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Lenovo is announcing a new model Tuesday in its highly regarded ThinkPad X series of ultraportable laptops that offers a USB 3.0 port, a uniquely sized 12.5-inch screen, and long battery life, as CNET reported on Monday.

The X220 appears to be a variation on the previously announced Lenovo IdeaPad U260 theme. That IdeaPad, like the ThinkPad X220, is 3 pounds and offers a 1366x768 resolution 12.5-inch screen.

But there are some significant differences, the most salient being the ThinkPad's use of dual-core Core i7, i5, and i3 Sandy Bridge processors and a USB 3.0 … Read more

Though Lenovo's upcoming ThinkPad X220 ultraportable sports a powerful CPU and plenty of RAM, its potential battery life may be the biggest lure.

The X220 isn't on sale just yet, but Lenovo is providing an in-depth glimpse at its specs thanks to an online PDF. The details confirm that the notebook can run without AC power for up to 23 hours on a single charge via a slim external battery pack. But even without that external battery, the unit is capable of a still healthy 15 hours on its standard 9-cell battery.

Lenovo also says that a low power multimedia mode can boost battery life by 30 percent, while users can opt for either higher performance or better battery life through the unit's Turbo Boost+ mode, which builds upon Intel's built-in Turbo Boost feature.

Aside from the battery life, the X220 sports some other powerful specs.… Read more

Presaging laptops to come from Apple and Dell, Lenovo announced an ultrathin ThinkPad today that houses Intel's newest Sandy Bridge chip.

The 14-inch Lenovo T420s is svelte for a 14-inch business laptop at 0.83-inches thick--reminiscent of the ultrathin X300 and X301. It weighs in at 3.94 pounds with a six-cell battery. Battery life can be extended up to 10 hours by adding an additional battery that goes into the optical drive bay, Ross Compton, a market manager at Lenovo's ThinkPad laptop group, told CNET today.

"We're getting 30 percent better battery life when users … Read more

PC maker Lenovo is expanding the popular ThinkPad line of business laptops with several new models. These aren't radical redesigns, but these revamped versions of the T, L, and W series ThinkPads use Intel's second-gen Cote i-series processors, and have several other improvements, including a new 720p Webcam.

The new models number six in total: T420s, T420, T520, L420, L520, and W520. The T series is and upscale thin-and-light line, whereas the L series is both less expensive and also green-friendly, with Lenovo claiming that the L series contains, "more post-consumer recycled content than any laptop in the world." At the other end of the spectrum, the W series ThinkPads are mobile workstations, with Intel Extreme Edition processors and standard discreet graphics.

All of these new Lenovo laptops will feature Intel's slightly delayed second-gen Core i-series CPUs, a platform previously known by the code name Sandy Bridge. Lenovo claims this will give users a 20 percent performance boost and double the graphics power, compared with the last-generation Core i-series CPUs. … Read more

If you, on your lesser days, could reach for a thinking cap to make you a little brainier, what would you expect?

Would you expect to solve math problems quicker? Would you imagine that complex scientific puzzlers would suddenly seem like simple amusements? Or would you expect to be able to paint a convincing forgery of the Sistine Chapel ceiling in your three-bedroom ranch house?

I ask because a professor in Sydney, Australia, has created a "thinking cap" and thinks he has the answers to the above questions.

According to AFP, Professor Allan Snyder has been testing his invention … Read more

The time for talk is over; electric cars are hitting the streets. Over the next few years, at least 14 electric car models are slated for mass production. Although Tesla took an early lead with its Roadster in 2008, the risky move by Nissan to put the Leaf on sale late last year appears to have opened the flood gates. Now, names such as Ford, Honda, and Toyota are ready to join the fray.

Many of the electric cars hitting the road in the next couple of years will first find their ways into testing programs, leased to utilities and … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Gear for smart, connected homes may give you consumers fine-grained control over home energy, but ThinkEco has got a light-weight approach to saving electricity.

At the Consumer Electronics Shows here, ThinkEco said that a consumer version of its connected plug and software will be available this spring for $50. Additional plugs cost $44.95.

The company's modlet--short for modern outlet--is a two-outlet plug that fits over ordinary plugs and is equipped with a Zigbee radio. Using a USB stick in a PC, the owner can then see the energy usage and control whatever's plugged into the … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Earlier today we heard about Fling, Ten One Design's latest attempt at giving the iPad a legitimate input device for gaming. Its tiny suction cups stick on to the surface of the iPad, giving you the closest thing to an actual button we've seen yet on an iPad.

A few hours later we're hearing about a much more traditional take on the situation, ThinkGeek's JoyStick-IT. The Joystick-IT accessory appears to work the same way as Fling, allowing users to center an actual chrome joystick wherever they see fit.

These two items are the first of … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Between its ThinkPad and IdeaPad brands, Lenovo had a ton of laptop announcements at CES 2011. While many are basically revamps of existing lines adding new processors, there are a few standouts: the ThinkPad Edge series has bold, higher-end ultraportable models, and the Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid tablet/laptop has finally emerged as a real product.

>>One year later, the IdeaPad U1 rises as a Windows 7 laptop/Android hybrid

>>IdeaPad S205 and S100: 11.6-inch AMD Fusion ultraportable and 10.1-inch Atom Netbook

>>IdeaPad B, V, G, Y and Z series updates … Read more