Panasonic

On the heels of the big 3-D television presence at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, Sony and Samsung are joining Panasonic, LG Electronics, and others in promoting the new technology. On Tuesday, Sony said it is aiming for 10 percent of its TV sales within the next year to be 3-D models, and Samsung announced a range of HDTV sets and Blu-ray players will ship later this month.

At a press conference Tuesday in New York City, Samsung announced what it described as the "world's first available full HD 3D LED TV," as well as a variety of related 3-D home entertainment products.

In one of the funnier moments of Sunday's Academy Awards, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin thought they spotted Avatar director James Cameron in the audience. The hosts whipped out 3-D glasses to scan the audience for the man whose top-grossing film has fueled more interest in 3-D viewing.

Common Sight

While the gag got some laughs, it may not be unusual for more people to carry around 3-D glasses this year. All the top manufacturers are planning 3-D television models.

The world's biggest retailer has long struggled to dominate the streaming video market against competitors like Netflix, Apple and Blockbuster. Now Wal-Mart is taking a new tack, The New York Times reports.

Sources told the Times that Wal-Mart has agreed to buy VUDU, a three-year-old company that embeds its streaming technology into high-definition TVs and Blu-Ray DVD players. Wal-Mart and VUDU began briefing movie studios and TV makers about the deal on Monday.

Control the User Experience

Apple's new iPad tablet computer may be fine for surfing the web and watching surfing movies, but Panasonic Computer Solutions thinks many field workers need a tougher companion. On Wednesday, the maker of Toughbook mobile computers released its Toughbook H1 Field, described as "the world's most rugged handheld tablet computer."

The new model is targeted at field sales personnel, first responders, supervisors, inspectors, maintenance workers, and other mobile professionals.

No Wimp

In a new marker for outsourced IT services, Panasonic has announced it will adopt IBM's LotusLive suite of collaboration technologies. This is reportedly the largest cloud-computing arrangement ever, involving support for 100,000 Panasonic workers that will eventually expand to more than 300,000 users, including partners and suppliers.

High-quality video calling, once available only to well-heeled businesses, could be coming to a computer or TV near you. On Tuesday, Skype announced support for video calls using 720p high-definition video. In addition, the company said its software will be embedded into various Net-connected HDTVs from several manufacturers.

Nissan has announced that Nissan and Renault electric cars will have double today's battery capacity by 2015.  That means that the  range for cars like the Leaf should double by that time as well.

You have good reason to be skeptical when someone says millions of ordinary television viewers are about to start surfing the Internet on the living room's electronic hearth.

We've heard that Web-on-your-TV convergence promise for more than a decade, with ambitious efforts to make it happen including AOL TV and WebTV Networks. Each time, the optimists have been wrong.

This year might be different.

La televisión doméstica en tres dimensiones (3D) será realidad el año próximo. Tanto Sony como Panasonic han anunciado en la feria IFA de Berlín su proyecto de lanzar al mercado este tipo de receptores. De momento, no se tratará tanto de contemplar los programas habituales de televisión en 3D -las emioras no emiten en este formato- como de aprovechar la pantalla para los videojuegos y películas que ya existen en 3D.

Like that gadget you use as a phone, music player, Web browser and camera?

For Olympic fundraisers, it's a headache.

The dizzying pace of technological change is creating sticky issues for the International Olympic Committee. To put on the games, the IOC relies heavily on big money sponsors who are willing to shell out tens of millions of dollars because each is the only company making a certain type of product allowed to wrap itself in the Olympic rings.

Panasonic gets audio/video, Samsung gets wireless communication, Acer gets computers -- and so on up to 12 top-tier sponsors.