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Lenovo Announces the IdeaPad 200

Posted by Zonk from the branching-away-from-ibms-old-market dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Marking the start of news releases from this year's Consumer Electronics Show, Lenovo has dropped a major announcement on consumers - the arrival of a new line of notebooks. The IdeaPads will be the consumer-friendly companion to the ThinkPads. The announcement covers three notebooks, the 17" Y710, the 15" Y510, and the 11", 2.4lb U110. The IdeaPads will bring a number of firsts to Lenovo's notebooks, including a SSD upgrade option, dual hard drives (Y710 only), and a 17" notebook."
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Lenovo Announces the IdeaPad More

Lenovo Announces the IdeaPad

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  • At Least they aren't changing Thinkpads. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Hawkeye05 ( 1056362 ) <Hawkeye05@Gmail.com> on Thursday January 03, 2008 @02:45PM (#21898312) Homepage
    I don't know how i feel about this, I love Thinkpads and I'm glad there not changing them to make them more consumer friendly, yet i worry this will draw their attention away from the Thinkpads.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Hatta ( 162192 )
      What I don't understand is how they consider the Thinkpad to be consumer unfriendly. Aren't Thinkpads universally hailed as the best quality non-apple laptop around?

      Is "consumer friendly" just a code word for "cheap"?

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by jpu8086 ( 682572 )
        Drop the non-apple qualifier. ThinkPads are *the* best laptops. EOF.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) *
          I have to agree. I especially like the looks of the Ideapad 110. I'm not sure about this "Face Recognition Security" though. I tend to shave every 4 or 5 days, and sometimes I've got glasses and sometimes not. Sometimes my eyes are red and bloodshot and sometimes they're... well, they're usually red and bloodshot.

          It would suck if I couldn't log into my notebook just because I was wearing my leather bondage hood and bridle.
          • As a long time Thinkpad user, I was glad when my T60 arrived with the fingerprint reader and then loved/hated it everyday since (little more than a year). There are days when I still have to run my finger across it multiple times (and rather an just entering my password, I continue the mad swiping until it works). The face scan just ain't consumer friendly at all.

          • Re:At Least they aren't changing Thinkpads. (Score:5, Funny)

            by couchslug ( 175151 ) on Thursday January 03, 2008 @07:38PM (#21902762)
            "It would suck if I couldn't log into my notebook just because I was wearing my leather bondage hood and bridle."

            "You WILL like Face Recognition Security! Now do as your Mistress Lenovo tells you!"

    • Re:At Least they aren't changing Thinkpads. (Score:5, Informative)

      by badasscat ( 563442 ) <basscadet75@@@yahoo...com> on Thursday January 03, 2008 @03:26PM (#21899024)
      I sort of agree, with the addition that I really hope people don't outright *confuse* these with ThinkPads. Even to see a Slashdot post about them, mentioning them as some sort of adjunct to the ThinkPad line is kind of disturbing. This really doesn't even deserve a mention here, any more than a new line by Acer or ASUS would. I say that as a former ThinkPad owner.

      ThinkPads were developed by IBM, produced for professionals and built like tanks. Lenovo has made a few changes, not all of them good, but basically that design philosophy is intact and a lot of the same people from IBM still work on ThinkPads. The "IdeaPad" line is a rebadge of Lenovo's *own* line (the 3000 series, etc.), which was developed wholly separately, by a different company and in a different country. If the previous lineup was anything to judge by, they're the same basic cheap junk laptops you might find from any second-tier Taiwanese or Chinese company. Adequate for most use, but not even in the same league as a ThinkPad. (I may be a former TP owner, but I'm also a *current* Acer owner, so I'm familiar with both ends of the spectrum here.)

      It's not just a case of one being professional and the other consumer, which implies that the differences are mainly in the included software or security features. No, these laptops are built to completely different standards. They're as different as when IBM and Lenovo were making laptops separately. Would a new line from Lenovo have been compared to the ThinkPad in those days? Well, nothing much has changed, except that Lenovo's obviously trying to cash in on the ThinkPad name, and has managed to hoodwink sites like Slashdot into thinking the two lines are somehow related.

