Let's look at the best-case scenario: The A70z all-in-one. It's thoroughly unremarkable in specs, offering a 19-inch LCD (isn't that kind of small these days? Not that the iMac's insane 27-inch model should be the benchmark, but still...), up to a Core 2 Duo processor, and up to 500GB storage in a decent-looking if not particularly noteworthy package (pictured above). It also boasts of a fast startup and shutdown time and is only 2.4 inches thick (the new iMac is about an inch thick, for reference, though of course it costs several times more). The A70z will start at $500, which sounds pretty cheap, but the base model is likely to include a Celeron proc and a much lower-capacity HDD, for starters, so don't get too excited. The Acer Z5610, for example, costs $800 to start (not that far from an A70z with similar specs) in a much more slick package.

Winning second place (out of two) is the A58e tower. Clearly a $350 business-oriented tower desktop that boasts of "up to 320GB of data storage, up to 2GB of memory and a DVD burner" isn't exactly up our alley—but just as music critics must cover the latest Coldplay album, so must we bite the bullet and mention this snoozefest of a computer. Keep in mind that these prices aren't actually that low: Dell's base package Vostro desktop tower starts at only $300, with similar specs.

It's useless to brand computers like these objectively "good" or "bad." The A58e and A70z don't need to have catchy names, or up-to-the-minute specs, or eye-catching designs or even prices that are all that low. They will be bought, and they will be used. They will churn out Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoints and TPS reports, and they will suffice for those duties. They will provide no joy, unless you are a goofy salesman who sends adorable emails back and forth with your office's frumpy-yet-cute receptionist, and even then it will take about four years before anything happens between you two, so maybe you should just get another job because this one is clearly sucking the life out of you. Yet, they will be bought.

These computers will also match your office's Mr. Coffee. (Note: Speculation.)

At any rate, the 70z is available from the end of November, and the A58e is available now. Press release below. [Lenovo]

Lenovo Introduces its First ThinkCentre All-in-One Desktop PC for Business

Combines Style, High Performance and Extreme Affordability

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC – November 2, 2009: Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) today reshaped its ThinkCentre business desktop line by introducing its first all-in-one (AIO) desktop PC – the ThinkCentre A70z. Built for the needs of small and medium businesses (SMB) all the way up to large corporations, the AIO delivers a compelling alternative to the traditional desktop PC, starting at just $499. Despite the budget-friendly price tag, the high performance all in one comes with Intel Core2Duo processors and delivers blazing fast boot up time as one of Lenovo's Enhanced Experience certified PCs for Windows 7. The ThinkCentre A70z saves 70 percent more space, takes less time to set up and service and consumes less power than traditional desktops1. At the same time, the AIO adds a new touch of style and sophistication for today's modern office.

Lenovo today also introduced the ThinkCentre A58e tower desktop, bringing SMBs an affordable and reliable computing solution.

"We've heard from a number of IT managers in a variety of industries, from education, to finance to healthcare, and they've all told us they need desktops that conserve space, save on energy consumption and are easy to maintain and service," said Dilip Bhatia, executive director, Worldwide Desktop Marketing, Lenovo. "The new ThinkCentre A70z exceeds these needs – not only is it compact, super energy efficient and quick to service, but it's also high performance and extremely affordable."

Click here for a video demonstration of the ThinkCentre A70z.

Reshaping of Desktop Market

According to IDC, the commercial all-in-one PC segment is projected to grow 16 percent year to year worldwide in 2010 with most of the desktop market consisting of small to medium business, small office/home office users and consumers.2 This trend fits into the growing SMB PC market, which is forecasted to grow to more than 99 million PCs in 20113.

ThinkCentre A70z Saves Space, Time and Money

The compact ThinkCentre A70z includes a 19 inch, 16:10 widescreen LCD monitor packed into a 2.4 inch4 black frame that complements just about any office environment. On a desk, the AIO takes up 70 percent less space than a traditional desktop and monitor5. It can also be mounted flush against an office wall, supported with a radial stand or rested against a leg stand similar to how a picture frame works. The AIO's single power cable6 helps eliminate unsightly cable clutter that plagues office desk space, and the built-in handle on the back of the monitor makes transporting easy.

