Toshiba

LAS VEGAS--"Disappointed" probably isn't a strong enough word to describe when a major focus of your business plan and the highlight of your Consumer Electronics Show pitch is derailed two days before by one of your former partners.

As the most prominent backer of the HD DVD high-definition video format, Toshiba's press conference at CES this morning drew a lot of interest among the tech press, mostly out of morbid curiosity. What could it say after Warner Bros. announced Friday it would exclusively back rival Blu-ray, after the studio had played it neutral up until … Read more

Do you remember earlier this week when I told you that step one of ending the high-def format war relied on Sony's ability to get Warner on its side? Luckily for us, it happened (and yes, I'll take the credit for it).

Is this the most significant development of the entire high-def format war? Sure. But now that we know Warner is backing Sony, I can't imagine Toshiba is feeling good about itself. Not only did it cancel the big HD DVD party here at CES, but we have yet to hear any true official response. If you ask me, the company is in crisis mode right now and desperately trying to justify itself to Paramount.

And while all this is going on, I can't help but not care.… Read more

How many times over the past few months have you heard that "the worst is over" and the chances of the high-def format war finally coming to a close were increasing by the day? If you haven't heard it at least once, you're probably not reading the right stories.

But with all that going on, the war is officially a quagmire for both sides and the chances of getting out of this quickly are diminishing at an astounding rate. Consider this: as it stands, the Blu-ray camp commands roughly 49 percent DVD market share, while HD DVD is trailing slightly behind. To make matters worse, some reports suggest HD DVD may be gaining strength, although most buyers are sitting out.

So what's really going on with this war? Is there an end in sight? Even better, is there a solution in sight that can finally put this to rest? If you ask me, I think this could be over in a month if the Blu-ray camp follows three steps.… Read more

I enjoy reading the personal blogs of Scott Adams (the creator of Dilbert) and John Dvorak (PC Magazine columnist and host of Cranky Geeks), but I don't expect to learn anything there. The entertainment is value enough.

Today, however, I was surprised to see these two gentlemen linking to the same story on Next Energy News covering Toshiba's announcement of a "200 kilowatt" nuclear reactor only "20 feet by 6 feet" in size. Such a reactor could be installed in a garage-sized building and shared among the houses on just one residential block, the … Read more

Rambus, the memory specialist that a lot of people seem to hate, has inked a deal with Toshiba that will let the Japanese giant put XDR memory into its HD TVs.

XDR memory can pass data at 4.8 gigabits per second, which in turn will lead to faster image processing, according to Toshiba. Texas Instruments has also signed licenses to put XDR into projectors containing its DLP chips.

Sony also uses XDR memory in its PlayStation3.

Rambus doesn't manufacture memory. Instead, it designs memory interfaces that allow data to flow faster. Back in the 90s, Intel selected a … Read more

We'll spare you the laptop-themed version of The Night Before Christmas and say that little has changed since last week: the pre-Christmas, pre-CES, pre-MacWorld world is a silent world indeed. And, this being the last weekly roundup of 2007 (even tireless tech reporters take a break now and then), we're delivering the week's news in a theme-based lightning round.

Tiny laptops: The XO laptop gives a 9-year-old unexpected powers; CNET blogger Dave Rosenberg offered his thoughts on his brand-new Eee PC; and Eee PC owners can change operating systems, either just-released eeeXubuntu or the painstakingly hacked Windows Vista. … Read more

With so many variations of digital photo frames on the U.S. market, it's small wonder that Toshiba is peddling its version in Europe. Even giant bi-pedal lizards are horning in on the act here.

Against all that competition, Toshiba's "Tekbright" doesn't seem terribly impressive on paper. It does have a tiny bit of built-in memory (64MB) and can play MP3s, but it's got only a 7-inch screen--which isn't saying much in this day of 15-inch high-resolution displays--and at 129 euros (about $189), it's hardly a bargain. But we do like … Read more

Today, Toshiba announced an 80GB hard drive for automotive applications, doubling the capacity of current automotive hard drive offerings. Over the last year, we've seen an increasing number of cars with hard drive-based navigation and music servers, but the capacity topped out at 40GB, in the 2008 Cadillac CTS. An 80GB internal drive would likely reserve 10GB for map storage, leaving 70GB for music, video, and photos. The new 80GB automotive drive is 2.5 inches, similar in size to a laptop hard drive. Laptops have had drives well in excess of 100GB for some time now, but automotive … Read more

I used to cringe when folks asked me to recommend a laptop that cost less than $1,000. Granted, there have been laptops at that price for a few years now, but they were generally chunky cases stocked with generations-old components and low-resolution screens--not exactly anything I'd feel good about recommending for use as a primary computer.

Imagine my surprise when computer manufacturers responded to my call for $1,000 laptops with some downright Crave-worthy systems. I expected to receive only 15.4-inch systems, because the larger case provides more room for engineers to work and keeps costs down; but I also found two 14.1-inch systems that didn't break our budget. I expected to receive cases stocked with previous-generation Pentium or Celeron CPUs; on the contrary, all but one of our review units included current-generation processors, graphics, and chipsets. I expected the cases to be leftovers from last year's crop of new laptops; instead, many in our roundup share the same case design as their more-expensive brethren.

One area where my expectations were met: performance. None of the laptops in this roundup sped through our performance benchmarks. But if I'm buying a $1,000 laptop, I'm not expecting to use it for gaming or video editing.

In the end, we were able to round up sub-$1,000 configurations from Fujitsu, Gateway, Lenovo, Sony, and Toshiba. Which ones did I like best? The answer is after the break.… Read more