      • Dude, go to CompUSA and TOUCH one of these. It's a kewl looking laptop. Actually, I saw another model, but it LOOKS like the 15.4" model. It has the same orange, semi-circle volume control. It weighs nicely, feels nice, and looks REALLY nice. I'd have bought it instead of the Gateway (cough, cough, ACER P-6301), but it was around $900, or some $300 outside of my limit.

        I hope people give the Lenovo brand a chance. They are a nice design change from many of the tired, old designs rolled out over the past 2 ye

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Nexus7 ( 2919 )
        Yeah, the 3000 series is nothing like the Thinkpads. Besides, I'm not sure anything without a Trackpoint can legitimately be called a Thinkpad, or Ideapad for that matter.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by syousef ( 465911 )
        My first laptop was a second hand Thinkpad, many years ago, can't tell you what model but it had a combination metal and rubberised plastic frame etc. I paid something like $400 and it was adequate for what I used it for. About six months into owning it the mouse pointer started drifting. I looked it up on the IBM web site. The official line was that this is not a fault, it just happens sometimes, and there was no fix for this. Never mind that it made the laptop unusable until the mouse stopped drifting - i

  • Yawn (Score:5, Funny)

    by hellfire ( 86129 ) <deviladvNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Thursday January 03, 2008 @02:47PM (#21898342) Homepage
    Cool fruity colors? Nope
    Major hype at business conference before it's release? Nope
    TV ad featuring two amusing characters bantering back and forth played at all hours of the day? Nope
    CEO with reality distortion field? Nope

    I'm bored... moving on.

    • Re:Yawn (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Telvin_3d ( 855514 ) on Thursday January 03, 2008 @03:20PM (#21898954)
      You say that sarcastically, but there is a big grain of truth. As someone who used to sell laptops, the market has almost no differentiation. Every three months, HP, Dell, Toshiba and the rest release new models in step. You try explaining to someone the difference between three notebooks that all have the same 15" screen, processor, hard drive and RAM. If this thing doesn't sell itself, then no one else will go to the trouble.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mcmonkey ( 96054 )

        Every three months, HP, Dell, Toshiba and the rest release new models in step. You try explaining to someone the difference between three notebooks that all have the same 15" screen, processor, hard drive and RAM.

        Okay, I'll have a go. HP, Dell, Toshiba: I can't tell you if one is more reliable than the others, but I can tell you if your Dell or HP has an issue and needs service, you will be S.O.L. Those are two of the worst companies to deal with, in terms of customer service. If you buy a laptop from

    • It's not just the lack of personality, it's the utter lack of distinction that makes these laptops a complete non-announcement.

      Lets call it an "Unnouncement"

      Yes, we're going to be doing the same thing as everyone else.
      Yes, it will cost about the same amount.
      No, we don't really do anything different.

      It's a laptop. Huzzah.

  • face recognition (Score:3, Interesting)

    by cynicsreport ( 1125235 ) on Thursday January 03, 2008 @02:49PM (#21898368) Homepage
    The IdeaPads have a new feature: Face Recognition. The idea is that the user can sit in front of the computer and log into Windows Vista without entering the password.
    This raises the question: could one just hold up a photograph of the user to log in?

    • Re:face recognition (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Jeremy.DeGroot ( 878927 ) on Thursday January 03, 2008 @03:05PM (#21898678)
      Some recent ThinkPads have face recognition as well. I recently purchased this one [tigerdirect.com], and it has this feature. For those of you that are interested, it recognizes me with or without glasses, right after waking up and right before stepping out for New Years' Eve. We tried fooling it with a 4x6 photo held close to the web cam, and it didn't work. YMMV.

      • Re:face recognition (Score:5, Interesting)

        by dgatwood ( 11270 ) on Thursday January 03, 2008 @03:12PM (#21898802) Homepage Journal

        Try it with a camcorder w/ built-in LCD panel and I suspect you'll get different results. Use a bigger screen that can show your face at actual life size, and it is almost certain. Most decent face recognition systems can detect a picture because the perspective never changes, but unless it has more than one camera, it will likely be easily fooled by a video clip....

