ToshibaReviews

Does the names Asia Carrera or Jenna Jameson ring any bells? I knew I got your attention. Adult filmmakers are once again grappling with the latest technology — high-definition DVDs. With an estimated $4.3 billion in sales in the US for 2005, the adult film industry has never shied away from new technology. Until now.

Red Herring gives 3 reasons. Reason #1: The format wars. Sony’s Blu-ray standard vs. Toshiba’s HD-DVD technology. “The two companies have been unable to agree on a common standard and are independently forging ahead in hopes they will emerge victorious in the marketplace.” Some studios and electronic makers choose sides, others stay on the fence and play safe by backing both. The porn industry is no less confused.

Reason #2. Creating true high-definition films is a complex and costly process. Duh. Only few production companies can afford the switch, especially with low-budget films by small operators stealing away profits from the leaders. However, the industry’s largest producer, Vivid Entertainment is well prepared and will be releasing its hi-def titles in both formats until a clear leader emerges.

Lastly, #3: Looking towards the future as hi-def becomes the norm, “industry insiders suggest the technology could actually prompt a much-needed shakeout in an industry that has for decades only known robust growth”. A clear threat to every small operator alive.

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(Source: Ebay)

2nd place is for losers. Perhaps that’s what the good people of Toshiba Corp. felt when they decided to challenge South Korean tech giant, Samsung in the ever-growing market of flash memory production. Samsung is currently the top-dog in this market while Toshiba follows closely behind in second place.

The former will be building a flash memory plant in Yokkaichi, central Japan costing approximately USD 2.6 billion. TechWhack News reports that production of the chips should hit the road by October 2007 and 12 months later, monthly output of these cute NAND-type silicon wafers is targeted at 67,500. All this to satisfy the growing tech-appetites of customers who use these chips in devices like mobile phones, digital cameras, digital music and video players, etc.

We’ll cap this off with two words — Samsung, beware! Muahaha…

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(Source: IM Flash Technologies)

Straight from Electronic News: “Toshiba Corp. today said it has brought logical block addressing (LBA) to NAND flash memory in an effort to speed time to market, simplify design and eliminate the need for the host to handle NAND management functions.”

This new technology will benefit consumer devices such as digital audio players and personal media players. Samples of these devices are out this August.

If you haven’t the slightest clue about LBA NAND, Toshiba explained that “NAND flash memory currently uses the physical address access method that defines each physical page of a memory, from the chip to the block, to the page and down to the cell. The logical address access method of LBA assigns each cell a unique address that is not geometry dependent.”

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(Source: Savastore.com)

Lower-end Toshiba notebooks will be getting a boost as the Japanese electronics giant is introducing its EasyGuard™ protection technology to its budget laptops. This attempt to differentiate its mobile line-up from rivals has seen the new Satellite Pro A120 being armed with better protection against shocks and other hazards yet is priced from £369 (price quote from Savastore.com) only.

It seems that even after a fall of 70cm, tests show the laptop should still function well. (Don’t try this at home!) A Toshiba product manager says, “Nobody else offers this level of protection at this price.” The A120 is a 2.8kg 15.4″ screened notebook equipped with 512MB memory, 60GB hard disk, and a 1.46 GHz Celeron M410 processor, further enhanced with a 100cc spill resistant keyboard.

On another note, Toshiba Corp. has also introduced a new Windows Vista-ready Tablet PC with a 14in display — the Tecra M7, a widescreen laptop with a swivel display. IT News has more.

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(Source: Lancashire Telegraph)

Everyone knows the value of Toshiba notebooks. Even thieves.

55 Toshiba Pro Satellite laptops worth £36,000 were stolen at Ivy Bank Business and Enterprise College, Byron Street. The perpetrators sneaked into its computer suite and filled up two sacks with the Toshiba goodies. Lancashire Telegraph quoted a cabinet member for schools saying “I condemn this theft. The people who took these computers are robbing the children of Burnley and they should be ashamed of themselves. I’m sure the school will be absolutely devastated.”

