toshiba

Toshiba has confirmed to CNET that it plans to make a glasses-free 3D TV available to buyers in the U.S. sometime during the first quarter of 2012.

The set would be the first of its kind for the North American market, although Toshiba already has 55-inch glasses-free 3D TVs available for sale in Germany (the 55LZ2) and Japan (the 55X3). Both went on sale in December and retail for more than $10,000 in their home currencies.

A Toshiba representative told CNET that the U.S. version would be similar to those versions, but he couldn't provide additional … Read more

Toshiba claims it is going to introduce the world's thinnest 10-inch tablet at the Consumer Electronics Show next week in Las Vegas.

The company's Japanese-language Web site says it's the thinnest and lightest 10.1-inch tablet in the world.

Though Toshiba's not revealing a model number, it's probably a good bet that the mystery tablet is one already available in Japan: the Regza AT700. Or the very similar Toshiba Excite, slated to appear in in the U.S. later this month.

And, yes, it is thin. All 7.7 mm of it. The iPad 2, by comparison, is 8.8 mm thick. At 558g, it's slightly less than the iPad's 613g. … Read more

Toshiba will introduce new USB 3.0 flash drives next week at the Consumer Electronics Show next week in Las Vegas, as products using the faster USB interface begin to trickle out.

"SuperSpeed" USB 3.0 is about 10 times faster than current USB technology and will become standard in virtually all laptops when Intel's Ivy Bridge silicon begins shipping this spring.

Toshiba says its TransMemory-EX flash drive will deliver speeds up to 22 times faster than previous models. That's read and write speeds of 220 megabytes per second (MB/s) and 94 MB/s, respectively. … Read more

2012 promises to be a watershed year for laptops. Really thin will be in and internal optical drives out, while some designs venture into hybrid territory.

Apple: Apple is expected to incorporate the MacBook Air design theme into more models, including a 15-incher sans optical drive. And since Apple popularized the really-thin aesthetic with the January 2008 introduction of the MacBook Air, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the company will continue to be a trendsetter.

Trendsetting may include a rumored 2,880-by-1,800-pixel display. That would be a remarkable feat as workstation-class 15-inch Windows laptops, such as … Read more

At the moment, there's a bit of a dispute going on in the tech media over an intriguing question: Is Apple going to release a 7" iPad anytime soon?

In a story that's currently hidden behind a paywall, Taiwanese site Digitimes says that Apple is working on a mini-iPad--with a 7.85" display, to be precise--for release in 2012. It says the alleged device is a reaction to smaller, cheaper tablets such as Amazon's Kindle Fire.

But John Paczkowski of All Things D concludes that this rumor appears to be fantasy, not fact--at least … Read more

Ultrabooks are available for the first time this holiday season. That calls for a quick survey of pricing since models have debuted at unexpectedly low prices.

As a refresher, ultrabooks are skinny (typically under 0.8 inches thick), lightweight (three pounds or less) laptops that offer mainstream mobile performance.

In short, they attempt to approximate the portability of a tablet while offering more horsepower via Intel processors. And, of course, they run full-blown Windows--not a minor point.

Pricing runs the gamut but the most-recently-released ultrabooks all fall below the $1,000 mark at retailers like Best Buy. That's important … Read more

Panasonic, Samsung, SanDisk, Sony, and Toshiba today announced an agreement to develop new content-protection technology for SD cards and embedded flash.

Dubbed "Next Generation Secure Memory Initiative," the press release claims the as-yet undeveloped technology will be based around public key encryption. Based on the release's limited information, it sounds like it will create unique IDs that will tie a variety of fixed and mobile CE devices to you, making content producers less nervous about allowing you to download--rather than just stream--DRM'd content to devices they currently can't control, like phones and tablets. … Read more

The original Toshiba Thrive 10-inch tablet impressed us with its support for full-size ports and the fact that we could remove its battery and swap in a new one. Features that are still unmatched in mainstream tablets.

The 7-inch version is here now, but with its smaller form factor can it possibly offer the same experience? Probably not, but you should check out the full review anyway.… Read more

How low can ultrabooks go? How about $699.

Let there be no doubt that Toshiba is setting the pace for ultrabook pricing so far. After debuting at $799 last month, the Portege Z835 is now down to $699 at Best Buy.

"They have a $200 instant rebate this week that brings it down to $699. I think it's surprising. It could be to spur sales. It could be to get people's attention. But it's a smart move and by far the most affordable ultrabook option right now," said Deron Kershaw, an analyst at Gap Intelligence. (Note that the $799 price only lasted for about a week when Toshiba introduced the Z835 in November. For the most part, it's been priced at $899--thus the $200 discount.)

The only major rivals even close right now are Acer's Aspire S3, which is priced just under $900 at Best Buy, and Hewlett-Packard's Folio 13, priced at $899.99.

Ultrabooks, for the uninitiated, are ultralight Windows laptops that compete with the increasingly popular, and more expensive, MacBook Air. … Read more