Inside the Box

When Windows 7 launched last Autumn, our Performance Engineer, John Mese was kind enough to come on camera with me and discuss Lenovo’s Enhanced Experience, our high performance Windows 7 preload.  We talked briefly about UEFI, and John mentioned that it offered significant advantages for future PCs.

Speed is one of these advantages.  In the 3 minute (or so) video below, I interview John and he demos a ThinkPad T400 with its BIOS replaced with UEFI.  Otherwise, the system is a stock T400 with a plain vanilla Windows 7 load from the Microsoft install DVD.  It cold boots to a fully functioning Windows desktop in about 11 seconds or so.

In my mind that is nothing short of extraordinary.  But we could probably do better:

• The T400 has since been replaced with the T410.  The T410’s faster hardware would probably shave another 1 second off boot.
• As I mentioned, the install is a stock Windows 7 load.  If we added our Lenovo Windows 7 optimized enhancements, we could expect to shave 1 – 2 additional seconds off boot.
• You’ll notice that the system is running the Windows Basic color scheme.  Aero would add approximately 0.5 seconds to boot.  We would have done so, but for the drivers available on the install DVD.
• The HDD activity light is not completely solid, so that suggests that optimizing code, load order, and even the HDD choice might save us another 0.5 seconds.

While we won’t be leaking Windows 8 information any time soon, engineers within Lenovo are already hard at work optimizing our systems for Windows 8 as well as Windows 7.  Regardless of what operating system you want to run, everyone wants faster PCs.

One of our Twitter followers let us know that people seem to be having problems posting comments to this blog.

I had suspected that was the case when I wrote 3 posts with exactly zero comments, but thought that perhaps I had poisoned my own well by having some long gaps between postings.

There is no conspiracy theory here — this isn’t something we did on purpose.  If you’ve read for a while, you know that I welcome your comments, whether they are in agreement or not.

Ironically, SPAM comments are getting through just fine.  If anyone wants a deal for 35% off Viagra, I think I can help you out…

I blogged last year about my experiences with the CSWR (Center for Severe Weather Research) “storm chasing” team and our ThinkPad T400s.

When I rode along with them, I abused a T400s notebook in the rain, dropped it, and then finally crushed it with a 10,000 lb. truck.  It was a lot of fun, but not a lot of practical value to the CSWR team, other than to give them confidence that the hardware we provided to them was tough.

Based on our conversations with the team, we thought that a brand new Lenovo product, the ThinkCentre M90z would be an ideal fit to aid their data analysis.

If you watch the brief video below, you’ll get a glimpse of the ThinkCentre M90z which we will announce next week.  Dr. Wurman talks about how the CSWR team is using the M90z in their research in a phone interview narration.

Notice the large display and how the team is using the built in touch screen technology to help zoom into relevant parts of their RADAR images.  Since the machine is part of our M90 Series desktop family, you definitely can expect the same level of technology, reliability, and manageability that we’re known for, just in a more compact, integrated, and integrated package.

The team is most excited that the year’s tornado season is much better than last year.  They were frustrated that their team only managed to get good data on one tornado.  In contrast, this year finds them up to their eyeballs in storms.

You might be interested in these photos as well.  The team left a ThinkPad X201 in a briefcase on top of a DOW.  It went flying off at 70 MPH in the midst of a wind/rain storm.  The briefcase was badly damaged, but it was no problem for the ThinkPad inside.

I’m personally pleased that we have delayed our Skylight and IdeaPad U1 Hybrid systems.  The world has changed a lot since CES in January and it isn’t just because of the iPad.  Droids, Kindles, Facebook, and Evos all play a part.

Though I am pleased overall, I am not happy with having to wait longer to own my own U1.  I was captivated as much as anyone else.  However, I personally believe that had we started shipping Skylight in April and the U1 in June as we originally indicated, they would have both been commercial failures.

Success is all about the ecosystem pushing content and extending the device’s capabilities.  Kindle + Amazon.  Droid + Verizon.  Facebook + (whatever device you want).  Lenovo + … ???