Saving on space doesn't mean skimping on performance though. The AIO features:

* Choices of Intel Core™ 2 Duo through Celeron® Dual Core processors for demanding performance
* Direct X10 support for enhanced games and high-end 3-D applications
* A DVD burner, six USB ports, two audio speakers and optional Wifi
* An optional high resolution webcam and built-in Skype application for voice over Internet protocol web calling with friends and colleagues
* Support for up to 500GB of data storage for lots of photos, music and work files

With simple set up, boot up as quickly as 35 seconds and up to 28 percent faster shut down time7 and easy access to the hard drive for servicing, the AIO helps save time all around, and businesses know that "time equals money." The affordable AIO also comes equipped at no extra cost with Lenovo's suite of ThinkVantage Technologies (TVTs). These value-added tools help businesses save money by speeding productivity and reducing downtime. Additionally, Lenovo's Power Manager TVT helps organizations save energy by remotely deploying power schemes and global settings. The all in one comes Energy Star 5.0 rated for high energy efficiency, but for more savings, using the Power Manager helps save approximately $65 per year over previous Lenovo desktop and monitor solutions8. To help reduce overall packaging material, the A70z ships with reusable protective bag. By using one box instead of two, material savings are equal to approximately 250 paper cups and 139 plastic packaging bags9.

ThinkCentre A58e Extends Desktop Value

Based on Intel Core™2 Duo or Celeron® processors, the ThinkCentre A58e tower equips users to get the most out of their workday with an assortment of features including support for Microsoft Windows 7, up to 320GB of data storage, up to 2GB of memory and a DVD burner. Implementing Lenovo's Power Manager, businesses can reduce electricity costs on their ThinkCentre A58e by up to 69 percent per year10. The ThinkCentre A58e combines the essential computing technologies for just about any day-to-day business task at an extremely affordable price.

Services Tailored to the SMB

Lenovo offers a variety of enhanced warranty options as well as its ThinkPlus Priority Support service plan on both new PCs. Priority Support features 24x7 priority call routing to advanced technical support as well as a host of administrative tools. ThinkPlus Priority Support frees up IT staff to address critical business needs while helping to reduce or eliminate the need for around the clock in-house IT support, which can translate into significant cost savings.

In addition both PCs give customers the option to download a free trial of Lenovo Online Backup, a secure, encrypted offsite storage solution for critical data and files. Lenovo Online Backup lets users automatically back up their files and then restore them anytime, from anywhere in the world, via an Internet connection. The free trial includes 5GB of storage for 90 days.

Pricing and Availability

The ThinkCentre A70z all-in-one will be available at the end of November with models starting at approximately $499. The ThinkCentre A58e desktop is available currently with models starting at approximately $349. Both desktops will be available through Lenovo business partners.

Yes, there's plenty of irony in having Gazprom's oil unit, OAO Gazprom Neft, use one of the most environmentally sustainable buildings as its headquarters, but oil company or Greenpeace, who wouldn't want a corner office in that?

Gazprom Towers will stand 77 twisted stories and be "green as it is tall" according to Inhabitat:

Eco-conscious features are highlighted by a double glass skin, where atriums have been positioned between inner and outer walls to provide natural ventilation, interior lighting and even thermal insulation for the merciless sub-zero Russian winters. Specialized water, heating and ventilation system have also been incorporated to reduce the energy needs of the building, and numerous social spaces and green zones have been set aside for the comfort and leisure of its occupants.

There are some who are protesting against this building project being greenlit, claiming that it is a "monstrous, barbaric decision" to be resented by the people of St. Petersburg, Russia. I say that it's a beautiful design and it's good to see greener buildings becoming a trend with architecture firms. If Gizmodo ever moves its headquarters into a place like that, I call dibs on the top floor. The whole top floor. [World Architecture News via Inhabitat]

Anyone who speaks un-English is welcome to pillage Ikea's Swedish forum for more details than we could excavate with the assistance of Google Translate, but from what we can tell, this bar desk is a quasi-custom job that could turn your shameful WoW addiction into a mature, metropolitan hobby that's fully capable of wooing the most reserved of Banana Republic lady's section employees. Just stash any snacks that end in a Z when company comes around. [IKEA via Unplggd]

After his work on alternating current made him a rich, famous, and respected electrical inventor, Tesla had no trouble securing funds (about $3 million in today's money) for what was seen as the next frontier: Wireless transmission. Tesla built a massive tower on a site he named Wardenclyffe, in southern New York, to experiment with the beginnings of what would become radio waves.

But when he was beaten to the punch by Italian Marconi (here we can shake our fists, a la Colbert, and yell: MARCONI!!!!), he decided he was actually going to transmit wireless energy, not just information, out to those who couldn't afford it. His investors, seeing no trail to profit, abandoned him, and as turned out, his tower was in no way capable of doing any such thing in the first place.

