Like many companies at the huge consumer technology and gadgets show in Las Vegas, Panasonic held a huge press conference earlier this week at CES 2018. From new TVs to getting into the smart car world they had some rather interesting announcements.

Panasonic: in-car Alexa partnership

Panasonic will be partnering with Amazon to produce in-car dashboard entertainment screens that will have smart digital assistants built in to assist you while on the road.

While some may question the wisdom of screens in the font seat, there’s a lot of smarts behind having Google or Alexa do stuff for you so you can keep your hands on the wheel and your eyes on the road: “Alexa, give me directions to the closest gas station,” or “Ok, Google play the National Talky League Podcast for me.”

New 4K camcorders are coming from Panasonic

Panasonic also announced two new consumer camcorders. The WF1 and VX1 are two video cameras that will be able to shoot in UHD/4K, and will be aimed squarely at consumers wanting the best video quality.

New Panasonic TVs & Blu-ray

Panasonic has also announced two new series of TVs. The FZ950 and FZ800 series will be 4K TVs with OLED panel. In addition, they will be compatible HDR 10 + to give you an even more vibrant and realistic colour display.

Check out the lineup of existing Panasonic TVs at Best Buy

In addition, Panasonic introduced 4K/Ultra HD Blu-ray players, which will also feature Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant integration.

A smart speaker with Google Assistant

Another product touched on at CES 2018 is the Panasonic GA10. This is a smart speaker made to have excellent audio quality plus it employs the Google Assistant. The smart speaker-digital assistant space is getting crowded, but it’s been missing high quality audio. Watch for more companies to create their own versions in the next couple of years.

If you’re an audiophile, watch, too, for new versions of Panasonic’s record players/turntables from the company’s high-end audio line, Technics — the SP-10R and SL-1000R.

Watch this space for all the biggest announcements from CES 2018. And don’t forget to check back on all these gadgets to see when they’ll be available for purchase at Best Buy.

Erin Lawrence
Editor TV and Home Theatre
Erin is a journalist, writer, and TV producer with a fascination for technology and a love of gadgets. Check out her blog TechGadgetsCanada.com