w700

Here comes Microsoft Surface Pro, 64 bits and all

Microsoft's Windows 8 Pro version of the Surface will arrive soon, giving consumers probably one the highest performing tablets to date.

Microsoft is already dropping not-so-subtle hints that the device is coming "early in 2013." And now it appears to have made its debut at the FCC.

Let's look at what else Microsoft is saying about the 2-pound tablet that sets it apart from the current Surface RT tablet.

64-bit computing in a tablet: Surface with Windows 8 Pro is "a 64-bit tablet PC." That's not a trivial point. You get all of … Read more

New Lenovo W701DS dual-screen specs leaked

(Update: See our report on Lenovo's official announcement of the W701DS.)

Way back at CES 2009, we were obsessed with Lenovo's somewhat absurd/impressive take on extreme laptopping, the W700DS. With dual displays--one 17-inch, and a second slide-out one at 10.6 inches--and a Wacom digitizer surface built in right next to the touch pad, the W700DS was the experimental supersize ThinkPad to satisfy the dreams of desktop replacement dual-monitor fetishists everywhere.

Not only does a revamped W700DS finally seem to be nearing a U.S. release, but these specs were leaked by Lenovo, according to ThinkPads.com. … Read more

Lenovo's lame product video

A colleague sent me this video Lenovo made and published to its official blog. My jaw dropped. Not because the content is particularly shocking or offensive, but because of how incredibly misplaced and lame it is as a Lenovo ad.

If anything, it makes clear one thing: Lenovo's talents lie in selling huge volumes of ThinkPads to business customers, and notably not in making smart, hip Internet video.

In the video, a guy recounts to his male co-worker a late-night work session with their female colleague the night before. While he and the girl are working, he starts describing … Read more

A laptop equivalent of a two-headed snake

Lenovo is apparently planning to unveil a ThinkPad notebook with a dual display.

As much as I'd love to post a photograph of a laptop with two screens, I cannot do so in good conscience. Several sites reporting on the laptop included photos that allegedly came from an IBM site that accidentally published on December 2. But none of those sites list the source of the photo. They also link back to the original IBM page, but a photograph of a laptop with two screens does not appear there.

The story was apparently first reported on NotebookReview.com on … Read more

What Intel's Extreme Quad Core means for ThinkPad W700

Intel talked up its supercharged processor at the Montevina unveiling last month, but now the first notebooks with it are making their way to the public.

Some people have wondered if four processing cores inside a laptop is overkill, but Lenovo clearly doesn't think so.

Lenovo's ThinkPad W700 is the first to market with the Core 2 Extreme Quad Core processor. As you might imagine, this isn't one of those thin-and-light notebooks the industry is so high on. Nope, the W700 is a mobile workstation, but "mobile" isn't really the emphasis here.

"This … Read more

Be careful where you point that phone

For those who want some personal security without resorting to an Avurt IM-5, the phone stun gun may be a more discreet alternative. But many of those on the market are fairly obvious even to the untrained eye. (The prominently labeled "STUN" button might have something to do with it.)

But British authorities have confiscated one that looks particularly real, and for good reason: It apparently is. Nottingham police seized a potentially lethal weapon disguised as a Sony Ericsson W700 handset, according to Newlaunches, one that's capable of delivering a 900,000-volt jolt. The BBC reported that … Read more