You gotta love automatic updates the bring new features to Blu-ray players. Panasonic is pushing out new firmware for its ‘09 Blu-ray lineup that adds Amazon on Demand to the already impressive extras of YouTube, Picasa, Bloomberg, and weather info. Oh, and that little portable Blu-ray player (BD15) also gains this ability along with the DMP-BD60, BD70V, and BD80. So once these players are graced with the update sometime today, users will have access to 45,000 SD titles and 1,000 HD titles. What’s there not to love?

Three new cameras from Panasonic inbound.

Finally, someone besides Samsung is claiming a world’s first. Claiming the hat today is Panasonic with the Lumix ZR1 digital camera. The latest Lumix features a 0.3mm thin ashperical lens, which is a world’s first. Other notable features include a 25mm ultra-wide-angle, 8x optical zoom Leica DC Vario-Elmar lens and a start-up time of 1.1 seconds. The ZR1 will be available in September for $280 in black, blue, silver and red.

Panasonic sure knows how to market their stuff. First the company made its cute Evolta robot hoist itself up a 500 meter-cliff at Grand Canyon last year to show off the power of the Evolta batteries. Now the little guy (Mr. Evolta) turned into a tricycling robot and is ready to take on [JP] the famous Le Mans 24 Hours circuit in France.

Panasonic approached us a few weeks ago offering a Toughbook CF-30 to test in any way we saw fit. Rather than a lot of fancy lab tested, we decided to run over the laptop with a Toyota RAV4.

The laptop, surprisingly, survived almost unscathed.

These laptops are huge. The model we received is built like a tank. All of the ports are protected by waterproof flaps and the case itself locks with an affirming click when you slap it shut. This is a touchscreen model and comes with a small pen but also works with a tap of your finger.

Spec-wise, you get a 10.6 megapixel 3MOS sensor, 12x optical zoom, an improved image stabilizer, SDHC support (up to 32GB), an HDMI port, a USB port, VIERA link and a 2.7-inch LCD. You can even store up to 100 hours of video if you shoot it with 1440×1080 at 6Mbps.

Japan, the world’s second largest economy with the third biggest Internet population, and the many, many early adopters of technology inhabiting this nation could be heaven for the domestic cell phone industry. And it was for years, until sales started slowing dangerously (minus 30% last fiscal year), and the overall population is poised to shrink and age dramatically in the future.

These two developments made a handful of Japanese cell phone makers think about moving away from creating all those fancy Nippon-only phones they’ve been producing for years. Now NEC and Panasonic seem to be finally ready to export some models – as early as next fiscal year, according to Japan’s biggest business newspaper Nikkei.

Normally I’d be more up in arms about something like this — as far as I’m concerned, once I purchase a device I should be able to do whatever I want with it — but this is really more of a virtual recall than hardware DRM. It seems that Panasonic, worried that third-party batteries might prove troublesome in their cameras (wouldn’t be the first time), has created a battery authentication process to make sure your power source is approved. Nice of you to do so, Panasonic, but don’t you think a warning dialog would have accomplished the same thing?

Panasonic’s Toughbooks have legendary strength but I doubt any of us ever considered them tough enough to survive a white tiger or Asian elephant. I didn’t. The last “durable notebook” I tested failed with a 4 foot drop. But the Panasonic Toughbook that Forbes tested took a .22 bullet and still booted after being used as a chew toy. Impressive.

Even though LCD is clearly the dominant technology in the TV market, Panasonic still believes in the merits of plasma displays. The company currently showcases a new 85-inch monster plasma TV [JP] at the InfoComm in Orlando, Florida (the screen size is equal to that of four 42-inchers combined).

Now, the smart thing to do when faced with the prospect of a long aeroplane flight is to load up on Benadryl (or Ambien, if you have money and a cooperative doctor) right before boarding. That way you sleep for the duration of the flight—no having to worry about crying babies for you! But, for the sake of this here post, let’s say you want to, or have to, stay awake for a certain amount of time. You know who’s got your back in this instance? Panasonic, of all people, what with its “iPod merge” in-flight thingamabob

The evaluation of data transfer speed rates for SD/SDHC cards is determined by the so called “Speed Classes”, which were constituted by the SD Card Association (yes, there is an association for that). So far, the fastest SDHC cards reached speed class 6, meaning the producers guarantee data transfer rates of at least 6 MByte/s. But now Panasonic in Japan unveiled cards belonging to the speed class 10 category [JP].

Panasonic Japan has announced [JP] a new line of colorful and “jewel”-studded earphones specifically made for women. The so-called Moon Jewel earphones will be offered in 12 different colors, based on astrological signs.

How much would you guess the “world’s lightest” HD camcorders weighed? Two pounds? Nope. Try half a pound. Panasonic announced today that the HDC-SD10 and HDC-TM10 are coming to America.

Panasonic launched the VIERA R Series today in Japan [JP], consisting of a total of seven new plasma and LCD TVs. The first TVs of the series will be available over here starting July 1, with Panasonic not yet saying anything about sales in overseas markets.

Panasonic in Japan announced two new camcorders yesterday [JP], the HDC-TM350 with 64GB of internal memory and TM30 with a 32GB HDD. The company claims that with a weight of 227g, the TM30 is the lightest camcorder of its kind in the industry. The other device is the world’s largest capacity full HD camcorder. Not bad.

OLED TVs sure offer phenomenal picture quality, but even now, 2 years after Sony launched its XEL-1, we still wait for large-screen versions. Samsung showcased a 40-inch OLED display last year (pictured). Now Panasonic might be onto something bigger. The company is planning to develop the world’s first OEL panel that’s sized at “40 inches or larger” by fiscal 2010.

We already told you about pricing on the Lumix GH1 yesterday thanks to J&R, but it’s never official until the manufacturer says it is. Panasonic announced this morning that the GH1 will be available in the US for a “suggested retail price of $1499.95” and only in black. That is all.