Microsoft Surface (Codename: Milan), is a multi-touch product from Microsoft which is developed as a software and hardware combination technology that allows a user, or multiple users, to manipulate digital content by the use of natural motions, hand gestures, or physical objects. It was announced on May 29, 2007 at D5 conference.  Initial customers will be in the hospitality businesses, such as restaurants, hotels, retail, public entertainment venues and the military for tactical overviews. The preliminary launch was on April 17, 2008, when Surface became available for customer use in AT&T stores. The Surface is also being used in the CBS series CSI: MIAMI, where the crime lab uses it for investigation purposes, the MSNBC coverage of the 2008 US presidential election, Disneyland’s future home exhibits, and various hotels and casinos.

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It seems a lot of people are releasing tidbits of info today! In fact, Lenovo has just revealed their new IdeaPad Y Series notebooks, which are compact devices meant for those that need a reliable travel companion.

First in the series is the Y450, which is a 14-inch notebook. This notebook features a 16:9 aspect ratio and offers up a widescreen display. Plus, it has 4GB of memory, up to 500GB of storage, a NVIDIA GFX graphics card option, face recognition and multi-touch on the trackpad. Actually, the 15.6-inch Y550 and the 16-inch Y650 also have these features.

The only real differences between the models is the sizing and the 16-inch Y650 also has JBL speakers and an ambient light sensor. This makes it so the screen adjusts its brightness based on your surroundings. You can expect these notebooks to be available starting in March with the IdeaPad Y550 and Y450 priced at $829 and the Y650 priced at $829.

It seems HP has snuck up some product support information on a new notebook on their website without too many people taking notice. It’s called the HP Pavilion dv3z and this 13.3-inch notebook is definitely worth taking note of.

The new dv3z is set to feature the AMD Turion processor with the option to upgrade to the Turion Ultra or the Athlon dual core CPU. This includes the ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics card. Additionally, the notebook has 8GB DDR2 memory and the ability to choose from various sized hard drives or a solid state drive with a SATA interface. The display also sports a 1280×800 resolution.

Other specs we can glean from the product support page include HDMI and VGA outputs, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB ports, an ExpressCard slot, a 5-in-1 media card reader, a webcam, stereo speakers, a fingerprint reader and an eSATA port. Unfortunately, no information is available yet regarding a release date or pricing, but we’ll be sure to keep you posted.

It’ll come as no great surprise when Apple update their largest MacBook Pro, the 17-inch version, with a new unibody design similar to last year’s 15-inch refresh; however, according to the latest rumors, what will be a surprise is the new 17-inch Pro’s power options.  9to5mac claim that their Asian manufacturing sources are talking about a new, higher-capacity and super-slim battery for the big Pro, the downside of which will be that it’s non-user-removable.