Toshiba intros Canvio portable HDD lineup, tops out at 1TB

Following the announcement of its new high capacity notebook hard drives, Toshiba has unveiled an equally capacious portable offering. The Canvio lineup is comprised of four units: 500GB ($120), 640GB ($140), 750GB ($160), and 1TB ($200).

The latter two are branded as "Canvio Plus," but the only variation seems to be in storage, dimensions, and price. The smaller two measure 3.1 x 4.7 x 0.53-inches and weigh 5.2oz, while the larger drives are 0.12 inches thicker and 1.1oz heavier. All of the drives use USB 2.0 for data and power, are available in five different colors (blue, green, red, black and silver), and ship with a three-year warranty.


In addition to being "pocket sized" the drives come with easy-to-use backup software, which has improved search capabilities, simpler step-by-step restore functionality to retrieve lost files, and brings more features for advanced users.

It's worth mentioning that the company links an interesting poll on the Canvio product page which shows that Americans are more afraid of losing irreplaceable documents than having a wallet stolen, being audited by the IRS, or even losing their job.

WD intros standard-height 2.5-inch 750GB Scorpio Blue HDD

Western Digital already shipped the industry's first 2.5-inch 1TB hard drive last summer, but unfortunately for most, it couldn't be used as a drop-in solution for upgrading one's laptop drive. The reason? It relies on an unorthodox 12.5mm height form factor, while the vast majority of laptops only support 9.5mm height drives. Now, the outfit has pushed out a 750GB Scorpio Blue, a 2.5-incher that does indeed utilize the standard height form factor, and while this here unit includes Advanced Format and WhisperDrive, the 5,400RPM spindle speed is admittedly disappointing. It's tough to argue with the $149 price, though, and it's available now if you've been hankering for more space within your mobile workhorse.

Dell Precision M4500 now shipping with $1,549 starting price

With specs and prices easily reaching into the stratosphere, we weren't quite sure where Dell's new 15-inch Precision M4500 workstation would land -- the 17-inch M6500 has a starting price of $1,799, but that's only after $310 of "instant savings." Well, it looks like we're getting off (relatively) easy with the M4500, with a Core i5-520M 2.5GHz model running for $1,549 and still managing to pack in those NVIDIA Quadro FX 880M Graphics. Of course, we imagine you'll quickly be running up that bill -- 2GB of slow RAM, a 1366 x 768 LCD, and no WiFi just aren't going to cut it -- but with tempting options like a secondary 64GB SSD minicard drive and the ever-frivilous Precision ON, it's not like we were sticking near that base price anyway. Expect to spec out something truly delicious in the $2,500+ range. Our biggest disappointment? Backlit keyboard is optional, something that's standard even on the Vostro line these days.

Toshiba K01 goes official as IS02 in Japan

Talk about a globetrotter. Toshiba's K01 has made the journey from the American FCC to a Japanese carrier in the space of just one day. AU, part of the KDDI group and one of Japan's big three network operators, has picked up the phone and promptly renamed it the IS02. Coming with a 1GHz Snapdragon core, a 4.1-inch capacitive touchscreen of the AMOLED variety, and that indispensable (for some) QWERTY keyboard, this WinMo 6.5 handset will be available to our Japanese comrades in the latter part of June this year. Given the long waiting times both for this and its brandmate, the IS01, we have to wonder what's up with Japanese carriers.

Sharp IS01 Snapdragon-powered 3G MID introduces AU to Android

After Softbank announced the HTC Desire and DoCoMo began pushing its very first Android smartphone (Xperia X10), Japan had big hopes for AU's press event today. An EVO perhaps, or maybe something more from this once proud home of the original superphones? Unfortunately, Engadget Japanese let out a collective meh in response to a 5-inch IS01 handheld from Sharp running Android 1.6 on a Snapdragon processor and measuring 83 × 149 × 17.9mm and 227g. While it looks like the classic Japanese eDictionary, the IS01 is meant to be used as a general purpose MID with a 5-row QWERTY, Sharp-built "New Mobile ASV" multi-touch capacitive display pushing a 960 x 480 pixel resolution and a 5.27 megapixel auto focus camera on back with a 0.43 megapixel jobbie up front for video calls. Rounding out the specs are 802.11 b/g WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, microSD slot, 1Seg mobile TV tuner, IrDA, 4GB of internal storage, and Qualcomm 3G CDMA data. Look for it to ship in October while a developer friendly version (JN-DK01) should be available in May.

HP Envy 14, 17 and Pavilion dm4 "confirmed"

Support documents discovered by the folks over at NotebookReview suggest that HP is preparing to settle longstanding rumors with the introduction of 14 and 17-inch Envy notebooks. Reports of the Envy 14 and 17 have been around since last year, and evidence of their existence has been building since.


Already consisting of 13 and 15-inch models, the new additions would round out the Envy lineup and are expected to appear this spring. Being "unofficial" and all, their specs aren't available, but Intel's Core i3, i5 and i7 processors will likely be in the mix. The company updated its existing Envy laptops in January, and you can look at those for an idea of what's to come.

Similar documentation also exposed a Pavilion dm4, which is believed to be a 14-inch notebook with a choice of Intel or AMD processors, switchable graphics, an optical drive, and a rough price of $650 to $850.