As conceived, I don’t think that consumers would have seen much difference between a Skylight and a netbook.  We needed an app store to create this differentiation.  However, creating a new app store in the face of multiple well-established and competing players would have required a LOT of money and a LOT of brand building campaigns. 

Moving to Android solves a lot of problems for us.  It has high market awareness.  It has a lot of smart people working on making it a success.  And, it has its own Fanboy club.  If we can tap into that ecosystem, we’ll be able to make our splash that much sooner.

Done right, I think our revamped IdeaPad U1 would be the ultimate device for education.  According to Lenovo’s own Michael Schmedlen, 21st century skills involve creating content, not consuming it.  Something like the IdeaPad U1 gives students a full-function Windows experience for inside the classroom, preparing them for the working world where they will do their jobs on Windows based machines running Windows applications. 

(This Windows hegemony is not going to change any time soon.  These students may be comfortable with alternate operating systems and platforms, but they won’t be in management positions to affect change away from Windows for at least 20 years.  Plus, change takes time, money, and training budget – all of which are in short supply.)

A device for the education market also needs access to textbooks.  For a vendor to succeed, it needs content from Houghton-Mifflin-Harcourt (50% share in the K-12 market) and Pearson (50%+ share in higher ed).  No vendor can claim that today.  Also, the open standard ePub is favored by Adobe and Barnes and Noble – both major players.  Remember, content is king.

Despite all of these rational considerations, there is no question that hardware is an emotional purchase.  People need to feel attached and love their device.  This is where the removable slate portion of the IdeaPad U1 fits that need.  Users can use it in public and be the object of envy.  Running Android, it can surf to any web site, play any media, and view any photo you’d like.  If you don’t have the capability you need, the community will likely have already come up with an app for that – without undue censorship.

The last reason we could dominate education with the U1 is because of Lenovo’s extensive experience ruggedizing notebooks.  A standard ThinkPad can pass up to 8  MIL specs for ruggedization in a variety of environments.  Forget the battlefield, our K-12 students are far more harsh on their devices than any solider.  We could use this design experience to create a product that would pass the rigors of daily use by a 6th grader.

I don’t know what will come to pass, but I do know that delay, in this case, is a good thing.  We’re gunning for being the number 3 PC vendor in the world.  We won’t get there with timid moves.  Stay tuned.

I participated in CNET’s Reporters’ Roundtable with Rafe Needleman about two weeks ago.  The topic was The Future of Laptops.  While I encourage you to click the link and watch the segment, self-promotion isn’t why I am blogging today. 

After the show was over, one thing was readily apparent – my video and audio quality were awful.  I don’t just mean subpar, I mean really, really awful.  It was embarrassing.  I go around talking about Lenovo’s superior VoIP performance (video conferencing for you non-techies) and I was using our premier platform for video conferencing – a T400s with low-light sensitive camera and dual noise cancelling microphones.  I should have blown both of these guys out of the water.  Instead, it was painful to watch and listen to.

Look at these screen shots.  The first one is Rafe.  The second is Rahul.  The last, me.

My PC is clearly transmitting at a lower resolution.  The video looks like something from a Fisher Price My First Webcam.  (I could have picked a more interesting location too.)

I went back and forth with our ThinkPad design team.  I had the latest version of Skype.  My drivers were all up to date.  I was at work, so the data pipe was big enough.  They had me check to make sure that I removed the plastic protective camera strip (yes, I had). I even did a few video tests with some 3rd party software which showed the camera was quite capable of capturing high resolution images.

Then they told me something I had never considered – one of the ways we save battery life on ThinkPads is to default to lower camera resolutions when on battery power.  When I was participating on the video conference, I was in fact away from my desk on battery power.  As a result, my system was using my unplugged, battery mode power settings.

The team explained to me that if I wanted high quality video, I needed to set my CPU speed to a higher level (or plug my system in) and then the problem would clear up.  Sure enough, it did. 

