Gadget Reviews

15-City Tour Kicks Off Next Week Featuring Demonstrations of First Full HD 3D TVs, 3D Gaming, Internet-Connected TVs, LUMIX Digital Cameras and More

Sweepstakes Will Make One Visitor in Each City Among the First To Own A Full HD 3D Home Theater System*

Panasonic announced that its 15-city “Panasonic Touch the Future Tour” will kick off on Monday, March 15 with events in New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago.  The public tour will give consumers across the US an opportunity to see, hear and interact with the latest cutting-edge home entertainment products, including a chance to experience live the first Full HD 3D Home Theater systems.

The Panasonic Touch the Future Tour, which will visit 15 cities across the US over the next five weeks, will appear in popular, high-traffic venues in Atlanta; Boston; Chicago; Dallas; Detroit; Houston; Los Angeles; Miami; Minneapolis; New York; Philadelphia; San Francisco; Seattle; Scottsdale, AZ; and Washington, DC.  A complete listing of event locations and dates can be found at www.panasonic.com/future.

“Panasonic has really raised the bar in consumer electronics for 2010,” said Bob Perry, Senior Vice President, Panasonic Consumer Electronics Company.  “From the launch of the world’s first VIERA Full HD 3D Home Theater Systems, to IPTV-enabled HDTVs with Skype video calling, to LUMIX Digital Cameras and Camcorders that make it easy for anyone to capture crisp, clear memories, there has never been a more exciting time for consumers to take their home entertainment experience to a new level.  Many people may have heard about these new advances but we want to give consumers across the US a chance to experience it all for themselves and see first-hand how it can enrich their lives.”

The Panasonic Touch the Future Tour features hands-on demonstrations of Panasonic’s 2010 cutting-edge products and features including Full HD 3D Plasma Home Entertainment Systems,  flat panel VIERA Plasma, , LCD and LED HDTVs; Blu-ray Disc Players, Home Theater Systems; and LUMIX Digital Cameras and Camcorders.

Highlights of the Tour include:

Experience VIERA Full HD 3D Home Theater – Visitors to the Panasonic Touch the Future Tour will be able to experience the world of 3D for the home with Panasonic’s award-winning Full HD 3D Home Theater System featuring the VIERA VT25 Full HD 3D Plasma TV, the BDT350 3D Blu-ray Disc Player and Panasonic Active Shutter Eyewear.  Panasonic Full HD 3D Home Theater Systems are now available at select Best Buy Magnolia Home Theater stores.

“For many people, this will be the first opportunity for them to experience for themselves the immersive world of Full HD 3D,” said Perry.  “People who have already had the chance to see one of our demos have been amazed at the depth and sense of being there that Full HD 3D delivers.  It is something they won’t want to miss.”

See the World’s First Commercial 3D Television Channels – Panasonic will be the exclusive presenting sponsor of DIRECTV’s new HD 3D channels set to debut in June 2010.  Demonstrations of the channels, which will deliver movies, sports and entertainment content from some of the world’s most renowned 3D producers will be on display at Panasonic Touch the Future Tour events.  DIRECTV’s HD 3D channels, powered by Panasonic, will offer a 24/7 3D DIRECTV Cinema and pay per view event channel focused on movies, documentaries and other programming, a 24/7 3D DIRECTV On Demand channel and a free 3D entertainment channel featuring event programming such as sports, music and other content.

Test Drive 3D Gaming – Computer graphics innovator NVIDIA will debut NVIDIA 3DTV PlayTM, a software solution that allows consumers to connect their GeForce® GPU-powered desktop or notebook computer to new 3D TVs, for the ultimate in big screen 3D gaming action. For the launch of 3DTV Play, NVIDIA  is teaming up with Panasonic on the Panasonic Touch the Future Tour, where visitors can test drive 3DTV Play-based PCs running on Panasonic’s new VIERA® Full HD 3D TVs.

Connect with Skype-enabled HDTVs – Panasonic and Skype are taking VIERA HDTVs to a whole new level of connectivity in 2010 with Skype on Your TV.  Visitors will see demos about how select Panasonic 2010 VIERA HDTVs will enable you to place free Skype-to-Skype voice and video calls, make calls to landline or mobile phones at Skype’s low rates, receive inbound calls via a user’s online Skype number, access Skype voicemail, participate in voice conference calls with up to 24 other parties.

Explore and Share with VIERA CAST IPTVs – Explore Panasonic’s VIERA CASTTM enabled HDTVs which give owners access thousands of television and movie titles, share photos and videos with family and friends, make video calls, listen to their favorite musical artists, and stay up-to-date with the latest sports news and information.  In 2010, VIERA CAST-enabled HDTVs will feature wireless connectivity and add new features such as Netflix®, Twitter™, Skype™, Pandora®, and Fox Sports to an existing list of features which includes Amazon Video On Demand™, Google’s YouTube™, Picasa™ Web Albums, Bloomberg and weather services.

Capture Your Memories – Learn about the intuitive features on Panasonic’s range of easy- to-use Camcorders and LUMIX Digital Cameras.  See how simple it is to take great photos and videos and share the with family and friends right on your HDTV and online via VIERA CAST.  Tour visitors will also be able to meet professional photographers from the LUMIX Digital Photo Academy to learn tips on how to take the perfect picture.  Visit www.panasonic.com/future for specific dates and times to meet professional photographers in each city.

Join the Full HD 3D World – Panasonic’s Touch the Future Tour Sweepstakes* will award one lucky visitor (18 years of age or older as of 3/15/10) in each of the 15 cities on the Tour a Full HD 3D Home Theater System featuring a Panasonic Full HD 3D VIERA Plasma HDTV, Panasonic 3D Blu-ray Disc Player and one pair of Panasonic Active Shutter Eyewear.

