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Yet another case of the few ruining it for the many.  Due to “at least 40” reports of laptop batteries overheating and causing fires as well as potential property damage, Sony is recalling 35,000 Lithium Ion batteries in the US and another 65,000 in other countries.  In a stroke of genius, none of these batteries were actually put in Sony laptops.  Instead, most of them (32,000) are in HP Pavilion dv model and Compaq laptops, and to a lesser extent Toshiba Satellite and Tecra laptops (3,000) and only 150 Dell Latitude and Inspiron laptops.  The batteries were made way back in October 2004 to June 2005.

More after the break.

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To coincide with the official launch of Sprint’s 4G mobile broadband service called XOHM (its WiMAX network), four top PC brands have introduced new notebook products which support XOHM.  For those not in the loop, WiMAX is faster than what you usually get from a mobile phone 3G network. 

If you are seriously considering getting a new notebook that fully supports the XOHM WiMAX network, we have a rundown of the new notebooks from Acer, Asus, Lenovo and Toshiba after the break.

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“Going Green” is certainly a very popular buzzword for many companies in the past few years.  In an attempt to capitalize on that, many tech companies like Apple and Dell (and stores like Best Buy) have taken up recycling programs.  In terms of the companies, however, it usually involves buying a product from them (and in Dell’s case, they’ll only take Dell branded items). 

Toshiba is taking a different approach.  Toshiba will accept any sort of electronics from cell phones to computer to video game systems, all without having to buy a single thing.  Toshiba wants to recycle any sort of “e-waste” you might have regardless of where you buy electronics or what kind of electronics you buy.  Toshiba will even pay you for recycling as a trade-in (which, admittedly Best Buy has offered before).  For example, my two year old MacBook Pro would get me $325,, and a $25 Starbucks gift card.  Not bad if I wanted to get rid of my computer.

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Modern laptop users demand SSDs for their laptops due to their inherently faster seek time and shock-proof nature.  With that in mind, Toshiba has recently announced a boost in its SSD and Flash Modules line-up, satisfying laptop and netbookusers.

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The netbook market is growing every day, and another competitor in the race is the Satellite NB105 from Toshiba Mexico.  The NB105 features consist of a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor along with 1GB RAM and a 120GB hard drive.  In addition it has Wi-Fi and LAN connectivity for all those who want to take the Internet on the road.  Other features include an SD memory slot, as well as three USB 2.0 ports.  All of this is packaged with an 8.9-inch display with a 1,024 x 600 resolution.  As for pricing and availability, currently its expected to hit Mexico sometime in the first week of November but as of now pricing information has not been announced.

Read [FayerWayer] Via [jkkmobile]

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Toshiba unveiled not just one but seven new notebooks which all belong to its SS RX2 notebook series. These are models T9GG, T9G, T8GG, T8G. T7GG, T7G, and S7G. All seven notebooks are packed with a 12.1-inch LCD screen with a 1,280 x 800 WXGA resolution, 1.20GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU9300 processor, Intel GS45 Express Chipset, 2GB of RAM which can be expanded up to 3G, Wi-Fi, a fingerprint sensor, SD/SDHC card slot, three USB ports, one e-SATA port and a DVD SuperMulti Drive.

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Well despite the fact that HD DVD is now a dead format, Toshiba is not yet willing to part with those patents. A recent report coming from the Economic Daily News, a Chinese-language newspaper is claiming that the Taiwan Information Storage Association’s (TISA) has contacted Toshiba in an effort to acquire the HD DVD patents.

Its being speculated that they were looking to purchase Toshiba’s patents in an effort to further develop the CBHD (China Blue High-definition Disc), which according to estimates is based on “more than 90%“ of HD DVD patents. Had they acquired these patents it was also believed that it would have helped them by adding some extra bargaining chips in their Blu-ray royalty negotiations.

Of course without the patents being sold, it seems that why they really wanted them will remain nothing more than speculation. One does have to wonder just what, if anything that Toshiba will bring to the table in the future that may require those patents.

Via [DigiTimes]

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Toshiba is bringing in two new highly-durable laptops into its Tecra series. These are the 15-inch Tecra A10 and the 14-inch Tecra M10. Both laptops come with a well crafted chassis that can withstand drops and shocks. Additionally both feature a fingerprint scanner and Toshiba’s EasyGuard for data security purposes.

These two laptops are both packed with Intel Centrino 2 with vPro technology or Intel Centrino with vPro Technology featuring a Core 2 Duo processor, Windows Vista for the operating system, Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3G connectivity for the M10, DVD RW super multi drives, as much as 250GB of hard drive space and anywhere from 2GB to 8GB of RAM.

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Toshiba is releasing a new DVD player called the XD-E500 in Japan today. If you recall, Toshiba is one of the many companies who strongly opposed the Blu-ray disc format as a replacement to our old DVD’s. It was suggesting the HD DVD format as opposed to the Blu-ray disc but eventually lost over Sony. This could probably be the reason why Toshiba is releasing a new DVD player instead of coming up with its own Blu-ray player.

So as not to spark further controversy, Toshiba, through its director of product planning for the audio and video group at Toshiba America Consumer Products, Louis Masses was quick to say that the new Toshiba player was meant to improve DVD playback and is not meant to compete with Blu-ray discs. The Toshiba XD-E500 is expected to retail for around $149.99, a price tag which is less than half the price of a Blu-ray player and twice as much as the price of a regular “upconverting” player. The XD-E500 is due for launch in Japan today, however we’re expecting that it won’t be long before this DVD player gets an international release. We could all use a good alternative to the pricey Blu-ray players available in the market today.

Read [Yahoo News]

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Toshiba has announced its latest camcorder geared for the budget-conscious consumers who are looking for a powerful video capturing device without burning too much of their wallet. Dubbed the Camileo H10, this camcorder boasts of decent specs including a 720p high definition video recording with a 1280 x 720 pixel resolution.

The Camileo H10 features just 64MB of internal memory which is supplemented by a memory card slot for SDHC card of up to 8GB storage capacity. In addition, the H10 also boasts of a 5x optical and 4x digital zoom for its 10-megapixel CCD camera sensor, a 2.7-inch TFT LCD monitor and a slew of camcorder features including image stabilization, motion detection recording and a night mode that effectively captures scenes in a low light environment. It also has HDMI output for viewing video on to an HDTV and even comes with ArcSoft software for editing videos easily.

The Toshiba Camileo H10 will be available by the end of the month and will retail for around $359.

Via [New Launches]

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