    • it's trained to look for nervous ticks and other suspicious behavior and act accordingly.
    • I don't like the idea of the computer monitor that can not only see you, but RECOGNIZE you! Say goodbye to any real anonymity when you computer monitor can see you...and what you're doing. I could see that as a sticky area for privacy advocates..

      Also I don't want to lose the joke of "watching someone though their monitor"...
    • "Lenovo's Secondary Hard Drive solution gives you two, totally separate hard drives, one of which can be hot-swapped and used in other systems (via slot or cable)."

      How many geeks WOULDN'T like to have TWO internal HDDs? When I laid eyes upon the Gateway P-6301, with a 17" LCD, at $699 (or $649?), all other laptops with S-Vid out, and several other ports I hardly use anyway, were no longer contenders. However, I wish the drive caddies SLID out instead of requiring me to flip over the l/t. However, at least t

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Aardpig ( 622459 )
        Been there, done that, even had a RAID-0 array for laughs. To be honest, not really worth the bother; apart from having faster access times, nothing is gained over an external 2.5" USB drive apart from weight and heat.
        • Yeh, I've sorta been there, done that, too (USB disks hanging off the side), but it looks tacky as shit when at an I-cafe, where tables are small and a rat's nest of wires unsightly.

          But, what I like is being able to hit F-10, select which disk from which to boot, then select the OS of choice for the task at hand.

          Since my P-6301 has TWO CPUs, I *wish* it had the capability (or it does but I don't know how) to run TWO os's simultaneously, independent of needing VMs. Just add a toggle to deal with sharing vide

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by dpilot ( 134227 )
      If this were made in the US instead of China, we could have some real DHS paranoid ramblings...

      Imagine a secret partition on the hard drive that holds (profiled) characteristics of terrorists faces. So the laptop keeps track of whoever is using it, checks it against its secret database, and next time it's connected to the internet, files a report with DHS.

  • Consumer friendly?? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by damn_registrars ( 1103043 ) <damn.registrars@gmail.com> on Thursday January 03, 2008 @02:49PM (#21898372) Homepage Journal
    From the summary:

    The IdeaPads will be the consumer-friendly companion to the ThinkPads.

    WTF wasn't consumer friendly about the ThinkPad? Granted, I've been a big ThinkPad fan for some time myself, but really, what are they talking about? How do you make a notebook more consumer-friendly? For that matter, how could a notebook not be consumer friendly and sell?

    • Re:Consumer friendly?? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Itchyeyes ( 908311 ) on Thursday January 03, 2008 @03:15PM (#21898862) Homepage
      "Consumer friendly" is business-speak for "cheap crap"

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by sootman ( 158191 )
        Not [wikipedia.org] always. [wikipedia.org]

        (Note that the first link skips you past the clamshell ones. :-) The white ones, though, were kick-ass and a great value.)

        To Lenovo I say: welcome to 2001!
      • Biz speak for "You have a Thinkpad, buy one of these too." IOW, just because you already have a laptop does not let you off the hook to buy one of these too.
    • They're probably going to be cheaper and lower quality with more flashy and useless bells and whistles.

      They'll also probably abandon the classic "black brick" Thinkpad styling.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by slaker ( 53818 )
      The main objections I've run into with Thinkpads from non-professional users are:
      1. Small screens, from people who don't understand why a notebook needs to be portable.
      2. Poor multimedia options, from people who expect a notebook to play Doom 3 in 1080p with surroundsound on a notebook.
      3. High price, which is a complaint I might see as legitimate (though, I think that the support Lenovo provides more than justifies the added cost).

      • 3. High price, which is a complaint I might see as legitimate (though, I think that the support Lenovo provides more than justifies the added cost).

