While CES is primarily about pushing new products that consumers can actually purchase (hence the title Consumer Electronics Show), a big part of the allure for us is seeing where these companies plan to go a few years into the future. We swung through the Toshiba booth and got a look at its line of concept devices that make the current generation of MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices) and smart phones look quaint by comparison.

The center piece was its line of Internet Viewers, devices that the company seems to be positioning somewhere between a MID and an iPhone. Though there was a prototype on display, Toshiba was still working many of the details of the device -- processor, OS, etc... It did tell us that currently it runs over Wi-Fi (what!? no 3G?!) and it hopes to power them with fuel cells instead of batteries for true all day operation. You can see some of the various forms Toshiba sees the devices taking in the gallery below.

Toshiba was also touting Network Stationary, a device with some interesting ideas, that would be better off being integrated into a cell phone. The company sees a slim device that can fit in the pages of a small day planner or notepad, that will sync information from the Web and from a desktop PC, just like a smart phone... minus the phone (we called those PDAs back in the day). Toshiba seesm to be pushing it as a 3G-enabled, business-oriented alternative to their Internet Viewer concept.

Toshiba hopes to have the first of these devices out by mid 2010, which sounds a little ambitious to us. Check out the gallery for for some shots of the devices.

Hey guys / gals, check this out. Best Buy is practically admitting that it is just now starting to "gather insights from customers and work with manufacturers to design products that address [consumers'] needs." In a rather odd release, the big box retailer is announcing two new laptops that'll be exclusive to its store: the 14.1-inch Toshiba Satellite E105-S1402 and the 13.3-inch HP Pavilion dv3510nr. According to the release, these laptops were created and inspired by feedback from Best Buy customers

The Toshiba will feature a 1.2-inch thin frame, WXGA (1,280 x 800) panel, backlit keyboard, DVD burner, 5.5-hours of battery life and an $1,199 price tag. The HP (shown after the break) will include a LED-backlit WXGA display, up to 4-hours of battery life, inbuilt webcam and precisely the same retail price.

Eventually, Best Buy is hoping to expand the Blue Label series to other product lines, though there's no word on where to find these elusive input cards that it's supposedly using to pick and choose wares.

Imagine this -- you, sitting in a dingy airport terminal waiting on your flight with a lifeless laptop and just 10 minutes to spare. You've got oodles of spreadsheet work to do before 8:00AM tomorrow, and unless you get it done on this flight, you're fubared. Toshiba is looking to make said scenario seem like one that's not so grim, as its prototype SCIB (Super Charge Ion Battery) purportedly has the potential to get 90-percent full in just 10 minutes. The battery was unveiled at CEATEC 2008 in Japan, though little was known about its eventual availability. Shame development cycles can't be fast tracked in a similar manner, huh? [Via UberReview]

Toshiba continues to tease us with its prototype liquid fuel cell-powered gadgets: last year it was a Gigabeat media player, and at this year's CEATEC you can check out a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) that's been crammed inside a cell phone, lending it a robust six hours of talk time (compared to the paltry three or four hours of a traditional battery). Toshiba won't reveal the capacity of the DMFC, but they have said that a 50ml cartridge is good for about 15 refills. No release date yet, but the phone "might" be available "as early as next year." In the meantime, enjoy this picture of a woman holding a flip phone with "DMFC" clearly visible on the display.

Here's another mouth-watering concept on display at CEATEC today: Toshiba's Media Server -- not to be confused with some kind of nefarious explosive device from an early episode of Doctor Who. It uses NFC to download files from your cell phone, which in turn can be displayed on a TV via WirelessHD. But best of all, it's shiny and looks nothing like some of the mundane media servers we've seen in the past, which is reason enough for us to want one, or perhaps a pair to make 2d12. Here's hoping it gets past the concept stage.

We fear a robot takeover.

That said, this new robot from Toshiba, named ApriPoko, is so darned cute, how could we not want one in our very own home theater?

Its special purpose is the ability to memorize infrared signals from your remote control and assign each command to a certain action – like turning on your television or changing the channel – based on what you SAY to the little guy.

For example, if you use your remote control to turn on the TV, ApriPoko will sense the IR signal and then ask you, "What did you just do?" Your response, "I turned on the TV," is recognized and the command is assigned within ApriPoko's memory. The next time you want to turn on the TV, just say to the robot, "Turn on the TV," and it will be done. It works the same way with other devices and even more specific commands like changing channels, raising and lowering volume, and so on.

At least that's what's been promised by Toshiba, which at this stage is only demonstrating a prototype. ApriPoko is 8 by 11 inches and weighs about five pounds.

From Engadget via Pink Tentacle via Asahi News (crudely translated version of the article can be found here.)

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It's official. After plenty of rumors and speculation Toshiba itself has indeed confirmed that it will cease production of HD DVD players and recorders sometime next month. That means the high-definition format war is over and Sony, having lost so many of these battles in the past (Betamax, MiniDisc, UMD, etc. etc.), has finally got winner on its hands.

