fujitsu

Recent concerns over "greenwashing" probably had nothing to do with it, but Fujitsu has apparently decided to skip the ever-popular bamboo in its version of the wooden laptop. Instead the Japanese company has gone with cedar, the lumber known around the world for saunas and mothballs.

Bearing the inspired name of "WoodShell," Fujitsu's laptop was displayed at the Salone Internazionale Del Mobile furniture exhibition in Milan, according to Gizmodo. There are no details on specs, however, or whether it responds to Pledge. We'll take a wild guess that this is a novelty item more … Read more

Palm-reading is coming to the desktop. Fujitsu's "PalmSecure" mouse may not foretell how long you'll live, but it does promise to provide some security in keeping intruders out of your PC.

The technology, which we first saw more than a year ago before it evolved into a mouse, is finally making its way to the North American market in June. As Engadget notes, it differs from biometric systems of the fingerprint variety by scanning veins, a system that the company claims is faster and more effective.

As for the lack of fortune-telling features, don't worry. … Read more

More tiny laptops, broken OLPCs, and a factory inferno causes a battery shortage. This week's summary is presented in headline format, a favorite of rushed editors worldwide. (Everyone loves a list, right?)

Bigger, faster, thinner is the name of the game in hard drives.

Fujitsu is only the latest drive maker to use superlative adjectives to market its newest product. In this case it's the MHZ2 BJ series of its 2.5-inch hard disk drives, which the company claimed Monday is the "world's first" 320GB drive that rotates at speeds of 7,200 revolutions per minute.

That claim can be a tad misleading since there are drives out there that do the same spin speed, though they're smaller in size. Plus there are higher capacity drives already announced and on the market. … Read more

Before the Intel Atom processor, there was the A110. This chip spawned the 2007 UMPC (Ultramobile PC) category which in turn spawned some unsightly designs.

The Intel A110 and its lower-performance sibling the A100 were launched in 2007 with the intention of jump-starting the UMPC market. But that market stalled. Intel is still promoting the UMPC as a broad, somewhat amorphous category for business, while pushing the Mobile Internet Device, or MID, for fit-in-your-pocket consumer-centric designs and the Netbook for small, inexpensive, Internet-centric notebook form factors (both of which, as I will discuss below, have a better chance of success).… Read more

Fujitsu announced two new 2.5-inch hard drives Monday that push capacity up a big notch to 400GB and 500GB.

The models will begin shipping in May, and the company said it hopes to ship 20 million this fiscal year.

But the drives, part of the MHZ2 BT series, aren't the fastest models around, spinning at 4,200rpm. Many laptop drives spin at 5,400rpm, and some at 7,200rpm. But it does consume relatively little power--1.8 watts when reading or writing, according to the company.

Fujitsu also intends the drive for use in digital video recorders, set-top … Read more

The PC industry is wasting little time getting in line behind Apple to use Intel's spiffy new notebook chip.

CNET News.com has learned that Lenovo and Fujitsu are in the process of putting together systems based on the special Core 2 Duo chip that Apple is using in the MacBook Air. The new laptops should be out shortly, according to sources familiar with the companies' plans, and will give customers a chance to see what the rest of the PC industry can do with the power-thrifty chips.

Representatives for Lenovo and Intel declined to comment, while a Fujitsu … Read more

There's one constant in the gadget world: The minute you post an item that claims to have set a new record for being the smallest or thinnest fill-in-the-blank, someone will immediately dispute it. (The point was proven once again in discussions stemming from the MacBook Air.)

So the only thing we dare say is that, as of this writing, Akihabara News is reporting what it calls "the slimmest waterproof phone ever made." The 3G handset in question is the Fujitsu F705i, which measures 13.7 millimeters thick, or about 0.54 inches.

There are most certainly other … Read more

We haven't able to confirm this, but we've heard it now from a couple of people: Hitachi, the Japanese conglomerate, is talking to Toshiba and Fujitsu about forming a new company dedicated to hard drives and storage systems.

The new company would combine the limping hard drive divisions of Hitachi and Toshiba as well as some of the storage systems technology from Fujitsu. Each would own a third.

The three-way deal is being proposed as an alternative to a private equity buyout. Hitachi has been in discussions with equity firm Silver Lake and others about spinning off its … Read more