Smart Home Blog

The latest update of Panasonic’s Social TV app brings a very interesting feature directly to your TV. Now you may watch TV show and see Twitter or Facebook stream at the same screen. What does it mean? Well, let’s imagine you watch a football game and want to discuss it with your friends and relatives. With new Social TV app it can be done very easy. Cool stuff indeed! By the way, Boxee announced similar feature a few years ago. But it offers its own live chat for that purpose and not Twitter or Facebook.

Panasonic announced a new concept of its remote control – EZ Touch Remote. It doesn’t look like any other remote control. The idea is do not have any hard key or virtual button on the device itself. Instead of that all information is displayed directly on the controlled TV. The EZ Touch Remote has two touch pads which allow multitouch data entry and zoom manipulation.

The EZ Touch Remote doesn’t look handy for me. Not sure that Panasonic’s approach is better then usual remote controls with hard keys or touchscreen. In any case let’s see how fast EZ Touch Remote will be available for consumers and what they will tell about it.

It’s a growing tendency for big producers of A/V equipment and computers to show their vision of home of future. Recently I saw concept of smarthome from HP and Disney. Now it’s time for Panasonic.
There are a log of cool things in the its Eco & UD (Universal Design) Concept home – lighting and curtains control, security and surveillance system, Hi-End sound and video (103-inch, lead-free plasma is very impressive!). But the most important feature of that concept is energy management. The home uses a fuel cell co-generation system as a prime energy source, supported by solar power generation. Energy usage is controlled and monitored via the home energy management system (HEMS). Those approach can reduce household energy consumption by a combined 30-percent. So, the Eco & UD (Universal Design) Concept combines not high-tech stuff only. It saves our environment as well.

Yesterday Panasonic joined to the Zensys’s investors. This means that the next generation of Panasonic A/V devices will possible use Z-Wave to transmit commands instead of IR or RF. As a bonus we’ll have a possibility to control whole house using just one remote and a simple way to integrate A/V equipment into one home automation solution.

Except Panasonic the list of Zensys investors includes Intel Capital, Cisco, Bessemer Venture Partners, Palamon Capital Partners and Sunstone Capital.

[via CEPro]