toshiba

The ugly truth: Apple vs. PC design

Walk into any Best Buy and you're hit with an ugly truth: PCs aren't pretty.

A 15-inch HP Windows 8 laptop that sells for $270 (Best Buy's "Deal of the Day" on Saturday) isn't meant to be pretty. It's meant to be practical.

But a $330 iPad Mini is also very practical for a lot of people. And pretty too (consumers and reviewers seem to think so). Pretty and practical are two reasons Apple can sell tens of millions of Minis.

Why bring this up? I was struck by a statement from an … Read more

Leaked Toshiba tablet gets 10.1-inch screen, Tegra 4, and storage expansion

The 10.1-inch Toshiba AT10LE-A tablet recently leaked, and although the specs on the tablet are sparse, it's speculated to be one of the first to house Nvidia's highly anticipated Tegra 4 processor. The tablet is rumored to sport a 1.8GHz quad-core Tegra 4 system-on-chip and run on Android 4.2.1.

The leaked photos of the Toshiba AT10LE-A reveal micro-USB and mini-HDMI ports, a microSD expansion slot, and an optional keyboard dock. Until details like screen resolution and RAM are released, we're left to guess how the tablet will take advantage of the speedy, graphics-performance-improving … Read more

Toshiba: Microsoft confused tablet buyers with Windows 8

Microsoft's strategy to push both Windows 8 and Windows RT tablets has confused the market, according to a Toshiba executive.

In a Toshiba product launch on Wednesday in Sydney, Australia, Mark Whittard, managing director of Toshiba Australia, criticized Microsoft's dual operating system approach. Marketing two types of tablets -- one line with Windows 8, the other with Windows RT -- confused consumers, Whittard said, according to The Australian.

"I think one of the challenges is, there was a lot of confusion with Windows 8, my personal view is that they (Microsoft) confused the market with a couple … Read more

Toshiba ships Canvio Connect portable drive with Pogoplug

Many portable drives come with a limited amount of free online storage included. The Canvio Connect, which Toshiba introduced today, offers that and more.

The new USB 3.0 portable drive comes with 10GB of free online storage space. When you plug it into a computer, you can access its contents, as well as those stored on another computer, be it a Windows or a Mac, via the Internet.

This is because the Canvio Connect comes with a lifetime subscription to the Pogoplug PC cloud engine, a software product that works similarly to the Pogoplug Series 4 adapter, which makes … Read more

13-inch Retina MacBook settles in at $1,499 for 256GB

At retailers, Apple's 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro has found a happy medium between a fire sale and Apple's official pricing.

Online retailers like MacMall and MacConnection are selling Apple's smallest Retina MacBook for $1,499 -- with a bonus.

That price gets you a 256GB solid-state drive -- a step up from the $1,499 model that Apple offers with a 128GB drive.

And that 128GB model is even cheaper at MacConnection, which now appears to have settled on a less drastic discount of $1,399 after practically fire-selling it earlier this month for $1,299.

Why … Read more

Discounted Windows 8 hybrids earn a second look

Microsoft's official online store has cut prices on a handful of Window 8 devices. These systems, from HP, Toshiba, and others, are all different, but each straddles the line between laptop and tablet and falls into the growing hybrid category; you can see the current discounts on the Microsoft Store site.

With these new discounts (no word on if they are temporary or permanent), our initial reviews of these specific systems deserve a second look, if only because a big knock against each one was the unrealistic asking price.

Are they much better machines at $100 to $250 off, … Read more

Microsoft Store slashes prices on Windows 8 tablets, hybrids

In what could be a sign of things to come, the Microsoft Store is slashing prices on a variety of hybrid laptop-tablet models.

Here are some of the highlights now appearing on the Microsoft Store "Tablets and Convertibles" page:

Toshiba Satellite U925t-S2130 Convertible Ultrabook: Cut to $799 from $1,149. 12.5-inch screen, Core i5 Intel chip, 128GB solid-state drive (SSD). ( Read the CNET review.) Acer Iconia W510-1674 Tablet: reduced to $399 from $499. 10.1-inch display, Intel Atom 1.8GHz "Clover Trail" Z2760 chip, 32GB SSD. ( Read the CNET review.) HP ENVY x2 11-g012nr Touchscreen: … Read more

Toshiba SBX4250 review: A ho-hum sound bar with surprisingly good features

Choosing a sound bar largely comes down to sound quality and design, with features being far less important than when evaluating other products. That's what makes the Toshiba SBX4250 ($270 street) a bit of a hard sell: it sounds and looks just about average, but has a great feature set. There's built-in Bluetooth, for wireless audio streaming from most smartphones and tablets, plus it has a ton of inputs, with two HDMI, two optical, an analog, and a minijack. And although the sound bar itself is visually lackluster, the included remote is nicely designed.

The question is whether … Read more

Toshiba's fast, familiar Windows 8 all-in-one

Toshiba is best known for its laptops, but after entering the U.S. desktop market in 2011, the company has put out straightforward, attractive all-in-one PCs at a steady cadence. The $1,399 LX835-D3380 is no exception, offering a safe, fast, and slightly more expensive entry point to Windows 8.

The difficulty for Toshiba, and for every all-in-one in this price range, is the Dell XPS One 27, the $1,399 version of which has slower components than the Toshiba and no touch capability, but comes with a 27-inch, 2,560x1,440-pixel-resolution display. The Toshiba's 23-inch, 1,920x1,080-pixel … Read more