Core77

Take a walk through one of New York's three Chinatowns--deep Chinatown, where you'll see/hear nary a tourist or word of English all day--and you'll find thriving strips of stores stocked with products decidedly different from big-box offerings. Everything from kitchen utensils to appliances to cell phones comes in a range of colors decidedly less sober than what's on sale in the rest of the city.

Step into one of the all-Chinese internet cafes and you'll truly feel you're overseas. Although the service is standard for any New York establishment staffed by face-pierced teenagers--ranging from indifferent to openly hostile--a better reason you'll never see these places listed in Time Out is because they're loaded with kids playing Chinese games on computer hardware you've never seen.

Which begs the question, will Chinese-designed consumer goods fly outside the Chinese market? Computer manufacturer Lenovo is "going design" with their new line of IdeaPad laptops. Cosmetic features like brightly-colored and textured lids (below right) have been combined with theoretically functional features like special hinges (below left) that hold the screen further from the keyboard for better viewing. Other features include oversized gaming control keys, touch-sensitive media control buttons, "frameless" displays, and a programmable soft key.

Early blogosphere feedback sounds pretty divided; we're curious to see what the pundits say after they see Lenovo's offerings at CES.

via asia cnet