toshiba

With a lineup of perfectly serviceable, but not exactly standout mainstream laptops, Toshiba's Satellite line has long played second-fiddle to the company's excellent Qosmio multimedia laptops.

Aiming to correct this, Toshiba today unveiled an entirely redesigned Satellite line, with what is being called a new "Horizon" pattern in a "Fusion" finish. Toshiba describes it as, "gray pinstripes set upon a field of black." We checked these out in person a few weeks ago, and they had a distinct metallic sheen, quite different from the current black-and-red flamed look.

The new models are … Read more

There's got to be a subliminal message of some sort coming out of Japan with the influx of robotic gizmos the country seems to be endlessly conceptualizing, not to mention giving them affectionate nicknames. Just name us any other country that's so obsessed with birthing mechanical substitutes.

The latest labor of love is one ApriPoko, an 11-inch-tall talking robot developed by the researchers at Toshiba as a voice-activated universal remote control. ApriPoko is still in embryo stage, so it's unlikely to debut in stores anytime soon. But its purpose in life has been coded into its genes. … Read more

Toshiba may not be the best-known manufacturer of mobile phones, but it certainly keeps things interesting. When it's not making Transformer wannabes, it's churning out peculiar combo devices with strange circular dial pads.

So it really should come as little surprise that its latest offering is anything but conventional either. The "Cosmic Shiner" is a luxury handset with diamond accents presented in a handmade lacquer box, but that's not the unusual aspect of this phone: "Buyers will be required to purchase the April issue of Seven Hills magazine to get the required unique ID … Read more

Small fries everywhere! A bunch of this week's news focused on tiny laptops of the Eee PC variety: the Intel Classmate PC will reportedly hit U.S. and European retailers; photos of a possible "netbook" surfaced on Flickr; and we saw an Eee PC competitor for the Taiwanese market (release date unknown). Meanwhile, the tiny tablet-smartphone hybrid, the HTC Shift, became available for pre-order on Amazon; we have one in hand and posted a full review today.

Phew! There's no indication of a slowdown, either, if reports of ultra-low-priced Intel Atom CPUs for netbooks are accurate. … Read more

Though already expecting losses from the failed HD DVD business, Toshiba's shareholders were told Wednesday to expect more bad news.

The Japanese electronics giant said the market for NAND flash memory (the kind of chips used in portable gadgets) was weak and expected to get worse, the Wall Street Journal reports.

"We now see prices falling 50 percent this fiscal year, after predicting 40 percent in October," said Executive Vice President Fumio Muraoka.

As a result, Toshiba lowered its expected profit for fiscal year 2007, which ends March 31, to 125 billion yen ($1.26 billion), from … Read more

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FCC Ends 700 MHz Auction http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9897722-7.html

Dell refutes solid state drive failure claims (Thanks Russ960!) http://www.cnet.com/8301-13924_1-9897828-64.html

Apple could split device sales with music labels http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9897871-7.html

Adobe CEO says Flash apps coming to iPhone http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9897861-1.html

The reality of the RDF: how Apple motivates us to creativity http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/ 20080319-brands-as-personality-why-apple-motivates-us-to-creativity.html

Toshiba losing money in HD DVD business http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080319/ ap_on_hi_te/japan_toshiba… Read more

You're likely shopping for a 17-inch laptop because you really need a desktop to run intensive graphics apps or Crysis, but you want a somewhat portable system you can lug to the couch, the dining room table, or occasionally to the office. Compared with your standard 15-inch laptop, the added screen real estate gives you a larger pallet with which to work in Photoshop and makes games and movies more immersive. The larger chassis also allows for more powerful components, from quad-core CPUs to dual graphics cards and hard drives.

Of the 17-inch desktop replacements we're reviewed in … Read more

Though the MacBook Air and ThinkPad X300 might be prettier and thinner, Toshiba's outdone them both in a crucial area.

Japan's Toshiba announced Monday that it had bumped the specs of its Dynabook SS RX to include a 128GB solid-state drive (SSD) as an option. That's twice the size of the Air and the X300, both of which come with a 64GB SSD. (Note: It's an option for the MacBook and standard on the ThinkPad.) So far, it appears it will be available only in Japan starting next month.

The 128GB SSD is an option, and … Read more

The demise of the HD DVD format has been bad news for both bargain hunters and at least one big-time technology company.

In the three short weeks since Toshiba announced that it was pulling the plug on the high-definition technology, prices for standalone players using the rival Blu-ray format have been headed north. In fact, as noted by PriceGrabber.com, Blu-ray prices are at their high point for the year, at an average of about $400 apiece for the devices. The Sony BDP-S300, for instance, was just a small mocha latte above that level, at $403 as of Wednesday.

Prices … Read more