Apple iPad App Store Opens for Business!

Apple has opened up the iPad App Store floodgates, with hundreds if not thousands of apps to get purchasers of the new iPad started.

From the looks of it, there'll be no shortage of apps to get users started when the tablet goes on sale tomorrow. There are a number of high profile developers in this first round, including eBay, IMDB, Netflix, NPR, Disney, ABC, Electronic Arts, the NBA, Cisco, Weather Bug, Yahoo, and Warner Bros.

A cursory glance at the store all reveals that, while there are, in fact, some free apps in the store (including, notably, Shazam and Twitterific), the average iPad app looks to be a good deal more expensive than the standard iPhone app. Take, for example. EA's Need for Speed Shift, which runs $14.99 in its iPad incarnation, 150 percent of the price of its iPhone counterpart.

-pcmag.

Top 5 Business Laptops!

Looking for a durable, powerful, portable, business laptop that can last through a cross-country flight? These are the best business laptops you can buy.

Finding a great laptop for work is serious business. After all, you need something that's durable, secure, powerful, light, and can last through an intercontinental flight. With the countless options available, it can be a daunting task to find the perfect one. Fortunately for you, we have already found the top five business laptops on the market today.

If weight is the biggest factor in your buying decision, then you couldn't do better than the Sony VAIO VPC-Z116GXS ($1,800 direct, ), our Editors' Choice for ultraportables. It weighs a scant 3 pounds, and runs a powerful Intel Core i5 CPU. Add to that switchable graphics and support for two solid state drives (our review unit came with only one 256GB SSD), and you've got the lightest and most powerful ultraportables around

Another ultraportable laptop that should be on your short list is the Lenovo ThinkPad X201 ($1,625 direct, ). While it might be mistaken for a netbook, given its 12-inch screen and tiny footprint, it's a lot more powerful. It packs a Intel Core i5 540M CPU. And because of a big battery, its battery life is an impressive 9 hours 36 minutes.

The HP Elitebook 2540p ($1,629 direct, ) also sports a 12-inch screen, but comes with a low-voltage Intel Core i7 CPU to maximize the system's battery life (8 hours 2 minutes, in this case). The chassis design is both aesthetically pleasing (with aluminum metals on its lid) and ruggedized for travel. Like the Lenovo X201, it sports dual pointing devices (pointing stick and touchpad), and it also has a full-size keyboard.

Those who crave a feature-packed business laptop will want to take a serious look at our Editors' Choice for business laptops, the Lenovo ThinkPad T410 ($1,484 direct, ). While its design is pretty bland, it's what's inside that impresses. It features a strong inner framework and shock-proof component protection. With its 2.53GHz Intel Core i5-540M processor, 4GB of DDR3 memory, and Nvidia Quadro NVS 3100M graphics chipset, it made short work of graphics and CPU-intensive tasks. This much performance comes at the price of battery life; the T410 scored 5 hours 30 minutes on MobileMark 2007, though this is still respectable for most daily commuters.

For those looking for a business laptop that's both pleasing to look at and powerful to use, the HP EliteBook 8440w ($1,650 direct, ) is one to check out. Like the HP 2540p, it's ruggedized for travel, and it features a dual-core Intel Core i7 processor, workstation-class Nvidia graphics, and speedy hard drives. Like the Lenovo T410, it features a 14-inch screen and a big 9-cell battery. Its "fully-loaded" feature set includes 4 USB ports, FireWire, an ExpressCard slot, and a multimedia card reader. The HP 8440w adds a standard 3-year warranty to sweeten the deal.

So there you have it, five laptops that will definitely get you working. One of them is sure to be good for (your) business.

-pcmag.