        Got a T60, back when that was a decent machine, for 1200 bucks plus some extra for more RAM. In my experience, the "mass market" ThinkPads (T-series) etc. are priced competitively with MacBooks, or maybe it's the other way around. Get into the ultra portables and you're shelling out big bucks real quick. If you work the dell discount machine, you could definitely get a lower price on similar specs. Go lower on the brand name quality scale and you can save yourself a few hundred, but nothing spectacular

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by slaker ( 53818 )
          I have to fight and fight to get business users to look at $1000 Latitudes instead of $700 Inspirons that have essentially the same specs. And then I have another uphill battle to get them to look at $1200 Thinkpads instead of $1000 Latitudes. I can't even make a direct step from $700 Inspiron to $1200 Thinkpad.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gauauu ( 649169 )
      Maybe they add a windows key ;-)

      (I haven't used later thinkpads, so maybe they do have them, but all the ones I used had the windows keys mysteriously missing)

    • Re:Consumer friendly?? (Score:5, Funny)

      by emurphy42 ( 631808 ) on Thursday January 03, 2008 @03:45PM (#21899362) Homepage

      WTF wasn't consumer friendly about the ThinkPad?
      Its aura of "I could bludgeon you and your girly-man laptop to death with this thing, if I suddenly felt the need to do so".
      • Can someone please bludgeon the Lenovo marketing droids with a English language textbook please?

        (and while you're at it, add the word "droids" to this spell-checker dictionary. Droids has been a real word for decades.)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Thaelon ( 250687 )
      You're misunderstanding the marketspeak. When combined in such a fasion, the words lose all meaning. In fact, that entire sentence is merely to occupy your brain for a few seconds, actual meaning is never conveyed. It's just supposed to give you a feel-good-buy-me vibe.

      This is why all marketing drones should kill themselves. Thank you, Bill [wikipedia.org].

  • consumer-friendly companion to the ThinkPads

    What's so consumer-unfriendly about thinkpads?

    Well, judging from the specs of the IdeaPads, evidently high resolution and a trackpoint must be consumer-unfriendly, and low res and touchpad only are consumer friendly....

    I think I'll stick with the ThinkPad line, thanks anyway...

    I see that historically the non-thinkpad Lenovo's are cheaper, and I guess that's what they mean, but I don't see anything to distinguish them from every other cheaper laptop in existence.

    • i was thinking the exact same thing. my first thought was, oops, does that make my both thinkpads now turn unfriendly on me ? we have been getting along so nicely so far, running various opsyses without any problems, travelling around and holding up nicely, and now, suddenly unfriendly ? wtf.

      Thats the common problem with overinflated product announcements, practically any hyperbole they apply will make previous products from the same company look silly.
  • Not a troll... since the EEE showed the way, when I see a nice ultraportable I have to ask whether it will run a slim, fast, and low-cost Linux, or whether I'll be forced to install Windows. Having killed my last Windows box a couple of years back, having a choice of operating systems (RedHat, Ubuntu, Kubuntu,... :-) is now my number 1 criteria when buying a portable.

    • I think Linux needs better power management before I can consider it for an ultra portable. Ubuntu Gutsy ran great on my Vaio TZ, except for the fact that my battery life went from 6 hours to 3, even after shutting off the cd drive, lowering lcd brightness, and turning on SpeedStep.

      So close, but so far away. Even hackintosh did better with power.
    • Last I heard, it was impossible to buy a ThinkPad without Vista pre-installed. I'm indeed concerned about being able to run Linux (it tends to be flexible enough, and distros nowadays are getting much better at hardware support). However, I utterly refuse to pay for a computer without being given a choice as to what software I am paying for.

      Considering this, now that I think about it, I am getting more and more worried about this running Linux at all, like you. Wasn't Microsoft hardware device-signing th
      • Brother, you can run Linux on just about anything now a days. FWIW, I installed Fedora 8 on a T-Pad R60E. Not your high end machine, to be sure, but it just worked. Unless Lenovo is doing something wonky with hardware, yes, Linux will run.
  • Why would they pre-announce an ultraportable tiny laptop with flash drive and no optical less than 2 weeks from mac world? I bet a little monkey king whispered in their ear that Apple is releasing something like this and they don't want to be a me-too. In any case we'll be seeing lots of these small screen + keyboard + flash laptops coming out soon. If not I'm going to regret not getting an eee already.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by fo0bar ( 261207 )

      Why would they pre-announce an ultraportable tiny laptop with flash drive and no optical less than 2 weeks from mac world?

