You think the Playstation 4 looks exciting? Interested in the next Xbox? Or maybe the idea of an Android-based game console has you waiting in anticipation for the release of the OUYA. They all need to move the hell over, because now we finally get the world’s greatest game console: the Shibasphere.

The Toshiba Shibasphere has 12 cores running at 3.5GHz and a 4GB DDR5 graphics card. It also has no controls and takes the Xbox Kinect experience to new heights. Best of all, it has exciting games like petting a dog.

Obviously this is an April Fool’s joke, and certainly one of the most creative ones I’ve ever seen from a tech company like Toshiba. What do you think, did you like Toshiba’s Shibasphere prank or not? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

The post Toshiba Diving Head-First into the Console Business with Its New Shibasphere appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

When conditions become too dangerous for humans, we turn to robots. For example, robots have been used as bomb “defusers” and recon drones for years. As for radiation, robots can come in handy there, as well. Unfortunately, last year when Japan ran into a nuclear disaster at Fukushima they weren’t probably prepared for the incident and had to turn to the U.S. for nuclear disaster-ready robots. It seems that Japan is working directly with Toshiba to ensure they aren’t caught with their guard down ever again.

On Wednesday, Toshiba showed off a robot that would be able to withstand conditions similar to that of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant disaster. The robot has 4 legs for climbing up and down stairs (at about a step per minute) and over debris.

While it is a good step in the right direction, Toshiba’s robotic design isn’t without its faults. The machine’s awkward design proved detrimental in a demo with the press. More specifically, one of its legs froze and multiple people had to help it up and reboot. Additionally, Toshiba added that if the robot fell during a mission, it would not be able to get up by itself.

Despite its shortcomings, Toshiba’s four-legged robot is expected to make a debut at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant soon.

The post Toshiba Makes Robot to Aid in Nuclear Emergencies appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

The biggest shopping day of the year is upon us and that means we’re about to get bombarded with all sorts of flyers and online promotions. We’ve gathered up some of the best Black Friday gadget deals in one convenient place for you, so let’s get down to it.

The Nikon COOLPIX S9200 16 megapixel compact camera with 18x zoom and full 1080p video on sale for $169, a savings of $130.95 off the regular price.

If you prefer interchangeable lenses, the Nikon V1 digital camera system with the 10-30mm VR1 kit lens is on sale for 59% off, bringing the price down to just $369.

The Panasonic ES-LT71-S men’s wet/dry shaver with rechargeable battery, Arc 3 technology and vortex cleaning system is just $74.99, which is 63% off the regular price.

Those looking for a great tablet might consider the Amazon Kindle Fire HD, which starts at $199 for the 16GB model with special offers. That includes free super saver shipping too.

Next, we have the SanDisk Extreme 120GB SSD with super fast 6.0Gbps transfers in a 2.5-inch form factor for just $96.82, representing a monumental savings of $141.74.

The Western Digital My Passport 2TB portable hard drive with USB 3.0 comes with automatic backup software is selling for $149.99, including free one-day shipping if you pay with your Discover Card.

Save 49% on the Otterbox Defender Case with screen protector and stand for the new 4th-gen iPad, as well as the iPad 2 and iPad 3. It’s on sale for $45.88.

There are a bunch of deals on the Samsung Galaxy S III, including getting it from Sprint for as low as $39.99 on contract. Verizon is doing $59.99 on contract, while the AT&T price is $99.99 on contract.

Finally, there’s a deal for $230 off the Toshiba U845-S406 Ultrabook with Intel Core i5, 14″ display, 6GB DDR3-1600 memory, 500GB HDD + 32GB SSD, and a free t-shirt. Get it for $649.99, including free shipping, at Newegg.com; the deal expires today!

And check out many more deals on Amazon. What are you buying this year?

The post The Best Black Friday Gadget Deals appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Japan Display Inc., a merger of Toshiba’s, Sony’s and Hitachi’s small LCD businesses have worked with the Innovation Network Corporation of Japan to create a low-power color display that works similarly to an E-ink kindle device.

Rather than using a backlit display like most traditional LCDs, the new reflective LCD display panels by Japan Display Inc. use an external light source to show clear images to the viewer, but what makes it special is its ability to play full HD color video.

Three components make up the display; a rear reflective layer and a front light control layer which hold together the liquid crystal layer. All three parts are used together to help display the images on the LCD panel. When light is reflected from the rear electrode, it passes through the crystal layer, which will create a single-shaded image, which will then be filtered by the light control layer to show color.

So how is this like paper? The technology itself can be extremely easy to view in highly lighted conditions like outside on a sunny day, or in a lit house similarly to older Kindle models, but unlike Kindle, the LCD display shows crisp paper-like colors.

There are currently two different models in development by Japan Display Inc., of which one is nearing completion, and it won’t be long before the technology is ready for mass production.

