The televisions of CES 2013 are the sharpest, brightest, slimmest, biggest, and smartest TVs tech companies have ever shown — but they're also the priciest. With last year's 4K (four times the pixels of a 1080p display) screens now being called UHD — short for Ultra HD — TVs, display resolution is front and center as a key feature, which is unfortunately out of the everyday consumer's budget. Take a look at many of the TVs announced so far at CES, and stay tuned for more to come.
The Consumer Electronics Show is still in full force in the Las Vegas desert, but we've already seen so many gadgets that we can't wait to get our hands on when we get back to the real world. Keep in mind that these products have yet to announce their prices and release dates and just dream about holding them in your hot little hands for now. Check out a few of our favorites here and don't forget to tell us which ones you have your eyes on in the comments.
Instagram has become an incredibly popular app for mobile photographers since its launch in 2010, and camera manufacturers are taking notice. Panasonic is hoping to lure mobile photography enthusiasts away from the smartphone by adding Instagram-style effects to its hardware. The Panasonic Lumix GX1 has two things going for it — its awesome retro style and customizable built-in photo filters that let you change the look and feel of your images without a secondary program like Photoshop.
Eight different filters — from "retro" to "toy camera" — give your photos a distinctive personality by adding a dose of color, contrast, and vignetting. The good news is, you can control just how much of the effect goes into your pics with the addition of a slider bar on the three-inch touchscreen LCD panel. Add a little or a lot — it's totally up to you. Additionally, the GX1 comes with a Touch Defocus tool that helps you achieve the Tilt-Shift effect, or just bring a subject into sharper focus by blurring out the background. You can even choose from four different aspect ratios, including 1:1 square if you can't get enough of that Instagram styling. An interchangeable lens model, the GX1 can be used with other Micro Four Thirds lenses as your skills improve.
You can get the Panasonic Lumix GX1 now for $700.
If you like your science fiction and your hairstyling in close quarters, you'll want to check out the new hair-washing robot Panasonic just unveiled.
The 16-"fingered" machine has sensors that allow it to determine the optimal pressure and technique for individual people's scalps. It can also "remember" heads, so you get a consistent wash. Unfortunately, it's only in prototype phase, and will probably be pretty pricey when it does hit the market, since it's designed to assist large numbers of people living in nursing homes. Does this kind of robot excite you, or are you holding out for an automated hairstylist?
We all know how expensive professional grade cameras can be, but this smaller, more portable Panasonic Twin-Lens number shoots your scenes in 3D fabulousness. Capable of HD 1080p recordings in three dimensions, a 3.2-inch side-mounted LCD screen to peep what you're shooting, and comes in at six pounds. It all sounds great, but can you guess how much it costs?
I relied heavily on Skype to contact family and friends when I spent a few weeks in Japan last year, and even though I thought the video and voice quality were pretty fly I guess there's always room for improvement. Skype announced yesterday that the newest version of their software would bring HD-quality VoIP calls to your PC and will also be partnering with LG and Panasonic to bring the high quality calls to Skype-embedded Internet-compatible TVs later this year.
In addition, Skype will be producing a line of high def webcams for your TV set so you can make the HD calls right from your living room — no PC required. The FV Touchcam N1 ($70 - $100) will ship in February, and the FreeTalk HD Pro ($120) will hit the virtual Skype shelves in March.
Kanye just can't get enough digital cameras. We've already seen him with the stylish Leica D-LUX 3 at the 2007 Givenchy show in Paris a few years back, and now he's been spotted in London with a new Panasonic Lumix LX3 ($600) number around his neck.
The 10.1 megapixel LX3 is just what Kanye needs to capture great photos on his trips around the world — it comes with a large three inch LCD screen, shoots in 16:9 HD video, includes 21 fun scene modes like self portrait, pet, and starry sky, and it accepts expandable SD cards to boost its onboard 50MB internal memory space.
Plus, this portable number takes excellent low-light photos, thanks to its wide aperture range and the newly developed Leica DC Vairo-Summicron lens, which captures clear shots during late night outings, concerts, and candlelight dinners. Perfect for a geek on the go!
I can't think of much not to love about the Roomba, but there's always room for competition in a market with one really great product.
So, welcome the Panasonic Fukitorimushi (Japanese for "wipe-up bug"), introduced recently at the Tokyo Fiber Senseware exhibition in Milan.
The Fukitorimushi (um, can we please just abbreviate it to "Fuki"? OK then) has a nanocloth underbelly, rather than a traditional sucking mechanism like a Roomba.
Its cloth-covered body kind of looks like you dropped a towel on the floor and forgot to pick it up, but I could learn to live with anything that cleans my apartment for me.