Victorinox intros unhackable, self-destructible USB drive

Victorinox, known for making Swiss Army Knives, has announced a new "unhackable" USB flash drive that MacGyver would be proud to own. Claimed to be the best of its kind, the Secure Pro drive uses several layers of security, including AES256 encryption, and fingerprint identification with a thermal sensor -- you know, in case someone's desperate enough to lop off your pointer.


If that weren't enough, the drive is also "tamper-proof" and any attempt to open it by force triggers a self-destruct mechanism that irrevocably burns its CPU and memory chip. During the Secure Pro's two-hour launch event, Victorinox challenged a team of professional hackers to break in for a prize of £100,000 -- a sum that went uncollected.

The Secure Pro drive is available in three capacities ranging from 8GB (£50) to 32GB (£180), which also includes a built-in LED light, as well as a retractable ballpoint pen, blade, scissors, nail file, screw driver, and a key ring.

ASUS Eee PC T101MT headed to US in April for $499

Well beginning of April, you sure do like tablets for $499, don't ya? While the Eee PC T101MT has been available to suave Europeans since February, ASUS has let out word that the 10-inch, multitouch tablet will start shipping in the US sometime in April for $499. Not a bad deal considering the Pine Trail-powered netvertible has been been priced around 499 Euros overseas -- though we're unsure at this point of the final specs of the American T101MT and what version of Windows 7 it will boot. We'll be keeping our eyes peeled for it at the usual etailers, but before you head out and buy one you may want to wait on our upcoming full review to see how this thing measures up to the other netvertibles out there.

Project Natal world premiere event planned for June 13

Microsoft today passed around invitations to a debut event for Project Natal on the night of Sunday, June 13, as well as its annual media briefing the following morning. That date, of course, coincides with E3, which is scheduled to take place in LA from June 15 to June 17.

Redmond unveiled Project Natal at last year's E3, so it should be interesting to find out what's in store for the official "world premiere." Festivities will surely include the motion control in its near-final state, and Microsoft might even drop the name "Project Natal" in favor of something a bit more market-friendly.


Project Natal is expect reach stores in time for the holiday season, but a definitive ship date and price haven't been disclosed. Most expect the hardware to sell for about $80 alone, or in various additional packages that include games and other Xbox 360 merchandise.

Microsoft's invitations follow shortly after Sony publicly demoed the PlayStation Move, a Project Natal competitor, as well as the announcement of Nintendo's next-gen DS, which can reportedly display 3D images without glasses.

Toshiba preps super slim 750GB notebook drive

Toshiba has unveiled the world's highest capacity 9.5mm-tall hard drive, the 750GB MK7559GSXP. In addition to its extremely dense two-platter design, the 2.5-inch, 5400RPM drive is about 14% more power efficient than the 640GB model it's replacing, making it great choice for notebooks and other compact systems. The MK7559GSXP uses SATA II, has an average seek time of 12ms, and 8MB of cache.


The company has also announced a new three-platter, 12.5mm-high notebook hard drive series. The MKxx59GSM range has 750GB and 1TB models, and apart from the slight variation in form factor, they feature the same general specifications: 12ms seek time, 8MB buffer, 3Gb/s SATA, and 5400RPM spindle speed. All of the drives have an acoustics rating of 25dB, and are as quiet during operation as they are at idle.

Asus touts USB 3.0 adoption, claims 75% faster speeds

Even with Intel not expected to support the technology on its chipsets until at least 2011, USB 3.0 may still garner significant adoption this year -- and Asus wants to play a part in it. We've already seen USB 3.0 connectors show up on several or its higher-end motherboards, EeeBox nettops and digital media players. But the manufacturer not only prides itself on supporting the standard across multiple product lines, they claim their execution is better than the rest too.


Asus contends that not all USB 3.0 implementations are created equal, suggesting other motherboard makers often require the user to make a choice between true USB 3.0 operation or sacrificing overall system performance by disabling features like multi-GPU operation. In contrast, the company says a "unique" PCI Express x4 PLX bridge chip on its boards allows it to boost the speed of USB 3.0 data transmission by almost 75% compared to its rivals.

Eager to continue pushing USB 3.0 Asus also provided full details on two upcoming laptops based on the Calpella platform that will support the new standard, the 14-inch N82JV-VX020V and 16-inch N61JA-JX008V. Both systems are targeted at multimedia enthusiasts, and as such will include features like AMD or Nvidia discrete graphics, 1366x768 resolution displays, an HDMI output and a large 500GB hard drive.

Samsung clinches $240 million order for iPad displays

Samsung has scored a contract for a large order of Apple iPad displays, according to an unnamed industry source. The deal, reportedly worth $240 million, calls for Samsung to produce some three million LCD panels for Apple's new tablet, a "high-ranking industry representative" told The Korea Times.

The source also said that the most expensive component in the iPad is its 9.7-inch display and touchscreen interface, which costs $80 on all models. It was noted that the iPad screen is two times larger than the iPhone 3GS', but five times more expensive. The source wouldn't elaborate further, but iSuppli released an estimated bill of materials if you're interested.


Samsung may have clinched orders for future Apple hardware as well. The companies are "in deep talks" over Cupertino's upcoming 4G iPhones and iPads. "As far as I know, Apple will use [our] LCD panels for its next iPhone models, said an anonymous Samsung executive. It's worth mentioning that Samsung is developing its own tablet, and recently criticized the iPad.