Well, the Android tablet benchmark wars have begun and this first round is between the Android 2.2 powered ViewSonic G-Tablet and the new Motorola Xoom Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablet. Both tablets share the same NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor, so does software version really make the difference?

As you can tell from the video, the G-Tablet screen is inferior to the Xoom and that alone may be reason enough to grab Motorola offering. Add on the fact that you need to hack the G-Tablet to really see the power behind it and that may be strike two. Still, while dev support for the Xoom will be very large once its in the hands of enough people, the G-Tablet already has a decent amount of ROMs and modifications you can throw on it. Plus, the G-Tablet is less than half the price of the Xoom.

Multiple benchmark applications are used in the video, including Linpack and Quadrant. My G-Tablet is running an Android 2.3 experimental build and bests the benchmarks shown on the tablet used in the video. Nonetheless, the G-Tablet came out on top in most tests, even if it was a slight lead. Since both tablets are using the Tegra 2, we know that benchmark scored would be similar. Whats giving the G-Tablet the slight edge is anyone guess, but it could be that the UI itself demands less from the CPU.

If you thought USB 3.0 was the future of connecting high-speed peripherals to your computer, then think again. Intel’s Thunderbolt I/O technology, formerly known as Light Peak, is now the new kid on the block and it is here to stay.

With the introduction of the newly announced MacBook Pro line-up yesterday, comes the first real-world implementation of the Intel Thunderbolt Technology. Basically, Thunderbolt is a faster and simpler way of plugging different devices to your system.

Where it started

The new technology is not really all that new. It was first announced in 2009 under the name “Light Peak” because it relied on an optical cable instead of a copper one to do the transfers. Back then, Intel showed off in practice how quick the technology was by transferring a full-length Blu-Ray HD movie from an external storage device to a PC in less than 30 seconds.

And it gets even better because the Thunderbolt technology can transfer data as fast as 10Gbits/s, making it twice as fast as USB 3.0 (5Gbits/s) and 20 times faster than USB 2.0. The amount of power that this first official version of Thunderbolt will be carrying is about 10 watts, which compared to the 8 watts provided by Firewire 800 and the 5 watts carried by USB 3.0 is indeed high.

The great thing about the new I/O connection technology is that it manages to combine the support for PCI Express based data transfers and DisplayPort technology (used for connecting high resolution displays) in just one cable. This means that on the outside the Thunderbolt cable looks the same as the current generation mini-DisplayPort cables.

Thunderbolt has full-duplex support, which basically means that it transfers data in both directions (in and out) at the same time. And with the native PCI Express protocol support, it won’t be long until we see devices that could typically only be found as inner components, such as RAID arrays for example.

Where will we find it

According to Intel, Thunderbolt is mainly aimed at audiovisual professionals who need low latencies when dealing with large volumes of data. However, the company has announced that it’s already been working with companies like Aja, Apogee, Avid, LaCie, Promsie and Western Digital to develop products for the masses that would take advantage of the Thunderbolt standard.

The technology will not compete with USB 3.0, according to Intel. It will only compliment it and both platforms will coexist. In cases where their functions do overlap, like in external storage devices for example, different pricing and performance options are going to be offered to consumers.

Intel plans by the end of the decade to have the Thunderbolt standard support speeds of up to 100Gbit/s, by using optical technology, which currently is far too expensive and will start to be used only when it gets cheaper over time.

NEC Medias N-04C is indeed the worlds slimmest smartphone as we suggested recently. Now we have the full specs of the device besides the record-breaking thickness. Unfortunately, the NEC Medias is bound for Japan NTT Docomo carrier and we probably will not see its face around our parts of the world. The Android smartphone should be released there in the middle of March.

Specs-wise the NEC Medias should offer Android 2.2 Froyo upon launch. There is also a 5.1MP camera, a 4-inch LCD of 854×480 resolution and the hot 7.7mm razor-thin profile. All this fitted in a body of just 105g. The screen of the device is protected by some Gorilla Glass.

The Samsung Galaxy S II held to the title of the world slimmest smartphone for almost two weeks fighting it off with the Sony Ericsson XPERIA Arc and the LG Optimus Black.

Lenovo is keen to impress with these three updated laptop series. All of them pack some serious punch, some more than others. We are talking specs like the new i5 and i7 Intel processors, 1GB video RAM and even a 30-hour battery life.

To break it down here is the first three from the T series the Lenovo ThinkPad T420, T420s (14-inch) and T520 (15.6-inch). They are getting upgraded processors (the Intel i5 and i7). The 14-inch T420 will boot up to 30% faster and the T420s will have up to 30-hours of battery life on each charge. This will be made possible by a 9-cell battery. The new T series will feature the NVIDIA Optimus graphics with the improved GeForce 4200M GPU and 1GB VRAM.

Next up its the L series with two new candidates. The 14-inch L420 and bigger 15.6-inch L520. To wrap up, both offer ATI Radeon HD 565 graphics and Intel i5 and i7 chips. The L420 will come with a 1366×768 resolution, while the L520 will have the much better 1600×900. Both laptops will feature the serious 8GB amount of RAM.

Finally, we have the 15-inch W520. This is the best of the lot. Offering i7 quad-core Intel CPU, NVIDIA Fermi Quattro 100M and 2000M graphics with as much as 2GB video RAM.

All-new and updated, the T, L and W series laptops will also feature improved voice calling, special keyboard noise reduction and even a LED-lit microphone-off button. Price for the T series will start from $1329 for the T420s, $779 for the T420 and $909 for the T520. Both L-series laptops will start from $719 and the W520 should be the most expensive of them all. It starts from $1329.

Today Sony introduced a few new entries to its VAIO lineup of notebooks. We got the ultra-powerful yet extremely portable new S series and the neon-colored C series that should appeal to younger users.

Sony has a long tradition of squeezing some of the most potent hardware on the market in pretty light and compact shells and the new S series comes to continue this tradition. The 13-inchers sport a selection of 2nd generation Core i7 CPUs, 4GB of RAM, a discrete 6470M Radeon HD video card + Intel HD graphics combo and even a DVD drive and the thing only weighs 1.75 kilos.

And thats with 3G, Wi-Fi b/g/n and Bluetooth radios plus a couple of USB 2.0 and one USB 3.0 slot on board. The new Sony VAIO S laptops will be available from March in a variety of colors for a yet undisclosed price. "Not cheap" sounds like a good guess though.

The newly announced C Series will also pack some serious muscle under their brightly colored hoods. They will come with 14 HD screens and will mostly feature 2nd gen i5 CPUs plus a discrete Radeon HD 6470M GPU.

The available RAM will be 4GB, but you will be able to upgrade that to 8GB if you see fit. Unfortunately the 320GB hard drives on the C series will only go at up to 5400 rpm. Again you get 1 USB 3.0 port, but the number of USB 2.0 ports here has been increased to 3. Naturally there is also HDMI, Wi-Fi b/g/n and Bluetooth.