Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Carbon Ultrabook gets official: on sale August 21st for $1,399 and up

Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Carbon has been a known entity since May, when the company gave us a look at the 14-inch, Ivy Bridge-packing Ultrabook. Up until now, though, the successor to the ThinkPad X1 remained somewhat shrouded in mystery, with no pricing or specific availability information to its name. But no more -- Lenovo's just raised the official curtain on the Carbon, announcing a pricing scheme of $1,399 and up and targeting an on-sale date of August 21st at Lenovo.com. The entry-level model will run a 1.7GHz Core i5-3317U CPU with 4GB, and it includes a 128GB SSD and Intel's HD integrated graphics. Like on the ThinkPad X1, 3G connectivity will be an optional feature. Head past the break for more info on the business-centric Ultrabook.
A $1,499 configuration has 1.8GHz Core i5 CPU and a 128GB SSD, while the $1,649 model includes the same processor but 256GB of solid-state storage. The top-of-the-line configuration offers a 2GHz Core i7 chipset for $1,849.
In addition to getting Ivy Bridge processors, the laptop steps up from the ThinkPad X1 with a higher-res 1,600 x 900 display (versus 1,366 x 768), and though its panel is an inch larger, the Carbon still weighs 0.7 pounds less and is 0.13 inches thinner than the original X1 (3 pounds and 0.71 inches versus 3.7 pounds and 0.84 inches). And if the name isn't a giveaway, Lenovo crafted this Ultrabook with a carbon fiber shell.
The company is marketing the ThinkPad X1 Carbon as the lightest business Ultrabook, and it included Intel's vPro management technology and BIOS locker to give the machine some corporate cred. Lenovo also stocked the Carbon with its RapidCharge utility, which can juice up the laptop's 45Wh battery to 80-percent capacity in 30 minutes. Speaking of the battery, Lenovo rates the system for up to 6.3 hours of runtime.

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Posted in: August,Carbon,Lenovos,official,ThinkPad,Ultrabook

Digg to get a complete redesign, relaunch in August

By Dana Wollman posted Jul 20th 2012 4:37PM

Well, that was fast. Not two weeks after Digg was bought out by Betaworks (parent company to Bit.ly, among other startups), we're learning the crowd-sourced news aggregator is poised to relaunch as soon as August 1. In a blog post, the 10-person engineering team promises an overhaul of the site, once a litmus test for what was popular on the internet. Most interesting, perhaps, is the revelation that while Digg will not be a rebadged version of News.me, the aggregation app already owned by Betaworks, the two services will eventually be folded into one product. And while the team isn't revealing how, exactly, the new Digg will differ from the old, they did promise it would eventually receive personalization features similar to what News.me already offers. Other than that, Betaworks didn't share any specifics, but luckily, you'll only have to wait two weeks to find out what's in store.

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Posted in: August,complete,redesign,relaunch

Samsung set to reveal next US Galaxy device on August 15th

By Brad Molen posted Jul 20th 2012 2:52PM

We just received a "save the date" email from a Samsung US representative that revealed a new Galaxy device will be seeing the light of day on August 15th. We didn't receive any details on what it could be, though this is most likely a US-bound device -- the email says "please join Samsung Electronics America for a major announcement and unveiling of the newest Galaxy device." With that tidbit in mind, we have a couple ideas: first, it may be the Galaxy S Blaze Q, since internal docs pin the phone's release on same exact day. With that being a T-Mobile exclusive for now, however, we're unsure that it'll be the recipient of so much pomp and circumstance. There's also a possibility that we'll see the Galaxy Note 10.1, which was announced at MWC in February and previewed in March. While we'd love to see the Galaxy Note 2, the odds of it being the mystery device are incredibly slim since the phablet is rumored to launch on the worldwide stage at IFA 2012 later in the month. Gotta love the guessing games that leave us in suspense and keep us on our toes, right?

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Posted in: August,device,Galaxy,reveal,Samsung