Toshiba shows off wireless laptop docking

TOSHIBA HAD THREE things at CeBIT that were interesting, two of which were unique at the show. They ranged from methanol powered headphones to TVs.

Probably the most interesting thing they had at the booth was a new tablet called the Portege R400. It is a tablet, you can tell that by the bent screen, and on top of it, the Tosh logo on the front is actually an OLED sideshow display panel. It was really bright, and does all the things a sideshow panel should.

More interesting is the UMTS connection so it is always on, and comes pre-shipped with push email software. You need Vista and it's attendant malware and DRM infections, along with the virus-spreading Exchange and Outlook combo, but if you are into that masochism, your push email solution is here.

OK, I said this was really cool, and it is, but not for the above reasons. The part that made me stop is the docking station on the left, the thing with the blue lights and antenna. It is a wireless docking station. You put your machine within range of the UWB connection, and voila, you are docked.

Toshiba even had a monitor running off of it, it looks like a true dock, not just a cheeseball port replicator. I won't comment on how well it works until I get my hands on one, but it sure looks like a huge step forward. If they did it right, Toshiba deserves a big pat on the back for this. It will be available in Q2 in the US, and if the EU ever approves the technology, it will follow there.

That brings us to the TVs, something that are coming more and more into the range of IT with each passing day because of convergence. There are two new lines from Toshiba at CeBIT, the C3000 and the X3030D. The C3000 is the low end, it is natively 1080i and comes in 32, 34 and 37" sizes, and ranges from $999 to $1699. It will downscale 1080p inputs on the fly.

The X3030D line is the real deal, full 1080p panels. They looked nice, have 2 HDMI inputs, and a pretty amazing view angle. They had all the goodies including active backlight control and everything else that is necessary for modern TVs. There are two models, a 37 and 42" for $1699 and $1999 respectively.

To go along with it, there is a second gen HD-DVD player called the HD-EP10. This one does full 1080p as well, and will cost $749. It has more bells and whistles than the first more sparse players that came out last year.

The other unique thing that Toshiba was showing off was direct methanol fuel cells. Basically you don't have a battery in your device, the fuel cell converts methanol into electricity, water and carbon dioxide directly.

The above unit is a cell phone recharger, but they had a lot of other devices. There was a laptop with a rather ungainly thick base, a pair of 1970's looking headphones, and other widgets including an MP3 player. The cell itself is the white thing in the middle, but there are also larger laptop battery sized ones.

It works now, the technology is sound, but with the current political climate, you can't take them on airplanes, so I doubt they will catch on. Until the US Transportation Security Administration's 'war on moisture' is won, I doubt these will be commercially viable. Sadly. µ