There's no such thing as a good hiding place on the Internet. Once you post something online - no matter how obscure the location -- someone is bound to find it. That's one reason why whistleblower site Wikileaks is so popular, and it's also how we've come to learn about Lenovo's X-series refresh.

Some curious sleuth managed to stumble upon Lenovo's official maintenance manual for the ThinkPad X201, a 9MB PDF file (downloadable here) which reveals more than a few details about the new models' specs. For instance, we now know the X201 will ship with various Intel CPUs on up to the Core i7 620M. The slimmed down X201s, on the other hand, will opt for the less voltage-hungry Core i7 640LM with a 2.13GHz clockspeed.

And for you touchy-feely types, touchpads are now an option. Other goodies include a 2MB webcam option, fingerprint reader status LED, palmrest options (with or without touchpads), and a WXGA+ display exclusive to the (s) models.

More details here.

Lenovo this week announced the ThinkStation E20, the first in a new series of entry-level workstations the company says costs less than $600.

"We've found there are a number of CAD and DCC professionals who are currently getting by on desktop PC hardware due to budget constraints," said Mark Cohen, vice president, Enterprise Products, Lenovo. "They're running workstation-class applications and could benefit from using true workstation hardware. We designed the ThinkStation E20 with these users in mind to put true workstation performance within their reach."

Lenovo has lined up a range of processors for the E20 line, including Core i3, Core i5, Pentium, and Xeon 3400 series processors. Buyers will also be able to choose from Nvidia's discrete Quadro line or step up to the FX1800.

The new workstations will be available by the middle of this month.

What's all this talk of a tech recession? It's apparently of no consequence to Lenovo, who reported a 42 percent year-over-year increase in worldwide PC shipments during the company's third fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2009.

Even more remarkable, this marks the third straight quarter Lenovo has been able to boast its highest market share ever, this time at 9 percent. By comparison, industry PC shipments increased 17 percent during the same time period.

"For the first time since the acquisition of IBM PCD, Lenovo was the fastest growing PC company in the world. We have achieved our highest ever global market share for the third straight quarter and notably increased profitability. These achievements demonstrated the effectiveness of the strategies we mapped out at the beginning of the year," said Yang Yuanqing, Lenovo CEO. "In the future, while we continue to expand our PC business, we also want to attack the mobile internet category to drive growth and capitalize our innovation efforts."

All across the board Lenovo has reason to celebrate. Operating profit, for example, hit $99 million for the quarter, which is twice as much as the company claimed in the previous quarter.

America loves split personalities -- how else do you explain Hanna Montana's rise to stardom? -- and that's exactly what Lenovo aims to deliver with its new IdeaPad U1 laptop/tablet hybrid.

"The IdeaPad U1 hybrid notebook is a game-changing technology in the PC industry that lets users switch their PC experience within a single device to match their dynamic lifestyle," said Liu Jun, senior vice president, Idea Product Group, Lenovo. "By fusing the functionality of a notebook with the slate tablet's rich multitouch entertainment and mobile Internet experience, U1 provides consumers the freedom to choose the device they prefer for any activity."

On the portability front, Lenovo says the IdeaPad U1 has a footprint slightly smaller than a sheet of notebook paper and weights just 3.8 pounds. And in terms of the hardware, the hybrid notebook sports an 11.6-inch HD LED display and Core 2 Duo SU processor. Remove the outer display, however, and it transforms into a tablet with a Qualcomm ARM Snapdragon processor.

Other features includes 4GB of RAM (512MB in slate/tablet mode), a pair of USB 2.0 ports, eSATA, VGA, HDMI, 4-in-1 memory card reader, and a 1.3MP webcam.

Look for it to ship in June for about $1,000.

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