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I specifically addressed that issue. Now some math to back it up:

12" at standard ratio of 4:3 yeilds 9.6" x 7.2"

15" at standard ratio of 16:9 yeilds 13"x7.4"

It is about the same length (only 2% longer) but its width (which becomes the length in your backpack) is 4 inches greater. Most backbacks I have used have had width being the limiting factor. All could fit a standard legal sized notebook in them, which coincidentaly (or perhaps not) is about an inch larger than the toshiba in every direction.

It IS bigger than the 12" this is correct. however it is bigger in only one direction and since all of the other specs are so significantly superior, I think this is an area where one could compromise.

You can't expect to get exactly an ibook on PC hardware. It would be an ibook then. You are unwilling to allow your specifications to be flexable in one dimension to get significant gains in another. In fact, I did not mention either the weight or battery of the offerings. here they are:
for the Toshiba
weight: 8 lbs.
Battery life: 2 hrs.

For the apple

battery life: 6 hrs.
weight: 5lbs.

So the PC IS a little heavier. (And i think jokes about the 3 lb. difference may be relevant.) But the battery life is a big downside. It all depends on what you're trying to do with your laptop.

Taking notes in class? ok you're probably right about the ibook.. IF your professor appreciates the clicking keys. Doing graphics manipulation on the plane? the PC would be more useful.

I am of the opinion that 6hrs battery is about the minimum useful time for a 'battery powered computer.' 2hrs is meerly the minimum sufficient for a 'battery moveable externally powered computer'

The original poster requested a price competetive 12" laptop with 'separate gfx card' This machine is price competative, roughly the same size as a 12" laptop and has superior everything else (except size and weight) I propose that you must be specific about which metrics are important in your specification: is minor deviation from a point acceptable? or are you steadfastly refusing to consider alternatives.

Price, Power, Weight choose 2.

Previous comments have noted that design patents are relatively easy to get around, but you have to wonder where the line in the sand should be drawn. Is this patent really that different than if Toshiba had tried to patent a tablet x86, or a tablet computer in general? I mean to be quite honest, other than the nicely rounded corners it really doesn't look that much differnet than a Toshiba. How specific do the design patents need to be in order to be enforcable? Are simple sketches like those included in the patent application really enough?

Available by the end of the year, huh? That's shaping up to be a second-place finish for them. Still respectable, though.

Toshiba announced in December that products using this technology will go into production over the next six months.

typical drive specifications for those that are curious....

Tom

Actually, I have a Toshiba, um... (pause to look it up) PDR-M700 that indeed actually had a firmware upgrade. The upgrade added features, notably manual focus (a godsend, because the camera's autofocus is unusable at low light levels). See this page for details of upgrading, and this PDF for documentation of the features added and how to use them.

Actually, I have a Toshiba, um... (pause to look it up) PDR-M700 that indeed actually had a firmware upgrade. The upgrade added features, notably manual focus (a godsend, because the camera's autofocus is unusable at low light levels). See this page for details of upgrading, and this PDF for documentation of the features added and how to use them.

I think a 200g shock while operating is pretty much equivalent to immune, as long as you aren't rock climbing when you drop your iPod, that is.

specs: http://sdd.toshiba.com/cda/main.aspx?Path=/8182000 00007000000010000659800000940/81820000011d00000001 0000659c000003fd/8182000001c8000000010000659c00000 599/8182000001df000000010000659c000005c1/818200000 1e2000000010000659c000005c6

I'm expecting Mr. Murphy to visit me as soon as I open the case...

But if you want advice that goes beyond cute offtopic stuff like the above, you probably should check out the manufacturer's customer support site.

I have spent considerable time on multiple revisions of this solution myself.

My daughter wakes often and my wife and I very much want to keep an eye on her. She can hear us if we come within ten feet of her door, so using a camera was a necessity.

Practical issues - her room is dark. Do not underestimate the importance of low lux (slow shutter) functionality. I extensively use the Toshiba IK-WB11A (specs). It offers 0.03 LUX minimal illumination. This can connect wired or wirelessly (802.11b) back to your network.

The Java interface is a complete joke with a ridiciulous memory leak. Simply Ethereal capture the device, grab the "hidden" url for the underlying static graphic and write your own JavaScript for downloading that graphic. I accomplish this simply with two image buffers (in DIV tags) that alternate on loads. Build in error catching and timeouts for these loads.