Lesson one learned.

That fixed my video problem, but during the broadcast, I still had big problems with echoes.  I compensated (as did the CNET team) by muting my mic when I was not talking.  The whole experience was annoying to everyone.

The solution to this problem came from a Windows Control Panel item I had never looked at:  Lenovo’s SmartAudio applet.  When you launch this applet, it allows you to set your microphone to optimize for voice recording or VoIP, 1:1 chatting or multiple people talking in a conference room.

I had mine set for voice recording and as a result, the noise reduction and echo cancellation features were turned off.  The system was doing exactly what it was set to do.  I just had no idea.

Lesson two learned.

Don’t make the same mistakes I did.  If you aren’t happy with your ThinkPad’s performance when using Skype or other video conferencing tools, start digging around in your Control Panel. 

—————–

As an last thought, I have asked the team to investigate a “camera” or “VoIP” setting in Lenovo Power Manager.  We should be able to make this easier for the average person to figure out.  I doubt I would have ever figured it out without coaching.

My dad is an avid user of his ThinkPad.  Some time ago I got him a 15” T61p on sale and he’s been thrilled with it.  He surfs the web almost nightly while watching Fox News and sometimes doesn’t go to bed until the battery runs down, which thanks to Power Manager, can be a long time.

Other than surfing the web and writing email on Eudora (He calls it Endura), the only other thing he really does with it is use it as a presentation machine to give pharmaceutical talks about twice a month.  I regularly use Crossloop to remotely take over his PC and help him with something PowerPoint related.  He’s also the type of person that stores EVERYTHING on his desktop.  The concept of directory folders or My Documents just eludes him.  I don’t know how he can find any of his files, but somehow he does. 

Now and again he completely surprises me.  I was floored when I found out that he has a Paypal account and regularly buys and sells on eBay.

Because that PC is “his” PC, my mom does not want to mess with it.  She sees that crowded desktop and gets confused.  Plus, my dad always seems to be using it when she wants to check her pay stubs online or look for a recipe on food.com.

She asked for a notebook and wants it to be “as simple” as possible.  (No “get a Mac” jokes, please.)   So I’ve decided to let her borrow a ThinkPad Edge 14” to see if she likes it.  If she does, I’ll buy her one for Mother’s Day.

I recently put one of our Vice Presidents on a red Edge 13 and after a few hiccups, mainly due to Windows 7 not yet being an officially supported internal Lenovo preload, he’s been running without major incident and seems to like the machine a lot.  Thus, I have a high degree of confidence in the Edge machines.

Simplicity

There are a lot fewer status lights on Edge.  The keyboard layout is simpler, and while I don’t like switching the Fn combinations (e.g. volume up/down, brightness) and F1 – F12 key functions, I have to admit that for the casual user, it is a simpler way to do things.  My mom definitely is a touchpad user and hates the “red dot.”  We live in a touch dominated world and I fear for long-term market acceptance of TrackPoint pointing technology.

Unlike my dad’s PC which has XP, this one is going to be loaded with Windows 7.  Most people I know have found it rather easy to use, but I wonder how she is going to make out with it – probably just fine.  The machine has Office 2007 with its ribbon interface, but she’s not likely to use Office anyway.

One thing I definitely will be setting up for her is Password Manager.  She can’t remember her many passwords and likes the idea of everything being stored for her.

All in all, I’m excited about getting her set up on this machine.  I think she’ll like it.

I have had a lot going on post-CES.  Here is what I am thinking about these days:

AC/DC Combo Adapter

A few months we switched from the Slim AC/DC combo adapter to the next generation ULTRAslim AC/DC Combo Adapter.  Our team made a lot of improvements.

• On DC power, you no longer need to carry the brick with you.  If you are like me and keep it in your bag for airplane and cigarette lighter use, it takes significantly less room – about 2/3 less.
• Unlike the previous version, we ship the Y cable in the box and don’t make you order it separately.  It also comes with a USB tip attached. 

Here are pictures of the new and the older adapters.

