Toshiba unveils the smallest 8MP CMOS sensor ever

Steve Jobs says it's not all about the megapixels and in this case he might be right. Toshiba's newest creation is a super thin 8 megapixel CMOS sensor, that promises smaller pixels without loss of quality. An issue that rears its head when trying to squeeze higher megapixel sensors in a smaller space is that it usually results in a loss of image quality.

8MP but nothing like we've seen before

What the new Toshiba sensor promises is an 8 megapixel CMOS sensor with the smallest pixel size in the biz at 1.12 micrometers, add to that back-side illumination (BSI) and quality degredation is negligable at best.

This means we might be seeing some of the newest 8MP shooters producing some really impressive shots in the not-too-distant future. The new sensor is already in testing and has plans to go into mass production later this year.

For the full press-release from Toshiba click here.

Toshiba unveils new 720p mobile display, Retina beware

Toshiba just brought their latest tech to SID 2011 display exhibit and entered the competitive world of mobile screen pixel density. Two screens geared towards mobile devices peaked particular interest.

Firstly a smaller 3.3-inch LCD that packs a pretty impressive 480x864 resolution and a 300ppi density. Not bad, but its big brother really turned heads. Toshiba showed off a 4-inch HD LCD. It spans 720x1280 and has a monster pixel density of 367ppi. Now compare that to the Retina Display's 326ppi and it clearly takes the cake. The 4" LCD also promises a contrast radio of 1500:1, which is nearly double that of the iPhone 4's display.

It has to be said that a direct comparison between these new LTPS displays is a little unfair. Assuming it makes it onto a production handset, it's likely to take the crown for the highest pixel density/best contrast ratio combo on a cell phone.

Sure, there are better screens out there. Look at the HAST LCDs, they offered FullHD 1080p resolution on a small scale but we've never really seen them materialize outside of a proof of concept and in truth, at what point does pixel density become meaningless. The human eye is a phenomenal thing, but it's only so good at what it does.

There's no talk of when these might become available to buy or which phones will get first dibs on them so we're stuck with our Retina Displays for the meantime, what a shame…

Toshiba's Honeycomb tablet to be dubbed ANT, start at $450?

Feel free to ingest this with a healthy helping of salt for now, but if a spate of Newegg product listings are to be believed, Toshiba's heretofore unnamed Honeycomb tablet will boast a tremendously unflattering moniker: ANT. Priced at $449.99, $499.99 and $579.99, the Tegra 2-powered slate is seemingly dubbed ANT-100, ANT-102 and ANT-104. Each one includes Android 3.0, a 10.1-inch panel (1280 x 800) and NVIDIA silicon, with the extra dollars on the latter two changing that 8GB of internal storage to 16GB or 32GB. There's still no hard release date promised, but surely the shot above is proof that the day is near, right? Right?

Toshiba TG02

General	2G Network	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
	3G Network	HSDPA 900 / 2100
	Announced	2010, February
	Status	Discontinued

Size	Dimensions	126 x 66 x 9.9 mm
	Weight	119 g

Display	Type	TFT capacitive touchscreen, 65K colors
	Size	480 x 800 pixels, 4.1 inches
		- Touch-sensitive navigation controls - Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate - 3D user interface - Shake control

Sound	Alert types	Vibration, MP3, WAV ringtones
	Loudspeaker	Yes
	3.5mm jack	No

Memory	Phonebook	Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall
	Call records	Practically unlimited
	Internal	256 MB RAM, 512 MB ROM
	Card slot	microSD, up to 16GB, buy memory

Data	GPRS	Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
	EDGE	Class 10, 236.8 kbps
	3G	HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 2 Mbps
	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11b/g
	Bluetooth	Yes, v2.0 with A2DP, EDR
	Infrared port	No
	USB	Yes, microUSB v2.0

Camera	Primary	3.15 MP, 2048x1536 pixels, autofocus
	Features	Videocalling
	Video	Yes, VGA@30fps
	Secondary	Yes

Features	OS	Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional
	CPU	1 GHz Scorpion processor, Adreno 200 GPU, Qualcomm QSD8250 Snapdragon chipset
	Messaging	SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email
	Browser	WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML (IE)
	Radio	No
	Games	Yes
	Colors	Black, White
	GPS	Yes, with A-GPS support
	Java	Yes, MIDP 2.0
		- Pocket Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, PDF viewer) - Organizer - MP3/eAAC+/WMA player - MP4/H.264/H.263/WMV player - Facebook and YouTube apps - Photo editor - Voice memo/dial/commands - Predictive text input

Battery		Standard battery, Li-Ion 1000 mAh
	Stand-by	Up to 275 h (2G) / Up to 220 h (3G)
	Talk time	Up to 5 h (2G) / Up to 4 h (3G)

Misc	SAR US	0.20 W/kg (head) 0.30 W/kg (body)

Toshiba K01

General	2G Network	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
	3G Network	HSDPA 2100
	Announced	2010, February
	Status	Available. Released 2010, April

Size	Dimensions	122 x 65 x 12.9 mm
	Weight	158 g

Display	Type	AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 65K colors
	Size	480 x 800 pixels, 4.1 inches
		- QWERTY keyboard - Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate - 3D user interface - Shake control

Sound	Alert types	Vibration; Downloadable polyphonic, MP3 ringtones
	Loudspeaker	Yes
	3.5mm jack	No

Memory	Phonebook	Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall
	Call records	Practically unlimited
	Internal	256 MB RAM, 512 MB ROM
	Card slot	microSD, up to 32GB, buy memory

Data	GPRS	Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
	EDGE	Class 10, 236.8 kbps
	3G	HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 2 Mbps
	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11b/g
	Bluetooth	Yes, v2.0 with A2DP, EDR
	Infrared port	No
	USB	Yes, microUSB v2.0

Camera	Primary	3.15 MP, 2048x1536 pixels, autofocus
	Features	Videocalling
	Video	Yes, VGA@30fps
	Secondary	Yes

Features	OS	Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional, upgradeable to Windows Mobile 6.5.3
	CPU	1 GHz Scorpion processor, Adreno 200 GPU, Qualcomm QSD8250 Snapdragon chipset
	Messaging	SMS (threaded view), EMS, MMS, Email
	Browser	WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML (IE)
	Radio	No
	Games	Yes
	Colors	Black, White
	GPS	Yes, with A-GPS support
	Java	Yes, MIDP 2.0
		- Pocket Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, PDF viewer) - MP3/WAV/WMA/eAAC+ player - MP4/H.264/H.263/WMV player - Organizer - Facebook and YouTube apps - Photo editor - Voice memo/dial/commands - Predictive text input

Battery		Standard battery, Li-Ion 1000 mAh
	Stand-by
	Talk time

Misc	SAR US	0.37 W/kg (head) 0.36 W/kg (body)