Sneak Preview: ThinkPad Reserve Edition
I thought I would share this link with my Design Matters friends. I wish I could write more, but for now this will have to suffice. Enjoy.
http://www.thinkpadreserve.com/
David Hill
53 Responses to “Sneak Preview: ThinkPad Reserve Edition”
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May 23rd, 2007 at 4:40 am
Hmm, what the F? Page is blank.
May 23rd, 2007 at 4:57 am
David,
I am a big fan of the thinkpad series and am eagerly awaiting to hear more from you on what thinkpad reserve is all about. It pretty much sounds interesting.
May 23rd, 2007 at 5:42 am
David, Thanks a mill for the link! Very interesting
May 23rd, 2007 at 6:06 am
S30 like Piano finish! Please!!
May 23rd, 2007 at 6:49 am
I hope this is not a case of another notebook with leather finish like the ASUS W6 collection. Generations of good craftsmanship could have been more appropriately applied in other areas than the gimmicky and impractical idea of adding leather finish to laptop.
May 23rd, 2007 at 9:24 am
Hi David,
Very nice web page but there is nothing else shown apart of a small presentation about craftsmen.
Should I try later?
Cheers,
Antonio De Castro.
May 23rd, 2007 at 10:21 am
I find it interesting to think about new materials, not only those traditionally associated with hi-tech and not neccessarily targeted at practicality (btw: in which way is leather impractical?).
As notebooks are something you’d carry around, having traditional and organic materials (which hopefully age well with the user) might support the feeling of a personal object. At least it does more so than a mere slogan.
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:29 pm
Nice teaser!
As long as the leather is in ThinkPad black and it is used in a practical manner, I shan’t be complaining.
If it is a leather case then I hope it would be something like this:
http://tinyurl.com/37zgyl
May 23rd, 2007 at 2:13 pm
In the website, I can see images about crafting on some leather material… but how about metal and wood? For “consumer products” with great craftsmanship, I can always think of fine cameras, watches, autos, and musical instruments
If Lenovo plans to bring out a *brown* Thinkpad, it’s better also to introduce a black colored leather edition
Some more ideas:
- A Trackpoint nipple and set of UltraNav buttons made of ruby / artificial ruby; ThinkVantage button made of sapphire: but that’s gonna be slippery unless you put some ingrain texture on it
- Total carbon fiber construction
- Wear-resistant glossy surface
- Tablet with deluxe stylus looking like a premium fountain pen
By the way, it is just about laptop computers? How about introducing also some privileged prototype-like computing equipments?
May 23rd, 2007 at 2:15 pm
Well that was just silly. I suppose it’s possible to have indicated less, but not to sure precisely what you could have left out and still had anything remaining. Can I have my time back?
May 23rd, 2007 at 5:43 pm
does this have to do with the Lenovo’s award winning Yoga design ?
http://www-06.ibm.com/jp/pc/me.....e/yoga.jpg
May 23rd, 2007 at 6:26 pm
Damn phi – thanks for the link, that yoga design looks fantastic!! I really like this idea – if Lenovo are releasing a Leather Thinkpad, I want one!!!
May 24th, 2007 at 1:10 am
[...] [Via LenovoBlogs, thanks to everyone who sent this in] [...]
May 24th, 2007 at 4:47 am
Is it possible to have a leather Trackpoint cap?
May 24th, 2007 at 5:21 am
All I see is: “This page contains information of a type
May 24th, 2007 at 5:22 am
All I see is: “This page contains information of a type (application/shockwave-flash) that can only be viewed with the appropriate Plug-in.”
May 24th, 2007 at 10:34 am
[...] [Via LenovoBlogs, thanks to everyone who sent this in] [...]
May 24th, 2007 at 10:38 am
[...] [Via LenovoBlogs, thanks to everyone who sent this in] [...]
May 24th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
is this a game ?
the french translation took about joining the game AND the fact there is another file asking for PASSWORD.
May 24th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
So to make up for cooler laptops you’re adding leather to insulate the heat and keep the laptop warmer?
May 25th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
Ah, not a leather finished thinkpad….
May 25th, 2007 at 6:07 pm
I doubt it’s simply a leather finish. I’m sure Mr. Hill has a really cool new feature for the ThinkPad that may have something to do with how tough leather is. Like maybe steel armor for the hard drive or some other cool idea.
Maybe the invisibility hat that was pitched in the fifty years of IBM storage video. Lots of cowboy hats are made of leather… You could leave your invisible ThinkPad out and unattended and there’s a good chance no one would ever know it’s there!
