January 4th, 2010

Hitachi's develops brain signal-powered remote control

We all knew this would come one day, especially since the basic technology has been around for some time, and now we have it: A brain activity-powered remote control that can be used without you having to lift a finger. The Hitachi device is unfortunately a prototype, but at least they’re planning to commercialize it within three to four years.

The technology is being developed not for lazy couch… → Read More

November 16th, 2009

Hitachi redesigns the SimpleDrive and ups the capacity to 2TB

Folks, 2TB external drives are now coming out from everyone. Isn’t it grand? Hitachi has revised the look of the SimpleDrive external hard drive and it’s now available in a 2TB option. In fact, the rest of the SimpleTech lineup can now be had with a 2TB Hitachi Deskstar 7K2000 hard drive. → Read More

November 4th, 2009

Hitachi Japan to roll out four new projectors

Hitachi Japan has announced a total of four new video projectors [JP] specifically aimed at businesses today. The devices will hit Japanese stores on December 21, but Hitachi hasn’t said yet if the projectors will be sold outside this country as well. → Read More

October 8th, 2009

Hitachi develops eyeglass-free 3-D projection system

No pictures for this yet, but Hitachi has reportedly developed a 3D projection system that allows viewers to watch 3D images from any angle, and perhaps more importantly, without the need for eyeglasses. While the first feature makes sure a group of people can see 3D images at the same time on a single screen, I am aware the second one isn’t the first of its kind for a 3D system. → Read More

October 7th, 2009

Hitachi TV watches YOU!

How much energy do you think is wasted every day powering devices that aren’t actually being used? I’m not talking about stand-by power consumption, but actually on-and-in-use without a user there. I know a lot of people who turn their TVs on just as “background noise”, without ever actually looking at the screen. Hitachi’s cooking up a system to place TVs in power consumption mode if it detects… → Read More

September 15th, 2009

NEC, Casio and Hitachi make cell phone op merger official, want to go international

The first rumors started spreading about two weeks ago, and it was officially announced yesterday: Major Japanese cell phone makers Hitachi, NEC and Casio are merging their mobile phone operations to become Japan’s No. 2 maker (following Sharp). The name of the new venture will be “NEC Casio Mobile Communications”. → Read More

August 27th, 2009

Major shake-up in Japan's mobile world: NEC, Hitachi and Casio to merge cell phone businesses

Big news from Japan’s mobile phone industry today (Friday afternoon Japanese time). Various Japanese media are reporting that NEC, Hitachi and Casio are in talks to merge their cell phone operations to become Japan’s second biggest manufacturer, following Sharp.

Reportedly, NEC plans to integrate its cell phone business into a tie-up that already exists between Hitachi and Casio. According to… → Read More

August 25th, 2009

10 times bigger: Toshiba and Hitachi shake hands to bring us next-gen HDDs

Neither one of the companies involved have confirmed this officially so far, but the Nikkei, Japan’s biggest business publication is usually very reliable: According to that source, Hitachi and Toshiba are joining forces to take the leadership in the field of next-generation HDDs that have 10 times the memory capacity of models today. → Read More

August 25th, 2009

Hitachi announces 5 full HD TVs with built-in 500GB HDD

There is a clear trend in Japan, where all the relevant new TVs come from, and that’s building devices to store programs into the hardware itself, i.e. HDDs or Blu-ray recorders. Mitsubishi appears to be especially radical in this respect, announcing a TV with both a built-in Blu-ray recorder and HDD just last week. And today Hitachi followed up by adding a total of two new LCDs and three plasmas→ Read More

August 5th, 2009

Hitachi's 2TB 7200RPM HDD is world's first

Having the world’s only 7200RPM 2TB hard drive is a sweet position to be in. For a couple weeks, Hitachi will monopolize sales among people who need both space and speed — like me! I’ll actually be waiting a bit before making the jump, since “world first” hardware on the bleeding edge of manufacturing technology tends to have flaws. → Read More

July 28th, 2009

Hitachi presents biometric-based vending machine

It’s no secret the Japanese have a penchant for vending machines (even though there are – contrary to popular belief – no machines selling panties in this country). Now Hitachi made one step forward by developing a machine that doesn’t need to be fed with coins or bills anymore. Your finger will be enough. → Read More

July 13th, 2009

Hitachi reveals the latest SimpleTech line of USB drives, network adapters

Months after taking over Fabrik (SimpleTech), Hitachi unveiled today the fruits of their labor: SimpleTough, SimpleDrive Mini and the SimpleNet. → Read More

June 2nd, 2009

Hitachi develops world's smallest RFID chip

RFID technology seems to be on the rise lately. After Mitsubishi announced a super-efficient tag reader last month and NEC said it was able to dramatically cut production costs for RFID two weeks ago, it’s now Hitachi’s turn: The company has announced today that it has developed the world’s smallest RFID chip. → Read More

June 1st, 2009

Hitachi to produce mini LCDs with world's highest resolution

FED and SED are practically dead, Plasmas never really took off and OLED are still too expensive to produce. Now Hitachi Displays wants to change this by dramatically improving the good old LCDs, at least for mobile devices (even for these, OLED are far from being a regularly used). → Read More

April 28th, 2009

Hitachi develops world's most powerful li-ion battery for hybrid vehicles

Hitachi seems to have made a major leap forward in the development of “green” vehicles. The company claims it has developed the world’s most efficient lithium-ion battery for hybrid cars, topping previous Hitachi batteries by an impressive 70% in output density. → Read More

