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Tag: Electronics

  • Toshiba Announces Plan to Split Into Three Companies

    Toshiba Announces Plan to Split Into Three Companies

    Toshiba is the latest company splitting up, with plans to split into three separate companies.

    Once one of the most influential tech companies, Toshiba has had a number of missteps, scandals, and general mismanagement over the last several years. The company is now splitting into three companies in an effort to respond faster to the growing challenges companies face.

    The separation allows each business to significantly increase its focus and facilitate more agile decision-making and leaner cost structures.

    The three separate business will be Infrastructure Service Co., Device Co and Toshiba, which will hold its shares in Kioxia Holdings Corporation (KHC) and Toshiba Tec Corporation. The company plans to complete the split by the second half of fiscal 2023.

    “Over our more than 140 year history, Toshiba has constantly evolved to stay ahead of the times,” said Satoshi Tsunakawa, Interim Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer of Toshiba. “Today’s announcement is no different. In order to enhance our competitive positioning, each business now needs greater flexibility to address its own market opportunities and challenges. We are convinced that the business separation is attractive and compelling: it will unlock immense value by removing complexity, it enables the businesses to have much more focused management, facilitating agile decision making, and the separation naturally enhances choices for shareholders. Our Board and management team firmly believe that this strategic reorganization is the right step for sustainable profitable growth of each business and the best path to create additional value for our stakeholders. We are grateful for the Strategic Review Committee’s thorough evaluation and recommendation on our best path forward.”

    Toshiba’s news comes on the heels of GE announcing it is splitting into three companies, roughly a year after IBM announced it would split in two.

  • Tesla Electronics Tech Six Years Ahead of Competitors

    Tesla Electronics Tech Six Years Ahead of Competitors

    Tesla may not have nearly the size or market penetration of its more established rivals, but the company is years ahead of them in electronics technology.

    Nikkei Business Publication did a teardown of the Tesla Model 3, giving engineers from competitors the opportunity to examine the electronic components. In particular, the teardown looked at the integrated central control unit, the brains of the car. Tesla created the Full Self-Driving (FSD) Computer, or Hardware 3, after finding there were no existing solutions available.

    According to Nikkei, “one stunned engineer from a major Japanese automaker examined the computer and declared, ‘We cannot do it.’”

    As electric vehicles and self-driving cars become the standard, FSD-type hardware will be in high demand and be one of the single most critical components of such vehicles. As Nikkei highlights, however, industry experts don’t expect the technology to be widely used until 2025, giving Tesla a six-year head start.

    Nikkei’s sources claim companies such as Toyota and VW have the technological ability to roll out similar hardware, but feel indebted to the supply chain they have spent decades building up. That supply chain will be devastated by FSD-style hardware that will greatly simplify the electronic design of vehicles, cutting down the number of components needed.

    Tesla has already been credited with a significant advantage in its battery technology, allowing it to spend roughly $50 per kilowatt hour less than competitors. Now with it having an equally significant advantage in its electronics tech, competitors will have to play catchup on multiple fronts—whether for technical reasons or not.

  • After-Christmas Sales 2015 Include Electronics, Winter Apparel, and More

    After-Christmas Sales 2015 Include Electronics, Winter Apparel, and More

    After-Christmas sales 2015 include some great buys on electronics, winter apparel, beauty and perfume gift sets, and more.

    According to a report from Kiplinger.com, more than 100 million consumers shopped on pre-Christmas sale days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, when shoppers scored up to 60 percent off retail price for many items.

    Some of the best deals, however, can be had during the after-Christmas sales 2015. For example, some of the electronics deals on items like TVs or blue-ray players–even laptops–will be on clearance, with savings of up to 70 percent in some cases.

    Beauty sets designed to sell for the holidays can be had for as much as an 80 percent savings.

    Winter apparel is on sale everywhere, and if you live in the Northeast–where temperatures on Christmas Day went as high as 65 degrees in some places–coats, hats, mittens, and more are priced at unheard of savings.

    If you plan ahead for the holidays, buying next year’s Christmas cards, indoor and outdoor lights, and Christmas decorations now is the way to go. Some of these items are up to 90 percent off during the after-Christmas sales 2015.

    Some of these items are priced perfectly for those who travel to celebrate the season after Christmas, allowing many people to save a bundle on their Christmas gifts.

    Are you an after-Christmas sales shopper? Which of these sales will you hit up to get the most from your after-Christmas sales 2015 options?

