Gary SteelLUNCHES & LAUNCHES SPECIAL – 2013 PANASONIC ROADSHOW – PART 2
IN THE FIRST part of this report, which you can find here, we looked at the company’s forthcoming range of audio products.
After that, home appliances product manager Michael Opie addressed the assembled on all things of a pragmatic household nature.
Now, Witchdoctor is geared towards the audio and the visual, so we won’t spend more than a few words on this category. But it would be remiss not to mention the spiffing looking Hydra Power irons, which claim to save 20 percent of ironing time, and the new Panasonic kettles, which reputedly keep water much warmer than other brands, meaning that a reheat takes less time and uses less energy. As a male of the species who is scared of blades, and hates the grind of cleaning all the fur from power shavers, I was thrilled that Panasonic’s new shaver can be cleaned in water, without any complicated procedures. Whiteware? Well, there’s the dryer with its 6 star rating, and the fridge with its ‘intelligent sensors’. But enough of that.
What you all want to know about is the new range of Viera tellies. James Petterson explained that Panasonic’s five core principles in regards to television are design, picture quality, easy operation, networking and economy. Or was that ecology? Damn my half-assed note-taking!
Anyway, the new generation Panny plasmas – or at least the top-of-the-line ones like the TH-P60S60 – go for something called “infinite blacks”, feature voice interaction, and are searchable. And given the reputation for plasmas being rather power hungry, they’re really efficient, “costing about as much to run as a lightbulb.”
The real hook this time however, is its electronic pen compatibility. That, and its remote app with ‘swipe and share’ and ‘share and save’ functionality. It’s also got face recognition, and learns to know what you like to watch. Scary.
Product manager for cameras, Andrew Reid, straight off admitted that the market for happy snappers has been “tough over the past couple of years” due to the phenomenal rise of cellphone cameras.
Panasonic’s answer? A bunch of cameras that will take better, cleaner shots than a cellphone camera, but which have come to the party, offering Wi-Fi/connectivity.
That, and improved optical performance and tougher bodies.
The new range of cameras offer NFC (near field communication), which allows two devices to communicate wirelessly – gone is the need to transfer pictures with a USB cord.
Touch & Share is Panasonic’s cloud-based system for travelling and posting to social networks. They also offer GPS connectivity.
James gave particular mention to the DMC-FT5 Tough Camera which is waterproof to 13 metres, shockproof and freezeproof, as well as offering all those features mentioned above: Wi-Fi, NFC, GPS, etc.
Also getting the big thumbs up was the DMC-TZ40 Travel Zoom Camera with its 20 x optical zoom, full HD movie recording, and all the rest.
All in all, Panasonic did a good job of telling us about its extensive new range without the hyperbole of some brands that shall remain nameless. I guess when you’ve got product as good as theirs, just telling it like it is should be enough.
The good Witchdoctor looks forward to reviewing some of this tasty gear.
