Tokyo - Japanese electronics giant Matsushita (NYSE: MC) announced on Thursday that it will change its official company name to Panasonic, the brand name its products are known by in the U.S. and elsewhere outside of Japan. The company had been using the Matsushita name -- after founder Konosuke Matsushita -- since 1935. All Matsushita products, including those sold under the National brand in Japan, will be labeled Panasonic by the end of 2010.

Las Vegas - Consumer electronics firm Panasonic said on Tuesday that its new VIERA line of Internet-connected plasma televisions will come equipped with integrated access to Google's Picasa Web Albums online photo-sharing service, as well as videos from YouTube. The first generation of the devices is slated to ship in the spring.

Las Vegas - Comcast (NASD: CMCSA), the nation's largest cable TV provider, announced on Monday that it has partnered with electronics maker Panasonic, part of Japan's Matsushita (NYSE: MC), to develop a portable digital video recorder (DVR) and DVD player that can record programming from both Comcast and other cable TV providers. The AnyPlay device sports an 8.5-inch display, features 60 hours of recording capacity, and is currently slated for release in early 2009.

Burbank, Calif. - The Walt Disney Studios said this week that it has partnered with Panasonic on "Disney's Magical Blu-ray Tour," a promotion for the next-generation DVD format that will bring interactive kiosks to 18 U.S. shopping malls between August and December. Consumers will be able to view HD editions of Disney and Pixar films, as well as demo interactive games included on Blu-ray discs.

Secaucus, N.J. - Japan's Matsushita (Panasonic) announced on Friday that its North American subsidiary will establish a Panasonic Hollywood Blu-ray Testing Center. "Until now there has been no testing service available for content verification before disc replication although many in the motion picture industry expressed the need for a testing center to provide such services, especially in the Hollywood area," the company said. The center will offer content providers and authoring studios services including format verification service for the logical format of Blu-ray discs; playback testing service; and rental site service for format verification and playback testing.

Newbury, England - A group of big names in the wireless industry, including Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo and Vodafone, have come together to form the LiMo Foundation, a non-profit that will work to jointly develop a Linux-based mobile platform.