I have not had any problems using the new adapter at all on any of the airplane power ports.  The cigarette lighter adapter works great on American Airlines and when I’m on United, the Empower port works as advertised too.  I know some airlines limit wattage per power port to 75 watts, but never have drawn anywhere near that with my T400s – even with an empty battery.

Calpella Switchable Graphics

Over on our forums and on thinkpads.com, there has been a lot of confusion over the graphics capabilities of our Calpella T Series systems.  To be clear, the only 2010 ThinkPad system with switchable graphics capabilities is the ThinkPad T410s.  The ThinkPad T410 and T510 and W510 are either integrated graphics only or discrete graphics only.  It might be possible to do a hack to allow “cold” switching between the integrated graphics core on the CPU or the discrete graphics chip, but this is not something we’ll support or even say is possible on any given system.  There is extra circuitry required to enable switching capability.  For 2010, buy a T410s if you want switchable graphics capability from Lenovo.

Color Calibrated T400s Display

Shortly after CES I decided that my T400s display had a decidedly blue cast – disgustingly so.  I decided to color calibrate it.  Before color calibration it did not really shift colors as I tilted it forwards and backwards.  Now, calibrated, if I fold it back, I can see a red cast.

If I tilt it forward, it shifts to blue.

But fortunately, if I look at it head on, it looks decidedly better than it ever has before.  I will never mistake this panel for a W510 display, but it is a definite improvement.  I can’t tolerate it without color calibration any longer.

Audio over DisplayPort

This may have already been solved over on the forums, but I have long since stopped following “that thread.”  I have a note in my inbox that says without a doubt that our 2010 Caplella machines will carry audio over DisplayPort.

Graphics Memory

I am constantly astounded when our corporate customers ask for 512MB or 1GB of graphics memory on a T Series system.  If you have a workstation, I absolutely understand.  But on a T Series — What the heck are you doing with all of that graphics memory?  Someone, please.

An internal assignment to consider the implications of competitor CES announcements with respect to Lenovo’s future strategy got me thinking about the implications of CES 2010.  As a result, you get an unasked for bonus post.

I was really impressed with the maturity and collaboration that went into our three star products of CES 2010.  Though LePhone, IdeaPad U1, and Skylight all appear to be separate products, they really are not since they all feature variants of our Skylight interface.  I answered many questions about the software platforms each runs on.  The LePhone runs Android.  Skylight runs a Linux variant (Blue Thunder I think), and the U1 is Linux/Windows hybrid.  But the underpinnings are just an ingredient that delivers our user experience. As such, we could mix and match the infrastructure and I doubt anyone would know the difference.  In other words, this is a major step to making the operating system irrelevant, though I am not willing to turn my computing life over to the cloud and run everything browser based just yet.

Speaking of the U1, we have the best implementation of a slate tablet EVER.  It is inevitable that we will be compared to the Apple Tablet when it announces, but from a hardware standpoint, I’m not sure how Apple can beat 1.5 lbs. and 8 hours of 3G browsing.  When they do announce, ignore any technology journalist that spends more than 25% of his/her column on the Apple hardware.  Instead, you are going to want to read their analysis of the integration of digital content into this device and how it fits into Apple’s strategy.  I’m more interested in reading about how Apple will partner with Rupert Murdoch to get people to pay for content and how the rest of the industry can capitalize on this.  You will want to know how paying for previously free content will rock your world.  Or perhaps instead you will want to read about how their new partnership with Netflix which will allow iTunes users to get fresh movie releases ahead of their new 24 day waiting period.  Or perhaps how Apple expects its own proprietary eBook format to triumph over all others.

3D was big this year.  You will soon be able to buy 3D out the yin yang on a variety of devices.  Indeed, Panasonic won the coveted Best in Show for their VT25 3D television.  We participated in the fun and were showing off a prototype 3D display on our IdeaPad Y460.  I was glad to see that we are working 3D technology, but I think it is kind of gimmicky at this point.  I don’t really want to wear glasses to watch TV, and I can only imagine the nightmare that a 3D Excel spreadsheet with X, Y, and Z column addresses would be.  But given time, there may be some breakthrough killer app.

