Mighty Gadget Blog: The latest technology news & reviews in the UK

StorE TV, the next-generation of media centre , another product recently posted by Toshiba. The little black box will come in various storage sizes, sit under your telly and play all the media you want whether it be movies, music or pictures.

Currently in pre-production, Toshiba outed a first draft if you will of the StorE TV and boy does it look interesting. It will be available in 3 storage sizes, starting at 1TB, 1.5TB and then 2TB. With built in Wi-Fi it can stream media wirelessly to your TV via it’s HDMI out, from a networked PC and other UPnP devices. HD videos, mp3s, jpegs. You name it it’ll show it. Also you can plug in USB sticks, external hard drives even an external DVD drive. It also sports a card reader for image or camcorder playback.

The software running it is still in development stage and therefore doesn’t give the full potential that may be offered by the StorE TV. Suggestions of “internet services” amongst other things could well be on the way so we’ll keep an eye out if things progress and it still looks like a nifty gadget in the future towards release which Toshiba is hoping for the Autumn time of this year.

It took them a while to face the reality of losing the HD format war but eventually Toshiba buckled and decided to make a foray into the Blu-Ray market. Now we have it’s second blu-ray player on the cards the BDX2100KB, a respectable player on the market with a respectable price tag to boot.

As said it’s respectable but not the best blu-ray player on the market. It’s BD Live compatible but without a Wi-Fi connection you’ll just have to make do with the hard reality of wires. As per it does the full 1080p video output at 24fps and does the usual DVD upscaling. Put all this with Dolby True HD and DTS Master Audio which you can output at 7.1. One great feature it does have is MKV support via a USB port which will also play DivX.

On sale in May for £129.99 this will appeal to those who just want a Blu-Ray player a little better than the lowest entries but not “all that”

Toshiba have announced two new model additions to its REGZA line of TVs and also we have a bit more info on the anticipated “Cell” TV we spoke about a few months back.

Firstly Toshiba are unleashing 2 new Freeview HD/LED Backlit series to its REGZA TV lines, the WL and SL series. The lower end SL will feature LED backlit screens for that increased contrast ratio/picture quality, built in Freeview HD receiver, built in DLNA(stream video from a DLNA enabled PC) and a 100Hz refresh rate. It will come in 32”, 40” and 46” and should be available around April. The WL is the more classy affair. Again LED backlit screens, built in Freeview HD(also upscales standard definition pictures using Toshiba’s Resolution+). The DLNA feature with this one isn’t built in but comes with a DLNA wireless dongle. What else makes this better, well it comes in the bigger 40”, 46” and 55” but also has a better 200Hz refresh rate.

Now for the Cell TV. Toshiba Europe has said that we should be seeing the multichannel masterpiece later this year in the Autumn. It will also include Net Resolution+ to improve internet video quality, will also include video calling capabilities. The main new addition which will make this TV truly spectacular is that it will have 3D support.

For those of us that didn’t know, Toshiba helped develop the Cell processor with Sony which powers the PS3. Now Toshiba re taking the tech into its new TV, the “Regza 55X1” LCD TV. The processor improves the quality of the image with better colours, brightness balance and improved picture quality around the edge of the screen.

The Cell chip is actually housed in an external box which also houses a 3TB HDD to save up to a whopping 26 hours from up to 8 simultaneous channels. Yes that’s right 8 simultaneous channels. Just to show off you can show 8 separate channels at one time on the screen. These can then be flicked through without any delay like a standard HDTV.

Throw in 55 inches of LED backlit screen, a 240Hz display and a contrast ratio of 5,000,000:1. A 7 speaker sound bar attached under the screen, network functionality with DLNA support and an Opera based web browser you can see this TV packs just about everything. Now what will it cost?? The TV was on show at CEATEC in Japan where it will be released this December at a cool 1 million Yen. That’s around £7000 to you and me…… Ouch

After licking its wounds from the hi-def format battle which Sony obviously won, Toshiba announced recently they would finally swallow some pride and go into Blu-Ray production. Well here it is the BDX 2000 a fully feature packed Blu-Ray player well worth looking into.

Full Specs :

• Blu-ray playback and DVD upscaling
• DivX HD and AVCHD support (for camcorder footage)
• 24fps True Cinema output
• Support for bitstream audio output via HDMI
• Blu-ray profile 2.0 software
• BonusView features and BD Live
• SD card slot
• HDMI 1.3 with Regza Link

Toshiba have been quoted as saying the BDX2000 will be “available across Europe at the end of this year or beginning of next year, depending on the country.” No price as yet.

After Toshiba’s HD-DVD lost the HD format war to Sony’s Blu-Ray, it has finally decided to release a Blu-Ray player. It has been 18 months since the major movie studios decided to stop producing films onto HD-DVD opting for the Sony format.

Toshiba have since been working on upscaling regular outputs to HD quality. Daily Yomiuri a Japanese newspaper, has reported that the electronics giant will be releasing a standalone Blu-Ray player by the end of the year aswell as a Blu-Ray recorder.

Despite the UK CEO claiming that the Blu-Ray format would soon be outdated, blu-ray sales are up 91% in the first half of 2009 alone so they might aswell get into it while the moneys there.

Toshiba’s TG01 phone, the first one to house the Qualcomm Snapdragon processor was launched today on Orange a week after it was accidently announced on its website last week and then withdrawn. It will be exclusive to Orange for the first 3 months and then be available on other networks.

You can pick the phone up for free on a 24 month contract at £39.15 a month. For this you’ll get 1200 minutes, unlimited texts, unlimited internet and Orange Maps. It might seem a bit pricey but you’re probably looking at a similar contract for an N97.

After announcing the watch phone earlier this week Orange CEO Tom Alexander said "at least three new market-leading devices will be unveiled by the end of the year" Could this be the first of those three.

TG01 Specs :

• 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon
• 4.1-inch WVGA screen
• HSDPA internet
• Wi-Fi
• GPS
• DivX support
• Windows Mobile 6.1

Toshiba have just announced what sounds like one hell of a phone that will be on display at the GSMA Mobile World Congress this February.

The TG01 will be the first mobile handset to incorporate the 1GHz snapdragon processor from Qualcomm which I imagine will make it one of the most powerful phones available today.

It also comes with 4.1″ WVGA resistive touchscreen with on-screen trackpad, HSDPA, aGPS, G-sensor, microSDHC support and DivX support.

It will also be 9.9mm thick which means it will be thinner than the iPhone and have a larger screen.

It is reported to run on Windows Mobile 6.1 and will have Internet Explorer Mobile 6 and be able to offer full flash support.

Toshiba have stated that:

We’ve taken all the technology from our TVs and put that into the screen

Looking at this device this is a clear competitor for everybody's favourite iPhone. The hardware certainly sounds like it could offer considerably more than the iPhone however it is not unlikely that Windows Mobile 6.1 will let it down. They could of at least gone with WM 6.5! Toshiba have tried to counter the issues with WM 6.1 by implementing their own interface over the OS.

More pictures after the jump.

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