Wardenclyffe is a maze of Tesla lore; giant batteries without documentation, rumors of extensive secret tunnels surrounding the site, and half-finished experiments are all part of its now-dilapidated charm. It's fallen into disrepair in recent years, and is currently littered with the throwaways of damn teenagers with their damn beer cans, but now with the possibility that the property could be sold as mere real estate, Tesla fanatics are up in arms.

Tesla's admirers stress that this 16-acre estate is his most important workshop, and that any other fate but a museum is an insult to the ambitious genius's memory. The company that currently owns it is open to such a change, but is not in a position to simply donate the site. The site seems fascinating, and we really do hope somebody steps up and gives it the new life as a museum it deserves. [New York Times, image courtesy of New York Times]

And yes, it's as awesome as it sounds. Who hasn't wondered what it would sound like to stack cats, claw-to-back, in an attempt to match the Tower of Babel? The only difference is, Babel didn't collapse in a cacophony of mews.

Not sure where exactly to get this game in the store, unfortunately. [Mew Mew Tower (iTunes) via Animevice]

If completed, the Dubai City Tower, would definitely be absolutely breathtaking. I wonder how many slaves would have to die to complete this one. [Luxury Property via Dark Roasted Blend]

Fisher was inspired to design the Dynamic Tower during a visit to a friend's top-floor Midtown Manhattan apartment. "I had a view of the Hudson River and East River at the same time, it was beautiful and I wanted to make that feeling accessible to more people." He loves the idea of seeing the sun rise and set in the same room, and considers the building to be four-dimensional. "Time is always changing the shape of the building," he told me.

The rotation takes up to 3 hours (so you're not always spilling your coffee), and gets power from photovoltaic solar cells and 79 wind turbines, one located between each floor. The system is meant to create enough energy to power to the entire tower and still have juice to spare for some surrounding buildings. According to Fisher, two of these $700 million futuristic scrapers are planned so far, one each in Dubai and Moscow. They will be built using a truly radical technique.

Construction on the Dynamic Tower will be unlike anything that preceded it. The only part of the tower built on site will be the skinny center core. It is strong enough to hold the floors in place, and will contain the building's elevators, which transport people and cars right to their door. Each floor will be made piece by piece in a factory in Italy—a throwback to Fisher's previous life in prefabricated bathroom design—and placed onto the core using a lift system. With this method, each story is completed in about six days. By comparison, traditional ground-up methods can take six weeks per floor.

Groundbreaking for Dynamic Towers in Dubai and Moscow is expected to happen in the fall, with construction reaching completion by the end of 2010. If you're game—and very, very loaded—you can sign up now for a villa or office space. The going rate is $3000/sq foot. [Dynamic Architecture]

It's going to be built in a new city near Jeddah on the Red Sea and is funded by billionaire Prince al-Walid bin Talal. He bought London's Savoy hotel for a cool $2.5 billion in 2005. So you can suspect that there'll be a hotel in the building somewhere. By my calculations, the tower will have somewhere between 320 and 350 floors, so perhaps that should be "several hotels".

Not much is known about the details yet, other than the fact that it'll have two supporting flying-buttress towers to help keep it up (both more than 800 feet high). It will also have advanced damping systems to stop the swaying at high floors from making people sick, and it's going to need amazing engineering to cope with freezing wind at the top and desert heat at the bottom.

It's so tall that much of the ferrying of material and construction workers will have to be by helicopter. And that's just cool. [Daily Mail]

Inside that barrel chest is a 5.25" dedicated subwoofer, and there are four 2" midrange drivers and two 1" tweeters, too. The 10-key remote gives you EQ and playlist management, and the USB jack and aux input give you extra options for syncing and adding other sources. [mStation]

The tower's designed by architects at Foster+Partners, and is planned to be built next to Khanty Mansiysk in Siberia. If the plans are accurate, the tower sits on top of a hill and looks down upon the city like Zeus upon Olympus. That is, Zeus upon Olympus before Kratos comes up and tears him a new one with the Blades of Chaos.

Project Page [Foster and Partners via Sci Fi]

This BBQ tower has six different racks for meat and two racks underneath for the fire and any smoking flavoring. If I didn't live in a tiny apartment I would be all over something like this. It is a hell of a lot better than my George Foreman or tiny Weber grill. $500. –Travis Hudson

Product Page [Via SCI FI]

Product Page [Via Akihabara]