idea

The dream of having large-screen interactive touch table computers in every home has taken its sweet time at becoming reality. Maybe it's the cost of the technology, or the lack of a good place to put it. Lenovo seems to think it may also be a matter of furniture fashion.

To spice up the home table PC concept, the company commissioned three unique takes on integrating its $1,700 IdeaCentre Horizon Table PC into the home environment. The designs range from the whimsical to the practical.… Read more

Remember that Lenovo IdeaPad U310 I wrote about a couple weeks ago? Let's talk.

I bought one. It's really, really nice, though battery life proved disappointing. And I found zero value in having a touch screen. In fact, I suspect that battery life would have been better with a non-touch-screen version (as indicated by both CNET and PC World in their reviews of that model).

If you concur, Newegg has the Lenovo IdeaPad U310 13.3-inch ultrabook for $549.99 shipped -- $50 less than I paid for the touch-screen version. And it gets better: You also get … Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Ever wondered how Apple employees travel around the Cupertino campus?

- Taking New York's upcoming Citi Bike Share plan for a test ride.

- Why don't cell phones have a dial tone?

- Forget following teens, your new favorite Tweeter is 94 years old.

- Speaking of old people, here's Jeff's dear, old granny with a 404 sticker on her walker.

- Speaking of speaking of old people, here's a soul-cuddling video of an older landlady lip-syncing her favorite song from the 1930s.… Read more

It's estimated that more than 20 million people worldwide are currently victims of human trafficking. Put in perspective, that's nearly the equivalent of the entire population of Australia.

In an effort to combat human trafficking and provide help for victims, Google has launched a new joint project with three advocacy organizations -- Polaris Project, Liberty Asia, and La Strada International. Dubbed the Human Trafficking Hotline Network, this project aims to create a consolidated global hotline connected to a data-driven network.

Here's more on the project from a blog post by Google Ideas director Jared Cohen and Google … Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- "FireWriter" is a far sexier way to describe an inkjet printer.

- What do gangsters do on the Internet?

- New Brad Paisley, LL Cool J song "Accidental Racist" sparks controversy.

Bathroom break video: Slacktory Supercut: The best fake Web sites from TV shows.… Read more

The Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11's keyboard is permanently attached to the tablet section and when in tablet mode, it’s bulky, heavy, and awkward to hold. Thankfully, if you’d rather lay your tablet down flat or simply watch movies on it, the Yoga 11’s flexible, dual-hinge, $649 body gives you a few useful positions to choose from. Also, in laptop mode, it makes for a pretty cheap ultrabook, as long as you don’t mind being saddled with Windows RT.

If the thought of buying a device with RT causes you to wake up in the middle … Read more

LAS VEGAS--The Lenovo IdeaCentre A720 was a flagship product for Lenovo last year, adding a relatively polished-looking design to Lenovo's sometimes clunky all-in-one desktop line. The updated 27-inch A730, announced today, brings that same design, along with an option for a truly competitive high-resolution screen.

Prior to the A730, only the Apple iMac and the Dell XPS One 27 had 27-inch displays with a 2,560x1,440-pixel resolution. That high resolution is now an option for the IdeaCentre A730.

The other components in the A730 keep it from competing with those other pixel-dense 27-inchers. The A730 does have an … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Touch, anyone?

Two of Lenovo's IdeaPad lines will be joining the touch fray this year: both the IdeaPad U310/410 and IdeaPad Z400/500 have multitouch screens. Much like USB 3.0, HDMI, and solid-state drives were in previous years, touch seems to be the de rigueur Windows laptop upgrade of early 2013.

The IdeaPad U310 and U410 Touch ultrabooks, previously reviewed by CNET, are thin notebooks with more than a passing resemblance to a MacBook. The new 2013 versions are equipped with up to a third-gen Intel Core i7 processor and dedicated Nvidia graphics in the U410 … Read more

This flipping, folding combination of laptop and tablet was one of the very first glimpses anyone got of the possibilities of Windows 8. Starting with a sneak peek way back at CES 2012, the Yoga was seen as a great advertisement for the ability of Windows 8 to serve both the traditional PC and touch-screen tablet equally well, jumping between the two (nearly) seamlessly.

Almost a year after that, both Windows 8 and the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga are finally available. It's still the example of a convertible laptop/tablet most point to, and with good reason. Unlike many of … Read more