What sits next to your TV these days? The cable/DVR box, DVD player, Xbox/PS3, or

maybe even an Apple TV? Well, it looks like there are too many “boxes” taking up your TV stand space and I ha ve to say Panasonic is coming out with a solution that might help your situation. Panasonic’s new Plasma TV series, TH-PZ850U, features their latest technology called, Viera Cast, which is an interface that includes a live access to YouTube and Picasa as well as widgets such as stock ticker (courtesy of Bloomberg) and a weather widget (provided by The Weather Channel).

For the YouTube feature, the user can actually search by keyword, sort videos by popularity, or access your own list of “favorites.” According to Panasonic, although the entire collection of YouTube videos are available through Viera Cast, it may take a day or two to view the new videos.  Secondly, this TV can access Google’s photo sharing site, Picasa and view digital photos stored at your Picasa account directly on the TV screen.  At this time, Panasonic did not confirm any additional features or partners on Viera Cast but the main menu interface does show “coming soon” sections for additional cool features!

The concept and the idea of Panasonic’s Viera Cast mirrors the idea of Apple TV but keep in mind that this is all within the TV!  The fact that this TV doesn’t need a PC but directly connects to Internet with an Ethernet jack, it is simply convenient and user-friendly.  Although, there are few things that compare to Apple TV, such as a hard-drive where you can store your own music or movies, I still believe Panasonic took a huge step to incorporate such technology in a TV.  This is only the beginning of the exciting new adventure that is Viera Cast. We’ll see whether this technology will blast off and start a new trend in  TV business, OR just a small bump and a failure…