We held a “New Office Open House”. It was the same day as the Yokohama fireworks. We were able to watch about 8,000 fireworks, including about 60 cm rounds that spread out to 480 m in diameter.
We dove through the waves of fireworks watchers and headed to our new office. Our spacious new office sat empty. It still smelled like a newly built building. Standing at the window you can get a view of the ocean. The fireworks were right in front of us. It was a superb view.
Since it was an event, we were allowed to bring in our own alcohol. Everyone had naturally formed into circles of conversation. Watching the fireworks while drinking beer in a cool room, now that is the life!
Some large fireworks, the ocean and the covered boats
Various fireworks
From the left: Pacifico Yokohama, Seaside Park, Intercontinental Hotel Yokohama Grand
Sitting in circles at positions around the windows with the participants
Even after our R&D department transferred to Lenovo Japan Ltd. in 2005, we have continued to develop ThinkPad products in Japan for the global market. We’ve been renting a section of IBM’s office in Yamato City, Kanagawa Prefecture, working as their “Yamato Office” and “YAMATO Lab” for some time now, but have decided to relocate to the Minato Mirai 21 district in Yokohama to establish an independent office.
Minatomirai Center Building
Our area of relocation had to meet the following requirements:
A fantastic environment for our employees
A place our employees can commute to with relative ease from their current residence
A place our foreign and domestic clients, as well as employees from overseas can easily visit
Due to an enthusiastic invitation from Yokohama’s mayor and everyone at the Yokohama City Hall, as well as special consideration from the owner of the Minatomirai Center Building by setting up the large experimental facilities indispensible to our R&D activities, our requirements were fully met, at a standard far exceeding our expectations. This is what ultimately led us to make the move. We’d like to express our deep appreciation to everyone at the Yokohama City Hall, as well as the owner of Minatomirai Center Building, for allowing us to rent this remarkable space.
The location of our current office has provided a quiet, relaxing atmosphere for us to work and live for some 25 years. We’d like to express our gratitude to the owner of our building, everyone at Yamato City Hall, our fellow employees, and the many IBM employees and neighbors we grew close to during our time there.
The Minato Mirai 21 district is blessed with sophisticated commercial facilities, exhibition halls, concert halls, and other cultural facilities. It provides easy access to an international airport, and offers a wide variety of hotels, convention centers, and other such venues, making it the perfect contemporary district for Yokohama–a city known for opening its port to the world. The joy of working in such a remarkable atmosphere, combined with the new, international stimulation it offers, will motivate us to outdo ourselves and develop even better products than before. We aim to make our new office into a familiar, open environment for our clients and local community.
Establishing a new office in Yokohama is an expression of determination from Lenovo to keep R&D in Japan for a long time to come. We hope to continue playing a role in the development of Japanese industry, fully meeting societal expectations, and constantly renewing the determination of our employees.
Finally, we haven’t yet decided on a name for our new office. Some think we should stick with “YAMATO,” which many have grown accustomed to through the years. We will consider a name with your suggestion.
There was a category in a torture test done by PC Magazine over 10 years ago that we never could have imagined. It included the rather extreme measure of “pouring coffee with milk and sugar in it on your keyboard”.
Many engineers must have said to themselves, “What are they thinking?”
As a result of doing the same test in the process of research to improve spill-resistance, we developed the “bathtub design” used in ThinkPad 600 in 1998. The aluminum is bent upwards along the edges of the chassis on the bottom of the keyboard. This holds liquids that have been spilled on the keyboard like a bathtub. From 2000, in pursuit of further structural improvements to spill-resistance, ThinkPad A20 and ThinkPad T20 included a bathtub sidewall drain, a drainage channel that avoids circuitry and a drain on the bottom of the case. As a result, the spill-resistance and drainage performance improved dramatically.
ThinkPad overwhelmingly dominated competitor products in third-party tests. In fact, ThinkPad is already able to clear test requirements that are two times as hard as those of the torture test.
I think that “ThinkPad = torture test” was already well established at that point.
