Panasonic is opening an app 
store – and launching a tablet.
The company announced plans Wednesday to transform its VieraCast service, which embedded a limited number of apps on select HDTVs, into Viera Connect – a market that will welcome apps from a larger pool of developers.
Panasonic is getting its game on. The electronics giant
has struck a deal with Oberon Media to carry that company’s I-play TV in all 2011 Vierra Connect HDTVs.
It’s a big opportunity for the casual gaming service, which is also announcing today that it has locked up the Smart TV rights to “Tetris”. New Internet-enabled sets from one of the industry’s leading manufacturers will now feature its top franchises, which also include “Dream Day Wedding” and “Bubble Town” – along with casual standards such as “Solitaire” and “Texas Hold’em”.
It’s press conference day here 
at CES. That means the news floodgates are about to open big time.
Pretty much every major consumer electronics manufacturer attending the show has their moment in the spotlight Wedensday, with some 15 press conferences scheduled – including the evening’s keynote by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
[In a light-hearted post-Christmas countdown, Gamasutra 
editor-at-large Chris Morris examines the unexpected moments of 2010 in gaming, from Justice Kagan on Mortal Kombat to Panasonic’s Jungle.]
Talk about a topsy-turvy year. The video game industry has weathered its share of good and bad in 2010, but what made things really interesting were the completely unexpected moments – things we could never have predicted, no matter how many clues we were given.
From THQ’s decision to launch an experimental pricing strategythat could lob $20 off the price of games if it’s successful, to the return of a circus-like E3 environment (topped by Activision’s Lollapalooza-like concert), there were plenty of shocking moments in 2010.
The trickle of pre-CES news has been 
fairly dull stuff so far, but Panasonic has taken things up a level with an announcement out of Japan this morning.
The company plans to introduce a new line of Viera TV sets that will allow users to record HD television programming directly onto an SD, SDHD or SDXC memory card (the same kinds found in most digital cameras).
Seventeen years ago, Panasonic tried to 
break into the video game industry, lasting only three years before it was forced out. Now it’s ready to try again.
The company has unveiled the Jungle, a new handheld gaming system that will target players of online games. It’s a niche other companies have left wide open, but analysts—to put it kindly—are extremely skeptical about the company’s odds of success.
[In his latest opinion piece, Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris tackles the just-announced Panasonic Jungle, asking some tough questions about the surprise MMO-focused handheld system launch.]
There’s a line between brave and foolish – and earlier this week, Panasonic vaulted over it like an Olympic long jumper.
The Jungle, the electronics company’s upcoming handheld gaming system, was unveiled Tuesday – and immediately met with a combination of skepticism, confusion and indifference.
Panasonic has been one of the biggest (and loudest) 
supporters of the 3D TV market. Now it’s ratcheting things up a bit more.
The company has introduced another pair of 3D sets – the first by Panny to offer 2D to 3D conversion, which substantially increases the library of content. (It also brings the company in parallel with Sony and Samsung, which offer the technology.)
Chris Morris: Journalist 