A Roundup Of Hot New Products

Toshiba Launches New Porteges, Libretto

Toshiba’s Digital Products Division has refreshed its Portege line, introducing a newer, thinner version of the notebook with a sub- $1,000 price point.

Toshiba’s Portege R700 is built with a 13.3-inch LCD and an integrated DVD drive; Toshiba executives highlighted that the notebook is under 3 pounds, is ultra-thin, and still maintains an on-board optical drive.

Various flavors of the R700 have different configurations. The Portege R700-S1310 is built with an Intel Core i3 processor, a 500-GB hard disk drive and is list-priced at $999. The R700-S1320 is built with an Intel Core i5-520M with a 320-GB, 7,200 RMP HDD that is list-priced at $1,299. The Portege R700-S1330, with a high-end Core i7-620M and 128-GB SSD is list-priced at $1,599.

At the same time, Toshiba also announced a new “concept” tablet -- the Libretto W100 -- which is a touch-screen device with two 7-inch displays that opens and shuts much like a book. Given a sneak peek at the device, the CRN Test Center found it an interesting, imaginative device that attempts to extend current use patterns for mobile devices by providing two screens with several different layouts of a touch-screen keyboard.

Firm Shows Off VoIP Phones For Defense, Military

Elektrobit, which makes VoIP and telephony products and peripherals, has launched two new VoIP phones it says are targeted at military and defense solutions.

The EB Tough VoIP Field Phone and EB Tough VoIP Desktop Phone were built as rugged products designed for customer-specific requirements, the company says.

The EP Tough VoIP Field Phone is built with an integrated speaker, Ethernet and SHDSL connectivity, and includes what Elektrobit says are greater levels of voice and broadband services in the field, streaming video, maps, real-time data and “situational awareness.”

The EB Tough VoIP Desktop Phone comes with integrated speaker and Ethernet connectivity with voice services for command post and vehicular use, and can be wall-mounted in vehicles, Elektrobit says.

Pricing was not immediately available. Elektrobit is based in Oulu, Finland.

Web Signage Firm DT Research Billboards Two New Products

DT Research, San Jose, Calif., has launched two new signage products based on Intel’s new processing platform.

The company says its MS800 and MS400 digital signage appliances can support video streaming on as many as eight or four screens, respectively. They also provide functionality and features including content blending and tiling; with the company’s separate WebDT Content Manager software, the solution can integrate with 1080p up to eight screens and, the company says, multizone management for as many as 16 zones.

Both the MS800 and the MS400 are built on Intel’s Core i3 CPU, with upgrade options to Core i5 or Core i7. Pricing information was not immediately available.

NEXT: New Products From Kingston, Savvis, Zoho And Epson

Kingston Gets Hyper With HyperX At 2,333MHz

Kingston Technology Co., Fountain Valley, Calif., says it has achieved “the world’s fastest triple-channel memory” when Intel certified its HyperX memory at 2,333 MHz.

Intel has given the memory XMP certification on its high-end Core i7 platform. In a statement, the company said the product would appeal to overclockers who want to hit memory limits on Core i7 systems.

Kingston says the 2,333-MHz kit runs at 9-11-1-9-27 timings at 1.65 volts. The company says a 6-GB, 2,333-MHz version of the CL9-11-9-27 in a 1.65v kit of three with a fan optimized for XMP is list-priced at $543. There are less expensive versions of the memory, including a 6-GB, 2,250-MHz version list-priced at $369.

Savvis Sings Out About Symphony Cloud Solution

Savvis, a hosted services provider, launched Savvis Symphony, its new hosted service that provides compute cloud capabilities -- rather than just cloud storage -- in what it is billing as an elegant, easy-to-manage offering.

The St. Louis, Mo.-based company says Symphony will include Savvis Symphony Virtual Private Data Center (VPDC) and Savvis Symphony Open, which are both public cloud services. It also launched Savvis Symphony Dedicated, a private cloud service.

While the company did not immediately provide reviewers with an opportunity to get a hands-on look at a full account, it did provide a sandbox of its VPDC for the CRN/ Test Center. The demo solution showed an impressive approach to the front-end management part of the offering, with wizard-based, drag-and-drop simple creation of virtual data centers. The data centers provide choices of servers between Microsoft Windows Server 2008 deployments and Red Hat Linux 5.X deployments.

On launch, pricing information was not available from Savvis.

Zoho Rolls Out Hosted Invoicing, Helpdesk Services

Zoho, which provides a wide and growing suite of hosted business and productivity applications, has added two new services to its lineup: Zoho Invoice and Zoho Creator Helpdesk.

Zoho Invoice provides the ability to integrate with Google Apps to provide invoicing capability with contacts that are already populated into a Google Apps account. The company is pricing the service for free for up to five invoices a month, $8 per month for up to 25 invoices and up to 1,500 invoices a month for $35.

Zoho Creator Helpdesk provides for workflow management of a helpdesk solution -- from ticket and asset management to knowledge base and reporting features. After a brief free trial period, Zoho is pricing the helpdesk service at $15 per month for three technicians, scaling up to 50 technicians for $175 per month.

Epson Introduces New Lower-Cost Projector, Ultraportable Screen

Epson America, a Long Beach, Calif.-based maker of projectors and peripherals, has rolled out a “value-priced” projector -- the VS400 -- which hits the market at under $1,000.

Epson says the VS400 will be available this month and ships with a two-year limited warranty. A key feature on the device, the company says, is lamp technology, which allows the lamp to last for as many as 3,500 hours when set to “economy mode;” the projector can also integrate with a wall on-off switch through Epson’s Direct Power On and Off function, the company says.

At the same time, Epson says it will begin shipping the Epson ES3000 Portable Projection Screen, which is built to enable expansion to up to 80 inches diagonally and can provide for switching between screen sizes of 4:3, or widescreen 16:9 or 16:10. Epson has listed-priced the ES3000 at $249.