Nintendo is going pink new standalone option for that special loved ones this Valentine's Day. Starting Feb. 10, a Pearl Pink edition of the Nintendo 3DS™ hand-held system - previously available only as part of a limited-edition bundle - will be available at a retail price of $169.99. In addition to free Wi-Fi access at thousands of locations across the nation, fun augmented-reality features and the ability to enjoy games and videos in 3D without the need for special glasses, Nintendo 3DS has a host of built-in social features that can keep users connected to their special someone throughout the year.

The new Swapnote™ application, which is available for download from the Nintendo eShop at no cost, lets users create and send customized 3D notes to their sweethearts from their Nintendo 3DS.

The Nintendo Pearl Pink bundle version offers the adorable virtual pets nintendogs™ + cats game to make this an even sweeter deal this Valentine's Day.

Just make sure your loved one is into high-tech games as a gift. In the past I have learned the hard way it is not always the case! :-)

Larry Pacey, award-winning designer tracks the latest news on consumer products, electronics, appliances, smart devices, networking and the gadget lifestyle.

For the latest news follow me on: ------------------------------ OR ------------------------------- Follow me on Twitter @WouldntMindThis Please comment below and share your thoughts. If you have any feedback or questions, feel free to email me at wouldntmind@gmail.com. Just my 2-cents, Larry

Panasonic spent a great deal of time talking about their infrastructure and technology projects that span well beyond our focus of consumer products. But there were several key product discussed that are very interesting.

The year of 3D Content
Panasonic highlighted the importance of 3D and the rapid adoption of 3D televisions. While all manufactures are pointing out that people are transitioning to 3D faster than they did High-Def...don't let a good story get in the way...the truth is the manufacturers are more rapidly offering the 3D on a greater percentage of the pricing chain. Especially since they are looking for selling propositions to drive TV sales in a flat segment of the marketplace and in the introduction of some low price competitors namely Vizio.

The other area of import for all the 3D television manufacturers is the lack of content. This is an area that all manufactures are getting out of the shells and trying to partner or drive additional channels of 3D content.

90% of Panasonic's plasma televisions. 40% of their LCDs and 4 out of 6 BluRay players will feature 3D capabilities.

3D was clearly the focus and Panasonic demonstrated their HDC-Z10000 3D camcorder that will retail for over $3,000! But that product is really geared for the up and coming film makers that I am sure you all will become. The exciting first's is that this camcorder is Broadcast quality and has a very short focal range for offering 3D. You can focus on objects only 18 inches in front of the 3D lenses.

Home Theater
Already talked about the importance of 3D for Panasonic but let's look at the televisions...
In 2012, Panasonic will continue to push plasma technology with three product lines; GT, VT and ST. They will have two product lines of LCD televisions; WT and DT. More specific details as we can checkout the booth tomorrow.

The big news in the television line-up is the evolution of Panasonic's internet connected services that includes Skype functionality and some exclusive applications including Flixter, a new interactive children's book series in partnership with Disney and a Miramax movie app. The televisions appear to be gaining enough processing power to finally multitask some of the apps in concern with your TV viewing.

On top of that, the team from the original social network, MySpace announced a social platform on Panasonic televisions called MySpaceTV that allows you to dialog and share content with your friends on and off the television. Imagine chatting with your friends while watching your favorite show or sporting event. Or the ability to track what shows are more popular to your friends.


Tablets
Panasonic is taking their Toughbook rugged notebook strategy and applying it to the tablet marketplace with a Toughbook Android Tablet. It is so tough, they actually dropped it during the demo today and it really looked like it was unplanned.

We'll definitely get more details at the show and will update as more information becomes available.

84" 3D display at the LG CES 2012 Press Conference (as seen through the glasses)

LG opens up the first presentation of CES 2012, Wayne Park President and CEO of LG Electronics USA walks the packed crowd of press and analysts through the past year and introduces a wave of presenters to cover all through all the product categories. One business note worth mentioning is that LG USA grew 8% last year even in this challenging economy.

Home Entertainment

LG is focused on larger display sizes this coming year including 55, 60, 72 and 84 inch varieties. The 84"  includes an Ultra Definition with is equal to 4 x 42" high-definition televisions.

Core to much of LG's television line relies on a Nano Full LED (every pixel has its own small LED light source) and Cinema Screen design that enables these displays to approach nearly edge-to-edge display. 2012 models have a 1mm bezel and 28mm depth.

In an effort to push the capabilities beyond traditional internet/smart televisions, LG has developed their own high-performance L9 chipset that features a multi-core CPU/GPU (the brain and graphics technologies) to enable faster innovation on their solutions.

Magic Remote introduced last year has been highly successful and this year the new models go beyond just pointing by adding a wheel, pattern gesture (moving the wand around like a Nintendo Wii remote) and voice recognition for text input capabilities. And with an additional camera technology similar to the Microsoft Kinect, LG TVs will have an additional 3D Gesture Interface your body movements will control aspects of the user experience.

LG has also advanced their Smart Share Plus network technology inside of their home entertainment products by including a network file browser, wi-fi screen share for mobile devices, 2nd display configurations, MHL Mobile HD Link between devices and support for WiDi from Intel that allows WiDi-enabled laptops to share their content wireless on the TV.

With regards to 3D capabilities, LG was pretty much the lone voice last year talking about passive 3D glasses versus the active glasses. Passive glasses are similar to those you get when you go to a 3D movie at the theaters. Active glasses run on batteries and had a very fast flicker shutter that controlled the 3D affect. The passive glasses are lighter, don't require charging and are far more inexpensive. LG's predictions have proven correct and consumer trends are moving toward the passive solutions.

LG also announced their support for Google TV and in 2012 there will be two televisions that support those capabilities.


We also received a preview of future technologies with a look at the largest OLED at the show. LG's 55 inch creates stunning imagery and is a peek at where the world is going in the coming few years.


LG has demoed a glasses-free 3D display for personal experiences on smaller devices. This is definitely an area that many are pursuing to remove the glasses from the equation as some point once that technology evolves over the next decade.

You can read more about CES and Future product trends at WouldntMind.com.

LG is the latest to join the GoogleTV camp and has released some images of their new televisions that feature a slightly tweaked user interface. The LG televisions according the their release will include the Cinema 3D FPR technology (3D glasses similar to those you experience at the movie theater) and a "Magic Remote QWERTY" which uses voice and a Nintendo Wii-like wand to control the system. And the reference of QWERTY means the remote will also feature a keyboard that is so critical for controlling the GoogleTV interface.


Sony and Vizio have also confirmed they will be demonstrating new offerings that support the Google teams latest efforts.

Below is Google's CES 2012 demo video...