Can’t blame them though…kidding…seriously, kidding. Never steal. Err…buy original. First-hand, that is.

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(Source: Bartovic Blog)

As Asian athletes book their places at the 15th Asian Games in Doha, Toshiba too has made the cut for the December 1st-15th (this year!) sporting event. The vendor will ship around 200 of its new Tecra A8s to Qatar as organisers of the Games have signed a deal with Toshiba — a month ago — to supply notebooks to their employees. ITP Technology wrote that the A8s will be utilised for “administrative and back office functions during the games” while “Toshiba said it was a good strategic win for it in the region”.

A look at the 14.1-inch screened Tecra A8 brings us to a 6.4 lbs, Intel Core Duo (T2300E 1.66 GHz), ATI Radeon Xpress 200M chipset type business notebook with 1 GB DDR II SDRAM and around 2.4 hours battery life. OS provided: Microsoft Windows XP Professional. It now sells for as low as $669.00.

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(Source: Technology News Daily)

As demand for next-generation digital consumer products rise, Toshiba Corporation’s line-up is set to incorporate MIPS Technologies Inc.’s MIPS32 24KEc Pro and 24KEf Pro cores as its microprocessor. Such applications include DTV, HD DTV, and set-top boxes.

As Electronic News reports, “the MIPS32 24KE core family leverages the high performance 24K microarchitecture while incorporating the MIPS DSP application specific extension”. Toshiba and MIPS Technologies do have some history together: Toshiba’s MIPS-based designs include the 128-bit Emotion Engine multimedia processor developed with Sony for the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system.

In a joined statement by both parties on this new partnership, a Toshiba official expressed that “as an existing licensee of the MIPS architecture, we are pleased to extend our long and successful relationship.” MIPS’ president and CEO added: “We’re delighted to deepen our long-standing commitment to Toshiba by providing them with both our industry-leading architecture and high performance core technology”.

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(Source: Reg Hardware)

Ladies and gentlemen, feast your eyes on the world’s first high-definition optical disc recorder based on the HD DVD format. This baby — equipped with an unbelievable 1TB hard drive — went on sale this morning in Tokyo with a heart-stopping price tag of Â¥398,000, or about US$3,400. Yes, cutting edge technology doesn’t come cheap.

The initial launch was to be held a full two weeks before the sun came up this morning, but was postponed as manufacturing difficulties meant that Toshiba might not be able to fulfil the public’s lust for everything state-of-the-art.

As the world’s first consumer-oriented HD DVD player capable of writing to next-generation recordable media, RegHardware states that its stunningly huge hard disk storage is sufficient for 130 hours of HD content and comes with “digital terrestrial and satellite tuners, along with an analogue tuner for back-up and a wide array of digital and analogue video and audio inputs and outputs, including HDMI”. A network port is also included. The player reads all the usual formats, but will only write to DVD-R/RW/RAM, including their dual-layer versions.

Besides it heavy retail price, other reasons that might steer buyers away from the queue line would be its bulky package (the machine records 15.2kg on the scales and measures 45.7 x 40.8 x 15.9cm) and the fact that it will only support MPEG 2-encoded content, not the preferred MPEG 4 AVC or VC1 ie. Windows Media Video 9 codecs.

Those without deep pockets but still dreaming of one should contain their excitement and wait several months (around 3) as prices are expected to fall by a hundred thousand yen or so by then.

Our conclusion: The RD-A1 is simply ass-kicking, although wallet-kicking too!

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(Source: Toshiba)

Buyers Incorporated Inc. (BLI) recently announced the results of their semi-annual “Pick of the Year” awards, and it appears that three of Toshiba’s e-STUDIO-series multifunction copiers were among the products selected. They are the e-STUDIO282, e-STUDIO352 and e-STUDIO850 - in ascending order of copier speed (pages per minute).

The e-STUDIO282 was awarded a Pick as an Outstanding Multifunctional Imaging System in the Segment 2 category, the e-STUDIO352 in the Segment 3 category and the e-STUDIO850 in the Segment 5 category.

[News via Toshiba]

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