March 31st, 2009

Hitachi executive indicted on TFT-LCD price fixing scandal

Ruh roh. Hitachi exec Sakae Someya along with other unnamed conspirators have just been charged in the global price fixing LCD scandal that rocked the tech world. OK, it didn’t really rock the tech world, but it was a pretty big deal and I’m sure Dell wasn’t too happy about it. → Read More

March 24th, 2009

Ultrastar C10K300: Hitachi unveils new power-efficient HDD

Hitachi Japan today announced the Ultrastar C10K300 [JP, PDF], a 10k RPM HDD that will be sold mainly to businesses as 147GB and 300GB versions starting today (worldwide). The 6Gbp/s SAS HDD boasts double the data throughput when compared with the previous model that featured 3Gbp/s. → Read More

March 19th, 2009

Hitachi splits company after huge loss

Hitachi, for those not in the know, also makes parts and motors for cars and trucks in Asia. The new economy, however, has forced the company to split into consumer electronics and automotive and they’ve just fired their current president as all as reduce costs by $5.1 billion by cutting 7,000 jobs. Whomp.

The company hit a $7 billion loss last year and will slow investment over the next year. → Read More

March 11th, 2009

Hitachi to plead guilty on price fixing LCD

Whoops. Hitachi is the latest manufacturer admitting to LCD price fixing and another win for the U.S. Justice Department. Last year, LG and Sharp also plead guilty on similar charges and paid $520 million combined in fines. Hitachi’s case involves fixing prices of LCD that were sold to Dell between 2001 and 2004. So that means if you purchased a laptop of LCD monitor between those times from Dell… → Read More

February 26th, 2009

LG might drop plasma TVs too

When can we call plasma officially dead cause the flat screen tech doesn’t have much going for it anymore? Pioneer and VIZIO just announced they are getting out of the market and now LG is contemplating the same thing. → Read More

February 24th, 2009

Hitachi nearly halves size of methanol-based fuel cell

Hitachi announced today [JP] it has developed a methanol-based fuel cell, which is 45% smaller than the company’s existing fuel cells. Hitachi also claims its quieter and “greener” than power generators fueled by gas or diesel. The 100W prototype can generate power for about 1.5 hours on 0.45 liter of methanol. → Read More

February 23rd, 2009

Hitatchi buys Fabrik web sharing service

Fabrik.com offers cloud storage for a number of hard drive manufacturers including a few we’ve reviewed in the past. They’ve just been bought by Hitachi who is adding the service as well as Fabrik’s own hard drives to their mix of goodies. As a 20 year storage veteran, Mike Cordano, Fabrik CEO and co-founder, will join Hitachi GST as a key member of the executive management team. → Read More

February 5th, 2009

Hitachi busts out the 500GB CinemaStar 2.5-inch HDD

Hitachi’s CinemaStar HDDs have been available for sometime but the latest in the pedigree boosts a 2.5-inch form factor while maintaing a high storage capacity. The C5K500 500GB drive is meant specifically for video as the drive only consumes 1.3W while idle. Hitachi even built-in its proprietary SmoothStream technology into the drive which improves video streaming. Hopefully with the small(er)… → Read More

February 4th, 2009

Hitachi to roll out three new and very pricey high-end projectors

Hitachi in Nippon today announced a new series of high-end projectors [JP], which will be available over here on February 23 (the company hasn’t said yet if the rest of the world will get the devices as well). → Read More

January 7th, 2009

Hitachi reveals CES line up, filled with thin TVs, Blu-ray camcorders and such

Isn’t this fun? At this rate we’ll have CES covered before the whole team is even on the ground.

Hitachi has announced that they will be showing ultra thin prototype TVs this year at CES. Yay! More uber thin prototype TVs just like last year. Please excuse my sarcasm, I really can’t wait to get to CES and see the rest of the gang.

Anyway, Hitachi will have a 50-inch 35mm plasma prototype (which… → Read More

December 15th, 2008

Pioneer, Hitachi and Panasonic Plasmas are now Energy Star Certified

There was a time when the term plasma TVs meant expensive and power hungry electronic, but those days are fading. Three of the largest players in the plasma world now have Energy Star Certified models which is a big feat. This means that a 42-inch PDP cannot consume more than 208 watts while on and less than a watt in standby mode. LCD were once the champion of tree-hugging hippies, but they… → Read More

December 9th, 2008

Review: Hitachi P50X902 Director Series 50-inch Plasma

To the point: A nice plasma that offers a quality image, good colors, and a great scaler. Too bad it’s overpriced. → Read More

December 8th, 2008

Review: Hitachi DZ-BD10HA Blu-Ray camcorder

Short Version: A versatile HD camcorder that’s perfect for home videos, but not so much for budding video professionals. → Read More

November 17th, 2008

Hitachi Japan rolls out two new projectors

Hitachi Japan today unveiled two new projectors [JP] aimed at businesses, the CP-WX410J and the CP-X809J. Both devices go on sale in Nippon December 1. Hitachi hasn’t said yet if the projectors will be sold outside the country as well. The CP-WX410J features WXGA resolution (1,280×800), a 230W lamp, a brightness of 3,000 lumens and a 10W mono speaker. MSRP in Japan: $3,700. → Read More

November 11th, 2008

Hitachi also announces a 500GB 2.5-inch hard drive

What happens when two companies announce almost the exact same product on the same day, each company making claims that it’s got the “first” of certain features? Nothing much, I guess. It’s sort of amusing if you’re into poking holes in techno-jargon. Today Fujitsu announced a 500GB notebook drive, as did Hitachi. Hitachi promises 1.4W read/write power consumption, “which is lower than… → Read More