i own the uj-820s w/ 1.50 firmware.... and yes toshiba should be selling their own drives made by them (because they are a quality product). matshita makes horrible drives that always degrade in quility after usage.....

but anyone who doesnt blame matshita for not releasing firmware updates is a butt munch. even if you only sell OEM products you should support the with drivers and firmware, you know why??? because nobody elese will accept your screw-ups as their problems. which company wants to pay people to make updates for someone eleses faulty products??? matshita makes the cheapest drives which is why they are used so frequently in notebooks these days.

matshita always claims their drives burn at speeds much higher than actually expieranced (a GREAT reason to blame them)

and for starters matshita also produces retail drives and they dont do firmware for them either, the company cuts corners in a way that DEMANDS cutomer complaint, and this is from someone who has 3 notebooks each with horrid matsushita drives the uj-820s, uj-840d and the ujda720..

matshita basiclly says "blame your OEMs for using our faulty products" which is true as well, blame the oems for using such garbage parts BUT also blame matshita for producing and selling these parts.
i just bought a drive by NEC, theres a company that does a ton of OEM and retail business. they do firmware updates all the time. matshita will never get retail business because they dont support their oem products. NEC supports their oem products just as they support their retail products hence i bought from them.