      Probably because CES is less than 2 weeks before mac world, and this is what companies tend to do at CES?

      "Man, why would they eat a lot at Thanksgiving less than a month before Christmas? I bet a little monkey whispered in their ear that Christmas was going to have a big ham, and they don't want to be a me-too, so they announced a big turkey a month earlier." :)

      • Good point. But check out this Apple Patent [uspto.gov].

        It looks to me like Apple is coming out with the ultimate: a super-portable laptop that you slide into the side of a monitor and it becomes your main computer with your optical drive, full keyboard, mouse, and hard drive storing your large data (like most of your tunes and videos and stuff). And you access this data wirelessly when you remove it (to read web pages on the couch or whatever). You can probably even slide it into anybody's 'mac display' and get you

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by wed128 ( 722152 )
          So...a docking station. Like you could get from Dell or IBM for years.

          God, Steve is SUCH an innovator!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by chill ( 34294 )
      Like one of these?

      http://techreport.com/discussions.x/12623 [techreport.com]
    • Considering that MANY Asian-region laptops sell WITH Linux and are DESIGNED for Linux, it's nothing less than a TRAVESTY that we in the US cannot get hardware designed to not exclude Linux at point of market release. Sure, they use Unix/Linux/OS-Agnostic designware, but to foist on the Public hardware that is windoze-centric just to prop up msoft is just a sheer tragedy.

      MOST of the components are os-agnostic, anyway. So, I have ALWAYS suspected the existence of BIOS- or motherboard-loaded obfuscatory code m

  • Please no (Score:5, Interesting)

    by slaker ( 53818 ) on Thursday January 03, 2008 @02:56PM (#21898518)
    I'd rather they give the toy computers a different name. I know they're trying to draw an association with the Cadillac of laptops, but I'm essentially certain that Ideapads are going to be missing all the things that make Thinkpads genuinely good, like titanium frames and godly support. You can look at a Thinkpad and see a serious and well constructed computer; that's not true with other business notebooks and frankly I'd rather not have to explain why an Ideapad is different from a Thinkpad, any more than I want to explain why the POS Inspiron isn't the same thing as a Latitude.

    My customers love their Thinkpads, but I'm going to hate having to tell them that the Lenovos with 17" screens and bright colors on the chassis just aren't the same as the decent ones. Because I know I'll have customers (having years of experience that says "Thinkpad = good laptop") that won't understand the difference until it's too late.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by slaker ( 53818 )
      Actually I meant "Vostro" and not "Inspiron" in that last post. They're the same shitty laptops, but Dell markets one for business users and the other for people who don't know any better.
    • I'd rather they give the toy computers a different name.

      Wait, are you saying "Ideapad" is the same name as "Thinkpad?" Either I vastly misunderstand how the English language works, or you do.

      Kidding aside, Apple had an iBook and a PowerBook for years, and I don't think anybody was confused by the "similar" names. I don't think this is something Lenovo has to worry about, frankly. Competing with HP and Dell in this market segment is going to be more of a challenge than a possibly confusing name.

  • No Trackpoint. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by MythMoth ( 73648 ) on Thursday January 03, 2008 @02:57PM (#21898552) Homepage
    For me, and other trackpoint addicts,

    No trackpoint = no sale.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by teslar ( 706653 )

      For me, and other trackpoint addicts
      What, all five of you? Just kidding... :-)

      It's a no to the Ideapad from me as well, though - but for a different reason: the 15 inch one has the 1280x800 resolution my 4 year old laptop has - and that is one thing I really want to upgrade with my next purchase. And no, I don't want a 17 inch laptop, thanks very much.

      • Well, they're making 15" T61p systems with 1920x1200 screens now, that would be a bit of an upgrade from 1280x800...