RCA has come up with a home run with their Airnergy Wi-Fi power system.  It takes Wi-Fi signals streaming through the air and converts them into usable electricity to charge your batteries.  I don’t expect to throw away my power adapter, but imagine if you could completely negate the power draw of your wireless radios to improve battery life by 30 minutes or more.  Plus, your system would constantly be on trickle charge when it was sitting in your bag.  This is yet another game changer that needs to be incorporated into every notebook battery pack NOW.

So how does Lenovo win Best in Show for 2011?  If I was the one making decisions about priorities within Lenovo, here are some things I would do.  (By the way, don’t read anything into any of the following.  These are daydreams of Matt Kohut going “if I were in charge…”that neither reflect our current strategy nor our product plans. 

The business world is going to howl in protest, but one thing that is very clear to me from CES 2010 is that consumers are going to drive the business world to change and adopt new changes in technology faster.  As such, the business world insists on a lot of technology that is holding the PC industry back: 

• I am talking about you, serial port.  I know that you are used to connect to routers, airline ticket printers, industrial machinery, and lab test equipment all over the world.  You are embedded so deeply that we’ll still use you 20 years from now.  But you’re slow.  You require stupid direct access to the underlying hardware.  You prevent things like hot undocking and cause operating systems to crash.  The sooner PC vendors say “we’re not going to include you any more” is when we finally get to a new level of stability.
• VGA ports – You’re also embedded deep, but you’re so 1980s.  The world is going to high bandwidth HDMI (more below).
• Slide in Smart Card readers – Why would I want to use one of these when I can use a contact-less proximity Smart Card?  These slots take up valuable room and cause me heartburn every time a customer brings the topic up for discussion.
• ExpressCard – it is time for you to die too.  You had your chance, but the only thing really left to use you are some high speed memory card readers.  External 3G WAN cards are mostly USB based these days.  USB 3.0 has all of the bandwidth we need.  Why should we waste valuable space in our notebooks for a slot that 95% of our customers never use?

Second, I would add a touch screen to our IdeaCentre A300 all-in-one.

Third, I would immediately give up on DisplayPort in favor of HDMI across the entire Lenovo lineup.  I know that DisplayPort v1.2 was announced with features like daisy chaining and more USB back channel bandwidth, but in my personal opinion, if people are going to connect all of these digital devices, HDMI or Intel WiDi connecting via HDMI is the way to go. While walking around, I saw projectors, TVs, cameras and more all using HDMI.  One large hotel customer of ours has HDMI ports in their rooms.  If the world is going to HDMI, we should enable all of our products to connect via this interface.

Fourth, I’m done fretting over 4:3 vs. 16:10 vs. 16:9 displays.  The world has moved to 16:9 and I should just get over it.  I’d accelerate changing all products to 16:9 and focus on those display technologies that can improve the quality of the display like OLED.  I had one gentleman from the OLED consortium try and tell me that he expected all netbooks to have OLED in 2 years.  I think he is smoking something funny, but we’ll see a LOT more OLED based products in 2011.  OLED should improve the quality of displays for everyone and then we can just forget about TN vs. PVA vs. IPS LCD discussion.

Fifth, I did not write about our IdeaPad S10-3t, but the more I think about it, I probably should have.  For the tablet PC world, this is a game changer.  Dual swivel display.  Active Protection System.  Super bright 2 finger capacitive touch display.  160GB HDD.  $499.  That is a lot of computer for the price. 

I would create a product that is a hybrid of the ThinkPad X100e and the IdeaPad S10-3t specifically for the education market.  I would call it the IdeaStation and use it to steamroll over every competitor in the classroom.  It would have the computing power and build quality of the X100e but feature the bright display and touch screen capabilities of the S10-3t.  To enable stylus writing capability, I would change the display touch technology to resistive.  Add color choices, price it at $599, and we would not be able to keep it in stock.

