Toshiba Japan announced a new portable DVD player today [JP], the SD-P93DTW, which is equipped with a One-Seg digital TV tuner. The device is Japan-only at this point. But Toshiba sells the SDP93S in the US, which is essentially the same player minus the TV tuner (the tuner is useless outside Japan and Brazil anyway). And Americans have to pay a lot less for their player.

Japanese buyers will be set back a whopping $520, while the SDP93S costs just $180 at Amazon. The Japanese version is also equipped with an analogue TV tuner and supports SD/SDHC/microSD/micro SDHC cards but apart from these features (the American version supports SD cards only), it seems to be the same model: a swiveling 9-inch TFT LCD screen with 800×480 resolution, DivX support, JPEG viewer, virtual surround sound and built-in speakers.

The SD-P93DTW will hit Japanese stores at the end of April.

Phew. For a moment year or so there we reckoned that amazing FeRAM discoveryhad been pushed aside and forgotten entirely. Thankfully, Toshiba has picked up the ball and refined the original chainFeRAM architecture by creating a new architecture that prevents cell signal degradation -- which, as you may or may not know, is the usual tradeoff from chip scaling. In essence, this has allowed the company to design the world's highest bandwidth, highest density (128-megabit) non-volatile RAM. Unfortunately, this amazing device -- which should realize read / write speeds of 1.6 gigabytes a second and combine the fast operating characteristics of DRAM with flash memory's ability to retain data while powered off -- is still in prototype form, which probably means we're months (if not years) away from actually seeing a tangible end product hit store shelves.

Europe just dropped a new smartphone that might make me forgive the OS. This is the TG01, a new touch-screen handset that Toshiba is apparently aiming at the iPhone. And it runs on the Snapdragon CPU at 1GHz.

The speedy proc is nice, and the other features are as high-tech, such as the HSUPA/HSDPA data modem for 3G connectivity, the 4.1-inch hi-res WVGA display, Wi-Fi, GPS, and built-in support for DivX.

Toshiba also has a TouchFlo-like UI layer over the ugliness of Windows Mobile 6.1 that appears fairly slick. And the form factor is very nice indeed. But until it's sporting WinMo 6.5, it's not really an iPhone replacement yet.

Europe just dropped a new smartphone that might make me forgive the OS. This is the TG01, a new touch-screen handset that Toshiba is apparently aiming at the iPhone. And it runs on the Snapdragon CPU at 1GHz.

The speedy proc is nice, and the other features are as high-tech, such as the HSUPA/HSDPA data modem for 3G connectivity, the 4.1-inch hi-res WVGA display, Wi-Fi, GPS, and built-in support for DivX.

Toshiba also has a TouchFlo-like UI layer over the ugliness of Windows Mobile 6.1 that appears fairly slick. And the form factor is very nice indeed. But until it's sporting WinMo 6.5, it's not really an iPhone replacement yet.

Toshiba Corp. is in talks to merge part of its chip operations with the semiconductor unit of NEC Corp., a person with knowledge of the negotiations said, as they struggle with slumping demand and prices.

The talks will likely focus on Toshiba spinning off its system chip operations and merging them with NEC Electronics Corp., a semiconductor maker owned 65 percent by NEC Corp., the person said, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks are not public.

Semiconductor makers have been hit by fierce competition and tumbling prices, while the global recession has added to their woes by weakening demand.

A Toshiba spokesman declined to comment.

Toshiba's chief executive, Atsutoshi Nishida, said on Thursday that too many chip makers, especially those who make system chips, are fighting it out in Japan and that they need to consolidate to win globally.

He said Toshiba, which is facing a record operating loss this business year, would consider spinning off its system and discrete chip operations.

NEC Electronics said in a statement that each company must prioritize operational reforms for the revival of the chip industry, and that it would push forward with its own restructuring steps including cutting costs by $890 million over two years and eliminating 1,200 contract jobs..

The Nikkei business daily said NEC has been talking with Fujitsu Ltd. as well about a merger of their chip-making operations.

Fujitsu has been looking for partners and other ways to turn around its chip operations, but a spokesman said nothing had been decided. He said he was checking on whether talks with NEC were being held.

In early trade on Friday, Toshiba shares were awash with sell orders at ¥350, down 9.1 percent from Thursday's close. NEC dropped 5 percent to ¥249 and NEC Electronics was up 0.3 percent at ¥608.

Fujitsu shares were down 4.5 percent at ¥422.

Toshiba's finally ready to enter the fuel cell market, or at least it's saying as much. The company announced this week that it'll release a direct methanol fuel cell-based (DMFC) battery charger this fiscal quarter, before the end of March. Toshiba also said it'll launch DMFC packs for cellphones and laptops in the following fiscal year that begins in April. Details are pretty scant at the moment, and given the technology's past track record, we wouldn't be surprised if it missed the upcoming deadline. Here's hoping our skepticism is unfounded.