The Yoga keyboard and mouse look awesome. So thin and awesome!
May 25th, 2007 at 6:10 pm
Instead of doing this “leather thing”, which is a marketting gimmick, Lenovo should concentrate on producing a widescreen version of their X-series ultraportable laptop, with an internal/built-in optical drive, LED backlight display, and a Core 2 Duo CPU… If they produced a machine like that, I would buy one in an instant, having owned three T-series thus far and now need something more road worthy.
May 26th, 2007 at 2:00 am
Uhm…is it me or is the damn page blank?!!
May 26th, 2007 at 7:41 am
Comment deleted due to tasteless behavior. Please review The Rules before posting.
-LenovoBlogs Administrator
May 26th, 2007 at 9:14 am
Non-TN display panel, yes ?
May 27th, 2007 at 12:40 am
…
I am truly impressed by my first Thinkpad, a T60, and have been a big fan ever since of the whole Thinkpad experience and engineering!
I have been promoting my beloved Thinkpad to everybody, up to severe boredom.
But, please, keep it steady, resolve the heat problem on the X60 palmrest…for instance…i almost bought one….a very anoying silly problem!
And not when i have to pay almost 2500,- euro\’s when it has isseus like this.
And beter screens…..instead of leather…please!!!
Comment edited due to tasteless behavior. Please read The Rules before posting.
-LenovoBlogs Administrator
May 27th, 2007 at 2:31 am
The “reserve edition” seems to be a personalized Thinkpad edition that allows one to choose up to 30 characters which are then embossed on leather. As others have already guessed, I think the leather is then used as a case finishing.
Phi was right about the password screen. Even though I could not see that screen, it is visible if you download the flash file http://www.thinkpadreserve.com/teaser_basic.swf and open it up using the program “Action Script Viewer”. Looking at that file it seems like once a correct password is entered you are presented with an order form. The title of that form is “For the most exclusive first look at the Reserve Edition, please enter your preferred contact information and one of our specialists will contact you”. The form also contains an embossment field with the caption “Please enter the information that you would like embossed on your Thinkpad Reserve Edition (maximum of 30 characters).”.
May 27th, 2007 at 8:19 am
Instead of leather give us S-Video port! ill pay more for it!!!
May 27th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
[...] ??????????????????Lenovo???Blog???????? ??Sneak Preview: ThinkPad Reserve Edition? ????ThinkPad Reserve Edition????????????????? [...]
May 27th, 2007 at 8:55 pm
[...] A do tada ostaje nam da samo naga?amo put promena gledaju?i ovaj teaser sajt koji je najavio jedan od izvršnih direktora iz Lenovo odeljka zaduženog za dizajn i identitet: [...]
May 29th, 2007 at 12:06 am
Please allocate some design time to improving the looks of the ThinkPad line as although they are quite functional, they are very large (even the X series — too large to be called ultra portable — thicker but shorter by reducing the wrist area would work great) and visually unattractive. What use is a touch screen if it is too big to lug around and so unattractive that you don’t want to be seen carrying it?
Please keep the Trackpoint.
May 29th, 2007 at 9:28 am
The correct address for the website should be lenovostupidity.com
What a waste of time of us users and your designers.
May 29th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
Is this it? Because it looks very interesting.
http://notebookitalia.it/la-pr.....enovo.html
May 31st, 2007 at 4:35 pm
I can’t wait to see it!
June 1st, 2007 at 2:00 am
Your contribution to these blogs has shifted from valuable to antagonistic. Please re-evaluate your behavior and review The Rules before posting next. Further posts that do not comply with the rules and spirit of this community will be deleted.
-LenovoBlogs Administrator
June 1st, 2007 at 5:52 am
I am excited to see how leather might work as an element of the outer case ( if, in fact, this is what we are seeing in the teaser footage). Despite constantly singing the praises of ThinkPads to all who will listen, I have been disappointed in the durability of the rubberized coating used on the outer cases of my X60 and X40 Tablet. While I love the texture of the material (its supple, yet firm feel is very unique), I found that after only a few months (in the case of both laptops), this coating had worn away on the corners of the cases to expose the base material underneath Being of the meticulous, anal personality set to which I (as well as many other tech enthusiasts) belong, this bothered me to no end. To prevent further degradation of the coating owing to the constant, daily retrieval and replacement of my laptops into their respective carrying bags, I took to covering their high-wear areas with electrical tape–not the most sightly solution, but practical nonetheless. Perhaps leather will offer increased durability along with a similarly unique texture that, while being decidedly different from the rubberized coating, will still offer one that is unique and pleasing to the touch and offer an increase in durability and longevity. I am eagerly awaiting more information on this exciting new product as its release date approaches!
