fujitsu

LOS ANGELES--At Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference here, Windows tablets were on display tables but not in attendees' hands.

Windows 7 tablets from Fujitsu, Motion Computing, TabletKiosk, and others occupied a sizable swath of display area inside a pavilion devoted to Microsoft hardware and software partners. But walking the floor for five hours made it quickly apparent that iPads--being used by attendees--occupied the entire pavilion.

To be fair, Windows 7 tablets exist because they meet a need. For example, the retail and health care industries are big customers. And companies like Fujitsu and Lenovo will likely continue to provide hardware to those markets.

But the classic Microsoft tablet PC design does not--and never will--appeal to the much larger consumer market, where Apple and the Android camp now dominate.

There are plenty of reasons why consumers--including the "businesspeople" attending WPC 2011--don't buy Windows 7 tablets. And, conversely, why they do buy Apple's iPad. Two big reasons are the fact that Windows 7 has not been optimized for tablets and the popularity of iOS apps versus older "legacy" Windows applications. But design also plays a big role.… Read more

Fujitsu will cut its power usage by 15 percent this summer in parts of Japan suffering from power shortages caused by the massive March earthquake, the company said today.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) has been struggling to deal with nuclear power reactors severely damaged by the quake and resulting tsunami, leading to efforts in Japan to encourage lower electrical power use. Fujitsu said it will cut its own power usage in areas serviced by Tepco and Tohoku Electric Power through a variety of programs, and it's an interesting list for any company worried about power cost and supply … Read more

Imagine, if you will, a big floating camera-enabled balloon that follows you around on vacation, recording your hijinks and beaming them to family and friends back home using cloud-computing technology.

Shohei Nakamura, MoonHwan Lee, and YoungWook Jung imagined just such an odd contraption--and it beat out thousands of other entries to win a judge's special award in the Fujitsu Design Award 2011 competition co-sponsored by Designboom.

Posting vacation photos on Facebook, of course, would probably be a much easier way to keep the posse updated on your travels, but the Total Recall Agent, as the balloon is dubbed, is certainly a novel way of going about things. And that's precisely the point of the contest--soliciting innovative creations that may or may not make their way into production.

Other prize-winning concepts this year include a smart walking cane with an SOS button and sensors for measuring pulse, blood pressure, and temperature; a laptop that generates electricity when the user presses the touch screen; and several hybrid computing devices that change form factors in an instant. There's even a laptop that gets enhanced functionality, such as a projector and aromatherapy sticks, via pin-like components stuck in the lid. Get a look at a computer getting acupuncture--and other winning designs--in our gallery. … Read more

Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo today announced 24 handsets for its summer lineup, and one of the most interesting has two operating systems: one mobile OS, and one OS you wouldn't expect to find on a cell phone.

The Fujitsu LOOX F-07C, one of the most peculiar hybrid smartphones in recent memory, can use the Symbian OS or Windows 7 Home Premium (32-bit). The QWERTY slider features an 1.2GHz Intel Atom (Moorestown) processor, 1GB of RAM, and 32GB of built-in storage space. A trackball and left click button are also located near the keyboard. My notebook, which was already feeling a bit irrelevant due to tablets, is shaking in its sleeve.… Read more

Intel said today it is shipping a new processor slated for tablets from Lenovo and Fujitsu among others, as the world's largest chipmaker tries to blunt an onslaught of designs based on competing silicon from ARM.

The Atom Z670 processor delivers improved video playback--up to 1080p--and longer battery life than previous Z series Atom chips, according to Intel. The chip will also allow smaller, thinner tablet designs owing to a 60 percent reduction in the size of the "die," or the raw piece of silicon that contains the integrated circuits.

In addition to Lenovo and Fujitsu, other … Read more

The cassette tape player that replaced my first eight-track deck was out of this world. And the CD player that replaced the cassette player was like a dream. But now Fujitsu Semiconductor America has created a car audio design kit that has left the CD player out in the cold.

The CD-less Audio Design Kit is built around the Fujitsu MB9G711 SoC Series and is based on an ARM System-on-a-Chip (SoC) for audio systems that do not require a CD player. The kit has several options, such as support for MP3, Windows Media Audio (WMA), Ogg Audio, and Advanced Audio … Read more

The M440 ECO mouse is the latest entry to Fujitsu's Green IT line of ecologically responsible products that aim to reduce customers' environmental footprint.

The USB input device features an optical sensor underneath with 1000dpi resolution and an ambidextrous design suitable for both right and left handed users. Fujitsu also went with Halogen-free materials that includes Arboform, new petroleum-based plastic that biodegrades like wood, and Biograde, a material derived from European Soft Woods in sustainable forests.

But Fujitsu is also under fire from environmentalists that take issue with the company's press release, which claims the mouse is 100% … Read more

Intel's perplexing "innovation" endeavors notwithstanding, it does make, lest we forget, the world's fastest PC processors. Namely, Sandy Bridge. Systems using the freshly-minted chip are now widely available from top-tier vendors--but they're at the very high end of the pricing spectrum.

Hewlett-Packard and Toshiba serve as arguably the best examples of Sandy Bridge systems. Let's start with Toshiba's Qosmio X500-Q930S, which uses the Sandy Bridge i7-2630QM quad-core processor. That chip is rated at 2GHz but can automatically overclock--what Intel calls "Turbo Boost"--to 2.9GHz.

If Intel's most advanced quad-core … Read more

Anyone who's eyeing a 3D PC but doesn't want to wear those glasses may be in luck.

Fujitsu announced yesterday that it will launch an all-in-one desktop PC sporting a 3D display that won't require the familiar but uncomfortable 3D glasses.

Due to launch in Japan on February 25, the Fujitsu Esprimo FH99/CM will offer an 23-inch 1,920x1,080 LCD display and be powered by an Intel i7 processor.

The PC will include 4GB of RAM, up to 2TB of hard-disk space, integrated graphics, and a Blu-ray drive, according to PClaunches.com and other sources. … Read more