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by pwnies ( 1034518 ) *
      I used to not enjoy the trackpoint at all, and I scoffed at trackpoint users. However I quickly realized the benefit of having, and have since grown to love it on my new Lenovo X61 Tabletpc. To all the haters that I was once a part of, we don't care about your hate, we have our nub to rub.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by GeoSanDiego ( 703197 )
      I agree. As long as they make laptops with trackpoints I will only ever purchase laptops with trackpoints.

  • Next Up: FreedomPad (Score:5, Funny)

    by stoolpigeon ( 454276 ) * <bittercode@gmail> on Thursday January 03, 2008 @02:59PM (#21898578) Homepage Journal
    Freedom! In a box! What a wonderful company!

  • Specs (Score:2, Informative)

    by dankasfuk ( 885483 )
    The specs seem to be a little behind the times (at least for the 15" model). Considering it's being touted as a multimedia notebook, I would at least expect a higher resolution (ie 1440x900) and probably a discrete video option.

  • Where's the Cheap Webpads? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Doc Ruby ( 173196 ) on Thursday January 03, 2008 @03:04PM (#21898654) Homepage Journal
    We don't need all these dinkier notebooks or "tablet PCs". Because they're expensive and suck a lot of power (therefore are heavy and don't last long between charges). These portable PCs are too big, and mobile phones are too small.

    What we need are lightweight little touchtablets running VNC. That weigh a handful of ounce, unfold from 8" to 17", last a week on a charge, and cost under $100. All they have to do is display a remote tappable desktop, with mutable little speakers, maybe bluetooth headphones/keyboards for occasional use. Live on WiFi.

    There's a thousand models of the "mobile desktop relacement". What we need is little devices that are just little controllers for all the media and info consumption we do when we're away from workstations, and want to do more than talk or look up some factoid on a phone. If they were cheap enough, people would buy a bunch to leave all over the place where we might just pick them up.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dgatwood ( 11270 )

      Who here immediately thought of the home computer movement decimating the market for terminal servers and cried?

      I agree there's a market for such a device, but it isn't as ubiquitous as you think. When I think of the classes of users that use mobile devices (whether laptops, phones, PDAs, iPod Touch, whatever), I see a few basic groups (which are overlapping):

      1. People who like to carry their work home at the end of the day (and maybe work at home)

        This group would do fine with a low-end laptop, but mos

      • The Palm Pilot in fact revolutionized the PC business, and fueled the smartphone revolution, by doing exactly what I described, but without networking (especially not wireless) - just a decade ago.

        I'm not talking about a standalone device. Not one that would primarily network farther than somewhere in the same building. I'm talking about dinky little interactive displays that are network peripherals for a W/LAN. I agree that symbolic graphics transmission (X, display postscript) would be better, but bitmaps

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by GreggBz ( 777373 )
      Ever use VNC over a sub 5Mb connection? With even 100ms+ latency? Connected to a high resolution desktop?

      I frequently connect to a 1024x768x16bit Windows 2000 server and it's slow and ugly even across my uber fast gigabit office network. Sure, it's serviceable for an admin, but try playing Quake. You get the double dose of VNC input latency and connection latency. Google video even looks like crap.

      Until we get near light speed broadband, I don't see this replacing a desktop.

      But you idea is definitely cool f
      • Why would the connection be under 5Mbps? A home WLAN should be something closer to 100Mbps. And I don't think we're talking about playing Quake, or watching movies, just exposing control GUIs to manage multimedia (including email, calendar, phone GUIs, etc). Not replacing a desktop, but offering a GUI peripheral to control a network of content and apps.

        FWIW, Windows 2000 server would probably need something like gigabit networking to get even close to 100Mbps to a device like this over VNC.
    • ``Where's the Cheap Webpads?''

      In the bin for ideas that are never going to be commercialized, because there isn't enough profit in it.
      • Tell me how selling hundreds of millions of cheap webpads as "remote controls" for smart/multimedia homes has no profit in it. Or show me where they keep that bin, so I can rummage through it for more "uncommercial" ideas.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by glwtta ( 532858 )
      Because they're expensive and suck a lot of power (therefore are heavy and don't last long between charges).