As a side note, please let whoever it may concern know that, in my not-so-humble opinion, Lenovo would do well to offer its ThinkPad customers more in the way of Linux options and support. Thanks! (Linux + ThinkPads = totally sweet)
One more brief, final aside (perhaps more related to the design orientation of this forum than its predecessor): how about posting some cool ThinkPad wallpapers to make more snazzy the desktops of Lenovo customers? It seem as though in the IBM days there were a few to be found on the support pages, but they seem to have gone the way of the Dodo. Is there any chance of their return? Perhaps something similar to the ones posted on the Japanese site? Thanks!
June 1st, 2007 at 4:03 pm
I read the rules before my first posting in any Lenovo blog, and nothing in my post was against the rules. You don’t like having criticism leveled at you, especially in view of it’s accuracy. What the post said was that if Lenovo spent more time on resolving the problems their products have (read the blogs) and less time tying pretty bows around them, their customers would be a lot better off. You call it antagonistic? I call it constructive- and deserved- criticism. Nothing I’ve said is untrue, and I have not been rude or used any tasteless language or behavior.
You can delete my post here, but the same messages appear in the free-speech Lenovo forums, so by deleting my posts, you reveal that you are afraid to deal with the real problem here.
June 1st, 2007 at 5:03 pm
Jim,
Criticism is one thing. Blatant disprespectfulness is another. The rules say:
“Be civil. The fabled “living room” rule applies. If you are unruly, obscene, or otherwise a pain who insists on being a problem, then you won’t be allowed to play.”
Share your opinions – that is what we want here after all. If you think we’re doing something wrong, tell us. But show the common respect that everyone here deserves. This is not a private discussion forum where people can get into flame wars and disrespect eachother for the fun of it – plain and simple.
We certainly don’t want to lose your contributions here, you have a lot of strong opinions and I respect that, but you need to tone down the attitude with which you address people and topics here. Thanks for your understanding.
June 2nd, 2007 at 1:44 am
Tim…
Regarding your comment:
“Be civil. The fabled “living room” rule applies. If you are unruly, obscene, or otherwise a pain who insists on being a problem, then you won’t be allowed to play.”
Please explain exactly what I said to which you are referring to, and I will respond in kind. If ‘the fabled “living room” rule applies’ means that no one is allowed to disagree with the host, then I will proudly say that I am guilty as charged… I have not been unruly, obscene, and if pointing out Lenovo’s shortcomings is considered a pain, well then I shall have to declare that I am honest to a fault. I have raised honest and legitimate issues that I and other loyal Thinkpad owners have been voicing for some time now. Lenovo has thumbed their noses at their customers, and when their customers beg to differ or question their intentions, the “Lenovoblogs Administrator” whoever that anomymous personage may be, makes unsubstantiated accusations and censors my entries in the thread. And you, Tim, you’ve been no where around to respond to peoples questions, and complaints (check the x60 blog for the people who are so frustrated with Lenovo that they are cancelling their orders), and now you make a guest appearance to chastise me for speaking the truth about Lenovo… you’re busy rearranging the deck chairs while the Titanic is sinking. Nice, Tim… very nice. You’re a good company man who tows the company line. You had me fooled for a while, you seemed to be interested in resolving customers problems… but the honest truth… if people search through the blogs and read my posts with the questions I’ve asked (if you don’t censor them), they’ll realize that you’ve responded to very little of what issues I’ve raised, and only half-answered the questions I’ve asked, and someone (possibly you) has censored the most critical questions I’ve raised, claiming that I’ve broken the rules… shame on Lenovo.
June 2nd, 2007 at 4:35 am
Jim,
No one is objecting to what you say – it is how you say it. We’ll just have to agree to disagree on this one, but in the end rules are rules. Just take it down a notch please!
And no one is ignoring anything here – I’m not ignoring the shipping problems, quite the opposite. When an issue comes up on this blog or elsewhere, myself and others within the company work to analyze the issues and do what we can to get them fixed. If we have information to share, we do – if there is no information, well then there is nothing to share.
If you feel there is something I haven’t addressed, then please bring it back to my attention. But I don’t deliberately avoid addressing anything – the goal here is open communication and that is what we are striving to do.
