Gadgetory

hey guys Sharon Vaknin from CNET here at the CES floor taking a first look at the Panasonic VT series classroom which is the successor to last year's VT 50 plasma but this year panasonic has upgraded it with better blacks you're also getting richer color and a faster driver so you're going to get a little snippy or graphics here it has three USB ports and three HDMI those USB ports can be used to connect a harddrive USB thumb drive and can also be accessed from Panasonic swipe and share application for Android and iOS so what you can do is actually swipe photos and videos from your phone or tablet directly to the TV and back the speakers are here on either side it is a 1 sheet of glass design but unlike the ZG series there is a slight gap between the glass and the panel like most of Panasonic's plasmas it does have 3d and comes with active glasses it also has a whole suite of apps from VIERA Connect like Pandora Netflix and Skype plus there's a Skype camera built into the TV that pops up with your remote this TV also comes with Panasonic's new remote control that includes voice interaction so you can actually tell your television to go to a channel or search for something on the web like most things at CES we don't yet have firm availability but Panasonic does say it will come out April or May at the latest we also don't have pricing but we are hoping it stays in the range of last year's BT series for cnet.com I'm Sharon Beck