  • Cyber Monday Deals on Phones, TVs

    Cyber Monday Deals on Phones, TVs

    Now that Black Friday 2013 has come and gone, retailers and shoppers alike are plunging into the next wave of the holiday shopping frenzy: Cyber Monday.

    Referring to the Monday after Thanksgiving and originally created to lure holiday shoppers to spend their dollars online, the term Cyber Monday made its US debut in 2005. Since then, it has become one of the biggest shopping days of the year.

    This year, consumers can find great Cyber Monday deals on phones and televisions.

    No matter what size television you’re looking for, there’s a cyber deal for you:

    • Westinghouse 32″ HDTV for $199.99 (Target)
    • Samsung 46″ HDTV for $478 (Walmart)
    • LG 55″ LED HDTV with Soundbar for $799 (Walmart)
    • Samsung 65″ LED HDTV for $999.99 (Best Buy)

    Motorola is offering its celebrated smartphone, the Moto X, for $349 on Monday for “any carrier, no contract, any color combination.”

    You can snag an HTC One 32 GB smartphone on Amazon for as little as $0.01 with a two year contract from AT&T, Sprint, or Verizon.

    CNet’s Marguerite Reardon says the best smartphone deals she’s seen so far are for the Samsung Galaxy S4.

    Apple’s iPhone is conspicuously absent from most Cyber Monday smartphone deal roundups.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Sears Black Friday Doorbusters Online

    Sears Black Friday Doorbusters Online

    Sears, which has been losing money and closing department stores as of late, has posted an ad for Black Friday doorbuster deals.

    Sears, the multinational department store chain based in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, also owns Kmart, which has likewise been losing money. During the three months before November 2, Sears saw losses of $534 million, or $5.03 per share. A year earlier, the company lost $498 million, or $4.70 per share, in the same time frame.

    While Sears urges consumers to create a profile to log in to see upcoming Black Friday deals on their website, a few members-only doorbusters are online. Sears notes that members can “beat the crowd,” and many of the online Black Friday deals include free shipping.

    Notable electronics deals include:

    – a Mach Speed X-Treme 7″ Tablet w/ Android 4.0 for $39.99
    – a Dell Inspiron 15 Laptop PC 1.6GHz Processor 15.6″ Display for $299.99
    – an RCA 42″ Class 1080p 60Hz LED HDTV for $299.99
    – a Vivitar DVR 508HD Digital Video Recorder for $24.99
    – an LG Optimus Dynamic™ L38C CDMA Pre-Paid Mobile Phone for $39.99

    Hedge fund billionaire Eddie Lampert, chairman and CEO of Sears, has shifted the focus of the company toward building upon its ‘Shop Your Way’ program, which caters to loyal customers. Under-performing stores are being shut down, including the location at the Fayette Mall in Lexington, Kentucky. At present, the ‘Shop Your Way’ members-only program accounts for 70% of Sears sales, up from 65% last year.

    “The focus is less on selling products and just running stores,” Lampert said. “But serving members first.” During the last quarter, revenue fell 7% to $8.27 billion, mostly due to fewer Sears and Kmart stores in operation. Still, revenue at the stores still open, which indicates a retailer’s health, fell 3.1%.

    In related news, below is a clip of enthusiastic consumers, hoping to achieve Black Friday shopping success:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBk32OUxCnU

    Of course, all of the biggest retailers offer big Black Friday deals, though one should be careful while traversing the ravenous crowds that have been known to swarm doorbusting retail fixtures.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons.

  • PlayStation 4 Gets PornHub Support

    Familiar with the video format wars? You know why VHS beat Betamax, right? It was porn. How about HD-DVD and Blu-Ray? Porn.  Could the next generation console war be won with the ease of access to pornography?

    If you’re a PlayStation 4 owner who’s already burned out playing all 24 launch titles, you could always use your console and navigate on over to Pornhub. That’s right, according to Pornhub’s twitter page, the porn site is completely compatible with the PS4, making searches easy and video formatting to fit the screen of your TV. In other words, if you want to watch, full screen, on your high definition television, Ron Jeremy making love… then you can watch Ron Jeremy making love. The PS4 comes with its own HDMI cord, so you can plug that bad boy in and get in on the action.

    No word on whether or not PornHub will support the Xbox One. The Xbox 360, however, due to its Internet Explorer application, allows users easy access to PornHub to stream their favorite videos.

