Toshiba’s Digital Products Division (DPD), a division of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., today unveiled plans to offer three innovative software applications designed to further simplify everyday tasks, on all laptops and netbooks featuring Windows® 7. The applications – Toshiba Media Controller™, ReelTime™ and Bulletin Board™ – will exclusively come pre-installed on all Satellite® and Qosmio® consumer laptops as well as Toshiba netbooks and select Satellite Pro®, Tecra® and Portégé® business notebooks starting on January 12.

“With more media saved throughout the home, people are increasingly asking for easier ways to organize and share content on their laptops with their friends and families,” said Carl Pinto, vice president of product development, Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., Digital Products Division. “Toshiba is providing users with very simple user interfaces that allow them to easily take advantage of the advanced functionality built into Windows 7.”

Toshiba Media Controller: Media Sharing Simplified

Toshiba Media Controller1 is an app that makes it easier to stream video and music across a home network. Enhancing the Home Group and media sharing capabilities of Windows 7, Media Controller enables a user to effortlessly play files to or from other connected Windows 7-compatible PCs or play to Windows 7-compatible devices such as the Xbox® 360 and digital media receivers.

With a simple drag-and-drop visual interface, users can easily view and select media to play on PCs connected to the home network – whether they are wirelessly connected or wired – create playlists and even stream media to multiple PCs at once. Once media is playing on another device, Toshiba Media Controller allows the user to play, pause, advance forward and backward and control volume.

New Ways to Interact

Toshiba is also expanding the installation of two applications previously only available on its touch-screen Satellite laptops to all new consumer and business laptops with Windows 7. The applications are designed to increase personal productivity in a unique way and can be easily used with the TouchPad™ or an external mouse.

* ReelTime – Helps users easily find files based on when they were opened with a simple, fun visual history. Users can quickly scroll through automatically generated previews of documents, photos, videos and more, filter by file type or use the calendar to go back weeks or months.
* Bulletin Board – Gives users fast access to day-to-day activities, tasks and projects in a simple, visual and fun way. Get creative when organizing projects with the ability to drag and drop photos, videos, links, documents and applications into one place. Personalize and organize the board by moving, rotating and resizing using gestures to fit personalized style. Bulletin Board also includes several built in gadgets such as labels, calendars, a clock and a to-do list, as well as a dedicated Toshiba Board, which provides easy access to software updates, network connectivity, user guides, technical support and more.

Availability

The new Toshiba Media Controller, ReelTime and Bulletin Board software will be pre-installed on all new Satellite, Qosmio consumer laptops, Toshiba netbooks as well as Satellite Pro, Tecra and Portégé business notebooks with Windows 7, available for purchase starting on January 12 from major retailers, e-tailers and direct from Toshiba on toshibadirect.com as well as through select Toshiba Preferred Partner Program resellers.