All posts tagged: twisting

The Weird, Twisting Tale of How China Spied on Alysa Liu and Her Dad

The Weird, Twisting Tale of How China Spied on Alysa Liu and Her Dad

Published by skeptic

On November 16, 2021, Matthew Ziburis sat in his car in a residential neighborhood in the Bay Area stalking an “enemy,” as he put it. A veteran of both the US Army and Marine Corps, Ziburis had previously served in Iraq. But on this mission, he was working at the behest of China’s government. The targets that autumn day were American citizens: Arthur Liu and his teenage daughter, Alysa. Arthur’s personal story was an exemplar of the American Dream. As a university student, he took part in the 1989 pro-democracy movement in China. After the crackdown at Tiananmen Square that year, he fled to the United States, settling in California. Arthur poured a small fortune and an equal amount of energy into molding Alysa into a figure skating phenom. As a national champion at age 13, she bantered along with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show, and was at the time on track to represent America at the Winter Olympics the following year in Beijing. Ziburis was surveilling the Liu home when he called Arthur, …

Lenovo’s Twisting Laptop Follows You Around the Meeting Room

Lenovo’s Twisting Laptop Follows You Around the Meeting Room

Published by skeptic

Leave it to Lenovo to revisit the past for its next novel laptop. The ThinkBook Plus Gen 7 Auto Twist is meant for the workplace, letting people twist the display to show presentations or other material around meeting rooms, evoking the company’s prior designs such as the 2012 Lenovo ThinkPad Twist.  But the twist of this year’s Twist is how Lenovo is functionally applying AI to its rotating screen approach. The screen doesn’t just twist manually — it’s motorized, and uses the camera to follow you as you move around the laptop, like a physical version of Apple’s Center Stage tech.  Unlike some of Lenovo’s AI products showcased this year, the Gen 7 Auto Twist is actually coming to market in June 2026, with a starting price of $1,650. The laptop was first shown off as a concept device back at CES 2024, and looks much the same now that it’s finalized for commercial sale, though Lenovo said in a press release this new version rotates faster and more quietly.  At Lenovo’s showcase area at …

CES 2026: Lenovo is making its twisting concept laptop a reality

CES 2026: Lenovo is making its twisting concept laptop a reality

Published by skeptic

[UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL JAN 6 AT 8PM ET/5PM PT] Lenovo’s voice-controlled twisting laptop is officially hitting the market later this year, and Mashable got to go hands-on with it at CES 2026. The PC giant still has one kink to iron out before it lands in consumers’ hands this summer, but overall the device is a fun and constructive twist on the 2-in-1 form factor. Announced Tuesday, the Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 7 Auto Twist is a unique hybrid business PC with a swiveling 14-inch touchscreen that rotates on a motorized hinge. The user can open, close, and reposition its lid manually or by saying “Hey Tiko” followed by a voice command. If necessary, you can switch it between clamshell and tablet modes without lifting a finger. The screen can turn 90 degrees to the right and a full 180 degrees to the left. Do the twist. Credit: Haley Henschel / Mashable The Auto Twist has some other fun tricks up its sleeve. Its 10MP webcam can follow your face, and if you scoot too …