Tokyo Gas and Panasonic launched newly improved “Ene-Farm” Home fuel cell

Tokyo Gas and Panasonic is jointly going to launch their newly improved “Ene-Farm” Home Fuel Cell which offers better fuel efficiency and comes at a more affordable price.

The “Ene-Farm” is a compound word derived from “Energy” and “Farm.” It is a fuel cell-co generation system that generates electricity via a “chemical reaction between the Oxygen in the atmosphere and the hydrogen extracted from city gas.” Heat is generated through the chemical reaction that can be used to heat homes and waters. The “Ene-farm” is a highly eco-friendly product and there is no energy loss for the heat is used and generated at the same place. Japancorp.net reports:

The new "Ene-Farm" fuel cell offers a rated generation efficiency of 40% (LHV), representing a further improvement on the existing range of products with over 37% (LHV) efficiency, the highest in the world to date. The system configuration of "fuel cell unit" has been greatly simplified and the core components such as the "stacks" which generate electricity have been significantly downsized.”

The new “Ene-Farm” fuel cell comes at 2,761,500 yen including tax. Compared to the current models, it is 700,000 yen cheaper. The new “Ene-Farm” fuel cell will be launched on April 1, 2011.

The first “Ene-Farm” products had been launched in May 2009. To date, Panasonic shipped a total of 5,000 units in Japan. Panasonic is also planning to set up a new production system to expand its annual production capacity.

LodgeNet Interactive Corporation joins with LG, Philips and Panasonic

LodgeNet Interactive Corporation (NASDAQ:LNET), a leading media and connectivity solutions provider in the USA, has joined with LG Electronics, Philips and Panasonic for providing a more HDTV solution for hoteliers. Under the partnership, the above mentioned companies will provide HDTV with “plug-and-play” system designed by LodgeNet. This will lower hotel owner’s total solution cost, enable faster room openings, shorten the time of rooms out of service, and enhance total system performance. Trading Markets.com reports:

LodgeNet explained that HD Built-In TVs come "out of the box" with the ability to support Pro:Idiom encrypted HD free-to-guest (FTG) and video on demand (VOD), and are compatible with LodgeNet and/or legacy OnCommand systems so hoteliers do not need to purchase any additional hardware or software. This approach to HD means that hoteliers won't need to make additional room visits to install FTG or VOD interface hardware, and they can be confident of full system compatibility from day one. These integrated TVs can reduce a hotelier's total solution cost by eliminating additional room visits for installation and reducing the hardware requirements from FTG and VOD service providers.

With these new plug-and-play television sets, hotel owners will be able to generate more income from new construction properties by opening new rooms faster and reduce the revenue loss from properties undergoing renovations or a brand refresh. Scott C. Peterson, President and CEO of LodgeNet said that working with these world-class manufacturers to offer the HD Built-In and HD Certified TV program was a win in every way for their hotel customers.

LodgeNet Interactive Corporation provides its media and connectivity solutions to hospitality, healthcare and other guest-based businesses.

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Sharp Corporation will start selling world's largest LCD display

Famous Japanese electronics company, Sharp Corporation (TYO:6753), announced that it is going to start shipping the world’s largest LCD display from next month. The 108-inch display would cost roughly 11million yen and would be made to sell to various business organizations. Next year, another Japanese company, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co (TYO:6752), is planning to sell its 150 inch plasma display for billboards. Network World.com reports:

Sharp has begun offering a monitor based on the 108-inch LCD panel that it first unveiled over a year ago. The panel, which is the largest yet to be shown by any LCD maker, was first unveiled in January 2007 at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and promised for later in the year but was delayed. Now it's available to customers worldwide, built-to-order, for ¥11 million (US$102,000).

The Full HD (1,920 pixels by 1,080 pixels) monitor comes with a wide array of input sockets. There's analog RGB and DVI computer inputs, 3 HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) inputs, two composite video inputs, two sets of component video inputs and one S-Video input. The entire set weighs an impressive 195 kilograms and consumes 1.1 kilowatts (kW) when in use.

Weak demand for big televisions has hurt major manufacturers like Hitachi Ltd, Pioneer Corporation (TYO: 6773), and Sharp Corporation. Hitachi and Pioneer incurred losses on their TV operations. Initially, Sharp had plans to focus on larger displays but it shifted switched to 40 inch and smaller displays in the middle of 2007.

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Cashing on the Olympic craze, Panasonic releases DMR-BW500 Blu-Ray Disc Recorder

Olympic Games is going to be the biggest excuse for game lovers to buy latest model TV and a host of other gadgets. Thinking about the Olympic Games, famous Japanese Electronics brand, Panasonic, has launched Panasonic DMR-BW500, the stand-alone Blu-Ray Disc Recorder. It is the first stand-alone Blu-Ray Disc Recorder to be launched outside Japan. Last month, the product has been launched in Australia. There it would cost around AU$2,199, or more than £1,000.

