They’re just stuffing that href="http://www.engadget.com/2006/04/21/panasonic-lf-mb121jd-blu-ray-pc-drive-shipping-10-june-for-850/">Panasonic OEM
drive into a USB 2.0 case like href="http://www.engadget.com/2006/04/24/logitec-lbd-a2fu2-wm-the-first-blu-ray-disc-drive-for-macs/">everyone else
is, but Buffalo has the distinction of selling their external BR-H2U2 Blu-ray drive for $1012, along with black and
white internal versions for the equally steep $916. The drives will be shipping (in Japan, at least) early this June,
so early adopters looking for a little abuse between now and then can feel free to drop by our place to be kicked in
the head and have your money lit on fire.

[Via href="http://www.akihabaranews.com/news-11647-Buffalo%20also%20has%20a%20Blu-Ray%20burner.html">Akihabara]

href="http://www.engadget.com/search/?q=">Panasonic‘s once again updated their Let’s Note series over in Japan
(what we call the Toughbook in the US), this time with a slew
of latter Intel chips. The Y5 features a 14-inch 1,400 x 1,050 display, low voltage 1.5GHz Core Duo L2300, up to 1GB
RAM, 60GB hard drive (ahem), DVD burner, 802.11a/b/g, Ethernet, PC slot, SD, VGA out, waterproof keyboard(!) and a 12.1
x 9.6 x 1.1/1.7-inch body; the W5 and T5 feature a 12.1-inch XGA display, 1.06GHz Core Solo U1300, 60GB drive, up to 1GB
RAM, 802.11a/b/g, Ethernet, SD, and VGA, the difference being the W5 has an internal DVD burner, while the T5 has none
(both are 10.5 x 8.2 x 1/1.7-inches); finally, the 9 x 7.2 x 0.9/1.6-inch R5 features a 10.4-inch display and also
rocks the 1.06GHz Core Solo U1300, as well as 802.11a/b/g and a supposed 11-hour battery life. Coming soon to an
importer near you for way, way too much money.

In what would appear to be a global release, though it's unclear from the machine translation, Panasonic just announced that they will be shipping their LF-MB121JD Blu-ray Disc drive for PCs (not to be confused with their DMP-BD10 player expected in September) starting 10 June with support for 13 BD/DVD/CD formats. The drive delivers on both 25GB and dual-layer 50GB Blu-ray Discs allowing you to write at 2x (72Mbps) speeds to both BD-R/RE formats via a suite of bundled software. It also features 8x write speeds to both DVD±R and DVD RW, 4x to DVD±R DL, 6x to DVD-RW, 5x to DVD-RAM, 24x to CD-R and 16x to CD-RW. Pretty much the same unit (and may well be) as the BenQ BW1000 but superior to both the Samsung SH-B022 which can read but not write to DVD/CD formats and the Pioneer BDR-101A which, oddly, doesn't support CDs at all. Panasonic also announced their 25GB and 50GB 2x discs which will hit the shelves starting April 28 just in time to prime the pump a bit.

[Via Newlaunches]

PC Magazine just laid-out a postivie review on Panasonic’s Lumix DMC-FZ7 six megapixel superzoom shooter. The reviewer fawned over the “excellent image” produced by this “very inexpensive” cam's “outstanding” VARIO-ELMARIT 12x optical zoom lens steadied by Panny’s MEGA Optical image stabilizer. The ability to shoot 640 x 480, 30fps video in both bright and low light with "little noise" was found to be “above average” -- especially in this price range. Yeah, there was some noticeable shutter lag and the non-articulating 2.5-inch LCD solarised when viewed from a sharp angle. Still, that didn’t stop PC Mag from slapping an Editor’s Choice, 4/5 rating on this $400ish cam when all was said and done.

href="http://www2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/prModelDetail?storeId=11301&catalogId=13251&itemId=97264&modelNo=Content04172006034156146&surfModel=Content04172006034156146"> vspace="4" hspace="4" border="1" src="http://www.engadget.com/media/2006/04/103_1.jpg" alt="" />

