Apple iPad Available to the Public on April 3

Just slightly delayed versus plan, the most-awaited Apple iPad tablet computer will go on sale in US stores on April 3 and in other countries in late April

I was never too impressed with Apple iPad when it was introduced since it seems to fall in between the already innovative iPhone/ iPod vs. the netbook

But the iPad runs more than a hundred thousand applications that already operate on iPhone & iPod. The slight delay in availability did not appear to concern investors on Wall Street and Apple shares hit a record high of 219.70 dollars at one point.

AFP reports, the iPad has a 9.7-inch (24.6-centimeter) color screen and resembles an oversized iPhone. It is 0.5 inches (1.3 centimeters) thick, weighs 1.5 pounds (0.7 kilos) and comes with 16, 32, or 64 gigabytes of memory.

Lenovo Set To Challenge HP And Dell In Consumer Notebooks

An article from Information Week reports that Lenovo last Thursday officially entered the U.S. consumer notebook market with three products for people willing to spend more than the basic-notebook price in order to get better entertainment features.

The notebooks fall under the new IdeaPad brand, which will be the consumer side of Lenovo's mobile PC business. The Chinese company is best known in the United States for its ThinkPad line of business notebooks.

The IdeaPad Y510, Y710, and U110 models are powered by Intel's dual-core Centrino mobile platform, use facial-recognition technology in combination with a 1.3-megapixel embedded camera for security, and have five Dolby Home Theater speakers. In addition, the notebooks have Wi-Fi support, DVD/CD recordable combo drives, touch-sensitive control surfaces, textured outer cases, and frameless screens. "They look very smooth, sleek, and clean," Craig Merrigan, VP of global consumer marketing for Lenovo, said of the screens.

This new product is meant to go head-to-head with Hewlett-Packard's Pavilion entertainment notebooks and Dell's XPS line. Both combine sleek design with features for playing and organizing music and video, as well as editing and showing photos.

Lenovo is hoping its notebooks' design, VeriFace Face Recognition software, and Dolby Home Theater system will help differentiate them from rivals. The VeriFace software uses the notebooks' embedded camera to recognize a user's face for login, making it unnecessary to remember passwords. "Your face becomes your password," Merrigan said.

The sound system includes four speakers on the top of the machine -- front, top, and each side -- and a subwoofer underneath. The systems also include Lenovo's Multimedia Control Center software, which the company claims makes it easy to play movies, listen to music, and view photos. The notebooks also have touch-sensitive controls for choosing multimedia files and for setting volume and the built-in equalizer.