Toshiba formally and finally exits laptop business - now Dynabook

Toshiba has made laptops since 1985 and claims to have been the first to make a mass-market computer in the now-familiar clamshell form factor. By the 1990s the company was producing solid workhorses in the Satellite range and started to make meaningful stretches of mobile work possible with the small, thin and light Portégé range.

Those products saw Toshiba lead the world for laptop market share through the late 1990s and retain that position for much of the 2000s. Even as the PC market consolidated in that decade, Toshiba was often ranked among the top five of all PC vendors despite only ever dabbling in desktops.

As the 2000s rolled along Toshiba devices became bland in comparison to the always-impressive ThinkPad and the MacBook Air, while Dell and HP also improved. Toshiba also never really tried to capture consumers’ imaginations, which didn't help growth.

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Erm, I'll take reliability over gimmicks - any day! In another of my passions - motorcycles - some people criticise Honda as "having no character". Well, if by "character" you mean they don't break down every time there is a "y" in the day - or rust away in front of your eyes - I'll take the Honda!

I have recently updated my laptop. Gone from a Toshiba Portege X30-D-10V (brilliant device - fast, light, all day battery) to Dynabook's flagship model: Portege X30L-G-10J (outstanding device - unbelievably light, unbelievably fast, incredible battery life). 

In the 20+ years that I've been an IT Pro - I've worked on & owned more Toshiba laptops than any other brand, but not because they fail! It's because they keep on keeping on! Many other brands in IT are known for being cheap & not so cheerful. If you want quality - think Dynabook.

www.theregister.com

25 years of Toshiba (now known as Dynabook) laptops in one room!

When you get 25 years worth of laptops in one room, this is what it looks like. Well, you can't really see it all, but it's a massive ring of notebooks; from the T1100, which was released in 1985, to 2008's super-light Portege R500. This setup was part of Toshiba's 25-year anniversary celebration onboard the Starship in Sydney's Darling Harbour, and it brought together many of the company's most important notebook models. In this gallery, we've attempted to bring you all the old models that were on show, as well as some of the brand new models (such as the Libretto W100) that are part of Toshiba's 36 new notebook offerings for this year alone. It's amazing how far we've come in such a short time, all due to the miniaturisation of the transistor.

Donline has exclusively used Toshiba (now known as Dynabook) laptops in-house since 2012. The most reliable brand of laptops that I have used & worked with in over 20 years!

Dynabook are a dynamic, entrepreneurial new business, built on the foundations of our wonderful Toshiba heritage.

As an industry leader, Toshiba launched the world's first laptop computer – T1100 in 1985 and followed it up with the world's first notebook computer – the dynabook J-3100 SS001 in 1989.

These two portable computing innovations allowed people to safely and securely work anywhere they wanted and defined today's mobile computing market. Ever since, Toshiba has always delivered award winning innovative products and services that integrate the latest technology and design, whilst delivering outstanding quality and reliability.

Sharp Corporation obtained 80.1% of Toshiba's computer business in October 2018 and as of April 1st 2019, this business will be known globally as 'dynabook'.

Our brand is more than a name or logo, it is the embodiment of our culture and our values. These remain consistent and strong in Dynabook Europe through our highly skilled and knowledgeable people, our award winning products, our obsession with quality, security, and innovation, and our emphasis on trust and building long standing partnerships.

www.pcworld.idg.com.au

Toshiba Unveils World's First FC-MAMR Hard Disk Drive: 18 TB, Helium Filled

Toshiba this week announced the industry's first hard drive featuring flux-control microwave-assisted magnetic recording (FC-MAMR) technology. The new MG09-series HDDs are designed primarily for nearline and enterprise applications, they offer an 18 TB capacity along with an ultra-low idle power consumption. 

The Toshiba MG09-series 3.5-inch 18 TB HDD are based on the company's 3rd generation nine-platter helium sealed platform that features 18 heads with a microwave-emitting component which changes magnetic coercivity of the platters before writing data. The HD disks are made by Showa Denko K.K. (SDK), a long-time partner of Toshiba. Each aluminium platter is about 0.635 mm thick, it features an areal density of around 1.5 Tb/inch2 and can store up to 2 TB of data.

www.anandtech.com

Toshiba's future in doubt as it reveals huge losses

Toshiba has filed its delayed financial results, warning that the company's survival is at risk. "There are material events and conditions that raise substantial doubt about the company's ability to continue as a going concern," the company said in a statement.

The electronics-to-construction giant reported a loss of 532bn yen (£3.8bn; $4.8bn) for April to December. However, the results have not been approved by the firm's auditors.

These latest financial results have already been delayed twice and raise the possibility that Toshiba could be delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Toshiba's president, Satoshi Tsunakawa, apologised for the problems facing the firm and called the auditor's decision not to approve the financial report as "truly regrettable". He said he hoped the company would not be delisted.

www.bbc.co.uk

Toshiba sells PC business to Sharp for $36 million

Toshiba has agreed to sell its personal PC business to Sharp in a move which could see Sharp return to the PC market.

The deal, worth four billion yen (roughly $36 million), also includes the issuance of $1.8 billion in new shares by Sharp to buy back stock from banks.

The acquisition, which involves the transfer of 80.1 percent of outstanding shares from Toshiba to Sharp, could not only allow Sharp access once more to the PC market but under the umbrella of Foxconn, the company could also be able to manufacture devices more cheaply.

