Lenovo be crazy. Or smart. Either way it seems the firm is hoping to out a 23-inch tablet by the end of 2011. This comes right from William Cai, a Lenovo senior specialist in marketing, during a talk at this year’s Gadget Show Live. I’m going with smart rather than dumb.
The man goes on to talk about the obvious challenges with the project with battery life being the biggest issue. Apparently the device, if it really exists, would be based off of Lenovo’s all-in-one series, which sort of lends to the idea that this will be a convertible or dockable device rather than a dedicated tablet. A 23-inch tablet would be a tough sell on its own, but there might be a market for an all-in-one computer where you can move the screen to the kitchen or living room for an hour. Actually, it’s rather surprising that HP who constantly reinvents its all-in-one touchsmart computers haven’t already done this. → Read More
A new technology that we’ve been hearing about for a few year finally is getting unveiled today at CeBIT in Germany. Tobii Technology has partnered up with Lenovo to create a laptop with integrated eye tracking control. It is said that it will add to the functionality of a keyboard and mouse, rather than killing them. → Read More
Nevermind the Lenovo LePad was officially announced — read: not prematurely leaked — seven months ago back July 2010. The Android 2.2 tablet will finally ship in China next month and then worldwide in June. So yeah, that’s nearly a year from announcement to worldwide launch. Craziness. Just ship the damn tablets already. Last year the 1.3GHz Snapdragon CPU and Android 2.2 skin sounded tasty. It’s stale now and that’s even without the sweet taste of the Honeycomb tablets. → Read More
Underwriters Laboratories’ UL Environment group — which validates claims, through lab testing, that a company or its product is environmentally sustainable, and helps thwart “greenwashing” — today reported that its first-ever Gold level Sustainable Product Certification (SPC) for a laptop was given to the forthcoming, Lenovo ThinkPad T420.
According to a UL press statement, the SPC Gold certification indicates “a product has met the most stringent and prestigious of three levels of compliance in the industry-wide sustainability standard for laptops, IEEE 1680.1…including reduction or elimination of environmentally sensitive materials in product and packaging, energy conservation, end-of-life management and corporate environmental practices.” In 2007, Lenovo began formal Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reporting…. → Read More
Big shake-up in the PC industry: Yesterday, the country’s biggest PC maker NEC and Lenovo announced a plan to form a joint venture to create Japan’s largest “PC group”. Lenovo will hold a 51% stake in the joint venture (to be incorporated in the Netherlands), while NEC will own the rest. → Read More
Hopefully you weren’t sitting on the Android tablet sidelines, patiently waiting for Lenovo’s options. Yeah, it’s not going to happen anytime soon. The company’s COO recent stated that the Lenovo’s US-market tablet will not be based around the Android 2.2 Froyo release, but rather Honeycomb. Therefore, if Google pushes back Honeycomb, Lenovo’s tablet will obviously have to suit. This puts the tablet on schedule for a Summer 2011 release — or rather a few months into the iPad 2′s life.
While the Android tablet was delayed, the Windows 7 flavor is simply canceled and for good reason too. Lenovo’s director of new technology, Howard Locker, nailed it by saying, “The challenge with Windows 7 is that it’s based on the same paradigm as 1985—it’s really an interface that’s optimized for a mouse and keyboard. It has to be optimized for touch. How do you do that?” Finally! At least someone gets it. Well, seeing how there really isn’t that many Windows 7 tablets available, a good amount of higher-ups probably get it, but it’s nice to see one actually say why.
It’s somewhat strange, however, to see Lenovo taking this standoffish approach though. This is the same company that stunned the CES 2010 press with some of the only innovative products at the whole show.
Update: Terminology is hard. Sometimes companies use different terms for different products. It seems that Lenovo calls their convertible notebooks, tablets and so the company would like to clarify that they have no plans on canceling the ThinkPad X Series Tablet line. Fair enough, but let’s try not to call apples, oranges and convertible notebooks, tablets. → Read More
Lenovo has voiced guarded enthusiasm for getting into the enterprise tablet market — you know, that’s the one with almost no players at the moment. The Nav9 I recently reviewed is aimed in that direction, and of course HP’s Slate is intended for enterprise as well, but tablets have historically been far less convincing to businesses than, say, Blackberries, so it’s still a market in discovery. → Read More
The ThinkPad has long been looked upon as the standard of PC notebooks. Partly because the line has been a staple since 1992, but also because they’re just so damn good. The notebook line will hit the 60 million mark sometime this month. That’s impressive and an achievement that should be celebrated with a bit of booze and bonuses for everyone involved.
