Not content to let Apple, and to a lesser extent, Sony, dominate the portable audio player market, Toshiba has released a firmware update for their "gigabeat" range of HDD-based players. The update adds some nice functionality including a photo viewer, ability to customise screen settings and automatic transfer of album art. And, in a stroke of marketing genius, Toshiba is also now using a panda to promote the gigabeat series. Rock you! New gigabeat. Yeah!

A second notebook...of note from Toshiba today is the "libretto U100." With outrageously small dimensions, the U100 follows the tradition set forth by previous Libretto machines, though it is certainly updated for modern specifications. This is the first update to the Libretto line in about 3 years.

From Toshiba comes the "dynabook SS SX," a machine that is a tiny 9.9mm at its thinnest point. These things are getting awfully thin...

80% charge in 1 minute. I don't need to say anything else.

Available in a 250GB capacity, and that's basically it. Interestingly enough, it's fairly cheap -- estimated at less than 35,000 yen. The biggest feature of the player, "Net de Dubbing," allows for users to losslessly copy video to other R series recorders o­n the same network. Legal? I guess, because you apparently copy copy-protected video.

If you are for some reason opposed to the purchase of Green House products, look into Toshiba's portable DVD player also announced today. I likewise has a 7" widescreen LCD, can play JPEGs, and appears to have similar specifications all-around. It's about 40,000 yen, too, so you pay a bit more for the brand-name. Interestingly enough, Toshiba will be releasing a TV tuner attachment to go with this player.

Toshiba has announced a couple new tablet PCs, and while not exactly a bargain, they're still lower cost than most. They also have a dual-axis hinge, so you can use them as a normal laptop, too.

Toshiba appears to now have an 80GB 1.8" hard drive coming out, making it the world's highest capacity for this size.

They've beaten us to an English translation of their press release, though. Those jokers.

Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology (TMD) has a new 3.5" polysilicon LCD that has an optical touchscreen function, and it's pretty cool looking.

What's so great about an optical touchscreen? Conventional touchscreen technologies have required sensors to detect the pressure put o­n certain parts of the screen when pushed. That's all happy doing, but the conventional method of integrating touchscreen functionality requires the use of two screens, actually: o­ne pressure sensitive, and o­ne LCD.

Enter TMD's touchscreen with an optical sensor, taking away the need for the pressure sensitive part.

Toshiba will release a new portable DVD player in December that boasts a 1024 x 600 8.9" wide LCD display. The screen of the "SD-P2700" can also be rotated 180 degrees clock-wise and laid flat for some DVD viewing "tablet-style". I bet you Scoble would love that. The "SD-P2700" will retail for approximately 70,000 yen.