Lenovo plans to be first to make a Windows 8 tablet

Windows 8 won't be ready for consumers until fall, but that's not stopping hardware makers from fighting to be first in line to build hardware for Microsoft's new operating system.

Lenovo is planning to be the "first to market" with a Windows 8 tablet, The Verge reports.

Citing a "source," the report says Lenovo is planning to be ready to ship the device in October and that it will have an Intel chip, so it clearly won't be a Windows-on-ARM device. Other than that, there aren't any details on exactly what the machine will be, although given those basic criteria (tablet, Intel, Windows 8), there's at least one suspect: the IdeaPad Yoga.

Lenovo showed off the Yoga at CES earlier this year, and it got a lot of attention due to its unusual form factor: a laptop with a keyboard that folds over completely to transform it into a tablet.

Start8 download resurrects the start button on Windows 8, niche satiated

Some people just can't say goodbye.

Microsoft: there's a limit to Tango's love

Microsoft's going after the low-end market with devices like the Lumia 610 and its brethren. The handset's biggest limitation is that it only packs 256MB RAM and Redmond spent last week imploring developers to slim down their apps or face ghettoization. Now the company's revealing what else will be missing from Tango's cheapie iteration: Video podcasts, Bing local scout, fast app switching, automatic photo uploading, HD video playback (with certain codecs) and background agents will all be disabled. On the upside, this efficiency drive should ensure Windows Phone apps remain as lithe and responsive as its interface is, developers interested in learning more can head down to our source link for a dash of nitty and a spoonful of gritty.

Update: To clarify, the fast app switching situation is a little more nuanced: apps which uses upwards of 90MB will be "tombstoned" on deactivation, but those occupying less memory should fast resume just fine.

Music Unlimited app arrives on PlayStation Vita, Android version gets offline play

Listening to music isn't the best reason to take the plunge with the PS Vita. However, a new feature's a new feature, and Sony's very happy to tell you that its own subscription-based Music Unlimited service has arrived on UK devices, courtesy of its own dedicated app. Now you've had your fill of the games, Twitter and Facebook apps, it must be time to integrate with Sony's verticals and hand over more cash. The Android app has also been updated to include offline playback to songs added to your playlists -- like another certain streaming music service.

Thunderbolt is everywhere, now let's make it faster with PCI-Express 3.0

Things are different on Planet Intel. Over there, Thunderbolt drives and peripherals are as cheap and abundant as artificial intelligences in a Culture novel, so the population's attention has already turned to what comes next. Some are prepared to wait for a promised 50Gbps optical interconnect by 2015, but an impatient few are trying to make Thunderbolt exploit the new PCI-Express 3.0 standard for more immediate thrills. PCWorld claims the latest form of PCI-Express found in Sandy Bridge E, Ivy Bridge and Xeon E5 chipsets could make 10Gbps Thunderbolt run "significantly faster", thanks to a 60 percent speed boost over PCIe 2.0. Maybe they're right, but back on this planet we're still 33 percent of the way through transferring The Best of Leo Sayer to our USB 2.0-equipped Xperia S.

Lenovo ThinkCentre PCs recalled over fire hazard defect

Lenovo is recalling more than 50,000 of its PCs due to a possible fire risk. The 2010 ThinkCentre M70z and M90z both house a defective component in their power supplies that can overheat. Worse still, the power units are embedded within these all-in-one models and so are not readily replaceable. The manufacturer is arranging appointments to fix the power supply problem.

Distro Issue 31: Tales from the South Pacific, Apple's new iPad and the Woz

Let's just call Issue 31 the New Issue, shall we? That's what Apple did this week with the refresh of the iPad, and in this week's refresh of Distro, we'll bring you our first-hand impressions of Cupertino's latest slate. Also in this issue, Darren Murph takes a look at the challenges of bringing wireless to the disconnected, in "Internet Tales from the South Pacific," and Steve Wozniak tackles the Distro Q&A like only he can. We'll also bring you our reviews of Lytro's debut light field camera and Dell's XPS 13 Ultrabook. So go on and download the new issue.

Early estimates say new iPad cuts Apple's profit margins

These estimates are always to be taken with a grain of salt but, if UBM TechInsights is to be believed, Apple is cutting into its precious profit margins to keep the price of the iPad flat. According to the research firm, the total cost of components in the 16GB 4G model is around $310 -- not including assembly and shipping. With a final price of $629, Cupertino is pulling in about a 51 percent profit, a sizable drop from the estimated 56 percent profit margin on the similarly specced iPad 2 at launch. A large chunk of that increased cost of production is made up by the new retina display, which is estimated to cost around $70, and the LTE chipset, which UBM priced at $21. In contrast, current pricing on the panel in the iPad 2 and its 3G radio rest at around $50 and $10, respectively. We're sure Tim Cook isn't losing any sleep though, there are plenty of other ways to make up that lost dough -- like selling more iPads.

Nielsen report finds 56 percent of US households have a modern game console, total gaming time up seven percent

Nielsen is out with its annual survey of video game use in the US today, and it's found that gaming continues to be on the rise across the board. That includes a seven percent increase in total gaming time compared to the previous year (apparently due largely to increases in mobile and tablet gaming), and an increase in modern console ownership from 50 percent of households to 56 percent; that includes so-called 7th generation consoles like the Wii, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It also found the number of cross-platform gamers be on the upswing, with 24 percent responding that they play on two or more of a console, PC, tablet or mobile device (compared to 17 percent previously). Looking at mobile gaming, specifically, Nieslen found that while iOS gaming tended to be distributed fairly evenly across all age groups, Android gaming proved to be far more popular among those aged 25-34 than any other group.

A few other tidbits: 65 percent of consoles are located in the living room, online shopping for games is up while other channels continue to decline, and streaming video continues to be a growing secondary use for game consoles (particularly on the Wii, where it accounts for 33 percent of console usage, compared to roughly 15 percent on both the Xbox 360 and PS3).

Apple shuttering iWork.com document sharing, hopes you'll embrace the iCloud

Cupertino would like to formally thank you for your interest in iWork.com, but before the summer's through, it's hoping you'll be stuck with your head firmly in the iCloud. Apple sent an email notice out this week, letting iWork.com users know that, as of July 31st, it'll no longer let users publish or share documents through the service. Moving ahead, the company's focused on making iCloud the document sharing iService of choice. For more information on how to tie up those iWork.com loose ends as the deadline draws near