think

China's largest PC maker, Lenovo, made a stunning announcement this week when it said it will make laptops, tablets, and desktops in the U.S.

So, why in the world would China's largest PC maker decide to manufacture devices here when America's two premier digital gadget suppliers, Apple and Hewlett-Packard, make virtually nothing in the U.S. and almost everything in China and/or Asia?

Needless to say, the answer is more complicated than "growth opportunities" in the U.S. -- as Yuanqing Yang, CEO of Lenovo, said in a statement.

And the move comes … Read more

PC makers usually don't cough up pricing information on unreleased models easily, but apparently the folks at wpcentral merely asked Lenovo reps at a recent press event how much the ThinkPad Tablet 2 running Windows 8 Pro would cost at launch -- and the reps told them. The new slate will bow on October 26 -- the launch date of Windows 8 -- and cost $799.

That price will apparently include a keyboard, which could make it a slightly better deal than Microsoft's own Surface Pro tablet, which may cost $799 with an additional $199 for its keyboard … Read more

In the Season 2 premiere of Always On, the Google Nexus 7 takes a beating. Well, it wouldn't be fair to say it takes a beating. It receives a beating, and frankly, doesn't handle it very well. It's one of our more dramatic Torture Tests, and I think it points out that sometimes, you do get what you pay for when it comes to quality and durability. The Nexus 7 is a great tablet in many respects but, well. It's not the toughest little thing. You'll see what I mean.

We'll find out in … Read more

Refrigerators have always been the hub of the kitchen. Considering that is where all the food lives, it only makes sense. However, there is another aspect of the big appliance that draws constant attention, and that would be the refrigerator door. Sure, the door is where all the fun easy-access items such as condiments reside, but there is another side to the story: the outside.

As a wide-open plain, the outside of the refrigerator door is a perfect area for personalization. Long the center for communication, refrigerators have more recently upped the ante by including Wi-Fi-enabled touch screens (such as … Read more

What happens to e-mail when you print it out? Is it still e-mail or has it moved into a different plane of existence? Regardless of the existential questions that arise, you now have a very fitting place to put your printed e-mails. Stuff them into a DIY Mail Purse.

The DIY Mail Purse gets part of its name from the fact you have to assemble it yourself. Don't worry, ThinkGeek says it will only take 15 minutes of your time. It comes with precut polyester felt pieces, cotton rope, basswood splints, and a shoulder strap. Assembly is just a matter of running the rope through some holes.… Read more

On the Apple campus, thinking different is worshipped. The company's core aspiration is to deliver startling breakthroughs, not me-too, products. Now Apple is calling upon its rivals to "think different," but for different reasons than creating breakthrough products.

Apple's "Think Different" philosophy was expressed in a series of ads commissioned by Steve Jobs in 1997, a time when Apple was early in its comeback from the brink of bankruptcy. The ads featured Albert Einstein, Bob Dylan, Martin Luther King, Jr., Richard Branson, John Lennon (with Yoko Ono), Buckminster Fuller, Thomas Edison, Muhammad … Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Clint Eastwood's RNC Obama chair gets own Twitter account.

- Behold: Eastwooding. Because, of course.

- Live taste-testing Savory Bacon Lollipops and Sriracha Lollipops. Thanks Thinkgeek!

- Nobody gives a _ _ _ _ about Honey Badger BBQ sauce. Except for 1,420 backers.

- Netflix video streaming accounts for 25 percent of all Internet data transmitted in North America.

- Fantasizing about ditching e-mail is like porn for techies.

Bathroom break video: How to make a towel horn.

Video voice mail: Josiah talks Neti Pots, ear wax, and dub step beatboxing.… Read more

Windows 8 is about to unleash a tsunami of strange devices upon us all. Call them tablets, ultraportables, hybrids, convertibles, tiny touch-based mobile computers...they're everywhere, and they're multiplying.

HP has them. Samsung does, too. So does Dell, and Lenovo, and Toshiba, and Asus, and Sony. Everyone has them. That's because Windows 8 promises a better environment for touch in mobile computing, and the promise is too tempting not to experiment. Or, alternatively, all these companies need a product out there to plant a flag into this strange soil -- a territory that Microsoft's already visiting via the Surface.

The big problem I see with them is that for every device that emerges, the landscape gets ever-more-cloudy. … Read more