Here are some of the major features of this nice piece of gadget:

• The Panasonic DMR-BW500 can record upto 72 hours.
• The Panasonic DMR-BW500 comes with a built in 500GB Hard Disk Drive (HDD).
• The Panasonic DMR-BW500 can record 5.1-channel Dolby Digital surround sound broadcasts.
• In the Panasonic DMR-BW500, you can play Blu-ray movies at 24 frames per second.
• The Panasonic DMR-BW500 comes with a twin DVB-T High Definition (HD) tuner.
• The Panasonic DMR-BW500 comes with a remote control. gizmag says:

Panasonic's intelligent VIERA Link offers single-remote control of Panasonic AV devices via HDMI and streamlining operation with features such as Pause Live TV, Direct TV Record and Auto Preset Download. The unit also features HDMI V.1.3, Deep Colour, DVB-T adaptive noise reduction, silence technology, 1080p Up-Conversion with HDMI and 7.1-channel surround sound of BD movies. It also supports the 'Bonus View' (formerly Final Standard Profile) Blu-ray standard and bitstream output of Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD, DTS-HD Master Audio and on-board decoding of Dolby Digital and DTS.

• One of the major weaknesses of the Panasonic DMR-BW500 is that it does not have any Ethernet port.
• The Panasonic DMR-BW500 comes with a SD card slot.gizmag says:

The Blu-ray Recorder's SD Card slot lets users with a Full High Definition SD (Secure Digital) Memory Card camcorder simply insert the SD card to play AVCHD home movies and then record to Blu-ray Disc, HDD or DVD without a PC. The SD Card slot can also play still JPEG images as a slide show on a TV while the USB terminal allows playback or archiving of JPEG and MP3 files directly from a USB storage device. Fast dubbing allows the unit to transfer a one-hour recording from the HDD to a Blu-ray Disc in as little as 15 minutes and backwards compatibility with DVDs and CDs as well as supporting recording and playback of BD-R/-R DL, BD-RE/-RE DL, DVD-RAM, DVD-R, DVD-R DL, DVD-RW, +R, +R DL and -RW discs means just about all bases are covered in the compatibility stakes.

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Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. takes the top position in global LCD market

According to the report of market research firm Display Search, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (SEO: 005930) is the current LCD market leader. The South Korean multinational giant took up 22.1% of the global LCD market by revenue shares in the first three months of 2008. Japan’s Sony Corporation (TYO:6758) and its major domestic rival Sharp Corporation (TYO:6753) took the second and third position by gaining 18.1% and 10.1% over the same period. Samsung has also remained the top global brand for the ninth straight quarter in terms of revenue, maintaining a 39% year-on-year growth. Korea Times reports:

By shipments, the company ranked top, while Sony was No. 2 on a revenue basis for the third straight quarter, declining to about 13.2 percent revenue share after a strong fourth-quarter performance. LG Electronics remained the third-largest player, leveraging a No. 2 unit share position to offset lower than average selling prices (ASPs). ASP is a key measurement to gauge profitability.

LCD TV’s continue to post the strongest growth, rising 45 percent year-on-year to 21.1 million units, though this was the weakest quarter of growth to date.

On the other hand, Japanese company, Panasonic, took over the top position in global Plasma television market. The company had the top Plasma Display Panel (PDP) revenue share of 33.7%; followed by Samsung at 22.7% and LG 16.4%. Samsung’s PDP sales rose 20% to nearly 2.8 million units most of which comprised of 32 inch models.

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Panasonic is shifting production from the USA to Asia

Because of the economic slowdown in the USA, Panasonic is closing its plant at Berea in Richmond, Virginia and shifting to Asia. This will result into job loss of 51 employees in the Panasonic Berea plant. On Thursday, the employees learned that their employment will be terminated on September 30. The Berea plant of Panasonic opened in 1996. It makes motors for small household appliances such as vacuum cleaner, computer ventilating systems and so on. During its peak period, the company used to employ 300 people. Richmond Register reports:

Tom McCay, Berea’s economic development director, said the city had been informed of the closing, but had been asked to referred all inquiries to Panasonic’s corporate office.

The closure will mean a monthly loss of approximately $3,000 from the Berea’s payroll tax, according to city Finance Director Carol Richmond.

In 2007, the city council raised the property tax rate from 3 to 10 cents per $100 of evaluation and levied a 3 percent tax on restaurant receipts and a 6 percent tax on most insurance premiums, except health insurance.

Panasonic has another plant in Danville which will remain opened.

Berea is just another tragic story of the USA economic slowdown. Because of the economic slow down job losses are increasing day by day in the USA. In the last five months including May, the rate of job loss has risen to 5.5%, the highest in the last three years.

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