Or does it? Having offed HD-DVD on the high-def front, Sony's format now must face off against two even stronger competitors: Downloadable films such as those offered by Netflix and iTunes, and the humble DVD, which is still selling like hotcakes even among owners of high-definition televisions. But, now that there is a clear choice, the landscape may change quickly.

Industry reaction is, for the most part, a big sense of relief that this format war didn't drag on any longer. Forbes is saying that the real winners are the retailers, who can now tell consumers without a doubt which high-def format they should put their money on. For its part, Microsoft, which early-on threw its support behind HD-DVD -- both with an add-on for its Xbox 360 and also by providing some of the technology used within the encoding of the discs -- is saying that the death of the format will do little to impact the success of its console. Hedging its bets by not building an HD-DVD drive into the console itself is finally looking like a smart move, and many industry pundits are now wondering just how long it'll be before there's a Blu-ray add-on for the Xbox 360.

We're inclined to think it'll be awhile before we see that, but anything is possible.

From Toshiba, Forbes, and BetaNews

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The chips are down for Toshiba and its HD-DVD format, the competitor to Sony's Blu-ray that has been on the receiving end of some serious knocks lately. Netflix said it's dropping the format, and Best Buy indicated it's beginning the process of doing the same. Blu-ray player sales are way up and things are looking so bad that Toshiba's response to all this sounds half-hearted at best. No wonder, then, that rumors are swirling of Toshiba's plans to drop the format entirely.

The always ambiguous "reliable sources" are indicating that Toshiba will stop production of HD-DVD players within the next few weeks, the final result of the fallout caused by Warner's surprise January CES announcement that it was jumping ship and going Blu-ray-exclusive.

It's clearly game over for the format, a disappointing reality for many early adopters. But hey, look on the bright side: Some great deals are ahead for those looking to extend their HD-DVD collections while they still can.

From The Hollywood Reporter

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Of course you want to watch the Super Bowl in HDTV. Who doesn't? It seems the lead up to the big game is the second biggest driver of high-definition LCD TV sales for Amazon.com, according to the e-tailer's latest numbers. (The biggest driver is, of course, holiday season gift giving.)

So which TV leads the pack? The mantle this time goes to Samsung and its $2,199 52-inch 1080p LNT5265F set.

Samsung also dominates this top 10 list, with four of the spots. Sharp has three, Sony two and Toshiba just one. All but one of these TV sets is 1080p and all but two are larger than 40-inches. (Do we see the continued trend here? Go big and get the highest resolution you can.)

We're going to watch the game on a 42-inch Toshiba, but maybe we'll listen to one quarter of it on the radio -- and imagine what the game action looks like, just as in the olden days.

From Gearlog.

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Rocky always refused to go down, even if his face got beaten into Hamburger Helper. Despite looking like Rocky sans the steadfastly loyal fan base, the folks behind HD-DVD are trying to get that cinematic comeback-when-the-chips-are-down win... or at least some sort of moral victory.

Wired reports that Toshiba, one of the companies that's backing HD-DVD, has paid $2.7 million for a 30-second commercial airtime spot during this Sunday's Super Bowl. This is very strange news indeed, considering most people -- including consumers in January -- have already decided that HD-DVD is dead.

Perhaps this is Toshiba's way of saying that it's going the distance, no matter the facts. Maybe the HD-DVD player manufacturers are determined to carve some sort of new niche as the cheaper, downmarket alternative to Blu-ray's pricey and flashy product. Time to cue the inspirational soundtrack...

From Wired

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Now that everyone has declared BluRay the winner in the high-def war, what with Warner's announcement and Sony finally allowing adult films to be published on the format, I think it's important to take a look at HD-DVD's long walk back to the locker room after a game well-played.

It would be a mistake to say that HD-DVD will cease to exist tomorrow. In fact, expect to see just the opposite of that. HD-DVD continue on as an underground favorite format, much like Betamax did in the 70s and laser discs did in the 90s. Remember laser discs, the giant optical discs that came before DVD, the stuff of early home theater buffs who could tell you a thing or two about digital mastering way before half of Hollywood was even Bar Mitzvah'd? No? How about beta, the superior tape format that Sony wanted you to buy instead of VHS?

I originally thought HD-DVD was completely done for before the Consumer Electronics Show. Warner's Blu-Ray-exclusive announcement and the HD-DVD group's decision to back out of their keynote made it sound like they would go away with a whimper. On the final day of the conference, however, I took one last walk by the HD-DVD booth just to see what was up. After all, I'm a sucker for a good heartbreak story.

"So I looked on bestbuy.com this morning," began the booth attendant, speaking to three half-asleep attendees who, by my estimation, were there more for the chair rest than the presentation. "You can now buy an HD-DVD drive for $179. That also comes with ten free discs. Ten free discs! That easily makes HD-DVD the best deal in high definition."

