Following in the footsteps of Apple’s sharp iPhone 4/4S Retina display, Toshiba is now showing off a 6.1-inch display with an astounding 2560 x 1600 resolution. If you do the math on that, it works out to a whopping 496 ppi. In comparison, Apple’s Retina displays are already a razor-sharp 326ppi. The image above is an example screen from the display. Here’s a zoomed in section from the image to give you a sense of how much detail it holds:

Enough resolution for you? The prototype LCD/TFT display offers a contrast ratio of 1000 to 1, a 176-degree viewing angle, and support for a full 16-million colors. Not too shabby for a display which could almost fit in your pants pocket.

No word on when we’ll actually see these displays in a production device. I’m still waiting for the TV in my living room has the same resolution as a 4K digital cinema.

[Toshiba [JP] via Newlaunches]

Of course it will move around objects just like the Roomba and it can be programmed to do things like concentrate on small areas. So when can we expect this Roomba-killer to hit the market? It should hit Japan on October 1 for a whopping $1,175 (USD), and for that price you also get a remote and the charging station.

The robot war for your floor begins on Oct. 1st.

[via Techcrunch]

The OS is Android 3.0 and it has a 10.1-inch screen. At this point, the Japanese translation gets sketchy; it seems the tablet has 16GB of storage. I also sports Bluetooth and WiFi. It does have cameras built into the front and back too.

It appears that the camera on the front of the tablet is a 2MP unit. The one on the back is apparently a 5MP unit. The tablet weighs 765g and it has a HDMI output as well. Pricing and availability are unknown at this time.

[via Toshiba (JP)]

I have worked with a big 30-inch LCD for years and once you do that there is no going back to small screens. This is why it drives me crazy to travel and have to work from a notebook. I can take a mouse and keyboard with me, but there aren’t many solutions for the lack of screen real-estate. Toshiba has a new solution though that will make using that notebook easier for folks like me called the Toshiba Mobile Monitor.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The little screen is a 14-inch, 1366×768 monitor inside a handy folding case. Toshiba says that the panel is right out of one of its notebooks. The cool part is that the screen gets both power and connectivity from a single USB port, and you can use it as either a mirrored display or to gain extra screen space. The downside is that your notebook probably won’t last as long when you connect this thing to its battery. The Toshiba Mobile Monitor sells for $199.99 (USD).

Toshiba and KDDI partnered up to come up with the Biblio Leaf, a solar-powered ebook reader. It has a 6-inch display, WiFi, 3G, a stylus, and 2GB of memory, which you can expand via a microSD card.

The solar panels are front-mounted. Whatever. I have no problems plugging my devices for a few hours, and with most E-Readers having weeks of battery life on a single charge, I don’t quite get the point. I suppose if you travel to locations without electricity for long periods of time, it might make sense. Maybe it would be good for education in developing nations, though. I’m just curious at how long it takes to charge the Biblio Leaf with the solar panel. It’s probably going to take a while.

[via DVice]

Toshiba doesn’t let that fact stop it from making all sorts of 3D products like the Satellite A665-3D laptop that is set to launch next month. The notebook has a 3D screen that is 15.6-inches wide and has HDMI 1.4 output to send that 3D to your TV. The notebook uses NVIDIA 3D Vision technology and only comes with a single pair of glasses, so you’ll have to pony up extra dough if you want anyone else to see the 3D.

The machine has CPU options that include a Core i5-460M and a Core i7-740QM. The machine upscales 2D movies to 3D as well. The GPU inside is a GeForce GTS 350M and the machine has Blu-ray, Wi-Fi, up to 6GB of RAM, and 640GB of storage. The standard battery is a 6-cell unit and a 12-cell battery is optional. The machine will start at $1299.99(USD) when it hits stores.

Toshiba has recalled the Satellite T135, T135D, and ProT130 notebooks due to a burn risk. The machines apparently overheat near where the AC adapter connects to the notebook. Toshiba reports that it has had 129 complaints of the machines deforming in the AC adapter area.

Of those 129 complaints, two resulted in minor burns and two in minor property damage. Toshiba has a new firmware that will disconnect the AC adapter if it detects overheating and tell the user to get the rig fixed by Toshiba. I guess you just need to hope yours doesn’t burn the house down after the new update is applied.

[via CPSC]

We know the tech for 3D with no glasses is there thanks to Nintendo and others. The good news is that if you have been holding out for a 3D TV, Santa may want to pack one up for your Christmas gift. Toshiba is reportedly set to offer three new TVs that support 3D without needing glasses.

We have no hard details on the sets at the moment, but my money says the three models will only differ in screen size. The sets will reportedly cost “several thousand dollars” and will land in time for Christmas. Maybe it’s time to start saving!

[via AFP]

Created by Kiel Johnson and worn by Klai Brown of Hyperbole Studios, “8-Bit Gary” was made for an upcoming Toshiba commercial. Kiel created the costume from thousands of individually cut and painted foam blocks, painstakingly glued to a cardboard “suit” structure.

I don’t know about you guys, but I know who I’m calling this Halloween to make my costume.

[via Boing Boing]

I am glad to see companies making strides in displays that will show 3D and don’t need glasses to view. Toshiba Mobile Display has unveiled a new 21-inch screen that shows 3D images without needing glasses.

The screen does this by using multi-parallax technology with wide viewing angles. A special filter layer also makes the panel as bright as conventional 2D screens. Hopefully, this is the sort of tech that will get more people to move to 3D at home.

Wheelie doesn’t have any arms, but it uses the inverse pendulum principle to balance itself. The flat surface of its head makes it the perfect butler or waiter, and it’s just big enough to rest some plates on top of its noggin.

