet, really. Panasonic has thrown down the gauntlet in terms of performance slates by launching the world's first 20-inch 4K ultra high definition (UHD) tablet. There's so much going on here it's tough to decide where to begin. Let's start with the obvious -- the 20-inch IPS 10-point multi-touch 4K display. This is a massive touchscreen panel that simply dwarfs all those 7-inch and 8-inch slates on the market, and even larger size tablets in the 10-inch range. Why so big? Panasonic didn't design the Toughpad 4K to just surf...
Read more...
One area of technology that never ceases to amaze me is storage. Despite the extreme complications in increasing densities, it continues to happen, and while at one point an 8GB mechanical hard drive seemed incredible, 4,000GB models are easily found today (with 5,000GB models on the way). When looking at "small" storage products, the increases can be even more impressive. Just a couple of weeks ago, SanDisk announced a 128GB microSDXC card; if you were to cover a CD case with these, that'd be about 15TB in storage, and all at 1mm thick. It's almost ridiculous, when you think about it. While mechanical and flash storage has seen some serious gains over the years, optical storage admittedly has...
Read more...
Here's a question: is it truly possible to produce a 20-inch handheld device and get away with calling it a tablet? Evidently so, at least if you're asking Panasonic. The longstanding electronics company has just announced that the planet's first 4K tablet will begin shipping in the United States early next year, but there are two problems that jump out from the start. First of all, you'll need to grow larger hands to adequately manhandle a 20-inch slate. Secondly, the MSRP looks to be around $6,000, so you'll need to spend your entire holiday bonus (and then some) in order to get one. If neither of those seem like huge drawbacks, the Toughpad 4K UT-MB5 packs a 3840x2560 resolution display (thats'...
Read more...
It isn’t exactly 1,000TB on a DVD, but we’ll take it. Sony and Panasonic announced that the two companies are partnering to develop a next-generation standard for optical discs in an effort to provide another long-term data storage option for professional use. Leveraging technology owned by each company, Sony and Panasonic are looking to create an optical disc with a storage capacity of at least 300GB; the project will ostensibly be completed by the end of 2015. Panasonic LB-DM9 Both companies already have high-density optical disc storage in their respective portfolios. Sony has a system that uses a cartridge filled with 12 optical discs; each disc has 25GB of capacity. Panasonic’s...
Read more...
Panasonic and its subsidiary Sanyo (by way of a 50.2 percent stake in the company) both pleaded guilty in separate price fixing allegations involving automotive parts and battery cells, the United States Department of Justice announced this week. The two firms will pay a total of $56.5 million in criminal fines, while LG Chem Ltd., a leading manufacturer of secondary batteries, also admitted guilt and will pay a fine of $1.056 million. The DoJ accused Panasonic of conspiring to fix prices of switches, steering angle sensors, and automotive high intensity discharge (HID) ballasts installed in cars sold in the U.S. and elsewhere. Panasonic carried out its scheme from at least as early as September...
Read more...
At a glance, the item shown here looks a lot like a Roomba automated vacuum cleaner. Turns out, that's not the case. It's a new Panasonic speaker, and it's more rugged than you may think. The SC-NT10 Portable Wireless Speaker System is designed to be used at pool parties the world over this summer, and because of its support for Bluetooth streaming, you just need a phone or tablet nearby to send the sound waves without a tether. Four "tough" performance traits allow for the Panasonic SC-NT10 to be used in nearly any outdoor setting. The device is Splash Proof, which enables use near water areas like the pool or beach; Dust Proof, making it well suited for areas such as sandy beaches; Shock Proof,...
Read more...
It's a connected world, and we're just living in it. While the point-and-shoot camera was chalked up as dead a few years back by some -- folks who thought the evolution of the smartphone camera would do the category in -- companies are now learning to innovate the space in a way that could squeeze a few more years of life from it. Panasonic just launched a new $500 high-end pocket camera, the Lumix DMC-LF1. It's a compact shooter, but offers some pretty impressive specifications. There's a f/2.0 Leica lens, a 7.1x optical zoom, a high-sensitivity MOS sensor, and built-in Wi-Fi + NFC. That's right; a camera with not only Wi-Fi, but also NFC. The LF1 features "Touch & Share," which allows users...
Read more...
It'll come as no surprise to you to hear that televisions are getting smarter. It's actually tough to find a big-screen set these days without some sort of Smart TV platform baked into it, and Panasonic's latest line is looking to one-up the others. Nuance's Dragon TV is being installed onto Panasonic's newest Smart Viera HDTVs, adding voice interaction in order to let users bark orders at their set. It's a new definition of lazy, but hey -- we won't tell if you don't. Now people can simply sit back and speak to find content, search the web, control volume and more, and with Dragon TV's text-to-speech, television content and options on the screen can be read aloud. Dragon TV is Nuance's unique...
Read more...
Tough tablets? Panasonic's got a couple of new ones to introduce at CES 2013. The Toughpad line of enterprise-grade tablets is gaining new models this week: the Toughpad FZ-G1 (a 10" tablet running Windows 8 Pro) and the Toughpad JT-B1 (a 7" Android-powered unit). Both of them follow the original 10" Android-powered Toughpad FZ-A1 which became broadly available late last year. Toughpad tablets are designed for mission-critical and highly mobile workers in fields such as the military, construction, healthcare, public safety, utilities, retail, maintenance, supply chain logistics and insurance. Perhaps not the best option for mainstream consumers, but those who need something who can take a beating...
Read more...
