The rapidly growing category of tablets has a new family member. On Thursday, Toshiba announced that its Folio 100, a 10.1-inch, Android 2.2-based tablet computer, will be on sale in Europe by the end of October.

The tablet could capture as much as 15 to 20 percent of that market in Europe by the end of next year, according to Gianluca Dianese, Toshiba's head of marketing for digital products in that region. He made the prediction at the IFA 2010 consumer electronics show now taking place in Berlin, Germany.

Wi-Fi, 3G, Bluetooth

The Folio, expected to sell for about $500, will come with Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity, Bluetooth and 16GB of storage. Toshiba told news media that it will also release a model that plays 3-D video, which is beginning to emerge on portable computing devices. On Wednesday, Sony showed prototypes of VAIO laptops with 3-D.

The Folio can boot up in 30 seconds, runs on a Nvidia Tegra 2 CPU, and features a 1.3-megapixel camera, a display resolution of 1024x600, and battery life up to seven hours. Ports include mini-HDMI, USB and a SD/MMC card reader. As with other new Android devices, it will support Flash 10.1, a competitive advantage against Apple's iPad. Apple is not allowing Flash to run on the iPad, preferring instead the emerging, standards-based HTML5.

The iPad, whose popularity has jump-started the tablet category, is beginning to acquire rivals, although no major competitor has yet emerged. A variety of companies, including Hewlett-Packard, Research In Motion and Google, are expected to release tablets in the next few months. Dell, ASUS and Samsung have already done so.

Apple's iPad success has been largely driven by its ecosystem of a large library of third-party applications that run on the tablet, in addition to the vast number of music and other entertainment offerings in its iTunes Store. Toshiba is similarly preparing its own ecosystem with music, online radio channels, and applications available through the Toshiba Marketplace, and it has said it is planning to offer streaming movies and a digital book service.

Laptop Recall

But even as Toshiba takes one step forward into tablets, it's being forced to take a step backward in laptops.

On Thursday, the computer maker announced it is recalling 41,000 laptops because of possible overheating problems that could present a burn hazard. The recall involves the Toshiba Satellite T123, Satellite T135D, and Satellite Pro T130 models, and the overheating reportedly occurs at the point where the AC adapter plugs into the computer. The recall is based on 129 reports of overheating laptops, and the models were sold from August 2009 through last month.

Toshiba said owners of those models should download a BIOS update from the company's web site, enabling a scan to determine if the laptop is overheating. If it is, information about a free repair is also available on the web site.

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