Toshiba announces widest-screen Ultrabook
Toshiba has come up with perhaps the most striking Ultrabook to date with the elongated Satellite U845W announced today – that W stands for very Wide, while its depth is unusually narrow.
The picture (left) doesn’t do justice to the laptop (nor does the name, U must stand for unsexy nomenclature). This is the first Ultrabook to feature a 21:9 cinematic aspect ratio, made possible by its 14.4in ultrawide-HD display. Read more
Tablets bigger than expected – Gartner, Toshiba
Gartner upped its 2012 worldwide tablet sales forecast on Tuesday to 119m units, from the 103m it predicted last September and almost double its final figures for 2011 of 60m units.
The research firm predicted Apple would still dominate with a 61 per cent market share, with Android taking 32 per cent. Toshiba will hope to have some of the latter share, with three new Excite tablets announced on Tuesday, including a supersized 13.3in version. Read more
Toshiba excites with thinnest tablet
Toshiba showed off its new Excite X10 tablet at CES on Sunday evening, coupling it in demonstrations with its latest lineup of Smart TVs.
The Excite is a 10.1in tablet, which Toshiba claims is the world’s thinnest and lightest at that size – 0.3in thin to be specific and weighing 1.2lbs. Read more
If 2010 was Apple’s year in personal technology, with the launch of the iPad and major redesigns for the iPhone, MacBook Air and Apple TV, it is harder to call the winners of 2011, with Apple happy with incremental updates and the competition still striving to catch up.
Toshiba Portégé Z835
Competition in the Ultrabook category of laptops resembles a runway cat fight among skinny supermodels, as these thin and light devices battle it out over looks and vital statistics. The models from Toshiba and Hewlett-Packard, and a hybrid alternative from Asus, all excel but the right option will depend on your needs.
Toshiba tablet thrives at 7in
Toshiba has announced its first 7in tablet – an Android device that may give Samsung’s Galaxy Tab of that screen size a run for its money.
At a demonstration in San Francisco, I was impressed with the high-resolution screen, the rubberised grip and the lightness of the 7in Thrive, compared to the bulkier 10.1in version already available. Read more
Ultrabooks challenge MacBook Air
The MacBook Air finally has some serious competition with the first of the new Ultrabook laptops being launched here at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin.
After Toshiba unveiled what it claimed was the world’s thinnest and lightest 13.3in laptop on Thursday – the Portege Z830 - Acer followed up on Friday with the Aspire S3, which boasts 1.5 seconds start-up time from a sleep state that can last 50 days on its long-life battery. Read more
Samsung seeks IFA lucky tablet streak
Samsung began the most serious challenge to Apple and the iPad when it unveiled the first in its Galaxy Tab series at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin a year ago.
It looks set to raise its game further back here in Berlin this week, where the Korean company, Sony and Toshiba, among others, are showing off new tablet formats to take on the iPad at their 2011 IFA press conferences. Read more
Workhorse laptops pick up the pace
The trend of employees wanting to bring their better-looking and feature-rich consumer devices into the workplace has provoked a reaction from those supplying the safe but staid business laptops we know and suffer. Faced with competition from tablets and ultra-slim notebooks, such as the iPad 2, MacBook Air, Samsung Series 9 and Sony Vaio Z, HP, Lenovo and Toshiba have produced ultraportable notebooks with extra style and consumer features – the subject of this week’s Personal Technology column in the FT’s Business Life section. Read more
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Richard Waters has headed the FT's San Francisco bureau since 2002 and covers Google and Microsoft, among other things. A former New York bureau chief for the FT, he is intrigued by Silicon Valley's unique financial and business culture, and is looking forward to covering his second Tech Bust.
Chris Nuttall has been online and messing around with computers for more than 20 years and since 2004 has reported from the FT's San Francisco bureau on semiconductors, video games, consumer electronics and all things interwebby.
Maija Palmer has been writing about technology for the FT since 1999 and is fascinated by cybercrime, privacy and all the other issues of the information society. Based in London, she covers European tech companies and hopes that they won't all get acquired by American rivals.
Robin Kwong is the FT's technology, media and telecoms page editor in London. Formerly he was the Taipei correspondent and wrote about the companies that manufacture the vast majority of the world's computers and gadgets. He is interested in the intricacies of the technology supply chain and how China is increasingly changing the tech landscape.
Tim Bradshaw is the FT's digital media correspondent, and has just moved from London to join our team in San Francisco. He has covered start-ups such as Twitter and Spotify, as well as the online ambitions of more established media companies, such as the BBC iPlayer. He also covers the advertising, marketing and video-game industries. Tim has been writing about technology, business and finance since 2003.
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