More interesting than this for me was replacing the audio monitor (and being able to keep the doors closed). For this, I have only begun the implementation. Basically, I have a laptop in her room (old 300MHz system). It ties directly into the microphone via Windows APIs. I then sample the spectral range on a 5 Hz basis. By creating a very, very simple "shrillness" algorithm along with volume determination - it is easy to get a simple "detection" of the cry.

With this audio detection, I simply have the monitor mute the audio of my daughter until a certain amount of time has passed with continuous audio. Thus priority 0 audio (noise characterized like her just-changing-positions audio) must be maintained for 30 seconds before the audio is passed into my bedroom. Higher priority signals have shorter durations. A simple "scoring" system based on audio "shrillness" and audio amplitude yields the minimum duration value before audio passthrough.

Toshiba just introduced the SD-R5372 with 5x dual layer writing.

What I want to know is when more of these drives will start coming out with Serial ATA interfaces. Yes, they don't need the speed, but it would be nice to buy new drives in the format they're migrating to for other reasons.

I have a set-top DVD player that I bought from Costco for $49. It plays WMA audio files just fine!

Many new DVD players play WMA, for example this mid-range Toshiba model. How many DVD players can play Apple's AC3 format? I'll give a gmail account to anyone who can email me a link to a commercial set-top DVD player that can play Apple AC3 files.

Vibration and Shock:
Operating Vibration: 1.0G (5-50 Hz)
Operating Shock: 200G/2.0ms
Non-Operating Shock: 1,000G/1.0ms

What does associated mean? Wholly owned subsidiary? Joint venture? These would typically qualify as "same company" to some degree or another.

And, if they are not the same company why do they share the "same website"?

So you aren't talking about the JVC DLA-SX21U, because that LCoS unit offers a native 4x3 resolution of 1400x1050; just shy of 1080 lines. Looked like a nice unit, but waaaay out of my price range. And it doesn't meet the OPer's definition of meeting "real" 1920x1080 resolution either.

Actually, I was talking about the Toshiba 57HLX82, a 3-chip LCoS RPTV.

BTW, thanks for the interresting reply.

No prob. I'm one of those people obsessed with a burn-in-free 1080 set to use as a oversized computer monitor. If the 57HLX82 wasn't still out of my price range, I'd be getting one of those today. I'm hoping that the single-chip 1080 DLP solutions will be a little less expensive when they come out, but I'm not holding my breath.

Sounds like vaporware has moved from the soft relm to the hard relm. If the missing "feature" was advertized then I think there's a case for a lawsuit. Then again, I bought my PDA partly on the strength of a feature that is missing -- with no firmware upgrade available. Unless there's a class action, I'm screwed and they know it. But unless there's a fix, I'll never buy their crap again. If what this article says is true, then it's a short-term trend that will get the companies long-term problems.

...yeah. Bluetooth is dead.

So don't tell Apple. Or ANY of the folk who make PDAs and accessories with Bluetooth capabilities.

Out of curiosity, am I the only one who hadn't heard of "Wireless USB" before this article?

1.8-inch HDD
40.0 GB:
MK4004GAH

Lightweight, only 62 grams
Low Power Consumption
15ms Average Seek Time
100MB/s Ultra DMA Transfer Rate
300,000 MTTF Hours

Sounds like a laptop drive to me...and a good one too! One that doesn't know the difference between audio, OS files, games or video...knock yourself out.

Run it all you want, that's what the warranty/extended warranty is for. One year from Toshiba to Apple to you...more if you have Apple Care, CompUSA, etc.

Toshiba introduces a 40GB 1.8-inch embedded HDD, the MK4004GAH. Enabling some of today's most exciting, small form factor mobile devices, the new mini-drives offer manufacturers significant storage for consumer, commercial and PC applications - such as music players, handheld PCs, PDAs, wearable computers and laptops. Toshiba is committed to grow with developers and users to provide smart computing solutions, backed by Toshiba-renowned quality and technology leadership.

Suggesting 'only occasional use as a boot drive' is silly.

Toshiba 57HLX82 - (press release, May 2002), 57", (3) 1080p LCoS chips, msrp: $8,999.99, depth is only 18"

Mitsubishi WL-82913A - $18,000 (list was around $21,000), can't find a listing on Mitsubishi's site

A small nuclear device should do. Assuming you can't get Pitr's, try contacting Toshiba about the one discussed in this story

Sorry, the iPod uses 1.8" hard drives made by Toshiba, like this one. They're not cheap. At the time they were first released as a 5GB model they were nearly as expensive as the 5GB iPod itself.