GeoEye-2 Will Provide the World’s Highest Resolution and Most Accurate Color Imagery to Government and Commercial Customers

GeoEye announced it selected Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, a major operating unit of Lockheed Martin Corporation  to build GeoEye-2, the Company’s next-generation, high-resolution Earth-imaging satellite system. Lockheed has already begun purchasing long-lead material and labor for the design, engineering and manufacturing of the satellite and the associated command and control system.

Matt O’Connell, GeoEye’s chief executive officer and president, said, “We chose Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company to build GeoEye-2 to ensure high confidence in mission success. They have a 50-year heritage of building imaging systems for the U.S. Government and have built several hundred Earth-imaging satellites–more than anyone else.”

Bill Schuster, GeoEye’s chief operating officer, said, “GeoEye-2 will be the same class of satellite as GeoEye-1 but will benefit from significant improvements in capabilities to better serve our customers’ demands for increased quantities of imagery at higher resolution. Some of these improvements include enhanced tasking capabilities and the ability to collect more imagery at a faster rate.”

Joanne Maguire, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, said, “GeoEye-2’s increased resolution, along with the need for greater spacecraft agility, leverages our unparalleled experience in delivering highly reliable, precision remote sensing space systems for our customers.”

Lockheed Martin built GeoEye’s IKONOS satellite. Launched in 1999, IKONOS has exceeded 10 years of successful on-orbit operations. It continues to provide high-resolution imagery of the Earth to GeoEye’s commercial and government customers around the world.

“The IKONOS satellite, which continues to perform with outstanding results for GeoEye, ushered in the first generation of commercial high-resolution space imaging systems, and we look forward to building a third-generation satellite that will provide even greater remote sensing capabilities for GeoEye’s customers,” added Maguire.

In October 2007, GeoEye announced it had contracted with ITT Corporation’s Geospatial Systems Division (Rochester, N.Y., NYSE: ITT) to begin advance work on the camera for GeoEye-2.

Chris Young, president of ITT Corporation’s Geospatial Systems Division, commented, “We designed GeoEye-2’s advanced optics and sensor using a combination of flight-proven and state-of-the-art technologies. We feel confident that our imaging system’s improved resolution and outstanding image quality will offer GeoEye the best sensor and most comprehensive capabilities for years to come.”

“This two-year head start on the development of the camera and camera electronics enables us to launch GeoEye-2 in late 2012,” added Schuster. “Our goal is to be ready when our government moves ahead with any contracting activity, so our government and other customers overseas have continued access to high-quality satellite imagery well into this decade.”

Optimized for Video Storage and Playback, My Passport AV Media Drives are Designed to Work with Select Sony(R) Camcorders, Blu-ray Players and Other Popular Media Players

WD introduced its new My Passport(TM) AV portable media drives. Designed specifically for video storage and playback, the new My Passport AV portable media drives deliver a plug-and-play experience for digital media enthusiasts. Available now at select retailers and WD’s online store, the My Passport AV portable media drive is offered with 320 GB of capacity.

A large and increasing number of game consoles, camcorders, TVs, DVRs, Blu-ray players and media players, including the WD TV® Media Player family, allow consumers to connect a USB drive and play the multimedia content from the drive on an HD TV. The My Passport AV portable media drive is designed to meet the requirements of this demanding video streaming environment. It delivers the formatting and low-power consumption that assures out-of-the-box compatibility with many leading CE (consumer electronics) devices.

WD worked to ensure that the My Passport AV portable media drives operate seamlessly with the Direct Copy feature offered in Sony’s new Handycam® video recorders. Direct Copy lets Handycam users offload and archive HD video directly to a My Passport AV portable media drive without a computer, creating room to shoot more HD videos when their Handycam hard drive becomes full.

Consumers can then play back their stored videos using Sony’s latest Blu-ray players or any of the WD TV media players by just connecting the My Passport AV portable media drive via the USB port on these players. Specific Handycam and Blu-ray model compatibility information is available on the WD Web site.

With its small footprint, the My Passport AV portable media drives are designed to fit neatly in a home entertainment center. The included stand and extra long cable makes it easy to position the drive neatly in entertainment centers, maximizing the airflow and minimizing heat around the drive.

“With more and more devices capable of generating and playing back HD video – camcorders, Blu-ray players, game consoles – portable hard drives are the best solution for this 8 GB-per-hour capacity-intensive content. The My Passport AV portable media drive is optimized for a better digital video experience with a growing list of consumer electronics, starting with Sony’s latest camcorders and Blu-ray players,” said Dale Pistilli, vice president of marketing for WD’s branded products group.

Price and Availability

The New My Passport AV portable media drives feature a 2-year limited warranty and are available now at select retail stores and WD’s online store. MSRP for the My Passport AV portable media drive with 320 GB is $109.99 USD.

My Passport AV Compatibility

My Passport AV portable media drives are formatted FAT32(1) and are compatible with Windows® XP, Windows Vista(TM), Windows 7, Mac® OS X® and Apple’s Tiger®, Leopard®, and Snow Leopard®. My Passport AV portable media drives utilize the same drive technology found in WD AV drives inside leading cable and satellite set-top boxes and DVRs (digital video recorders) around the world.

The My Passport AV portable media drives are compatible with the following devices:

– WD TV family of media players;
– 2010 and later Sony camcorders with Direct Copy functionality;
– Sony 2010 Blu-ray Disc Players including BDP-S370, BDP-S470, BDP-S570;
– Sony 2010 Blu-ray Disc Home Theater Systems including BDV-E370, BDV-E570;
– JVC LT-32P689 television;
– Samsung® LN32A550 television;
– Phillips® 42PFLA332D television;
– Microsoft Xbox 360® (compatible with the USB media playback feature); and,
– Sony PlayStation®3.