Antitrust investigations and allegations of price fixing are nothing new from Hitachi and Toshiba. Both firms were embroiled in the LCD price fixing scandal that resulted in some Japanese executives getting prison terms and the companies received massive fines. The US DOJ has now issued new subpoenas to Hitachi, Toshiba, and Sony in a new anti-trust investigation that centers on the optical drive units of each company.
Hitachi has revealed a pair of new and very fast hard drives for the enterprise user. The new drives include the Ultrastar 15K600 and the Ultrastar C15K147. Both of the new hard drives spin at 15,000 RPM and have a MTBF rating of 1.6 million hours.
After admitting that they could have lost every scrap of Sidekick users’ online data, T-Mobile USA are now following up on their promise of “additional measures” to make it up to affected customers. The carrier is now more hopeful of restoring lost data than it was at the weekend – when it described the likelihood of recovery as “extremely low” – but any user facing a loss will automatically get a $100 T-Mobile gift card.
Short-throw projectors are nothing new, but Hitachi’s latest does bring something different to the table: in fact it creates a table-top projected touchscreen surface. Pairing the company’s CP-A100J short-throw projector and the UPIC Plus Wireless Interactive Panel 56-M, the system can recognize and track a digital pen as it moves across the huge 56-inch projection screen.
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I love my DVR and out of all the tech innovations of the last decade, the DVR is right at the top of my most important list. I can’t imagine going back to a VCR or other system for recording shows. Hitachi has announced a couple new HDDs that will make DVRs even better.
The weekend is here again fellow geeks and geekettes so I am back with another week in review. Monday more rumors surfaced that has Apple launching that long anticipated tablet device this November. The rumors further claim that the tablet will be aimed at gaming and media use. Early this week Verizon cut the pricing on all its smartphones save a few of the new ones to $99. That makes us think lots of new smartphone hardware is on its way.
Hitachi have propelled themselves to the top of the desktop hard-drive league with the launch of the Deskstar 7K2000, the world’s first 2TB 7,200rpm 3.5-inch HDD. Ousting Western Digital’s slower 5,400rpm version, the new Deskstar offers 32MB cache, a 3Gb/s SATA interface and 10-percent idle power savings over previous models.
Hitachi have unveiled their latest networked projector, the CP-X3010N. Based on the existing X3010, the new projector boasts 3,000 lumen brightness, a 2,000:1 contrast ratio and 16W integrated speakers, but throws in wired ethernet connectivity and optional WiFi b/g.
Hitachi have announced a new range of simple USB hard-drives, together with a basic NAS adapter which can connect two external drives to a network. The SimpleDRIVE Mini and SimpleTOUGH portable USB drives are available in 250, 320 and 500GB capacities, with the former adding ruggedness and the latter basic colors.
Hitachi announced today that they will be releasing several HDTV models in the U.S. as early as this month as a part of their UltraVision and Alpha lines, further rounding out the company’s LCD offerings for this year.
The UltraVision series is set to have 1080p image quality and 120Hz panels. There will be three different models in this series include the L42S503, a 42-inch version which will go on sale next month for $999. The other two models are the L46S603 and the L55S603, which measure in at 46-inches and 55-inches, respectively and are set to be released in August and September for $1,299 and $1,799.
The Alpha series was also revealed today, and it’s more for the budget-friendly crowd with 60Hz panels. This series contains just two models, the L32A403 and the L42A403. These TVs measure in at 32-inches and 42-inches, respectively and are set to be shipped this month for $499 and $849.
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