For a guy called "ChaoticChaos", you sure are a marketing company's dream. By the way, I bet this 7700 doesn't play music anywhere near as well as my iPod ($299), nor does it sync with Outlook as well as my Toshiba e755 ($399).

I've got two tablets: a ProGear which I bought for $600 when the SonicBlew decided to clear inventory, and a Toshiba Poretege 3500. I can tell you that, primarily, the biggest problem with these tablets is a cruddy software interface. I assume you remember the first incarnation of Windows CE, and how much of the interface was a lift of the Windows 95 GUI. Tablet XP is the same way. While the underlying components are all there, they are implemented to allow quick transition from XP to XP Tablet. The interface on these devices should be more along the lines of CE's CURRENT design, which presents much more information on a single screen, with a much more streamlined (read specialized) human-computer interface.

I'm developing software for the Toshiba, but have had a chance to use it for classwork (I'm a Senior in Electrical and Computer Engineering at OU), and I can seriously say that for people like me that take a lot of notes (read digital packrats), tablets have lots of potential. I can search my handwriting for specific keywords, or "print" a document to the Journal and mark it up, which is a great feature for professors that provide notes to follow along with in class. While everyone else is scribbling madly to keep up, I just pick the "highlighter" and highlight the notes, and maybe make some of my own in the side margin.

As far as the form factor goes, they're getting smaller, and lighter. Look at Acer's TravelMate, for example.

Also, what some people fail to realize is that there are two distinct types of tablets. All of the ones I've highlighted, with the exception of the ProGear are "convertible" machines. A second (cheaper) form factor is also out there, the "slate" machines. Check out a great overview at TheTabletPC.Net.

As they say with many other things, don't knock it 'til you try it.

Mike Hollinger

At lot of the lower-end laptop hard drives will have 2MB of cache, but Toshiba and others make laptop hard drives with 4, 8 or 16MB of cache... like this hard drive from Toshiba.

The additional cache can be helpful as the hard drive can fill up the cache and spin down to conserve energy.

Toshiba has had a box like this for some time. In fact I picked one up for testing for a scant $299. It was the SG20, but it still works as advertised. Not too powerful, but could work for a small workgroup. Here is a link to those boxes.

I doubt that will happen anytime soon because ipods use a 1.8" drive manufactured by Toshiba. And currently the largest 1.8" drive made by them is 30gigs and the largest 2" drive is 80gigs.

You're limited to 1.8" drives, which basically means Toshiba, topping out at 30GB with the MK3004GAH, a 4200rpm unit with slow access.

But I just dont see any notebooks in the market with Nvidia graphic cards

Look harder buddy:

Dell Inspiron 8500 ( Look in the list you can customize one with a GeForce 4 4200 Go )

Toshiba Satellite 5205 ( This one has the latest mobile Nvidia card. A little bit heavier than the Dell though and only supports 802.11b )

Enjoy!

Upon looking at the Toshiba laptop picture on Toshiba's website, I noticed it looks very much like the Apple ][ series computers from twenty years ago... It looks about as portable as one as well... :^) The Toshiba laptop should be officially called a "luggable", just like the original heavy portable computers were called...

From the linked page:
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Slashdot visitors please use this link Satellite P25

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Slashdot visitors please use this link Satellite P25

Maybe you need to exercise. How much does the case weigh? How about all the other things outside the laptop (papers, cds, books, etc).

Plus I'm not sure where you get your fuzzy math but the 17" powerbook is 6.8 lbs and the 17" toshiba is 7.8 lbs [PDF].

If 1 pound is worth $1000 maybe you should invest in a gym.

if all they think people want in a laptop anymore is a DVD/CD player, why not just make and sell them that instead?

PDF of the specs

It looks like they caught and surpassed apple in this case. It has a fast processor, a good graphics card and it's $1000 cheaper. I guess apple is getting a premium after all (mind you I own 3 apples and I'm buying a G5 when they ship).

Satellite P25 (when the site isn't too busy) Looks like a pretty ugly machine too, though its pretty hard to tell since they never post a REAL pictures on the web. I've emailed Toshiba about this before. What's wrong with a couple good 1024x768 images on a secondary screen for people who are interested?