Check out the video below to see Wheelie in action. It’s true that this is an area where robots could really help out. Think about all of the robot vacuum cleaners that are cleaning people’s houses.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

With one of these, you could have a robot deliver your TV dinner directly to you, so you don’t have to get your lazy ass off the couch. Now that’s what I call progress!

[via Plastic Pals]

It’s an elegant improvement over traditional notetaking – a digital clipboard means less paper, less waste, and easier filing and archiving. For instances that call for heavy typing, the tablet can dock into a charger/keyboard module. As Coroflot‘s Geoffrey Cooper said, in the future it would be cheaper to have these docks scattered throughout a hospital as opposed to buying an equivalent number of conventional computers.

Since the Rx is meant to be used in hospitals, the tablet and the dock are encased in washable rubber. The dock has a touchpad, but a mouse can also be connected if needed.

I’m no doctor, but I do think that Toshiba has a very promising design here. Of course the software in the Rx will be critical as well, but hardware-wise (and until the time comes when computers can be implanted into our brains), the tablet-keyboard/charger combo seems to be the best way to have a computer with the maximum portability and versatility.

[via Coroflot via gizmowatch]

A rotating 3″ display folds flat onto the side of the camcorder when not in use, and all video is stored on an SDHC card to keep things really down to size. The Camileo S20 offers a 5-megapixel CMOS sensor, and while it doesn’t have any optical zoom, its 4x digital zoom should get the job done for basic home video needs. The camera also sports an HDMI output, and a YouTube quick key for one-touch uploads to the ubiquitous video site.

No word yet on a release date, but the MSRP for the S20 is £119.99 (about $195 USD), which makes it just a comparable in price to the 720p Flip Mino HD.

[Toshiba UK via gdgt]

The guys over at Modern Mechanix dug up this priceless gem of a photo from the June 1970 issue of Popular Science. It showed a prototype for a newspaper facsimile printer, dubbed the “Electronic newsboy”. Toshiba described the printer as a device which could crank out one double-sided news page every six minutes and would sell for about $300 (with inflation, that would be a bit over $1600 today).

It looks a bit like a microwave oven gone berserk to me. I wonder if it printed the movie section when you pressed the popcorn button.

After dropping the price on Toshiba’s HD-A2 HD DVD player to $199, there’s now an ad that shows an unbelievable price of $98.87. I’m sure this is a loss-leader for Wally World, but it’s still but it’s a clear sign that the HD DVD camp means business. As far as I know, the sale is a one-day only deal for this Friday (November 2, 2007 starting at 8am), but I wouldn’t doubt that the regular retail price for these players drops close to this level as the holidays approach.

With the cheapest Blu-Ray players running around $400 (on sale), these kind of aggressive discounts will help HD DVD gain ground on what was a losing battle up until now.

[Wal-Mart via Engadget HD]

The panels are designed for use in vehicular instrument panels. The initial module measures in at about 75mm (2.95″) diameter and 11mm (0.43″) thick, including all electronics and backlighting. Viewable area is 62mm (2.44″) in diameter, and the screen supports up to 260,000 colors.

While the display is ideally suited to speedometers, tachometers and other automotive displays, I can imagine some pretty cool hacking opportunities too. Circular iPod anybody?

[TMD via Fareastgizmos]

With colors like bamboo, rattan, peony, persimmon and green onion, I thought I was looking at the paint swatches at the Home Depot.

While they may look purty, the Gigabeat U103 series doesn’t offer anything particularly earth-shattering in terms of features. The media players have 1GB of flash memory, a small OLED color display and can play MP3, WMA and WAV tunes. I do like that they have a built-in FM receiver with recording capability, as well as an FM transmitter for sending your audio to your radio, a feature sorely missing from Apple’s iPod line.

The U103 players go on sale today in Japan for ¥13,800 (about $113 USD.)

[via AV Watch via DAPreview]

All of the sets will feature 1080p support and three HDMI ports, but the Z-series will feature a 120Hz frame refresh rate to reduce image blurring and other motion artifacts. The sets are all expected to be available later this year.

I’m pretty sure that at lease some of these are the same sets that I reported on a back in January, but now we know what the sets actually look like.

[via Pocket Lint via Gizmodo]

Note: Photo shown above is from older model of display. Images of the new models are not yet available.

The REGZA 1080p Full HD (HL167 series) displays will come in 42, 42 and 52-inch variation and offer a 90%+ color gamut and a feature that Toshiba calls “native mode” which is said to prevent any overscanning of signals. The displays also feature HDMI – CEC connections, which enable bi-directional communication between the TV and other sources so remote control can be centralized through the TV without any infrared or RF communication to connected devices.

Toshiba’s higher end Cinema Series REGZA (LX177 series) displays will feature additional enhancements such as 120Hz anti-blur technology to reduce flicker and other motion artifacts, as well as Deep Color and XVycc technologies to broaden the display’s color gamut. The Cinema Series models feature additional home theater control inputs as well as Virtual Dolby surround and an enhanced universal remote.

Below is the release schedule for these new models:

Pricing has not yet been announced.

When asked about the possibility of upcoming price reductions, Toshiba CEO Yoshihide Fujii was quoted as saying: “At first I thought the price threshold is $499. Maybe coming next is $399 and after that is $299.”

You can currently find the Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD player at street prices just north of $400, and the Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on for $199. However, the idea that a stand alone player could hit shelves for under $300 could give HD DVD another boost over Blu-ray, which still offers most players at $800 and up (except for the Sony Playstation 3).

[via Gizmodo]