plant

China's premier PC company, Lenovo, is moving some of its desktop, laptop, and tablet production to the U.S. I asked the company -- which Gartner says is now the largest PC maker on the planet -- to explain what making a product in the U.S. means exactly.

I spoke with Mark Stanton, director of global supply chain communications at Lenovo, about the company's plan to to make computing devices in North Carolina, including its ThinkPad Tablet 2 and ThinkPad laptops.

Q: What does "made in the U.S." mean in this case? Stanton: The … Read more

Plants vs. Zombies surprises its users with its gorgeous graphics and onscreen directions that help you get familiar with the app and focus on enjoying the entertainment. Its clean, simple, and easy-to-understand interface with its care for details will drag each gamer into the world of plants and zombies from the very beginning.

We liked how the game scenario makes you hungry for more levels. The great introduction for first-time players with the first levels of the game and the feelings of success are among the key incentives that will drive you to the next level. When you defeat the … Read more

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has issued an alert warning that hackers could exploit code in Siemens-owned technology to attack power plants and other national critical infrastructure.

Security researcher Justin Clarke exposed the flaw at a Los Angeles conference last week, claiming he discovered a way of spying on encrypted traffic in hardware owned by a Siemens subsidiary, RuggedCom.

The DHS advisory noted: "An attacker may use the key to create malicious communication to a RuggedCom network device."

DHS added that the government department was in contact with RuggedCom and the researcher in order to … Read more

To avoid permanently getting rid of plants, zombies, jewels, frogs, or worms, gaming company PopCap announced today that it has to lay off 50 employees at its headquarters.

The social and mobile gaming arm of Electronic Arts that's known for games like Bejeweled and Plants vs. Zombies said it had to reevaluate its costs in order to keep up with the digital gaming world.

"The change in consumer tastes requires us to reorganize our business and invest in new types of games on new platforms," PopCap co-founder John Vechey wrote in a blog post today. "It'… Read more

These days a lot of life is programmable. But as an avid gardener, I thought that surely nurturing seeds into little green shoots and then full-fledged fruits and flowers would require a nondigital green digit for years to come.

I was wrong. Plants, it turns out, can be activated.

A battery-powered planter pot called Click and Grow out of Estonia lets you grow real, living plants almost without lifting a finger. Even the vernacular around gardening comes fully updated -- sowing a seed can now be described as "inserting a cartridge," watering the soil is "refilling the … Read more

The Chevy Volt will restart production "earlier than previously planned" due to an uptick in demand, General Motors announced earlier this week, but will this help to quiet critics?

The plug-in hybrid electric vehicle had been slated for a five-week production suspension, but that will be cut to four weeks, according to a report in the Detroit Free Press.

This is "due to increased Volt sales since January and the need to meet demand in our strong markets, including California," GM said in a statement, according to the Free Press.

The Volt came under withering criticism from some in the media … Read more

Amazon Appstore users can enjoy birthday discounts this week on such apps as Plants vs. Zombies, Fruit Ninja, Wolfram Alpha, and Splashtop Remote Desktop.

Starting today, users can grab a 67 percent discount off Plants vs. Zombies. Normally selling for $2.99, the popular game can be had for just 99 cents today. Tomorrow, two more deals will debut, followed by three new deals on the third day, and so on into next week, Amazon said today.

"Customers have used the Amazon Appstore to test drive and buy millions of apps and games for their Kindle Fire and other … Read more

Astronomers are finding lots of exoplanets that are orbiting stars like the sun, significantly raising the odds that we will find a similar world. But if we do, the chance that the surface of that planet will look like ours is very small, thanks to an unlikely culprit: plants.

We all know how Earth's landscape came about, right? Oceans and land masses formed, mountains rose, and precipitation washed over its surface; rivers weathered bare rock to create soil and plants took root. Well, new research indicates that the last stage of this scenario is not right. Vascular plants--those with … Read more

General Motors isn't just interested in building energy-efficient vehicles; the company now says its Lansing Delta Township Assembly Plant is the company's first U.S. facility to become Energy Star certified. This means the plant has met strict energy performance levels set by the EPA from 2010 to 2011.

The Michigan plant, which builds the Buick Enclave, GMC Acadia, and Chevrolet Traverse, was designed to meet the optimum energy efficiency in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning without using steam, the company said in a press release.

The plant, which opened in 2006, has energy and water conservation features … Read more