The guy had a point. Think about it -- for $179, you can get a high-end HD-DVD player that will also upscale your regular DVDs to high-definition resolution. It will also play your Super-Audio CDs. You also get ten free HD-DVD discs. Go try to buy ten new regular-definition DVDs for $179 -- I dare you. That evening I was ordering an HD-DVD drive from bestbuy.com. Call me a vulture if you will, but I'll be enjoying this winter in high-def heaven. Heck - I might even cancel my Netflix account for a few months and save another $50 or so.

That closing value on the HD-DVD format really is hard to beat. Even if another HD-DVD title never comes out, the closing cost of the format -- along with its hardware -- is easily worth the cost to anyone with a high-definition television. Is it an investment for the far future? Not so much, but most of us who already have home theaters and high-definition televisions aren't exactly known for our electronics long-term investment acumen -- we'll all have new TVs, receivers, and speakers in a few years anyway.

Anyway, with Apple's new iTunes Movie Rentals and NetFlix opening up the "View It Now" service to unlimited views, disc-based movies' days are numbered.

Enjoy the fire sale. I know I will.

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A year ago, who'd have thunk that America would have gone gaga for the motion-sensitive, hand-gesture-and-remote based controls of the Nintendo Wii. It seemed like an out-there way to maneuver and control your way around the game console's interface and gameplay. And yet, one year later, the Nintendo Wii is the best-selling next-gen console.

So it's no surprise that motion-sensitive, gesture based interfaces were out in full-force in various guises at this year's CEATEC, the Japanese consumer electronics show we attended last week in Tokyo. Here are two examples we found particularly intriguing:


Pioneer 3-D Navigation System: This prototype driving interface features three side-by-side screens – the middle one featuring 3D holographic images, while the left one shows the real-time GPS map of where you are. Say you want to find gas stations in your area: Press a button on the third touchscreen and a big holographic gas symbol pops up in the 3D arena. Then just grab it with your hand and sweep it over the the left hand screen and within seconds the map will be be filled with gas station icons. It's sort of a 3D version of the Microsoft Surface. It's certainly nifty, but as CNET's Michael Kanellos – who was with us on the CEATEC panel last week – noted, this kind of 3D activity could cause an accident. Ultimately, we found the 3D elements to be a bit superfluous and we don't see why the same activity can't just be done with existing touchscreens, but, then again, it's a work in progress.


Toshiba Qosimo hand-motion controls: The powerful new SpursEngine chip enables some pretty cool apps on PC laptops, but one of the more notable was the motion-sensitive, hand-gesture based interface that Toshiba was showing at its booth. Different hand gestures let you start, stop, pause, advance and rewind a video, for example, that's playing on a laptop. We actually had some trouble getting the hang of the controls, but then again, we had some trouble getting the hand of the Wii controls, too. For more pics, check out Engadget's post on the new Toshiba controls.

From what we could tell, the new motion-based interfaces we saw at CEATEC still have a long way to go before they're ready for primetime, which makes us all respect Nintendo's successful implementation of the Wii controller all the more (not to mention Sony's EyeToy from a couple of years ago).

It may seem silly to be flailing your arms about just to watch a video, but we've got high hopes for these latest innovations – what better solution to the "honey, where's the remote?"

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Amazon.com is sweetening the pot for anyone who's been thinking about purchasing a high-def disc player. Unfortunately, it hasn't made the decision over which format to go with any easier. As we all know, Sony's Blu-ray format is locked in a knock-down drag- out war with Toshiba's competing HD DVD format, with every week that passes bringing news of one format gaining a lead on the other. In an attempt to win over converts, both camps have recently offered five free movies with the purchase of certain players.

Now, Amazon.com is throwing three more freebies on the pile. From now until September 23, the purchase of a 60GB PS3 gets you three free Blu-ray movies on top of the five Sony is already offering. Go with one of a few select Toshiba HD DVD players instead, and Amazon gifts you three HD DVD discs on top of the five you already get from Toshiba.

As one HD DVD fan exclaimed on a messageboard, it's almost as if they're paying you to buy one of these players. But, like we said, the gettin' is only good until September 23, so consult our guide to Blu-ray and HD DVD, then hurry and make up your mind!

From i4U and Engadget

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Well it seems that Sony just can't catch a break with its batteries. Actually, It seems like we the consumer just can't catch a break with batteries in general. Whether they're exploding in our pockets, bursting into flames, or just costing us a whole lot to replace.

Toshiba is the latest victim of Sony's massive battery recall, which has resulted in the recall of some 9.6 million batteries manufactured during December of 2005 after three incidents in which the batteries burst into flames. Toshiba says the recall affects 5,100 of its units, and is pointing customers toward its page for the battery recall program where they can see if their laptops are affected, and if they qualify for a free replacement.

With Sony having to swallow the cost of nearly 10 million battery recalls, is it any wonder the PS3 is so expensive? And what took Toshiba so long to decide it needed to recall the batteries? Toshiba had to have known for some time that it made laptops with defective batteries in them. What, was some bean counter sitting there weighing the recall cost against the probability of another battery injuring a customer? Thankfully in the end, reason won out over the bottom line.

From I4U News

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