      Yes, that is the perfect criticism of the U110, which weighs 1Kg and has an 8 hour battery life (definitely won't be cheap, though).

  • Surround sound?! (Score:2, Insightful)

    by DirkGently ( 32794 )
    WTF are 4 speakers and a subwoofer doing in a laptop?

    Does the ThinkPad line come with fewer gimmicks?
    • WTF are 4 speakers and a subwoofer doing in a laptop?

      Playing games that bring a little more excitement to the genre than Tuxracer.

  • Sounds familiar (Score:5, Funny)

    by NewmanKU ( 948325 ) on Thursday January 03, 2008 @03:10PM (#21898772)
    Is it just me or does the IdeaPad remind you of the Jump To Conclusions Mat?

  • At last! (Score:3, Funny)

    by ThanatosMinor ( 1046978 ) on Thursday January 03, 2008 @03:14PM (#21898842)
    A portable tool that I can use to ideate while I'm on the road. I hope it has wi-fi enabled buzzword bingo built in.

  • Rejected names (Score:4, Funny)

    by Random BedHead Ed ( 602081 ) on Thursday January 03, 2008 @03:24PM (#21899006) Homepage Journal

    Faced with the task of coming up with a consistent naming scheme, the following ideas were rejected but could appear as future products:

    • PonderPad
    • EnvisagePad
    • CogitatePad
    • WeighInPad
    • ConsiderPad
    • ContemplatePad
    • DeliberatePad
    • MeditatePad
    • RuminatePad
    • MusePad
    • GrokPad
    • BroodPad
    • MullItOverPad
  • What I want from life is smaller ThinkPad-grade models: A 5" ThinkPad-grade UMPC and a 8-9" ThinkPad would be exactly what I want as a road warrior.

  • This is nothing new (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Cannelloni ( 969195 )
    I've had two ThinkPads: a T22 and an X31. Both were decent workhorses but suffered from faulty operating systems (modified OEM versions of Win 98 SE and Win 2000, respectively, remedied by me switching to Debian for fun, Win XP for boring stuff...) and they didn't even ship with restore CDs (they used a dedicated restore partition with a system image on it). The right hinge on the T22 broke after a couple of years of normal use (no drops, no manhandling). The display dies on the T22 after a few weeks, the H
  • as it would mean crossing the picket lines.

    Until the writer's strike is resolved, we have no choice but to boycott Len....

    oh.

    LenoVO.

    never mind.
  • Is it just me or does anyone else think Lenovo is taking IBM's reputation for rock-solid business-oriented computers and using it to become the Chinese version of Dell? I've been using IBM computers for close to 20 years. I started-out with an XT. I'm writing this message from my ThinkCentre. I've also had a few ThinkPads along the way for work and for personal use. I guess you could say that I'm a fan.

    I would hate to see the legacy of just plain good computers be pissed away. Of course, I haven't seen the
  • Does anyone have any photos that give a real feel of what the portable looks like, as opposed to the sampler images on the web site?
  • So what, Lenovo can't stop the slowly sliding quality of the ThinkPad line, so now they're making consumer grade notebooks that you expect to be crappy? How about the "Cluelesspad" next.
  • From the article:

    VeriFace facial recognition security
    How is this a good idea?

    I mean, I thought fingerprint scanning on laptops was a bad idea, but facial recognition? All You have to do to beat this is take a picture of the person, and print it out!

    Then, even if you know they can get in, your ****ed, because you can't easily change your face.
  • When IBM sold their laptop division to Lenovo I was apprehensive as to how this was going to affect the quality of the Thinkpad line. I currently own a Thinkpad 600E, A31p and a recently purchased Thinkpad T61p. The T61p seems to have all the quality that what you'd expect from the original IBM Thinkpad line. While I haven't seen any new Ideapads but I'm assuming they're just less expensive versions of the Thinkpad line. Not many Jane and Joe consumers would dish out $2100+ for a decked out T61p when a Idea

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