Fujitsu

I suppose if I were just in search of controversy, I'd write a post to proclaim the death of the MID (mobile Internet device) category. My obituary for the Netbook earlier this week generated a ton of traffic; I suppose I could do that again. Certainly, the concept of a MID--a device midway in size and capability between smartphones and the smallest notebooks--is under tremendous pressure from both sides.

Customers have learned that with a well-engineered browser, the small displays on phones such as Apple's iPhone and T-Mobile's G1 "Google phone" are sufficient for most … Read more

For your next spy mission, consider the F-01A phone from Fujitsu.

It's a sleek-looking phone with some serious, sophisticated technological and rugged credentials. It's submersible--it will still work if dunked in 3 feet of water for up to 30 minutes--and also functions as a fingerprint-scanning device.

The phone uses AuthenTec's TouchStone technology, which is a fingerprint scanner that is utilized to navigate the device's controls, and TrueFinger, which is security software from AuthenTec, which matches fingerprint patterns. It's the first phone to use the software/hardware combination, according to AuthenTec.

The F-01A also functions as … Read more

Spansion said Thursday that it is exploring a merger or sale, as the flash memory chip company delays interest payments on notes.

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company announced that it has been "exploring strategic alternatives, including, but not limited to, opportunities to merge with or sell to similar U.S. or foreign businesses."

Spansion, one of the largest flash memory suppliers, was formed by the integration of Advanced Micro Devices' and Fujitsu's flash memory operations in 2003. The company has posted a long string of losses as it has struggled to turn a profit in the fickle … Read more

Updated on January 6 at 11:20 a.m. PST with correction about Nano 3000.

Dual-core Intel Atom rivals are in the works.

Via Technologies is planning a very low-power, dual-core Nano 3000 processor, according to Chinese-language Web site HKEPC.

Via's C7-M processor is used in Hewlett-Packard's 2133 Mini-Note, which preceded the crop of Netbooks based on the Atom CPU. Via processors, however, were subsequently eclipsed by Intel's Atom.

Advanced Micro Devices will target its low-power dual-core "Conesus" at the laptop market segment above Atom's Netbook-centric space.

Meanwhile, Freescale Semiconductor has indicated that it will bring out a very-low-power ARM chip … Read more

Fujitsu Siemens delivered an early holiday present to its U.K. customers late last week when it announced the "LifeBook4Life" program.

Essentially, anyone in the U.K. who buys a select LifeBook laptop and a three-year warranty will be entitled to trade the system in for a replacement laptop (of "comparable specification and value," with a 10 percent adjustment for inflation) after three years--and continue trading in LifeBooks every three years for the rest of his or her life. For free.

Sweet, no?

Naturally, we wondered if and when this particular idea would cross the pond … Read more

Last month I wrote about how Fujitsu is getting more serious about being an integrated worldwide business--rather than a Japanese company that sells elsewhere only opportunistically. Since then, I've spent a couple of days in Tokyo at the NEC Global Analyst Summit. Like Fujitsu, NEC is a Japanese electronics manufacturer with a long history (dating back to 1899) and a wide range of product lines. And it, too, has had less success selling IT equipment to North American enterprises than it would have liked.

Like its long-standing competitor, that's a state of affairs that NEC wants to change. … Read more

What a week: a historic American election, driven by the Internet! Holograms--make that "holograms"--on TV. Three GPUs in a single laptop.

OK, so not all headlines are created equal. But many folks (in the United States, at least) seem to still be catching up on non-election news. If that describes you, read on for the laptop news you missed while you were wearing out your F5 key on the CNN home page.

First, as Americans were lining up at polling places, Fujitsu unveiled three new LifeBooks: the N7010, which has a 16-inch primary display as well as … Read more

Next time you're faced with the prospect of making a long drive late at night, you'll probably wish you had this new technology from Fujitsu Labs.

The company is working on a steering wheel sensor system that detects when a driver begins to get drowsy or doze off. The sensors keep track of the driver's heart rate through his or her hands on the wheel while steering. As a person gets closer to falling asleep, the heart rate begins to regulate.

Once the system detects a driver getting ready to fall asleep, several things could happen: the … Read more

I've been attending Fujitsu's North American analyst day that it's been holding annually in Boston for quite a while. This year was no exception. Fujitsu executives spent the day of October 23 in the Intercontinental on Boston's rapidly morphing waterfront providing an update on company products, services, and, especially, strategy.

If I had to sum up my overall takeaway from most past meetings, it would probably be something along the lines of "incremental advance" or "slow and steady." In 2006, I even wrote that:

...strikingly little has changed with Fujitsu (specifically Fujitsu … Read more