For those of you, like me, had problems with that link, use this instead:
http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/pc/pc_cf_p rodChassis.jsp?BV_EngineID=ccccadcikdgjefgcgfkcegh dgngdglk.0&comm=ST&pfam=Satellite&pmod=P25

Without the damned session in the URL:

Here

Then Toshiba and Panasonic have devices that you might be interested in. Both have DVR/DVD-R/RW products that can record to hard drive or disc. Neither have broadband/dial-up connections or program guides. The biggest problem is that they're still pretty expensive, running at minimum around the same price as a Tivo or Replay with lifetime guide service and as high as $1,500 MSRP. Here's a link to one of the Panasonic products, and a link to a Toshiba product.

While I do believe he is correct, I think he may be off base with the PDA. This is one of the only devices that I would like to see be more "all in one". I'd personally like a Sony Ericsson p800 style PDA phone that had the screen from a Clie NZ90, GPS, iPod sized hard drive, megapixel camera, the VERY cool remote control center from Sony, 802.11g and Bluetooth + an Mp3 player and DIVX/MPEG4 decoder. While something like this would be in the high end (probably where the NZ90 is = $800 + $100 802.11 card) I still think it'd fly off the shelf, and possibly be subsidized by cell phone companies, at least in part with service agreements.

I still hope Apple is considering such a device or at least with most of the features listed here with a compact flash & SDIO slot.

I know there's a little link overload, just illustrating how easily this could be done right now!

All of this could be squeezed into a current form factor Sony Clie.

http://www.toshiba.com/tacp/dvd/current/RDX2.htm l

Not a smart wager friend. Toshiba's largest embedded drive is still the 20 Gig drive used in current iPods. Suck I could use a 40 Gig iPod 20 for mp3s and 20 for DV and other removable storage.

I have to admit, though, the tech geek in me is more interested in this fancy little unit from Toshiba. The only thing stopping me from not eating for a few months and buying one is the fact that it lacks a Tivo/Replay type of guide service (it uses the now-tacky VCR+ from Gemstar). I've been using my ReplayTV for years now and I don't know if I can go backwards in that area.

Look at the new Toshiba Protege R100 Only 2.3lbs (that's near enough 1kg), 900 Mhz CPU, 12" screen.... This is the one I buy.

Find it here. It's LCOS, released in January, on display at CES, and currently on allocation. Next year's model is supposed to drop to USD $5000.

-Joe

Check the serial of your e704, maybe you should bring it back

Wow, tiny computer. Nice. Look a n o t h e r tiny computer.

toshiba pc card type II 5GB drive

• "A correction re: Ipods; they use a real IDE laptop hard drive, not PCMCIA..."

• 5¼" (or larger): "Dinosaur"
• 3½", full height: "Server"
• 3½", half height: "Desktop"
• 2½", (any height): "Laptop"
• 1.8", less than 10.5mm: "PCMCIA" or "PC Card"

Just because a manufacturer uses one as a laptop's main drive doesn't change the fact that it's the same physical size as a PCMCIA card.

In fact, when the iPod first came out, these drives were idendified early on as the hardware Apple used.

Note the "interface" section of the press release:

• Interface: PC Card ATA -- 68pin AT (ATA-2 through ATA-5)

Apart from the title there is no mention of 3g in the article. Is the author actually looking for a 3g solution (in which case i can't help because 3g is not available in most of the world, including where i live) or was the 3g buzzword just thrown in for good measure ?

(note: the following info is gsm-only because that's all i'm familiar with)

Getting your mail via webmail can only be done if you have a phone that can surf the web like the nokia 9210i (gsm 900/1800 only, old, no gprs), siemens sx45 (again 900/1800 only, kinda old) or the sony ericsson P800 (which works on gsm 1900 and looks way better than the other two). Apart from the cellphone, make sure your gsm network provider supports gprs, because data transfers without it are more painful and more expensive.

If you only need pop3, all you need is a phone with a pop3/imap client (there tons available). Again make sure your network supports gprs.

Of course you could always get phone with decent data capabilities and a pda. If you really want to impress you friends, make sure they both have bluetooth. (bluetooth products: nokia hp/compaq Toshiba

Apple uses Toshiba 1.8" hard drives in the iPod. You can see an example here. Toshiba sells a PCCard version of this hard drive for $399 retail. You may be able to find it as cheap as $240. Here is Toshiba's page for hard drives.

As you can see now clearly see, this is much smaller (54mm x 78.5mm x 5mm) and lower power than even laptop 2.5" hard drives. Apple probably pays between $150 and $200 for the 5gb version of these drives.