For those of us in Japan and are interested in buying a new laptop no matter how pricey it gets, then Toshiba's got your back. In this news update, we catch wind of the electronics giant updating two of its laptop lines, the Qosmio and the Dynabook. Check out the relevant stats and figures of what could be your next weapon against ignorance (and disorganization) in the full article.

Toshiba recently unveiled two new additions to the ever-growing Portage R500 sub-notebook family, the R500-12P and the R500-12Q. The latest laptops boast of packing 128 GB of solid-state storage. Find out more on these in the full article.

A whole bunch of companies involved in the use of LEDs and laser diodes in mobile phones, high-def players, and data storage devices are currently facing an investigation by the U.S. International Trade Commission on charges of patent infringement. More in the full article.

In life, it helps to have someone who can hold you accountable for your actions. In the case of electronics companies, it seems that Greenpeace is their accountability partner. The organization has recently released the current company rankings in its Greener Electronics Scale. To find out how certain companies fared, get "green-minded" and turn to the full article after the jump.

If all else fails, the best thing to do is move on. Toshiba is keeping their hands busy with Dynabook SS RX1 - the first notebook with a 128GB solid-state drive. Not only that, see how this big-capacity baby ward off four-foot falls and coffee spills over at the full article.

Ok, it's been a few months since the Transformers movie, but it'll still be some time before transforming gadgets-slash-robots will get old. Besides, these new transforming cellphones from Toshiba are just too cute. Go to the full article for details and pictures.

Asian consumer electronics giants Samsung and Toshiba are teaming up to give the NAND flash memory market more options. The two have agreed to license their proprietary NAND wares to each other so that the industry can rely on more than just a single producer.

It's a fact: battery life is one of the more pressing issues that laptop owners have to deal with every day. Some even go so far as to lug along an extra charged battery to avoid running out of juice on the go, while some have to make room in their busy schedules just to plug in their laptop somewhere and have it charged.

Those practices may become the thing of the past, however, if reports of batteries that last for 30 years without charging are true. Apparently, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory is now working on one such battery that runs on betavoltaic power.

How does it work? The radioactive material that slowly decays inside the battery emits beta particles which turns into electricity. The decay process is very slow, slow enough for it to run about 30 years without charging. The batteries can be used for electronic devices such as laptops and mobile phones.

Surprisingly, these batteries won't be as large and heavy as most other laptop batteries. Next Energy News supposes that these long-lasting batteries will be small and thin, and will not heat in the same way as conventional batteries do. Can we say goodbye now to burned laps (or laptop explosions)?

This is certainly one very exciting gadget to look forward to. Will we see it in the near future? We sure do hope so.

Toshiba's Satellite line of laptops has been a mainstay of the industry with its show of power, reliability, and style over the years. The company is now incorporating its next-generation HD-DVD entertainment format with its notebooks to form the Toshiba Satellite A205 series.

Featuring an HD-DVD drive which is complemented by a 15.4-inch, 720p TrueBrite screen, high-resolution viewing is a few clicks away. The viewing pleasure rolls on with the power of Intel's selection of processors, a built in webcam and up to 200GB of HDD space to accommodate all your media files.

Toshiba will also give away five HD-DVD titles from a selection of 15 movies to sweeten the deal. This promo will run up to February 28, 2008 so you can take your time in choosing the specs and titles that best suit you.

The Toshiba Satellite A205 series comes in an onyx blue casing, starts at six pounds and begins with a US$ 1,149.99 price tag for the HD-DVD models.

Toshiba has announced the Satellite P205D series, the newest addition to its lineup of AMD-based notebook computers. This notebook is available in two flavors: the Satellite P205D-S7479 and Satellite P205D-S7438.

The 250GB P205D-S7479 is equipped with AMD's Turion 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology Gold Edition TL-64 processor. This particular model also comes with an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600 graphics processor.

The 160GB P205D-S7438 is cheaper, but it's no pushover, either. It comes with an AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor TK-55 processor and an ATI Radeon Xpress X1200M graphics processor.

Both models also sport a DVD SuperMulti drive with Labelflash technology and 17-inch widescreen monitors. The P205D-S7479 also comes with a built-in Webcam and two built-in Harman Kardon stereo speakers and a sub-woofer. The P205D-S7479 is available for US$ 1,349.99 while the P205D-S7438 has an US$ 849.99 retail price.