July 9 - 11:05am EDT   The economic crunch is making a major impact on the viability of solid-state drives in notebooks, according to new research from iSuppli. As prices for the NAND flash memory that form the heart of these drives have in some cases more than doubled -- 128 percent for a 2GB chip -- the costs for the SSDs themselves have gone up proportionately, making it difficult or occasionally impossible to offer an SSD option in a given notebook. The jump is the result of a known shortage triggered by the economy, as companies producing memory deliberately cut production to raise prices and save money. [full story]

October 14 - 9:35am EDT   Toshiba today quickly followed up its Canada-first notebook launches with their American equivalents. The Portégé lineup gets three updates that include the R600, its ultra-lightweight 12-inch portable that weighs 2.4 pounds while still carrying a 1.2GHz Core 2 Duo, an internal DVD burner and up to a 128GB solid-state drive for storage; the upgrade further boasts a better LED-backlit, transflective display suitable for use outside. Prices start at $2,099. [full story]

October 9 - 3:20pm EDT   Toshiba Canada recently bolstered its notebook lineup with four new products, including an all-new Tecra R10 premium notebook meant for business users, which the company is touting as the fastest and most secure Toshiba notebook to date, a Wednesday report reveals. The remaining three include updated ultra portable Portégé-series notebooks with the A600 and an update to the R600, while a new M750 Tablet PC was also introduced. [full story]

September 29 - 12:10pm EDT   Toshiba on Monday announced it will soon launch the DynaBook NX notebook, which will be available either with a 128GB solid-state drive or conventional 160GB hard-disk. The 12.1-inch display is LED-backlit and combines with an onboard GMA 4500MHD graphics chipset to drive HD movie playback. Thanks in part to the use of Intel‘s newer 45nm, ultra-low voltage 1.2GHz Core 2 Duo processor, Toshiba rates the SSD-equipped dynabook‘s battery life at 11.5 hours, with the HDD model rated at 10.5 hours. Standard memory is set at 2GB but expandable to 3GB. [full story]

June 17 - 9:55am EDT   A second announcement from Toshiba sees the US release of what it says is the first notebook with a 128GB solid-state drive. The Portégé R500-S5007V exploits the company's in-house 128GB drive to double the storage available in a very thin ultraportable while still keeping the incidental benefits of an SSD, such as very quick response times as well as the better battery life and skip-proof nature of flash memory. The system weighs just 2.4 pounds and maintains its earlier thickness of just 0.77 inches while keeping a built-in DVD drive -- the only notebook in the class to do so. [full story]

March 17 - 3:10pm EDT   Toshiba’s Japan-only new Dynabook SS RX1 is the first ever notebook to offer a 128GB solid-state drive (SSD), matching the storage capacity of conventional hard-disk drives with the speeds associated with flash drives. The model will be available about nine months after Toshiba also unveiled the first laptop with a 64GB SSD drive. In North America, the RX1’s equivalent is the Portégé R500, already a holder of many “world’s first” accolades. [full story]

December 10 - 11:35am EST   Toshiba on Monday has capitalized on last-minute holiday sales by announcing the Portégé M700. While a tablet like some earlier models, the new 12.1-inch system is built for a level of speed not often found in the class: a base system starts with a 2GHz Core 2 Duo with an 800MHz bus and optionally scales up to the latest 2.6GHz model. The M700 also distinguishes itself by including both active and passive input, allowing users to press both with their fingers or with a stylus on an anti-glare LED screen the PC builder says is much more useful in outdoor light. [full story]