William Bunce

What seems to be getting the most attention at CES, is the Boxee Box and the Lenovo IdeaPad U1. For those of you who don’t know exactly what a Tablet PC is, just take a look at the video at the end of this article (after you read it of course).

As you can see, the IdeaPad U1 from Lenovo is a hybrid Tablet PC and Notebook. When you remove the upper portion it acts as a Tablet PC running a custom Linux build. When you re-attach it to the notebook shell, it runs Windows 7. I (and many others) call his a revolution for a couple of reasons. It finally brings Tablet PCs to the mainstream. This is something that has been a long time coming, Tablet PCs are very useful, it was the early iterations that caused many people to doubt them. Now, with technology advancing so significantly, so quickly, it can show the full power of a Tablet PC. A Tablet does have it's disadvantages though. No full keyboard, and some things you just want to do on a regular notebook. It's also worth noting that it has built in WiFi and 3G, so you have internet access everywhere.

Also worth noting from Lenovo, the ThinkPad Edge. Not really of much interest to everyday consumers, but those of you business types who use ThinkPads (really, who doesn’t?) will LOVE the combination of style and substance from the beautiful new line. It comes in red and black, and 13” and 15”. If you hit them up, they’re on sale now for a RIDICULOUSLY low price.

Anyways, the U1 is right above the Boxee Box on my favorite items at CES. Just take a look at the video already.