ThinkPad X100e.

When I first wrote about SSD technology on this blog about 2 years ago, I mentioned that we could expect to see hybrid SSD/HDD implementations in notebooks where you could use fast SSD flash memory for commonly accessed files and spinning drives for bulk storage.

With our just announced Lenovo IdeaPad Y460 and Y560 notebooks, our engineers are finally making this hybrid storage a reality.

I am experimenting with hybrid storage right now on a ThinkStation S20.  I have a 256GB SSD as my boot disk (c:\).  I have installed Win7 plus all of my programs here.  As my D:\, I have attached a 300GB 10,000 rpm Western Digital Velociraptor in which I put my swap file, documents, pictures, and the like.  Then I have yet a third 750GB 7200 rpm disk for everything else.

I suspect that hybrid storage has not been implemented yet by the industry for multiple reasons.  One, though falling in price, flash memory continues to be extremely expensive.  Second, flash drives still are not big enough.  Given my choice I would have a single 2TB flash disk that would hold everything.  Since that doesn’t exist, I am forced to make conscious decisions on a regular basis.  Do I install a program/file to my fast but relatively small SSD, or do I put it on one of my spinning drives instead?  Which one?

As a relatively sophisticated user, I am trading off hassle for speed.  These decisions are easy for me, but the average user has no idea about C:\ vs. D:\ or spinning vs. SSD.  They might be aware that their SSD is faster, but don’t have the slightest clue about how to manage a dual drive setup.  They just want their PC to work.  Enter Lenovo’s RapidDrive technology.

When you buy a Lenovo Y560 or Y460, you will have the option to configure it with RapidDrive.  Your machine will have your standard hard disk drive plus a 32GB or 64GB SSD installed in the internal PCI-E slot.  The breakthrough is not combining the two in one system.  Anyone can do that.  The breakthrough is using a Lenovo patent-pending technology that connects both the SSD and HDD simultaneously as one big, contiguous drive.  Unlike my setup above, this storage is dynamically pooled and managed.  The end user does not need to do anything.  The system manages the SSD depending on usage. Programs, documents, and other files are dynamically moved on and off of the SSD so that you can always get the fastest speed possible.  This also means that the system will not return an error if the SSD is already at full capacity.  The program/file will automatically be installed on the HDD and moved to the SSD later in the background if the algorithm determines that is optimal.

This is not Intel TurboMemory.  TurboMemory required more user intervention to manage on a regular basis.  Our technology not only offers more capacity, but is more automatic.

Here is a brief video demonstrating the technology in action.  Pictured are two Y560 systems.  The one of the left has RapidDrive.  The one on the right has just a standard HDD.  Otherwise, both are identically configured.  A simple script shows loading a series of programs and how much extra speed the RapidDrive can provide.  The RapidDrive finishes in about 13 seconds.  The non-RapidDrive system takes almost 30 seconds.

Compared to a scant 6 months ago, today Lenovo is awash in All in One PCs.  There is no question that we see this category as a growth area.  For anyone considering an All in One, allow me to present my compact guide to help you choose from our myriad of offerings.

For those who have followed this industry, it is interesting to see the all-in-one finally gain traction and prominence.  As IBM, about 8 years ago we had the NetVista X40.  It had a built in 15” flat panel display with the internals piggybacked to the rear of the system.  Unlike other offerings like the Gateway Profile, the NetVista X40 was incredibly compact (relatively speaking).  Since LCD display technology was in its infancy for PCs, it was incredibly expensive.  Customers didn’t want to lose their investment in the flat panel display and wanted some assurance that the display could live on through their next refresh.  The X40 did not have that capability, plus it was a major pain in the rear to service.  We followed it with the NetVista X41 with a 17” display and easier serviceability, but still hadn’t addressed the need to use the display after the PC itself was out of date.  Unfortunately, we killed the NetVista X42 before it came to market.  Had it been introduced, it would finally have achieved complete modularity.

