ThinkPad design is one of my Pinterest boards
Last week I added another social networking tool to my arsenal, Pinterest. At first I was a bit skeptical of this one, but now I'm a believer. It's a great venue to share favorite images on virtual bulletin boards and caption them as you see fit. My initial focus was to create a ThinkPad Design board so that I could share some images with my readers. After playing around with the tool, I decided to include other interests. I've now added boards about architecture, product design that showcases form+function, motorcycles with soul, and Japanese gardening. You can browse my Pinterest page and boards here. The Wikipedia defines Pinterest as follows: Pinterest is a pinboard-styled social photo sharing website. The service allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections. The site's mission statement is to "connect everyone in the world through the 'things' they find interesting." Pinterest is managed by Cold Brew Labs, a team based in Palo Alto, California. The website has proven especially popular among women. I'm not sure I totally believe the Wikipedia claim that the site is of primary interest to women. The page states that most of the site's users are female, with 97% of the site's Facebook "likes" being made by women. I don't want to argue with the Wikipedia, but my some of my pins have not...
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You don't have to read the logo to know who made this one!
I thought I would share a link to a recent internet interview I did with Think Digit about what makes ThinkPad design tick. Read the article and find the answer to this question and more. What Do ThinkPad & Ferrari Have in Common? I hope you find the article interesting. David Hill
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Leonardo would not be happy with these modifications to his artistic intent
Wireless connectivity is a critical component of the ThinkPad experience. I can barely remember the last time I connected using a modem, or for that matter an ethenet cable. I'm a total slave to wireless. ThinkPad wireless connectivity takes the concept to a totally new level. Our engineers ensure we have the best radio performance imaginable. At the top edge of every ThinkPad is an array of wireless antennas that boggles the mind. The most critical antenna, from a performance perspective, is the WAN antenna. Performance for WAN must be certified by carriers, who have very stringent connectivity criteria. So what does this all have to do with design? First it means that the antennas need to be located at the top edge of the display. Having a WAN antenna in the base is a recipe for failing the certification test. Higher is better for any antenna, just look at the roofs of buildings in any city. Additionally, metal, and carbon fiber computer enclosures are the enemy when it comes to radio wave transparency. Both of these materials block the critical radio signals. Manufacturers who use aluminum sheet, milled aluminum, titanium, or carbon fiber must create a sort of radio transparent "window" for the waves to eminate from. This is why you see so many split lines on the top surface of notebook computers. Typically, a narrow band of plastic that is radio friendly is butted to the more exotic material solving the engineering problem. Sadly, it creates an...
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No longer running on empty
Due to some technical difficulties associated with a blog platform migration, we temporarily lost the ability to display historical comments. This really made me sad, since comments are so valuable to Lenovo and me personally. I'm very pleased to report they are back. The comment counter still may register at zero, but they are there. Click on comments and they magically appear. Hopefully in a few days the counter will be in synch with reality. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused our readers.
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Get aboard the ThinkPad bus and move to the head of the class
We just announced the ThinkPad X130e, our latest offering specially designed for the k-12 education crowd. If you ever had kids, you know the kind of abuse they can dish out to the things around them. I suffered through unexplainable damage to VCR's, televisions, and countless electronic toys during the first decade of the kid experience. Imagine handing them an ordinary computer to take back and forth to school each day, and even more scary, use without your direct supervision? That's why we went back to the blackboard to create something that is far from ordinary. The X130e design has been uniquely ruggedized for the extreme wear and tear education environment. Here are some of the things Lenovo did to ensure success: Rubber bumper absorbs side impacts 33% stronger corners due to larger energy dispersing radii Reinforced and recessed ports Kid-proof hinges last up to 30,000 cycles Stronger bezel to protect the screen Can you say rubber baby buggy bumpers five times fast? When we first started working on the project I was insistent that the design should telegraph ruggedness through an obvious feature. Strengthening the hinges was a great idea, but you can't see that. It can only be experienced over time. Enter the the rubber bumper. To me, it not only protects the edges from the occasional drop from little Billy's book bag, but it outwardly communicates ruggedness. Would you buy a Jeep without bumpers? Even if...
