Panasonic to include trackpad remotes with top-end TVs

App alternative for smartphone owners

Panasonic was keen to tout its updated smartphone remote control for its new Viera TVs at its annual European Convention today but it was its touchpad-equipped remote units that caught our eye.

The app - for Android and iDevices - offers the usual telly manipulation features, but there's one trick not seen on similar apps from Sony, Samsung and co: making content appear to move from one gadget to another.

The app, says Panasonic, lets you screen photos, videos, music and websites stored on the phone on the TV "with a swipe". Tap the item on the phone, drag the small thumbnail that appears up to the slot graphic at the top of the screen, and after a second or so the content appears on the telly.

Likewise content on Panasonic's DVR-integrated TVs can be swiped across to other devices. Ditto the feed from the telly's tuner.

The app also lets you control games running on Panasonic's IPTV platform.

Don't want to hand over your smartphone or tablet to other family members? The pebble-shaped Touch Pad Remote comes close. It features a large round trackpad so you can thumb your way around menus rather than hit buttons for specific menus, though it has keys for Panasonic's VieraConnect menu, changing the channel and adjusting the volume.

It'll be included as standard with the company's 2012 "flagship" models, Panasonic said.

Point and click

There's a larger model in the works that will accompany Panasonic's range-topping Blu-ray boxes too. ®

A bigger version for Blu-ray players