Hasta La Gadget!

Hey Apple, check this thing out! Toshiba just blazed into IFA on a 7-inch multimedia tablet, the JournE touch. It’s dominated by the touchscreen display, but underneath there’s support for a wide range of codecs (H.264, DivX, WMV), 802.11b/g WiFi, some online multimedia services like YouTube and Flickr, and some light internet duties thanks to Internet Explorer running on Windows CE 6.0 Pro. Despite the size and multimedia prowess (it can output sub-1080p video over an HDMI plug in the dock), the device measures a mere 14mm thick and weighs just under a pound. There’s only 1GB of built-in storage, but that can be expanded via the SD slot, and the device can access external storage over USB. Word is it’ll retail for 250 Euro in Q4 this year.

The device feels pretty nice in hand, but there’s still a bit of a prototype vibe about it — maybe because it’s still a prototype. It’s clearly a resistive screen, and the device will include a stylus for non touch-optimized apps. Toshiba seemed to be having fun with the multitude of Apple comparisons, namely since there isn’t an Apple device to compare it to yet. They also call the video output the tablet’s killer app, and promise to show more once they can track down a WiFi signal. Sure, it’s just a MID at the end of the day, but we’ll be happy to humor them — it’s a pretty hot MID.

Update: We’ve got some video hands-on of the JournE right after the break — gaze upon its G-Force displaying prowess!

Update 2: Added one more video after the break, just in case you didn’t get enough the first go ’round.

Continue reading Toshiba’s JournE touch multimedia tablet (updated with hands-on video!)

Filed under: Handhelds, Tablet PCs

Toshiba’s JournE touch multimedia tablet (updated with hands-on video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Sep 2009 13:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toshiba will sell its first Blu-ray DVD player starting in November, the company announced Thursday. The BDX2000 will retail for $249.99. It includes BD-Live, which lets users take advantage of Web-based interactive features via an Ethernet connection. The device also includes an SD card slot, which may be required to access some of the BD-Live content, Toshiba said.

Other features include 1080p/24 frames per second full HD video output, AVCHD playback, and support for enhanced audio formats. Using Regza-Link, it is also formatted to link up to Toshiba Regza LCD TVs via HDMI for full HD content with a single remote control.

The announcement comes nearly a month after Toshiba applied for membership in the Blu-ray Disc Association. Toshiba was initially a vocal supporter of the HD-DVD format, which died in February 2008 after Warner Bros. and Walmart withdrew their support for the format.

Toshiba today announced that it had pushed the limits of the 2.5-inch hard drive even further with the introduction of a 640GB drive the “industry’s largest” hard disk drive in that capacity. The MK6465GSX runs at 5,400 RPM and features an areal density of 528.5 Gbit/in2.

The MK6465GSX is part of a larger line of drives that also includes 500GB, 320GB, 250GB, and 160GB models. According to Toshiba, the drives are also 28-percent more energy efficient than their predecessors. They will begin shipping to manufacturers later this month.

For a computer that’s supposed to be “thin and light” the Toshiba U505 really isn’t. It’s thick 2.8 inches because of an enormous battery that juts out on the bottom. And it’s heavy, at 5.6 pounds. But does it perform? It does! From Christopher Null:

Fortunately all is not lost with the Satellite U505: The laptop turns
in solid benchmark scores for a 13.3-inch machine, besting most of its
similarly-sized compatriots by a (ahem) thin margin. It’s also awfully
cheap for a notebook with a 13-inch screen (resolution is 1280 x 800
pixels): $950 gets you a 400-GB hard drive, 4 GB of RAM, and a
respectable 2-GHz Core 2 Duo processor. That battery also does more
than give you a pain in the back while lugging the U505 around. It
gives over four hours of battery life with the optical drive
continuously engaged, and lasts more than half a day in ordinary heavy
use.

You want more, don’t you? Read the rest of the riveting review right here.

Ross Rubin (@rossrubin) contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

The Blu-ray Disc Association has positioned Toshiba joining its membership as the epilogue in the company’s once pitched battle for high-definition disc domination. It could, however, merely be a new chapter in the broader story of home entertainment as it uses the players not only to fill some product-line gaps but takes advantage of their connectivity to move to a future beyond any disc standard.

Back when it was tending to its fresh format war wounds, Toshiba did not always see this potential. After it exited– and effectively ended– the HD DVD market, the March 3, 2008 edition of The Wall Street Journal ran an interview with Toshiba chief executive Atsutoshi Nishida that detailed ambitious plans for avoiding Blu-ray. On the low end, Toshiba would improve DVD playback to seek near-parity with Blu-ray quality at lower cost. That idea was productized in Toshiba’s XDE DVD players and televisions. XDE was met with mixed reviews, however, and the plummeting prices of Blu-ray hardware last holiday season cut its viability short.

Flirting with connectivity on the high-end, Nishida noted that it was now possible to bridge PCs and televisions better, and that he wanted to put “even more energy” into video downloading. He may have been considering Toshiba’s Qosmio multimedia powerhouse notebooks as an engine for driving high-definition content to the television. However, the long-lingering idea of bridging the PC and television, while indeed becoming easier technologically, still simply isn’t worth the effort for most consumers. At CES 2009 as Sony, Sharp, Panasonic, Samsung, LG and Vizio showed off connected televisions, Toshiba didn’t announce any broadband content partnerships for its premium Regza line of TVs.

Continue reading Switched On: Toshiba and the Blu-ray Trojan Horse

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Switched On: Toshiba and the Blu-ray Trojan Horse originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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