Both models have slightly different reflection rates and different pixel ratios, with the near-completed model boasting 768×1044 pixels, and the second model displaying 576×1024 pixels on the screen.

What makes the new tech even more unique is it’s impressive battery-saving qualities when displaying still images; power consumption is kept to around 3 mW when showing static images because of the displays ability to retain data once it has been written.

I don’t know what you think of Japan Display Incs.’ work, but to me this technology is almost like a super-advanced Etch-A-Sketch.

Do you think the reflective displays could become a standard for LCD manufacturers in the near future?

[Source]

The post Japan’s e-ink Paper-like Display Does HD Video in Color appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

You know, with all this talk of a rumored Apple iPad Mini, it looks like the folks in the Android crowd are doing what they can to compete on price ahead of time. Case in point is the slashing of price on the Toshiba Thrive.

This Android 3.2 tablet regularly retails for $379.99, but it has been slashed by 35% down to just $248.86. For that price, you get a 7-inch 1280×800 HD multi-touch display, 16GB of internal storage, a full gig of DRAM, built-in 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, and a 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra2 dual-core processor. Unlike some of its more slippery Android cousins, the Toshiba Thrive features an “Easy Grip” finish that helps it be more durable and easier to hold. Other specs and features include the GPS, gyroscope, built-in stereo speakers with SRS Premium Voice Suite and Toshiba Sound Enhancements, Adobe Flash support, micro-HDMI output with full HD 1080p support, mini-USB port, dock connector port, and a microSD card slot.

It’s hard to say how long this sale is going to last, so I suggest you head over to Amazon now to get in on the deal. This is a pretty great Android tablet for less than $250.

The post Toshiba Thrive 16GB Android Tablet on Sale for $250 appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

This way, companies like Lenovo and Acer can start loading up the OEM installation on their desktops and notebooks, as well as their Windows 8 tablets. This final version, dubbed build 9200, is also being sent to Asus and Toshiba, as well as presumably many other manufacturing partners. After all, I’m pretty sure Microsoft wants Windows 8 to come roaring out of the gate at the end of October.

While regular folk won’t be able to buy Windows 8 until October 26, developers can download it via MSDN on August 15, giving them a little over two months to prepare for the retail launch as well. This also gives Microsoft time to set up the Windows Store, accepting submissions for paid apps from developers.

[Source]

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Toshiba’s Thrive tablets were certainly not crowd favorites, and the company, after listening to customer complaints, has introduced a new line of tablets in the Excite line. It’s a good thing that they are changing their designs and bringing out pretty looking devices: the 7.7″ tablet which has the same AMOLED display on the Galaxy Tab 7.7 and the 10″ Excite with a resolution of 1280 x 800. But why in the world have they decided to include an unnecessarily large 13″ model in the list?

The new Android ICS powered Excites feature an extremely thin chassis (good that they are moving away from the bulky, port-heavy body designs) and will pack NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 SoC. The 10″ and 13″ models both come with a full-sized SD card slot, but no USB and HDMI ports.

About the 13-Inch device, Toshiba says that it will be good for indoor use, particularly in the kitchen if you want to look at recipes or the weather forecast. But we can do those things with a $400 iPad 2 or some other mid-range tablet, and this fact becomes important when we take a look at the Excite 13’s price tag: $650 for the 32GB model and the 64GB model costs $750.

And we don’t think that the company thought about portability while designing it. 10 inch tablets can be handled without problems, but anything larger and heavier will certainly be uncomfortable to use and may also lead to shoulder and neck strain. But if you still want to check out the device, it’s coming on June 10^th, but don’t say we didn’t warn you.

And the price tags of the other two devices:

Excite 7.7″ – June 10th Release Date

• 16GB model – $500
• 32GB model – $580

Excite 10″ – May 6th Release Date

• 16GB model – $450
• 32GB model – $530
• 64GB model – $650

[Image Source: 1, 2]

The post Toshiba’s 13-Inch Excite Tablet Is Not That Exciting appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Rumors about a so-called Nexus tablet from Google have been flying around for a while. What you see above comes to us from Pocketnow and the pictured device is purported to be the search giant’s upcoming tablet. Could it be the cheap stock Android Nexus tablet meant to compete against the new iPad?

As we reported earlier, the Nexus tablet (or whatever it will be called, if it’s coming that is) is expected to have a 7-inch display and will be coming from Asus sometime this summer. If this is indeed the Nexus tablet that we are looking at, it looks more like a ten-inch slate.

It looks like it has some qualities of an upcoming Google tablet. The generic Ice Cream Sandwich OS is displaying only official ICS and Google apps; there are no third party apps or widgets visible.

But, anyone who is an expert in Photoshop can create such an image very accurately, and also we are suspicious about the presence of the Android Market icon instead of the Google Play Store (yes, it could mean that it’s an older render too). The folks over at Pocketnow are also not talking about a source. That does not mean that the image is a fake, but the image does not provide us with any good evidence to prove that it is real.