But Lenovo, the current owner of the brand after buying the rights from IBM in 2005, is keeping the line rolling towards the 100 million milestone with some nice updates. Hello, Nvidia Optimus. → Read More
At CES, we saw two compelling new products from Lenovo: the LePhone, a slick and powerful Android smartphone, and the U1, an interesting hybrid notebook-tablet. Unfortunately, neither one was destined to make its way into our hands. The LePhone is looking to be an Asia-only device, and the U1 has been shelved to make way for an Android-powered variant. But Lenovo isn’t giving up — well, not on China, anyway. They’ve got a new tablet coming along, called the LePad, which will run Android and which they hope to launch in the Far East by the end of the year. → Read More
The iPad is the king of tablets and might hold that title for years to come. However, there are a ton of alternatives that we’ve featured over the last few months, mostly in these two posts (1 & 2) detailing the top 14. But since I ran those posts, a lot has changed and while some managed to make it to the market, others were delayed or scrapped entirely.
It’s sad, really. While the iPad caters to the masses with the Luddite-approved iOS, others crave much more usability and none of the tablets announced that claim to fulfills these needs have been released yet. Click through to see what I mean. → Read More
Seems people really like those all-in-one PCs à la the iMac. Sales this year are expected to grow some 63 percent from last year, to 11.5 million units worldwide. And while that’s good news for computer makers overall, there are winners and losers in the data. The big surprising loser? Yup, Apple. → Read More
Whoa. This isn’t your Dad’s Lenovo. Heck, it isn’t even your cool older cousins. The Lenovo IdeaPad Y560d is a 3D multimedia machine with a 15.6-inch screen running Windows 7 and up to 8GB memory and 750GB hard drive. It has TriDef 3D technology with 3D glasses and Dolby Home Theater surround sound. A Core i7 adds a wee bit of power along with a Radeon HD5730. Also it has a freaking screaming eagle/tribal tattoo/demo sword on it! ROAR! It starts at $1,199. I would totally marry this laptop if I weren’t already married. → Read More
The blogosphere cried out in anguish that day, when Lenovo’s compelling (and slightly bizarre) U1 combination tablet and laptop was unceremoniously canceled, and the Skylight OS ditched for Android. The press release implied, but did not say outright, that the U1 was being sent to the great concept bin in the sky. I asked for clarification, and a Lenovo spokesperson told me: the U1 is being reworked as an Android-based product, not being totally ditched. Huzzah! That’s all we know for now. We’ll keep you informed. → Read More
It appears that Lenovo’s U1 hybrid tablet/laptop, which we saw at CES, is being scuppered. My guess is that the Skylight OS, a custom implementation of Linux, just wasn’t good enough to compete with the tablets on the market — and possibly the cost of continuing to support such a project was too much. Whatever the case, the U1 is off the table, as is the Skylight smartbook, though they say they’ll continue to support “innovative new concepts.”
RIP, U1. I guess you were too weird to live. → Read More
Ready for your daily dose of viral marketing? This Lenovo video is just that, but it’s also an interesting look at the development of Lenovo‘s upcoming ThinkCentre M90z all-in-one workstation. These folks know all-in-one desktops and the M90z looks to be the best yet. Launch data and specs should drop soon. Hopefully. → Read More
Lenovo’s new line-up is heavy on the all-in-ones but has a few surprises up its sleeve. I got a chance to look at most of the new line last week and came away extremely enthused by the twee Q150. From the press release: If your idea of fun is tricking out your living room entertainment center, then the Lenovo IdeaCentre Q150 is the perfect solution. At just 0.82 inches wide and 6.7 inches high, the Q150 enhances the living room entertainment experience and can fit into just about any small space in the home. The Q150 is an affordable nettop PC that can be connected to a TV or monitor, or even mounted behind with the VESA bracket to create a virtual all-in-one. Featuring an optional NVIDIA® ION™ 512MB graphics processor, which delivers smooth Full HD (1080p) video via the onboard HDMI output, the IdeaCentre Q150 is a great way to enjoy Internet video in your living room. The IdeaCentre Q150 also features an optional multimedia remote with an integrated trackball mouse and mini keyboard to make it easy to multi-task between e-mails, Web browsing and video playback on a single device. This little PC looks like it might give the value proposition of many streaming and DVR systems a run for their money. → Read More
Lenovo announced their latest models today, a whole slew of new laptops, all-in-one models, and desktops. We’re going to talk about the latest laptops here, but make sure you check out our other coverage on their new products. → Read More
Lenovo’s previous nettop entry was just your standard Mac Mini-clone, encased in a drab black box. But the just-announced Q150 shouldn’t have any issues standing out from the crowd. Forget about the sleek exterior, it’s the included bitch’n Lenovo wireless keyboard/mouse that will please the masses [of nerds]. → Read More
Lenovo’s latest IdeaCentre PCs aren’t lacking, well, anything. They bring the latest power and hardware to the all-in-one form factor. Seriously, a person could buy a model from either the A or B Series and feel confident that the systems will be able to handle nearly any task — gaming included. → Read More
According to a report based on a source from an Asia-based Reuters correspondent, smartphone maker HTC has decided not to bid for Palm after looking at the company’s numbers. The source, which reportedly has direct knowledge of the talks, said there “weren’t enough synergies to take the deal forward”.
That leaves Palm, which has been struggling to boost sales of its new range of smartphones, running out of options fast. → Read More