Since 2005, further optimizations have been made to drainage performance such as increasing the number of drains on the bottom and optimizing the shapes of drain channels and drains. Lenovo was ahead of its competitors in the development of the bathtub design, drain channels and drains. “HOW MUCH LIQUID IS TOO MUCH LIQUID?” That is the real question. There may be a drain on the bottom of your ThinkPad too. Why don’t you check it out? (There are no drains on the ThinkPad Edge series, but liquid is held by the bathtub structure and damage is limited to a minimum. Read below for the procedures to respond to a situation like this.)
The bottom drain of the ThinkPad and its icon
If liquid ever does spill on your ThinkPad, the first thing to do is to stay calm.
Procedure:
1. Immediately disconnect the AC adapter with care.
2. Turn off the power of the ThinkPad. The more quickly that the current is cut off from your ThinkPad, the more you will be able to reduce the likelihood of damage caused by a short-circuit.
3. Wipe off any liquid from the ThinkPad with a paper towel.
4. Before turning on the power of the ThinkPad, verify that it has completely dried.
Note: Contact Repair Services if you desire to change the keyboard.
Finally, I’d like to share a few inside stories with you.
1. “Coffee or Cola?”, that is the question.
We have changed the liquid that we use to spill test the keyboard from coffee to a cola product. The primary reason for this is “coffee with creamer makes the lab stink…” No, I’m just kidding (lOl). The reasons for using cola products include: Their composition is relatively stable, while the amount of milk and sugar in coffee may vary. They have a high viscosity because of their high sugar content. Finally, they are one of the most commonly consumed beverages.
2. There is no receipt for the coffee!
Initially, the engineers were buying coffee with milk and sugar for the quality testing one after another from the vending machine. Naturally, without a receipt they couldn’t recoup their expenses, but they had forgotten that. After negotiating with their boss, they were able to get some coffee tickets that could be used in the employee lounge!
3. The engineer’s dream test device
This test is even now being done manually. The engineer’s dream testing device is a “Shishi odoshi: bamboo mill fountain” design.
Shishi odoshi: This is a device made from bamboo, water and stones to produce sound automatically and is commonly used decoratively in Japanese gardens.
During the summer of last year we had students come to Lenovo on an internship and work together with us. We look forward to collaborating with many students this year too.
We received many thoughtful comments from the students that participated in the 2009 internship. There are quite a few, but we would like to introduce them to you here.
Q1. How did you learn about the Lenovo Internship?
I saw it on the internship bulletin board at my university.
I found it on a job search website. Personally, I wanted to participate in a technologically oriented internship. I applied because the theme of a “hands-on work experience” at Lenovo seemed interesting.
It was recommended to me by an employee at Lenovo who had been in the same club activity as I was.
Q2. What was your image of Lenovo before coming on the internship?
As a globally-based PC company with the fourth largest share in the world, my image of Lenovo was of a global company.
I thought of the ThinkPad made by Lenovo, and the many industry awards that it has earned came to mind. The ThinkPad is a very serious computer (in a good way) and it has a reputation for toughness. I thought that maybe the atmosphere in the company would also be fairly rigid.
Q3. Did your image of Lenovo change after the internship?
Up until the internship, my only knowledge of Lenovo was of the ThinkPad. By doing this hands-on work experience internship, I got to look at the actual development, and I was most impressed with the continual striving for even greater product reliability.
I came to think of it as a friendly and powerful company.
Yes. I found out that it was a company with much more personal responsibility and much more motivating than I thought it would have been.
It was a company that I had known from before so there weren’t any big changes. However, there were more people working there from overseas than I thought there would be.
My image of Lenovo changed a great deal because of the good atmosphere and emphasis on competence.
Before now, I had an image of the company as a stiff place, but because young employees can have their opinions heard (open communication), and when I heard about the high degree of flexibility in the way the employees worked (the flextime system and the adoption of flexible work hours), my image of Lenovo changed from a stiff company to a flexible one.
Q4. Where were you assigned to during the internship?
I am assigned to the Mechanical Design Division. I learned a broad variety of things about the structure of ThinkPads that are being developed in Japan for use across the world.
I have the pleasure of working on the development of testing tools for the ThinkPad in the SW Product Assurance Division.
I am assigned to Mechanical Design.
I have been placed in the TVT (ThinkVantage Technology) division during the internship. I was involved in a program to propose improvements to the ThinkVantage Presentation Director.