There are no hints about specs, price or the release date, but previous rumors point towards a device with a quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor and a $199 price tag.

Just to let you know, Android Community is saying that the above device looks similar to the 7.7-inch Tegra 3 tablet from Toshiba which was shown off at CES.

The post Rumored Google Nexus Tablet Could Be A Ten-Inch Device appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Yesterday was April Fools’ Day, i’m sure most of you didn’t realize it. So what else do large companies with over the top budgets on attempting to create viral videos do? They attempt to make us laugh by revealing fake products with fake announcements. Some of these are quite stupid, actually, most of them are, but you can decide for yourself, have a gander below.

Kodak LIVEPrint for Kittens

Yes, Kodak is going through some tough times right now, but that doesn’t mean they’re not continuing to innovate. Printing photos isn’t good enough anymore, so they developed LIVEPrint which will actually let you print live kittens. Awww….

Conan O’Brien Buys Mashable

After seeing the “atrocious job” that Pete Cashmore was doing with the Mashable, comedian Conan O’Brien decided to buy the site, oust Cashmore, and take over as CEO.

Sony VAIO Q Series Ultrabook

Ultrabooks are smaller than their larger notebook counterparts, but they’re not small enough. So, the Sony VAIO Q was born. It’s an ultrabook that’s the size of a quarter and it happens to be powered by a Core i9 3.66GHz processor, 8GB of RAM, 256GB SSD, and a 1.25×0.75-inch full 1080p LED backlit display.

Microsoft Windows Pager

Microsoft is trying to make a splash with Windows Phone, but what about the days when people just had buzzers and had to call back? It’s a throwback with a touchscreen: here’s the Windows Pager from their Facebook page.

Razer SnakeEyes

What if you had Google Goggles for real? What if you could enhance your gaming experience as a result? That’s what you get with SnakeEyes, a wearable HUD that basically turns your life into a video game, identifying objects, fellow gamers, and whatever else.

Hungry Hungry Hippos for iPad

The iCade from ThinkGeek started out as an April Fools’ gag, but it turned into a real product. The same thing might happen with this, which is essentially a platform and dock for your iPad that turns it into a Hungry Hungry Hippos game. This might just work, considering the multi-touch capabilities of Apple’s tablet.

Toshiba Tablet Shapes

Who said that your tablet had to be a rectangle? Shapes by Toshiba challenges that notion with Oblong (Oval), Rhombus, and Amore (Heart). What shape are you? What shapes you?

WestJet Child-Free Cabins

Are you tired of flying and being bugged by all the crying babies in the cabin? WestJet is fixing that by letting you have all those kids as checked-in luggage.

Virgin Volcanic

Titanic director James Cameron may have gone to the bottom of the sea, but Sir Richard Branson wants to go to the center of the Earth. So, he has created Virgin Volcanic. The post reminds us that only 500 people have been to space, but no one has gone to the core of an active volcano.

8-Bit Google Maps

As with every other year, Google had one of the best pranks. This time around, they unveiled 8-Bit Google Maps for the NES. Yes, the original Nintendo Entertainment System. The graphics look like they’re inspired by the 8-bit era of gaming, more specifically like Dragon Quest. They even put in some extra gags like blowing into the cartridge and having a dial-up modem built into the NES cartridge.

Gmail Tap

Typing on the smaller touchscreen of your smartphone can sometimes be a pain, so Google wanted to make that easier by… bringing back Morse code. Your keyboard is replaced by just two keys: dot and dash.

Chrome Multitask Mode

Remember when Dual View for the Chrome browser was announced? That was kinda neat, but what if you could use two mice in two separate windows at the same time? This takes multitasking to a whole new level.

YouTube Collection

Why watch web videos on the web? With YouTube Collection, you get every YouTube video delivered to you in DVD format to browse at your own leisure. They even have thumbs up and thumbs down cards, plus comment forms that can be sent back via snail mail.

The post Some of the Best and Worst of April Fools 2012 appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

The new Toshiba tablet has apparently shaved some weight too, tipping the scales at a paltry 1.18 pounds. Despite the shedding of millimeters and fractions of pounds, the Toshiba Excite 10 LE still has a reasonable assortment of connectivity options, including microUSB, HDMI, microSD, WiFi, and Bluetooth.

Power comes by way of an OMAP 4430 1.2GHz dual core processor and Android 3.2 Honeycomb, backing up that 1280×800 10.1-inch AutoBrite Display. Ice Cream Sandwich is being promised by the end of spring. Rounding out the specs are a 5MP rear camera and a 2MP front camera. The 16GB and 32GB models will sell for $529 and $599, respectively.

As I mentioned in my review of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, though, thinner isn’t always necessarily better, particularly when it comes to tablets. It’s just harder to get a comfortable grip, but I guess that’s up to personal preference.

The post Toshiba Excite 10 LE Android Tablet As Thin As It Gets appeared first on Mobile Magazine.