You know that
103-inch,
ain’t ever going to go on sale, plasma TV Panasonic’s been lugging around the trade show circuit? Well, start
pinchin’ those pennies son, cause Panny is putting them on sale in time for the holidays. This 7.5 x 4.2-foot (8.5-foot
diagonal) plasma goes 16:9 and throws up a 1920 x 1080 resolution, 3000:1 contrast ratio and features Panasonic’s 1080p
HD high-speed pixel drive we’ve already seen in their href="http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/26/panasonics-viera-th-65px500-sub-9k-65-inch-plasma/">65-incher. The
perfect, er, accessory for their href="http://www.engadget.com/2006/04/12/panasonic-shows-off-dmp-bd10-blu-ray-player-final-design/">DMP-BD10 Blu-ray
player, no doubt. Sorry, no pricing announced — but if you gotta ask, href="http://www.engadget.com/2006/04/06/lg-brings-their-71-inch-plasma-to-the-us/">you can’t afford it.
/>[Via New
Launches]

Panasonic has bumped up the power of its Oxyride batteries, claiming the new version is 120% more efficient than the original model. And to prove it, Panny has decided to launch an airplane powered by 100 AA Oxyride batteries (you might recall that the original Oxyride was heralded by a battery-powered ultralight vehicle). No word on how far the plane will be able to go powered on those AAs -- or whether Panny's actually managed to recruit anyone to fly the thing (though we hear Richard Branson is game). We assume that, after this stunt, Panny will roll out next year's upgrade with an Oxyride-powered space shuttle, and follow that one with a battery-powered lunar colony. Maybe after that, they'll consider something really dramatic, like beating disposable lithiums or rechargeable NiMHs in a digicam.

Samsung ain't the only company out with a cheap up-scaler now: ladies and gentlemen, say hello to Panasonic's DVDS52, the other high definition DVD up-scaler with HDMI-out and a $100 price tag. We've yet to vouch for the quality of the picture (perhaps because it's not out yet, so far as we can tell) or even get some firm details on this puppy, but as long as you're waiting for your Blu-ray or HD DVD player, you may as well at least be watching video on that HDTV the right way (and the cheap way, which itself is sometimes the right way).

Finalized versions of Blu-ray hardware have been popping up all over the place lately, with Panasonic revealing the simple design of its DMP-BD10 player earlier this week, and now BenQ's BW1000 three-in-one burner shows up in both internal and external flavors, courtesy of AVING. In case you hadn't heard, the BW1000, or "Trio" (please don't sue, Palm, we promise we won't get confused), can read from/write to 25GB and 50GB Blu-ray discs, both DVD R and DVD-R (including dual-layer), and of course, the reliable old CD. Write speeds for BD-R and BD-RE discs are a bit pokey at 2x (but hey, what do you expect from new tech?), with DVDs clocking in at 12x (4x for DL, 8x/6x for DVD /-RW), and CDs burning at a zippy 32x (24x for CD-RWs). Nothing new as far as pricing or availability goes, so just enjoy the pics, m'kay?

I4U got their hands on photos of what Panasonic is claiming to be the final design of their first consumer Blu-ray player, the DMP-BD10, pictured here with the company's SA-XR700 receiver. As you can see, Panny has dropped most of the external controls we saw on their prototype at CES, and implemented a cleaner look that more closely matches the design of their other home theater products. Unfortunately no new info is available concerning pricing, but hopefully we'll be able to nail down a MSRP a little less vague than "under $1,500" well in advance of this product's scheduled September release.

The big-company's-little-camera-division-that-could has been doing it over and over for years now, and CNET Asia caught a preview of their new DMC-TZ1, the smallest 10x optical digital camera around. They seemed to find the 5 megapixel shooter's OIS and pixel binned 1600 ISO to be decent  (despite the expected exaggerated noise at higher ISOs, of course), and its travel functions useful -- though its unique folded optics design seemed to impair zoom-in time, and the TZ1's removable lens cap raised an eyebrow or two. CNET still seemed to find it "very good," though, so being that it's a straight up point and shoot, if you're cool going without manual camera functions this thing might just be in your future.

[Via DP Blog]

The Panasonic-Leica cross-branding continues with the C-LUX 1, the venerable camera maker's latest licensed shooter. It's not at all different from Panasonic's 6 megapixel DMC-FX01 (besides the branding, of course), which is probably a good thing, since the FX01's a hot little number. If you didn't catch it the first time around, expect optical image stabilization, the latest Venus image processor, 3.6x optical zoom, and the signature super-simple Panasonic interface.

[Via Photography Blog]