I help with experiments in the Mechanical Design Division.
Mechanical Design
I am working on the development of debug tools for ThinkPad. I am working together with another intern on development, and I am mostly working on the software development.
I am working to develop a PC debug tool.
Q5. Tell us anything that was fun during your internship.
I like mechanical things so I selected the Mechanical Design Division. Taking apart the ThinkPad was very fun and deeply fascinating. When I observed the testing devices used in evaluation, there were devices for a variety of imagined situations, and it was very interesting.
It was very interesting to touch the latest model notebook PCs.
There are many opportunities to take apart and assemble notebook PCs, and I was able to work with several models.
Every day of the internship was over 150% more interesting than I had imagined it would be. During this internship, I was the only person assigned to the TVT Division. Because of that, I had more chances to communicate with many of the employees. I have now spoken with over 20 of the employees and know their names and faces. Everything is fun, but if I really had to say, it would be that I was able to communicate with many people, and the most fun thing for me was to hear their opinions.
On the second day when I went to the company, I was nervous when I swiped my card at the card reader at the front gate.
Being able to get involved with a variety of research activities and also the work parties.
For me that would be having the opportunity to see the ThinkPad reliability tests when the Mechanical Design Team showed them to me. I had heard that testing there was severe, but I could never have imagined that the testing would be so torturous.
Being able to create something with people that I had met for the first time. Also, having a chance to use a logic analyzer.
Q6. How was the Lenovo office environment?
Each person’s partition was quite wide, and everybody seemed to be enjoying their work, so I thought the environment was very good.
I felt that it was a place that would be flexible and easy to work at.
It was the first time I had ever seen an office divided into booths, and I felt it would be very easy to talk to the people around me.
Just like the rest of the people in TVT, I had my own individual desk. I was able to concentrate, and I was also able to communicate with the people next to me. I thought this environment was both very comfortable and easy to work in.
The facilities were very good, and it was a very easy environment to work in. The attitudes of the employees were very good.
Each person had plenty of their own space, and this left a good impression with me. I think that in this environment, individual privacy is protected, but it’s also easy to communicate.
It was a very bright place that made you want to work.
Q7. How was the mentor who took care of you during your internship?
My mentor was very busy with their work. My mentor was often doing telephone meetings in Chinese and English.
My mentor was very kind and really thoughtful towards me. I think my mentor is the kind of boss you can rely on. Even during my breaks, I was able to eat with them. My mentor taught me many things, including things outside of work. I think that my mentor was a very interesting and easy to be around person.
My mentor was very busy with their work and we were not able to speak much, but I felt that my mentor was a very thoughtful caretaker and a very nice person.
My mentor swears they are not, but I think that my mentor is a highly competent person that I would like to set as a role model.
A very positive and friendly person.
They were very relaxed and it was easy to talk to them. I thought that my mentor was very good at switching between work and non-work, and I strongly felt that was something I would like to aspire to.
My mentor seemed like a person with a lot of vitality. I heard about a lot of things that would be useful for me.
Q8. Was there anything you were surprised about at Lenovo?
I was surprised that everybody carries a ThinkPad around with them while they work. You can always see them walking with a ThinkPad, even in the hall, the café or the toilet, etc.
I was surprised by the number of telephone meetings (primarily with the United States and China). On days with a lot of meetings, there were people who spent the whole day meeting in English, Chinese and Japanese.
I thought the security was very tight. Because it is in the development field, there is a lot of information that is confidential to outside people.
I was surprised by many things; it’s easier to say I was surprised every day. I think every day was fresh for me. I was surprised about: The computer I was using (I think the people that wouldn’t be surprised by an X301 with a 128G SSD are in the minority.), the working environment, Lenovo, ThinkPad, seeing the testing laboratory, conversations with the employees, the way of thinking of the engineers…
One time a stretching (?) instructor suddenly appeared at the office and all of the employees began stretching at their desks. I can understand encouraging regular exercise, but I was definitely surprised by that.
Q9. Will this internship be helpful for you when searching for a future job?
After meeting people actually working on design here in Mechanical Design, I now think that I would like to do work related to design.
After my experience with this hands-on work experience internship, my awareness of work has deepened.