Have a good weekend Jim
June 3rd, 2007 at 1:31 am
Tim Supples said:
\”Jim,
No one is objecting to what you say – it is how you say it. We’ll just have to agree to disagree on this one, but in the end rules are rules. Just take it down a notch please!\”
Tim,
This is a blog… a text only response. The only thing you can observe from my posts it what I have to say… you have nothing to say about how I say it, because you have no access to that information. You have no observations based on my tone of voice, because all I am sending is text, you cannot hear me. You have no observations based on my body language or gestures because you cannot see me. So explain to me exactly what you mean by \”it\’s how I say it\”? I have broken no rules here, and I challenge you to show cause why you say that I have. Please quote me chapter and verse. I have been polite, I have not used profane language, and I have done nothing more than state the facts.
\”If you feel there is something I haven’t addressed, then please bring it back to my attention. But I don’t deliberately avoid addressing anything – the goal here is open communication and that is what we are striving to do.\”
Tim… let\’s forget a minute about all of the questions which I asked that you never responded to. Let\’s go to the \”ThinkPad X60 Tablet Shipping Delays\” blog…
there are currently 273 responses, and since you last posted there, here are the rest of the unresponded to posts:
(Unnecessary content removed)
I hope you\’ve had a good weekend too, I guess we\’ll hear from you in a week or two, once you\’ve had time to digest all of this and responded to all these unfortunate people. There\’s more, but I will avoid the temptation to pile it all on you at one time.
Tim, you\’re obviously a very bright guy… I\’ve been reading your blogs for a lot longer than I\’ve been responding to them… but accusing me of breaking the rules in these blogs is the last desperate act of someone who hasn\’t a shred of supportive evidence. I hope you\’ll reconsider and start basing your responses to my posts on factual information in the future…
Regards,
Jim K
June 3rd, 2007 at 12:10 pm
@Jim K
Tim Supples is exactly correct in his assessment of your posts. You seem to think that this is your blog and not Lenovo’s. Why else post such an unnecessary, exceeding long post as that above? Such postings are not appreciated by anyone reading this blog.
FYI, one does not need to see “body language” or “gestures” to ascertain emotion in the written word. Your emotional state is clearly on display.
June 3rd, 2007 at 6:30 pm
Davidlet said:
@Jim K
“Tim Supples is exactly correct in his assessment of your posts. You seem to think that this is your blog and not Lenovo’s. Why else post such an unnecessary, exceeding long post as that above? Such postings are not appreciated by anyone reading this blog.
FYI, one does not need to see “body language” or “gestures” to ascertain emotion in the written word. Your emotional state is clearly on display.”
Oh, I must have missed the part where Tim elected you as his personal spokesperson, Davidlet… as for you being able to “ascertain emotion in the written word…” “your emotional state is clearly on display” -with all due respect, your statement is ridiculous, and the desperate act of someone who cannot deal otherwise with a logical and fact-driven posting. And as for the “why else post such a unnecessary and exceedingly long post as above…”
apparently your ultra-keen powers of observation failed to notice that the post was in response to Tim Supples’ request:
Tim Supples said:
“If you feel there is something I haven’t addressed, then please bring it back to my attention. But I don’t deliberately avoid addressing anything – the goal here is open communication and that is what we are striving to do.”
Thank you for your response Davidlet, and in particular for electing yourself to speak on behalf of everyone on the Lenovo blogs as though you intuitivly know what they all are all collectively thinking… perhaps you disagree with me or dislike my posts, but it’s your opinion only, so in the future please don’t embarrass your self like this… and have a pleasant Sunday…
June 3rd, 2007 at 10:13 pm
My powers of observation are just fine, thank you very much.
Your lengthy post fulfills the letter of Tim’s statement so to speak, but it does not abide by the spirit of it.
’nuff for now. I’ve said my piece.
June 4th, 2007 at 12:49 am
Davidlet Says:
June 3rd, 2007 at 10:13 pm
“My powers of observation are just fine, thank you very much.”
Well, thank you for your personal opinion. But it is just that, your personal opinion, based on no facts whatsoever, relying only on your intuitive powers.
“Your lengthy post fulfills the letter of Tim’s statement so to speak, but it does not abide by the spirit of it.”