Now there are all types of all in ones on the market.  A modern version of these machines is significantly thinner and less costly than that NetVista of long ago.  Plus, since displays are so cheap these days, not many people care about reusing flat panel displays. 

Enough history.

IdeaCentre C100 – We introduced this system several months ago.  It is a nettop, meaning it has an Atom processor and is designed to hit an entry price point starting @$349.  If you are not familiar with the term “nettop” think “netbook” in a desktop form factor.  With an 18.5” screen, we’ve suggested this system as a secondary or tertiary system designed for the kitchen or child’s bedroom.  No touch screen capabilities available, it is designed for low cost computing.

IdeaCentre C300 – Compared to the C100, this machine has more capability with a bigger display, better graphics (suitable for HD playback), integrated card readers, and more ports.  Due to its better functionality and larger screen, pricing starts @ $449.  No touch capabilities on this system either.

IdeaCentre A600 – We introduced the A600 at CES 2009.  At the time it was the industry’s thinnest all-in-one PC and for those used to Lenovo’s older designs, quite a shock.  It is a slim multimedia system with integrated TV tuner, slot loading DVD or Blu-Ray, and an 18.5” HD display.  In addition to a wireless keyboard and mouse, it has a unique 4 in 1 remote control.  This remote control acts as either a standard TV remote, Windows Media remote, VoIP handset, or Wii-like motion controller.  It ships with several games allowing families to play games like bowling, table tennis, and the like.  Up to 4 remotes will work per system.

IdeaCentre B500 – Lenovo introduced this machine just this past quarter.  Unlike the C series systems I mentioned above, the B500 was designed for performance computing in a compact package.  With specs like high end quad core CPUs, up to 1GB of graphics memory, 23” 16:9 widescreen, Blu-Ray drives, and TV tuners, we designed this system to be a primary entertainment PC.  It is equally happy recording high definition TV shows as playing WoW or Crysis.  Yet, being an all-in-one, it eliminated cable clutter that distracted from the entire computing experience. 

NEW IdeaCentre A300 – The A300 is the industry’s slimmest all-in-one measuring at just 18.5 mm deep.  We’re targeting this machine as a video/audio home entertainment hub.  To that end, it features both HDMI in and out ports, digital TV tuner, lots of storage, and a beautiful 21.5” HD display.  You can make the argument either way as to whether we should have built in an optical drive. We decided not to include it as it would have made the base significantly larger and thicker, and most media is diskless these days anyway.  However, if you do want to add a Blu-Ray drive, we have a matching external drive for not much extra cost.  We didn’t add touch as it would have required a bigger base, and as a home entertainment hub, touch isn’t as useful as it would be on other all-in-one offerings.

NEW IdeaCentre C310 – This machine is the follow on to the C300 I mentioned above and addresses a major shortcoming – the need to add touch capabilities to our all-in-one portfolio at a very low price point.  It is our first multi-touch all in one desktop.  It has surprisingly responsive capacitive touch capabilities despite its low price point.  We’ve included our own VeriTouch software which allows you to log in and out of your PC (plus a few other goodies) by using simple gestures.  Try Microsoft Surface Auto Collage to rotate, zoom, and flick pictures using your two fingers and you’ll be hooked on touch. 

NEW ThinkCentre A70z –Unlike our IdeaCentre line, the ThinkCentre lineup is for business use.  We introduced the A70z for small to medium sized businesses who wanted the simplicity of small, energy efficient all-in-one PCs.  Despite being a slim all-in-one that takes 70% less desk space, it has full function PC power inside.  Our team claims “box to boot” in 3 minutes and with our Windows 7 Enhanced Experience, you can get to a usable Windows desktop in about 35 seconds.  It uses less electricity and can be easily serviced.  Plus, it has a VESA mount so you can have a completely clean desk.  Unlike the earliest all-in-one NetVista X40, it starts at a much more affordable price point of $499.  Unlike 8 years ago, all-in-ones are finally ready for widespread business usage.