I am really not sure why this is new at all, or even why the claim that USB 3.0 has to wait on Intel to move forward is still going around, but it is popping up again.

This time we find a lengthy article on the subject from CNet. They claim that USB 3.0 will not see wide spread adoption until late 2011 because Intel has not integrated it in their chipset. I personally find this comment incredibly uninformed as Asus, GIGABYTE, ASRock and others are all building motherboards with NEC's USB 3.0 controller on them.

I suppose that the serveral motherboards that we have reviewed with USB 3.0 and external products using this new standard are not being included. Even in the OEM market companies like Dell and HP will start using the NEC controller just like they used the VIA one when USB first came out. It is a natural progression; I can remember when RAID integrated into the chipset was unheard of, now it is a standard feature. The same thing happened with USB then USB 2.0, first it is an add-on controller chip, then it gets integrated into the chipset later. Nothing to see here, move along...

Lenovo has made a big announcement today, introducing its new NVIDIA Ion 2 equipped all-in-one C200 desktop and IdeaPad S10-3s netbook.

Running quickly over the C200, this slick looking unit sports an 18.5-inch 1366x768 display and is powered by Intel's Atom D510 dual-core CPU together with NVIDIA's GeForce G210 GPU that uses NV Optimus technology to turn itself on when demand calls upon it (light gaming or 1080p HD content etc.).

Given its starting price tag of just $399, there are of course a few trade-offs. There's only a DVD drive integrated rather than a Blu-ray one and as mentioned, the display is not multi-touch capable.

We already know Apple will be busy this Thursday holding a special event that will give a sneak peek on its next-gen iPhone OS 4 software. But this won't be the only thing that will take place.

Sources close to Apple are hinting that the company plans to unveil something else very big and future changing in relation to mobile advertising. If this is true it would without doubt bring a smile to Google's face, which might seem a little odd at first given Google is a direct competitor; but, as touched on here :-

We won't delve into the whole reason why Google would be excited about Apple getting into the mobile ad line of work, but we will say that it has a lot do with the Mountain View company's current situation with the Federal Trade Commission. They're trying to shake up the trees, and prove to the FTC that they have some mobile ad rivals, because they want to go ahead and purchase AdMob. Right now, that's in limbo, but the moment Apple enters into the game, Google's got no more worries.

In well timed fashion with the launch of Apple's iPad and other tablet tidbits popping up all over the web from other sources trying to detract from the Apple's latest wave, the ultimate alternative has risen with Engadget getting a hold of a highly impressive specs list on ICD's Gemini tablet.

This slick 11.2-inch device is powered around NVIDIA's 1GHz Tegra 2 SOC and will have no issue in giving smooth and silky 1080p video playback when the task is called upon. The rest of the specs list continues to be all shiny with a 3G connection for cellular voice calls, user-replaceable 40Wh battery, SD card reader, FM radio, GPS, 802.11n WiFi, bluetooth, MicroUSB connection to PCs and other USB peripherals and stereo speakers.

It also sports dual cams; one being a 2 megapixel front facing webcam unit and the other an autofocusing 5MP camera on the rear.

Some more explicit details on HP's answer to iPad which it calls the Slate have surfaced thanks to Engadget getting hold of a presentation slide that reveals more on the specs and confirms the $549 U.S. launch price for the base model.

HP's Slate's OS is based around Windows 7, so it will be interesting to see how HP delivers this on a full slate device with limited power under the hood.

On the subject of specs, the presentation slide reveals that the Slate will run a 1.6GHz Atom Z530 processor with UMA graphics and separate 1080p HD video playback (likely to be Broadcom's Crystal HD chip). The capacitive multi-touch display is 8.9-inch with a supporting resolution of 1024x600.

Whilst many people gave a sour face to Apple's decision to exclude Flash from the HTML5 supporting iPad, some HTML5 experts who work for Google have given a terrific demonstration of what HTML5 is capable of.

They've managed to do a HTML5 port of iD Software's Quake II engine and while Quake Live based on the id Tech 3 engine may seem more impressive, the difference is it requires a graphics rendering plugin to work which has its setbacks.

This Quake II port using HTML5 is more impressive in that together with the use of Google's Chrome or Apple Safari web browser, it does not require a plug-in and utilizes WebGL, the Canvas API, HTML5 [audio] elements, the local storage API and WebSockets which is all inclusive of the HTML5 specification.

WD are about to unleash a new generation of Velociraptor hard disks, which while a little dimmer in the market due to the now dominant SSD wave, are still an attractive option for many and offer excellent performance in comparison to other traditional platter drives of today.

The new series of Velociraptors are scheduled to be unveiled in just over 24 hrs from now and while there's a tight seal on what's allowed to be disclosed about them at this point, sources have leaked some of the main points of interest.

The drives will continue to be based around a 2.5-inch form factor, but will come with a 3.5-inch mounting frame that is icepack reloaded, doubling as a heatsink. Capacities will start at 150GB, moving upward to 300, 450 and 600GB capacities.

Well, after what turned out to be less than an hour total wait, we now have an iPad here at TweakTown.

The Altamonte Springs, FL Apple Store really did have things down quite well. They had two separate lines; one for people that pre-paid and another for those that did not. Regardless of which group you were in, you were walked back by a member of the staff to get your iPad and any accessories you wanted. We asked about the Keyboard Dock and were told it was not in stock. We then asked about the camera connectivity kit and were again disappointed to find it was not available. In fact, there were three items that were not available: the Keyboard Dock, the Camera Kit and the Wall Charger. No matter we had our iPad and were heading home before 9:30am.

After we got the box home we happily tore off the wrapper and dug in. We were a little disappointed to find out that it is actually ungainly. This is not something you are going to grab and start typing one handed with. It feels solid and that is a good thing. On the other hand the accessories were VERY light.

You already know that the iPad is coming this weekend. With the launch of the iPad are also coming the launch of a bunch of iPad apps and publications like magazines and newspapers.

The newspaper publishing word is looking very bleak for many publications as costs skyrocket and subscribers dwindle. Many have predicted that the advent of devices like the Kindle and the iPad could save print media with subscribers willing to pay to read the material and delivery costs being less.

You might wonder then why the Wall Street Journal would make the cost of its iPad subscriptions so high. If the costs to produce and deliver the publication is so much less, why is it the price is very nearly the same or even more expensive than discounted print subscriptions? Rupert Murdoch is trying to get iPad subscribers to foot the bill for its ailing print business I guess. Here's hoping you a big bag of fail WSJ.

The gaming and computer tech circles were aflutter when NVIDIA went official with its GTX 480 and 470 video cards based on the new Fermi architecture. The video cards promise some big performance for gamers.

When the cards started hitting market and specs were unveiled, some were aghast at the amount of power the GTX 480 consumed and how much heat the thing puts out. This lead to some worrying that the GPU might have a shorter life because of all the heat it creates.

NVIDIA has posted on its official blog that gamers and enthusiasts need not worry about the GPU. Big green says that the GTX 480 GPU was designed to operate at high temperatures and the power consumption was a concession to the performance wanted from the GPU.