When you say plasma display most of us immediately think of a big flat panel TV. In the home theater realm plasma is losing ground to LCD displays as LCDs improve in contrast and brightness. For years now LCD has been the dominate player in the cell phone industry for displays.

Panasonic and AbleComm announced today that Panasonic would be building a cell phone that uses a small plasma display to operate on the newly announced AT&T Mobile TV service. The small screen will require only 1.5 volts to operate and will require no special wiring or power supplies.

That’s right, another device that looks like a tasty candy bar. This is Panasonic’s D-Snap SV-SD870N, and it’s a bit slick looking with the display giving it a 2 tone design. It’s a digital player that offers over 100 hours of audiophile quality audio play using noise canceling technology.

It supports most audio formats and you can even record directly to a 2gigabyte SD card. Panasonic will start to ship the SV-SD870N in 5 colors starting April 18th in Japan.

Panasonic is unveilng this week a new entry level digital camera designed for those who seek “advanced, yet easy-to-use settings.” The camera is called the Panasonic LUMIX DMC-LS80 and it is priced at around $150.

The Panasonic LUMIX DMC-LS80 is an eight-megapixel model using a newly developed LUMIX DC VARIO lens system. It offers up 3x optical zoom, optical image stabilization, auto ISO settings and quicker auto focus.

We thought this image does a pretty good job giving a general idea to the relative size of Panasonic’s 150-inch plasma that you have probably been hearing so much about at this years CES event. Pictured here, the ginormous TV is next to a real person and the huge Panasonic 103-inch plasma from CES last year.

Panasonic calls it the “Life Panel” and it has a resolution of 4 x 1080p (4k by 2k).

[Image Credit: Gizmodo.com]

Panasonic and Comcast are tag teaming to bring Comcast customers a portable DVR so they can record programming at home and take it with them wherever they go. The Panasonic AnyPlay P-DVR Model TZ-LC100 will be available beginning in early 2009 and is being showcased at CES.

The Panasonic AnyPlay P-DVR Model TZ-LC100 is developed by Panasonic and co-branded with Comcast. It’s got 60GB of hard drive storage space, an 8.5″ folding LCD display screen and integrated stereo speakers. Also included are dual headphone jacks.

Panasonic recently unveiled a new Blu-ray Disc player which is the first player to offer up the Final Standard Profile and its variety new and enhanced features. The Panasonic DMP-BD30 is priced at around $500.

The Panasonic DMP-BD30, making use of the Final Standard Profile, offers some interesting new functions including Picture-in-Picture (which displays a second image in a sub window) and Audio Mixing (which allows one to switch the sound between the main and sub windows). There’s also a new multi-function SD Card slot which allows for images recorded on a HD SD card to be outputted at 1080p via HDMI.

Panasonic unveiled last week a massage chair which it feels provides the deepest tissue massage available. The Panasonic EP30005 is available for around $3,500.

The Panasonic EP30005 offers 1,117 massage modes, according to Panasonic, and makes use of a series of computerized rollers just below the surface of the chair. The chair scans the body of the user, then provides a customized arm massage, seat massage, and foot massage along with others. It has been programmed to deliver massage styles including Swedish, Shiatsu and Junetsu.

Panasonic today unveiled at the CEDIA event a new LCD home theater projector with has dedicated cinema and gaming modes. The PT-AX200U, which updates the popular PT-AX100U, should be available in October.

The Panasonic PT-AX200U’s gaming mode, said Panasonic, reportedly improves signal processing for 1/3 response time and also tunes picture quality so more image details appear in very dark or over-saturated areas that are prevalent in many games. The projector’s cinema mode offers features like an advanced sharpness control, high end color filter and better color correction.

Panasonic is bringing some more relatively affordable 1080p HD plasma TVs to market, it was announced today. The company unveiled at 2007 CEDIA the PZ77 series, consisting of the TH-42PZ77 (42-inch) and the TH-50PZ77 (50-inch). These models will be available this month for around $1,800 and $2,800 respectively.

Both models offer more than two million pixels, a resolution of 1920 x 1080 and a contrast ratio of 10,000:1. Also built into them is a SD memory card slot, anti-glare screen coating, two HDMI inputs, two component video inputs and synching technology for controlling it and other Panasonic gear via one remote control.

Panasonic has announced that they’re going to be launching an SDHC card with a 16GB capacity this November. This capacity quadruples the amount of storage currently available on the companies largest available card.

Panasonic says that the new, higher capacity storage card will be able to handle data transfers as fast as 20MB/second to support real-time recording with high-definition cameras such as the Panasonic HDC-SD5 and allowing as much as 4 hours of 1080i video to be stored on a single SDHC card.

As you might notice by the additional little logo on the front, Panasonic has upgraded its D-Snap MP3 player to now include Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity. The new D-Snap SV-SD950N has also added a couple buttons on the front to let its player hook up wirelessly with your Bluetooth phone, hands-free car unit or a Bluetooth stereo headset.

Aside from the added connectivity the D-Snap appears to be the same, still featuring its special noise canceling and comes packaged with a 1GB SD card. The only other changes, which …

Panasonic is answering the call for HD home videos with a couple of new hi-def camcorders, one of which being the new HDC-SD5. The HD5 uses Panasonic’s original 3CCD HD-camcorder that records video at a 1920×1080 resolution along with an advanced O.I.S. system to help keep your shots from having the shakes, even when you do. The HDC-SD5 also makes use of a lens from the well-known Leica Camera using 12 lens elements in eight groups with a low-dispersion glass to help keep crisp, defined colors in the video.

Media is recorded onto SD/SDHC …

We can always count on the manufacturers of digital cameras to continually come out with products that have a higher pixel count. Today Panasonic kicked it up a notch by announcing the Lumix DMC-FX100 12.2 megapixel point and shoot camera featuring a wider angle shot than most point and shoots available today.

The new Lumix digital camera has a 3.6x zoom that spans the equivalent of 28mm to 100mm with the wider angle pictures. The camera also features something Panasonic called “Extra Optical Zoom” which extends the range to around 196mm, but the …

Panasonic will be leading out its new line of D-Snap players at the end of April with the D-Snap SV-SD850N digital audio player.

The 12mm thick player has an FM tuner, supports AAC, WMA and MP3 files, has a line in recorder and a 4 line text display which makes the player somewhat interesting, but none of those features really stand out to us. One of the features that do increase our level of interest is the impressive battery life. The D-Snap SV-SD850N is boasting 80 hours of music file playback on a …

This is the 7.2 Megapixel Lumix DMC-TZ3 from Panasonic. Newly introduced to the 2007 line of Lumix digital cameras, the DMC-TZ3 features a 28mm wide-angle LEICA DC VARIO-ELMAR lens and a 3.0-inch LCD. The DMC-TZ3 has a compact, Stainless Steel body that measures 4.20” x 2.37” x 1.47” and weighs 0.51 lbs.

The DMC-TZ3 offers some advanced anti-blurring countermeasures to help you take better action shots. The Intelligent Image Stabilization system comprises two features: MEGA O.I.S. (Optical Image Stabilizer) and Intelligent ISO Control. These two features help by compensating for the effects of hand-shake …