I was able to learn how difficult development work is, and I think that will be very helpful for me in the future.
I think that the experience I gained on this hands-on work experience internship will be very helpful to me as I look for a job and shape my career in the future. I was able to learn a better understanding of the industry, a better understanding of this work, what kind of work matches me, how to manage myself better, and I gained helpful experience for guiding my future career plan. Without this experience, I think it would’ve been difficult to begin my job search.
I was able to get direct experience with a company atmosphere, and I thought it was very helpful.
I thought it was very useful. I got first-hand experience working with development, and I think this helped me understand the direction that I want to pursue.
I thought it was useful. I was able to decide that I want to work in R&D.
M. A. Mueed: Tokyo University, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Systems B
Munefumi Nakata: The University of Electro-Communications Graduate School, Faculty of Electro-Communications, Department of Electronic Engineering
Akihide Higo: Meiji University, School of Science & Technology, Department of Electronics and Bioinformatics
Yichun Tang: Waseda University Graduate School of Information, Production and Systems
Yuan Xu: Keio University, Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Information and Computer Science
Takeshi Ohmuro: Keio University, Graduate School, Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Design Engineering
Tomoya Satoh: Meiji University, Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Saki Inoue: Sophia University, Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Yu Ohsaka: Sophia University, Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering
We have completed our in-house design expo “Design EX’10″.
We received information about it by e-mail from the design division just two days ahead of time. Even so, the event was packed on the day. The event was only a half day. You wouldn’t want to miss it!
The e-mail went like this:
[NOTICE] Design EX’10
Both the results and nature of our work will be viewable on several displays, with a focus on design mock ups.
What’s Design EX’10?
What’s the Design Division for that matter? Some of you might be asking that right now. This division is in charge of things like the industrial design of hardware, software GUI design (Graphical User Interface), ergonomics, and brand design.
Design EX’10 was planned as “Getting to know the design division.” There will be several mock ups on display, including the latest design mock ups, historical mock ups that have been used in the past, and paper mock ups used in user surveys.
If you find yourself thinking:
- I don’t have any interaction with the people from the Design Team.
- I don’t even know what kind of work they are doing.
- I have never seen a mock up before that wasn’t part of a project.
- Lately security is tight, so I can’t even enter the Design lab.
Then this is the perfect chance for you.
What is a design mock up? A mock up is a model. Only one is made for each design objective, so there is only one of each in the world. There will be several on display, from high quality models by mock up venders that look like mass production level to rough mock ups that include parts painstakingly made by carving out Styrofoam.
There are mock ups that are black, red, white and silver. Mock ups that move, light up and break with click, sparkle and snap. There are even mock ups that cost more than $10,000 just to make one.
Unlike a real ThinkPad, they are fragile so please be careful when handling them!
Setting up the Design Team’s display area
Charts of the design process
Banners introducing Richard Sapper and the Design Team
People lined up carefully examining the displays
Display introducing the work of Richard Sapper
Historical mock ups, and mock ups for the future
Mock ups for comparing details in the 2009-2010 ThinkPads
A large meeting room had been improvised as the Expo exhibition site. There were a variety of displays, not only mock ups, but it was the mock ups that were the most popular. I think that there were almost 100 mock ups, ranging from mock ups of major advancements that changed how we use PCs to mock ups of small parts that are used for determining detailed decisions.
I was particularly struck by the sight of the members of the design team explaining things with a smile on their faces.
Finally, I would like to introduce some of the comments by the visitors to you.
I was able to hear what was on the mind of the designers and to ask if each of them had designed their display.
The designs were very modern and there were some things that will be received very well if they make it into productions.
I was really interested in the paper mock up with the center of gravity of the slate changed.
I wanted to learn more about the process and points of debate involved as a product evolves into its final form.
The design process and the process of trial and error involved in making a new product were very interesting for me.
I felt that this was a difficult division to produce a clearly visible result in.
I was able to see several mock ups at once and I really felt the passion that the designers put into them.
I felt that it would be both difficult and interesting to make your idea into a reality.
DecoDen is currently a popular trend amongst young Japanese women. They enjoy decorating their phones lavishly with bright objects like beads, and enjoy having a truly one-of-a-kind portable phone. Deco comes from the word “Decorative” and Den is an abbreviation of “Keitai Denwa” which means portable phone in Japanese.
