Panasonic said Friday it booked a loss of nearly US$10 billion for the fiscal year that ended March 31, the largest ever loss by a Japanese manufacturer according to local media.

Panasonic will broadcast live a solar eclipse next month over Japan from the top of Mount Fuji, using batteries that are charged at the base using solar power and then carried up to the peak.

A new wave of TVs this year will provide the option of using voice controls or hand gestures to navigate channels, change volumes or find the right content from broadcasts or the Internet. Samsung recently shipped new interactive TVs that not only recognize hand gestures, but also voice commands with the assistance of a "Smart Touch Remote" control. Lenovo hopes to go beyond voice and gesture recognition with a smart TV that is capable of quality gaming. Panasonic has already shipped some of its latest Viera TVs in the U.K. with Nuance Communications' Dragon TV platform, which allows users to speak out channel choices or Twitter updates.

Panasonic will launch a new line of rice cookers from June that can save recipes and settings online, using touch-card technology to sync with an Android phone running a special app.

Panasonic has revealed its first mobile handset for the international market since 2005, a sleek Android-powered smartphone that is dustproof and waterproof.

Whether they were big or small, LED or plasma, all the HDTVs on the CES 2011 show floor had one thing in common--they took the best that came out of last year, and added several slight, but significant, improvements.