Most students haven’t been out of school very long for the summer. Despite that fact, it’s already time for most parents to be gearing up for back to school shopping. If you have a student, going off to college a new notebook may be on the shopping list this year. Toshiba has announced a new series of notebooks perfect for students.

The series is called the Satellite L and starts at $549.99, not much more than some netbooks. The new line includes 14-inch L510 and L515 modes, 15.6-inch L500, 16-inch L505, and a 17.3-inch L550/555 model. The laptops have many features in common like HD TruBrite screens, sleep-and-charge USB ports, and hard drives with capacities from 250GB to 500GB.

We told you about this one earlier this month. It’s Toshiba’s first netbook. And it looks like it’s ready to take its rightful place in your hands. Toshiba’s new NB205 netbook does a good job of standing out from the crowd with nice specs at the right price.

You have a few options to consider, There’s a low end black model with a standard keyboard and cheaper materials for $349. Then there’s the $399 model available in four different colors, which also features a higher quality chassis and a chiclet-style keyboard. Each sports an Atom N280 processor, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, a 10.1-inch LED-backlit display, and a standard six-cell battery that promises nine hours of use.

One of the hottest and thinnest handsets of this year just made its way to Japan. It’s completely anorexic at less than a centimeter thick. Which is the main thing it has going for it. The NTT DoCoMo T-01A is the same TG01 device revealed by Toshiba back in February running Qualcomm’s ultra-fast 1GHz Snapdragon chipset.

It also features a 4.1-inch WVGA (800 x 480 pixel) resistive touchscreen display; HSDPA, GPS, and WiFi radios; and Toshiba’s custom UI meant to mask its Windows Mobile 6.1 core. Now that Toshiba has unleashed it Japan we look forward to seeing the TG01 launch in Europe and everywhere else.

Toshiba has already begun shipping their Regza HDTVs, which were initially shown off at CES earlier this year. They even added another series to the line up today, called the XV648. First, the SV670 features an LED backlight, a 240Hz panel, 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio, 14-bit color processing and more. It comes in 46-inch and a 55-inch versions that will cost you $2,300 and $3,000.

The ZV650 features a CCFL backlight rather than LED and has a 240Hz panel and a 100,000:1 contrast ratio. It comes in sizes ranging from 42-inches to 55-inches and costs from $1,300 to $2,400. Then there’s the XV648, which is new to the Regzas line and features a CCFL display, a 120Hz panel and a CrystalCoat display for better contrast.

Toshiba has a few new Satellite laptops landing in Europe. The A500 features a 16-inch, 16:9 format display (1366 x 768), a TV-tuner for analog and digital DVB-T programming, Harman Kardon speakers and HDMI ports with REGZA LINK technology. Inside it packs an Intel Core 2 Duo, 8GB memory, ATI Mobility Radeon HD GPU (up to 1GB DDR3 VRAM), and either a 500GB HDD or 64GB SSD.

For those looking for an ultra-portable, the U500 is a 13.3-inch (16:10 format, 1280 x 800) ultraportable that weighs under 4.5 pounds. Under the hood you’ll find an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 8 GB memory, a hard disk capacity of up to 500GB, and an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 GPU. It’s available in Brown Luxe, with chrome or silver accents. Battery life is over 3.5 hours.

The netbook market is saturated with models form different manufactures, most of which have the same exact specifications. With netbooks being the fastest growing segment in the computer market, more machines will continue to be announced.

Toshiba has announced its first entry into the netbook market called the mini NB205. The netbook has a full-size keyboard and a large track pad along with a 10.1-inch screen that is LED backlit. The machine is available in two models; the NB205-N310 comes with a stylized finish in pink, brown, blue, and white colors. The NB205-N210 comes in a fushion finish in black onyx color.

Here’s another Dynabook notebook from Toshiba. While it looks pretty similar to the rest, the Dynabook Satellite TXW/67JW is available exclusively on its e-Store.

Here’s what’s beneath the hood: Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 2.53GHz processor, 4GB RAM, Intel GM45 Express Chipset, 16” 1,366 x 768 resolution LCD display, 320GB hard drive, DVD Super Multi drive, and Wi-Fi.

