More Sony Batteries Recalled

Posted by on under sony batteries, laptop batteries, th time, hagerman, product safety, lenovo, milli, timeframe, laptops, dell, toshiba, hp, sony |

Scott Hagerman passes along news of yet another recall of Sony laptop batteries. The batteries in question, manufactured in the same timeframe as those involved in the massive 2006 recall, are in laptops sold by HP, Dell, Toshiba, Lenovo, and Acer. Neither Apple nor Sony itself used these batteries in their laptops. This time 100,000 batteries are involved — 65,000 of them sold outside of the US — vs. the 10 million recalled in 2006. The Consumer Product Safety Commission fielded 19 reports of batteries overheating and/or catching fire.

OLPC and the "Innovator's Opportunity"

Posted by on under seeming paradox, video side, lten, previous products, screen technology, poor kids, video interview, r600, innovator, mary lou, cool thing, qi, olpc, dilemma, pixel, sunlight, improvements, toshiba, africa |

viralMeme sends in a piece from OLPC News featuring a video interview with Pixel Qi's Mary Lou Jepson. The interview goes over some of the improvements in the company's extremely power-eficient screen technology that will show up in the next generations of the OLPC. The article links a video side-by-side comparison among Pixel Qi, Kindle, and Toshiba R600 displays in sunlight and in shade; Pixel Qi is arguably more readable than Kindle, and in full color. Jepson refers to Clayton Christenson's 1997 classic The Innovator's Dilemma, explaining a seeming paradox in high-tech: why companies that listen to their customers aren't the ones that innovate. According to the article it's mainly because "the next big market isn't with your current customers. It's with a vastly larger group of would-be users who couldn't afford your previous products, or couldn't carry around the huge devices of previous generations." Jepson says "The cool thing about the Pixel Qi technology is, you know, poor kids in Africa got it first... It's the classic Innovator's Dilemma."

Engadget: Toshiba Dynario fuel-cell: the battery revolution begins October 29th

Posted by on under methanol fuel cell, direct methanol fuel cell, direct methanol fuel, hybrid structure, dmfc, csts, wall socket, promed, fuel tank, fuel costs, electrics, tosh, launch, portability, lithium, yen, new age, electricity, toshiba, press release |

We can hardly believe it but the day has finally arrived: Toshiba just launched the first Dynario fuel-cell for portable consumer electronics. That's right, the long promised and highly anticipated direct methanol fuel-cell (DMFC) with dedicated fuel cartridge for on-the-go refueling will go on sale October 29th in Japan for ¥29,800 (about $328) plus another ¥3,150 (about $34) for a set of five, 50ml fuel cartridges. Dynario takes about 20 seconds to fill its 14ml fuel tank with an injection of a concentrated methanol solution at which point it's ready to charge USB-connected devices. Dynario's hybrid structure uses a lithium-ion battery to store enough electricity to charge two typical cellphones, according to Tosh. That works out to be about $1 per recharge, if our calculations are correct, based on the fuel costs alone. We assume the battery can be charged via wall socket power too but this isn't explicitly stated in the press release. The first run consists of only 3,000 units after which Toshiba will gauge consumer reaction before extending the launch outside of Japan. Boy oh boy, a new age in portability has begun.

Gallery: Toshiba Dynario fuel-cell: the battery revolution begins October 29th

Toshiba Dynario fuel-cell: the battery revolution begins October 29th originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Oct 2009 01:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tagi: methanol fuel cell, direct methanol fuel cell, direct methanol fuel, hybrid structure, dmfc, csts, wall socket, promed, fuel tank, fuel costs, electrics, tosh, launch, portability, lithium, yen, new age, electricity, toshiba, press release

Techcrunch: The Google Phone Is Very Real. And It’s Coming Soon

Posted by on under coue, anning, sintering, google, mths, rages, iphe, whole lot, myth, keyboard, zunes, toshiba, holidays, microsoft |

The debate over Droid v. iPhone rages on, but lots more Android surprises are on the way. Get ready for the Google Phone. It's no longer a myth, it's real. The next "super" Android device will almost certainly be a HTC phone that's much thinner than even the Droid or iPhone - The Dragon/Passion. This is the phone the senior Android guys at Google are now carrying around and testing, at least as of a couple of weeks ago. If you're willing to give up the Droid's keyboard, the Dragon/Passion is going to be a really cool phone. It should be fully available very soon. But it isn't the Google Phone. Everything up until now has just been a warm up to the Google Phone. Way more interesting are the rumors we've been hearing for months about a pure Google-branded phone. Most of our sources have unconfirmed information, which we describe below. But there are a few things we have absolutely confirmed: Google is building their own branded phone that they'll sell directly and through retailers. They were long planning to have the phone be available by the holidays, but it has now slipped to early 2010. The phone will be produced by a major phone manufacturer but will only have Google branding (Microsoft did the same thing with their first Zunes, which were built by Toshiba). There won't be any negotiation or compromise over the phone's design of features - Google is dictating every last piece of it. No splintering of the Android OS that makes some applications unusable. Like the iPhone for Apple, this phone will be Google's pure vision of what a phone should be. That's it for confirmed, super-high confidence information, which frankly isn't a whole lot more than we all heard back in late October. But we also have a few more details as well that we've gathered from a number of sources. Everything that follows we still consider to be just well-sourced rumors:

Tagi: coue, anning, sintering, google, mths, rages, iphe, whole lot, myth, keyboard, zunes, toshiba, holidays, microsoft

Engadget: HTC HD2 plays Tekken 3 using FPSECE emulator

Posted by on under original gangster, xda developers, final fantasy vii, hd2, mulator, ays, irst, emulator, tati, handset, toshiba |

Not much to say here other than there's a PlayStation emulator for the HD2 and it bloody well works! The original gangster of consoles, already emulated on other WinMo devices such as Toshiba's TG01, has made its way to HTC's finest thanks to version 0.10 of the First PlayStation Emulator for Windows CE. You can hit the read link to find out how to get it up and running on your own handset, and then we'll naturally expect you to come back and tell us how good it felt to play Final Fantasy VII in a whole new way. The more impatient among you will already be watching video of the HD2 running Tekken 3 effortlessly after the break, so go join 'em already.

Continue reading HTC HD2 plays Tekken 3 using FPSECE emulator

HTC HD2 plays Tekken 3 using FPSECE emulator originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Dec 2009 19:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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