Sharp was a strong player in the personal computer industry, spanning back to the 1970's and systems which relied on KB-based CPUs and MS-DOS. However, the company closed down its PC operations in 2010.

www.zdnet.com

Toshiba's financial woes sadly deepen

The chaos at Toshiba, the Japanese corporate giant, deepened Tuesday, with its chairman resigning and the company saying it would book a $6.3 billion loss related to its U.S. nuclear business.

Analysts are now speculating about the possibility that Toshiba, which employs almost 200,000 people in Japan and has significant investments in the United States, may have to file for bankruptcy.

“This is one of Japan’s historic corporations and it’s very important to the Japanese economy, so this could be very significant for Japan,” said Tom O’Sullivan, a Tokyo-based energy analyst. “It would even impact Japan’s sovereign credit rating if there’s a knock-on effect.”

www.washingtonpost.com

www.bbc.co.uk

The laptop formerly known as Toshiba: Dynabook!

Dynabook Europe has announced two new laptops, the Portégé X30-F and the Tecra X40-F, to mark ‘dynabook Day’, which celebrates 30 years of dynabook heritage.

The devices are the first to be dynabook-branded in Europe following the rebrand of Toshiba’s computer business in April of this year.

The new laptops feature Modern Standby, the latest 8th Generation Intel Core processor (Whiskey Lake), and newly-added Intel Optane Memory. They also boast new upgrades including a hardware precision touchpad (PTP) with wake on fingerprint capabilities, and a newly-designed fan to improve airflow and cooling by lowering fan noise.

“The 9th July marks ‘dynabook Day’ in Japan, celebrating 30 years of the dynabook brand: we thought it would be a fitting time to launch the first dynabook-branded laptops in Europe,” said Damian Jaume, president of Dynabook Europe GmbH.

“As Toshiba, the company launched the world’s first laptop computer in 1985 (the T1100) and followed it up with the world’s first notebook computer – the DynaBook J-3100 SS001 in 1989.

“Now, as dynabook Europe we are launching two new laptops that continue the trend for excellence expected of the dynabook brand, epitomising our rich heritage of over 30 years of innovation in mobile computing whilst signifying our renewed commitment to investment and our enhanced scale. The launch of these new devices demonstrates that our obsession with quality, security, and innovation remains strong.”

The latest models of the Portégé X30-F and the Tecra X40-F are equipped with Windows 10 Modern Standby, an evolution of the Windows 8.1 Connected Standby power model that enables the smartphone power model on a PC, which in partnership with the ‘wake on fingerprint’ feature provides the instant on/off experience.

www.pcr-online.biz

Synology to enforce use of validated disks in its NAS. And guess what? Only its own disks exceed 4TB

Synology has introduced its first-ever list of validated disks and won’t allow other devices into its enterprise-class NAS devices. And in a colossal coincidence, half of the disks allowed into its devices – and the only ones larger than 4TB – are Synology’s very own HAT 5300 disks that it launched last week.

Seeing as privately held Synology is thought to have annual revenue of around US$350m, rather less than the kind of cash required to get into the hard disk business, The Register inquired if it had really started making drives or found some other way into the industry.

The Taiwanese network-attached-storage vendor told us the drives are Synology-branded Toshiba kit, though it has written its own drive firmware and that the code delivers sequential read performance 23 per cent beyond comparable drives. Synology told us its branded disks will also be more reliable because they have undergone extensive testing in the company’s own NAS arrays.

Slightly worrying - but this only applies to Synology's enterprise-class NAS devices - their "Big Iron". So the "smaller stuff" for Personal & Home User, IT Enthusiast, Small and Midsize Business - you can still use WD or Seagate branded approved Hard Drives. Phew!

www.theregister.com

Deal of the day!

Toshiba Satellite C55-C-175 15.6 inch Laptop in white.

Intel Core i5-5200U, 4 GB RAM, 500 GB HDD,Intel HD Graphics 5500.

Currently a bargain at just under £400! 

www.amazon.co.uk

Will you be buying the new iPhone? Lets see what the techies think...

Will you be buying the next iPhone (announced on Sept 12)?

I'm not an Apple fan. I do however support many clients who use Apple tech (iPod, iPad, iPhone, iMac, MacBook, etc). It's well designed, nicely made kit. 

However, for the vast majority of Donline clients, on a bang-for-buck basis, I don't & wouldn't recommend it. 

Donline uses, & supplies Toshiba & Fujitsu personal computers to my clients.

There is a small subset of computer users (high end production of Video, Music, Design) where Apple kit may (debatable!) be an appropriate solution: the correct tool for the job.

Generally though, using any metric you care to look at: compatibility, supportability, ease of use, longevity, security, price - I can offer a Wintel solution which will do the job better, faster, cheaper.

Regarding mobiles, generally I recommend Android.

For example: over the last two years I have been using Sony Xperia Z3 Compact phones in the business. I just upgraded the Donline phones last week, & was so happy with the Z3s, I have switched to Sony Xperia X Compact phones. These new devices are even better & I'm very happy to recommend them if you are looking for a new mobile phone.

Virtually none of the techies that I know, use or recommend Apple kit.

Hmmm, what is the moral of this story...

www.slashdot.org

Donline is pleased to offer & support Toshiba Laptops