My lengthy post was merely a copy and paste of the unanswered posts from myself and others that I sent to Tim based on his request. There was no other comment except for my re-assertation that I have not broken any rules here and my posts should not have been removed. Of course, if my post had not been deleted by Lenovo, that would be obvious. I have only presented facts here, so for you to say that I am not “abiding by the spirit of Tim’s statement” is of course, ludicrous. My deleted post spoke of how absurd it was for Lenovo to be considering releasing an exclusive leather notebook when they should be totally focused on delivering a product that worked perfectly out of the box without the high breakdown rate, the repeatedly missed delivery promises, and the total confusion of their sales staff about what was actually being sold by Lenovo. If you had taken the time to read through the blogs, both current and archived, you would have found that there are people who have waited up to 6 months for their laptops or tablets, some of whom are still waiting, and people that have returned them 2 or 3 times to have the same repair, only to have them come back with the wrong screen, the heads stripped of of screws, and numerous other problems. My criticism, however unpopular, was accurate. If you choose to chant the Lenovo mantra and drink the Lenovo Kool-Aid and ignore the facts, well then, by all means, drink the Lenovo Kool-Aid. I plan on continuing my factual constructive criticism with the hope that hearing from myself and the many others who have made their complaints known to Lenovo, many of whom have become so frustrated with their lack of response that they have canceled their order, in the hope that Lenovo will finally ‘get in’, and start taking their customers seriously, that they will realize that we will not pay premium prices for flawed products, sales staffs that give a different answer to a question every day of the week, and products not delivered on schedule time after time after time.
” ’nuff for now. I’ve said my piece.”
I agree… you have said enough. I raised legitimate issues and provided underlying facts. You voiced your inaccurate and emotional opinions and tried to legitimize them as you though you had been authorized by everyone who posts in the Lenovo blog to be their spokesperson. Tim is a big boy and a very bright person, and he doesn’t need you to speak for him. If you have nothing further that is factual or constructive to say, then this thread is best left to those who do.
June 4th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
FTR, the exceedingly long post I referred to above has thankfully been trimmed by the powers that be.
June 4th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
Jim,
Thanks for all of your input – good or bad, as long as everyone can communicate in a civil manner here this is a great situation for everyone involved. I did trim your comment to remove the extraneous content – you have re-posted numerous content from elsewhere before and it makes things very hard to follow. Please just include a direct link to the content from now on instead of re-producing it, thanks!
And by the way, for some reason when I edited your comment all those extraneous formatting marks appeared & won’t go away. I’ll try to fix it, otherwise my apologies about it.
June 5th, 2007 at 5:12 am
Leather….boring. I would pay more for an external pci express 16x slot.
June 5th, 2007 at 10:05 am
Jim K,
You should know that your comments are being viewed by people who think that maybe you have gone a bit overboard and have gotten a bit emotional. I brought up this point in my rather lengthy post in the Vista Redux post.
There are probably many people who were taken aback by your messages, but they didn’t want to waste the energy or add fuel to the fire by saying anything. They have exercised more restraint than Davidlet and myself by saying nothing, but it is very naive of you to think that your messages haven’t upset some people. Of course now you will probably accuse me of self electing myself to something or other.
Please just try to understand that the intent of the Lenovo administrator(s) is to just keep this blog productive. If they have to spend a lot of time writing back and forth to individual users to get them to “tone it down” then we all lose out since they will have less time to respond to our issues.
I don’t feel that you are bashing Lenovo or the employee representatives, but it is pretty obvious that you’ve struck at least a little bit of a chord. Since this blog is optional for them, I’d hate for them to get the wrong impression and decide that those of us participating are just trying to bash them and have them close this up. I’m just happy to have another vehicle to express my thoughts and concerns back to Lenovo and occassionally get a response.
June 19th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
Check out the Tech bit of the website…I love the x-ray view through the cover – coolio!
June 20th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
Someone’s accused of hijacking a thread? On the Internet?? What is the world coming to??
Jim K raises valid points. One can argue whether it needs to be raised on THIS particular blog, but they are valid points. My guess is that Jim K is trying the scattershot approach, which means he/she is frustrated and is taking that frustration out in the only available means to do so, these blogs. More power to him, and anyone else whether they drink the “Kool-Aid”, or think the “Kool-Aid” tastes funny. That’s what these things are for since “productive” means quite a few things to quite a few people.
I’m a little late to the game, but I did want to at least offer my opinion that, other being long-winded, I found nothing in Jim K’s words that necessitated the responses he’s received.
And drive safe.
March 22nd, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Hello everybody, my name is Damion, and I’m glad to join your conmunity,
and wish to assit as far as possible.