    There’s an ongoing fear of the Xbox One potentially spying on you with its ‘Kinect’ camera. Although it’s not mandatory any longer , the Kinect camera use to always have to be connected in order for the Xbox One to function. Due to the fear of being watched, Xbox One owners can purchase a cover for their camera when it’s not in use. Whereas the PlayStation 4 will only really collect what you’ve been doing (e.g. “voice and text communications, video of your gameplay, name, PSN Online ID and IP address) on the PlayStation Network.

    Folks over at Microsoft, like co-founder Paul Gharaffi, as well as potential CEO candidate Stephen Elop have both considered selling off the Xbox business. Perhaps momentum can be picked up in sales if the Xbox One allows the ease of access to pornography like Bing does.

    When  it went on sale on Friday, Sony announced that it had sold one million consoles, making it the largest console launch day in history. Now users have a little bit more to look forward to.

    Your move, Microsoft.

    (Images via Destructoid)

  • Amazon Opens Black Friday Deals Store

    We’re still a few weeks away from Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but Amazon doesn’t care what day it is. This year, the retailer is going to celebrate the holiest of shopping days every day for the next two months.

    Amazon announced today that it has now opened what it calls the Black Friday Deals Store. Like you would normally see on the actual Black Friday, the Black Friday Deals Store will feature a number of crazy sales every day until December 22.

    Now, there are some differences between the actual Black Friday and Amazon’s new Black Friday Deals Store. For one, not everything on Amazon is on sale like it will be on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Instead, Amazon will have two Deals of the Day every day until December 22, and there will “hundreds of Lightning Deals on great gift items every week.”

    You can check out the Black Friday Deals store here. Currently, there’s a sale on Alien Anthology on blu-ray and slippers. An eclectic combination to be sure, but there’s sure to be somebody out there who wants to watch Alien while wearing a new pair of slippers.

    Alongside the Black Friday Deals Store, Amazon has also revealed its Electronic Holiday Gift Guide. The guide features over 350 of the “hottest items” and claims to have something for everyone.

    “We’re making it easy for customers to discover and zero in on the hottest gifts and holiday trends – from streaming media players to Bluetooth portable speakers,” said Ben Hartman, Vice President of Consumer Electronics for Amazon.com. “Our Electronics Holiday Gift Guide is designed to help people shop how they like: by price, category, gift recipient and interest. The Guide gives customers gift ideas for everyone on their list, making it easy to shop from the comfort of home and take advantage of fast and free shipping.”

    In other Amazon shopping news, the retailer opened its Holiday Toy List earlier this month to give parents an idea of what their kids may want for Christmas. While you’re at it, you should sign up for AmazonSmile to donate 0.5 percent of your purchase to a charity of your choice.

    [Image: Amazon]

  • Crazy Ants That Destroy Electronics Invade The U.S.

    Ants are some of the most annoying insects in the animal kingdom. Want to have a picnic? Sorry, ants are gonna invade your food. Wanna sit on that stump? Sorry, some fire ants are going to make your life a living hell. Now it seems that ants are gunning for something even worse – our electronic devices.

    ABC News reports that there’s a new species of ant that first arrived in Texas from South America, but they’re quickly making their way across the U.S. The ant, officially called Nylanderia fulva, is more commonly known as the “tawny crazy ant.”

    The ants, which are only an eighth of an inch long, have made their way from Texas to Florida, Misssippi and Louisiana. The ants have been on the move since 2002 and their progress so far has been astounding and rather worrisome.

    What makes this particular species of ant even more worrisome is that its small size allows it to nestle inside of your electronic devices. It seems to be particularly fond of smartphones and laptops. Once inside, the ants will shock themselves on the internal circuitry. Upon death, an ant releases a pheromone that attracts more ants to the scene and those ants eventually get fried as well. Soon after, your phone will stop working on account of it being full of dead ants.

    It’s not just smartphones either as these ants are incredibly destructive to manmade and natural environments. The ants are omnivores and therefore pose a threat to plants and animals by monopolizing food sources. They even pose a threat to larger species like cows.

    Researchers urge travelers to affected states and South America to check all luggage and electronic devices for crazy ants. The ants have only been able to travel as far as they have thanks to catching rides with humans.

    For more on the crazy ant, check out this video about the species’ destructive habits:

    [Image: PLOS One]