Here is where a PC like the IdeaPad S10-2 comes in. Check out what happened when we told our decorator “you can do whatever you like.” It’s a sight to behold. Back side (LCD cover is opened)
Front left side
It’s so heavy that the screen falls over backwards (lol). Right side (LCD cover is opened)
A part of the LCD is even obscured by the decorations (lol). Right side of the LCD
Of course, it can’t even be closed… (lol). Right side (trying to close the cover)
LCD bezel and keyboard are all decorated!
When we showed our Ultra DecoPad to one of our female designers on the Yamato design team, she was impressed, saying “Hey, it works for me!” This PC still works, too. If we sold it on an auction in the holy place of youth fashion, Shibuya, we could probably get a pretty high price.
Finally, here is a comment from the creator of the Ultra DecoPad, followed by a print club photo booth picture and her own DecoDen.
The theme for this project was “A must-have product for women”. There are a lot of small things now that a woman can’t live without. I worked on this project in the hope that a decorated IdeaPad can become one of those must-have things (lol).
Lenovo Japan Sales person, the creator (on the right) and her DecoDen
We have selected 1 grand prize winner and 4 outstanding performance award winners. Even though there were many submissions that we could not select, they were all a great source of encouragement for us. Staff from the Yamato office were more than willing to write comments in return. Thank you all so much for your submissions!
We have prepared a special website for our English language readers. Please enjoy!
Today we’ve announced the ThinkPad X2010. 120″ display. Infinite storage. But with no input device such as a keyboard. Also, no connectors of any type… Instead, there is only a blinking red dot at the center of this monolith-like object.
Lenovo Japan is offering the magazine “Lenovoice” to its Japanese customers.
This is the 3rd issue. A member of our Notebook Research and Development Center, Yokota, has taken charge of this issue. We thought it would be a waste to only offer this publication to our Japanese customers, and so we are translating a part of the magazine into English for you.
A Behind the Scenes Look at ThinkPad Development Unveiling the Hidden Face of the Yamato Office
The ThinkVantage Communications Utility opened by Fn + F6
Please help us with beta testing!
We continue to work to improve the ThinkVantage Communications Utility in order to make sure that our customers can enjoy a comfortable VoIP environment. All of the audio and camera settings required to do VoIP are concentrated in one place with the ThinkVantage Communications Utility. In some models, a function is also provided that will allow you to mute your camera during a video chat.
Did you know that a common problem when using VoIP applications is the sound of typing from the keyboard? For instance, when you are recording the minutes at a meeting, the sound of keystrokes and the vibration of the keys can be jarring to the ears of those listening as it is transmitted through the microphone.
Here at the Yamato TVT Software Development Team, we are looking into a feature that automatically lowers the volume of the mic when you are typing in order to address this problem. We are attaching a beta version to this blog entry. We are hoping that you can share your experiences and comments about what level of volume reduction offers the best performance. [-25%] [-50%] [-75%] [-100%]
■Installation instructions *First be sure to verify that Hotkey Features Integration is installed.
1. Download and execute COMMUTIL_WW.EXE to begin installation, and then follow the steps in the installation wizard.
2. The installation package will be extracted to: C:\DRIVERS\WIN\COMMUTIL
3. Reboot your system after installation.
■Uninstall instructions
1. Select ThinkVantage Communications Utility from Add/Remove Programs.
2. Click the Uninstall button to uninstall the program.
3. Reboot your system after uninstalling the program.
■How to use
1. Hold down Fn and press F6.
2. Click the checkbox for “Lower my microphone volume while typing”.
3. Set the level of volume reduction. [-25%] [-50%] [-75%] [-100%]
The procedures for setting the level of volume reduction are now complete.
While using VoIP applications, such as Skype, the volume will now be reduced automatically when typing on the keyboard.
■Note:
The date has not yet been determined for when this function will be included with our products. This package is a beta and its functionality is not guaranteed. Downloads of this beta will only be available during the testing period.
To all of those who helped with beta testing.
Thanks to your help, we were able to officially release the ThinkVantage Communications Utility. As of today, the beta version will no longer be available for download. Please access the following URL to download the official release.