Toshiba has announced the top-of-the-range Dynabook SS RX2/WAJ. The world’s first PC to integrate a 512GB SSD (Solid State Drive). The new model comes in two versions on Toshiba’s online shop for the Japan. It features 2-bit-per-cell multi-level NAND flash memory to realize the world’s largest capacity SSD, with four times the density of SSD integrated into currently available products.

The data access speeds have increased by about 230% for read and by 450% for write. The battery will give you up to 12 hours. The ultra-low voltage CPU saves energy by cutting power consumption.

Battery life in netbooks is the new thin. Everyone is competing to give you more juice. Toshiba is no different. Hence the 9-Cell battery version of the NB200 that claims to last for 9 hours, which is fine by us. That isn’t all it has going for it though.

The Toshiba NB200 has some other interesting features, like a 10.1″ TruBrite display, a 3D accelerometer, one always-on USB port for charging and a large touch pad. It only weighs 2.42 Lbs too, so you won’t be lifting weights.

April 1st. Are you sick of all the shenanigans, hijinx and tomfoolery yet? I have one more for you. Here’s the first laptop for dogs. The PetBook K9 from Toshiba.

100% Organic Rawhide Casing is easily chewed. Built-in DoggyCam for Canine Video Conferencing. Pawprint Reader for extra security. Also features Bark-to-text software. Complete with bone shaped touchpad and is slobber resistant.

To promote their various laptops and showcase their digital sign technology that uses real-time data over the Internet, Toshiba tested an interactive digital billboard in Tokyo last weekend. YouTube users and passers-by with mobile phones were able to play video games against each other and take a short break from the rigors of city life.

The games were played on a digital billboard above the entrance to the Yodobashi Camera superstore in Akihabara. The games are basically mini-games and involve up to six players in a 90-second race to paint squares on a grid and hunt for Toshiba’s cute and cuddly Pala-Chan mascot. Mobile phone players used their number keys to control the game, while YouTube players on computers used the arrow keys on their keyboards. Videos below.

Toshiba just added four more 15.4-inch widescreen Satellite Pro S300 series notebooks to it’s line. Both the S300-EZ1511 and S300-EZ1512 feature an Intel Pentium T3400 processor, 1GB memory, and a 120GB hard drive. Selling for $529, the S300-EZ1511 features integrated GMA 4500M graphics and Vista Home Basic, while the S300-EZ1512 is selling for $579 with GMA 4500MHD graphics and Vista Business.

The S300-EZ1513 will run you $649 and sports an Intel Core 2 Duo T6400 processor, 160GB hard disk storage, 1GB memory and GMA 4500MHD graphics. The last model, the S300-EZ1514, has a Core 2 Duo T6570 processor, 2GB of memory, GMA 4500MHD graphics and a 160GB hard drive. This one will run you $699.

Toshiba intros two new Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) for the Japanese market. The Toshiba Vardia RD-G503 has a huge 500GB hard drive, while the RD-E303 has a 300GB hard drive.

Both DVRs support DVD burners, MPEG-2 TS and H.264/MPEG-4 AVC recording, Digital / Analog tuner, DVD upscaling and two remote controls (one fully functional and one with just basic controls). The Toshiba Vardia RD-G503 and RD-E303 will be released next month for $770 and $660.

The SSD is slowly becoming more and more of a match for the traditional HDD. One of the key complaints about SSDs compared to a traditional HDD is that of storage capacity. One of the other key complaints is price, the typical SSD costs much more than a comparable HDD.

Toshiba has announced its latest SSD line that includes the industry’s first 512GB SSD. That much storage capacity puts the SSD up there with some of the largest traditional HDDs aimed at notebook users. The 2.5-inch 512GB SSD is built using Toshiba’s 43nm NAND technology.

Notebooks are still one of the most hoped for items on many holiday wish lists despite the poor economy. Many who hope to get a notebook as a gift want a small and portable system like the one Toshiba has introduced to the US.

The Toshiba Portege A605 Laptop is a 12.1-inch ultraportable that weighs 3.3 pounds and measures 1.18-inches thick. Battery life is promised to be 6.9 hours and the system carries a retail price of $1399.99. A nice feature on the machine is the Sleep-and-Charge USB port that makes charging your USB devices easier to do.