Appletell

In a lawsuit filed by Typhoon Touch last Monday, Apple, Inc.—along with ten other companies—were implicated in the proceedings. The lawsuit was focused on Dell, but Apple, Fujitsu, Toshiba, Lenovo, Panasonic, HTC, Palm, Samsung, Nokia, and LG were all mentioned. The lawsuit involves patents filed by Typhoon Touch, specifically numbers 5,379,057 (“Touch Screen and Computer System Employing Same”) and 5,675,362 (“Portable Computer with Touch Screen and Computing System Employing Same”). 

Typhoon Touch claims that all eleven companies knowingly violated these patents and seeks damages, royalties and legal fees. Typhoon Touch’s legal department says that not only are they seeking millions, they are quite confident that should an out-of-court settlement not be made, they will be awarded a large sum.

All of these companies, despite having legions of seasoned attorneys and legal gurus, may have a hard time defending themselves, as these two patents have been successfully defended in the past. Recently, Typhoon Touch made an out-of-court settlement with Motion Computers and Electrovaya. The latter of those two companies ended up offering 20% of its popular Scribbler Tablet PCs sold in the US. 

Via [Electronista]

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Toshiba Corp. launched an ultraportable notebook today, known as the Portégé R500-S5007V, that it claims to be the world’s lightest at only 2.4 pounds, surpassing Apple’s MacBook Air, which weighs approximately 3 pounds, and Lenovo’s Thinkpad X300, which weighs approximately 2.93 pounds. The notebook measures 0.77 inches at its thinnest point, according to Toshiba.

Toshiba also claimed that the new notebook was the first to include a 128GB solid-state drive rather than a hard drive, which will be the only option for now, according to a Toshiba representative. Toshiba said its new laptop can run for eight hours on a single battery charge, as it runs on a lithium-ion battery. Battery life is also preserved by the laptop’s transreflective 12.1-inch screen, which can shut down the LED backlighting by reflecting the sun’s rays to illuminate the screen.

Price and specs after the break.

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If 160GB is not enough capacity for an iPod, Toshiba has announced a new prototype of a 1.8” HDD that could potentially hold up to 240GB. Through a technology called Discrete Track Recording (DTR), Toshiba has been able to fit 120GB on a single platter, and up to 240GB on a dual platter. The HDDs would keep the same form factor that is currently used in the iPod classic. Toshiba has plans to begin mass production of these drives in 2009.

Once these drives become available for mass production, it is almost certain that Apple will include these drives in the iPod. At the moment, the iPod classic can house 80GB on a single-platter drive, and 160GB on a dual platter drive. These new drives from Toshiba would tack another 40GB onto the 80 gig model, and a whopping 80GB onto the 160 gig model while keeping the same form factor. Now if they could manufacture a flash drive with that kind of capacity, we’d be all set. Personally, I don’t think I would mind having a slightly larger iPod Touch or iPhone (though I’ve never seen either in person) if that meant it could house 80, 160, or in the future up to 240GB. What about you?   

[via MacRumors]

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