Attention, frequent flyers! To celebrate the unveiling of Lenovo’s new ThinkPad Twist—a convertible Ultrabook that effortlessly spins into different computing modes—we are conducting an epic search across the United States (with apologies to those outside the U.S.) to identify the nation’s top frequent flyers. We are looking to crown the greatest “Sky Warrior” of all. What is a Sky Warrior? A savvy business traveler who navigates the intricacies of air transport with the command of a strategist. An aerial commuter, a miles collector, a packing master and an upgrade guru—a practiced travel expert who relies on technology to mitigate the frequent travails of commercial air travel. In other words, just the kind of person who might appreciate the new ThinkPad Twist. The Twist deftly adapts to the limited personal space of an airplane. When you’re on a long flight and that seat in front of you reclines, Twist moves so you don’t have to. Beginning today, frequent flyers can declare themselves Sky Warriors by visiting the Lenovo Facebook page and entering the number of miles they’ve accrued through a single frequent flyer program between January 1, 2012 and September 30, 2012. The top 10 verified mileage balances will receive a ThinkPad Twist and be forever known as Sky Warriors. To...
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To celebrate the 20th anniversary of ThinkPad on October 5, we’re sharing 20 of the most interesting, fun and unique facts about the iconic laptop. Let us know which ones are your favorites! The original inspiration for the design of the ThinkPad came from the Japanese Bento-Bako box. Coined in 1991, the name “ThinkPad” was inspired by the leather-bound pocket notepads—embossed with the motto “Think” on the front cover—once issued to all IBM employees. The original ThinkPad was actually a slate tablet. The pen-operated ThinkPad 700T, introduced in 1992, was designed as a flat, one-piece device that people could write on. Watch Lenovo’s Howard Dulany talk about the ThinkPad 700T here. Inspired by design elements in cars, every ThinkPad notebook comes with an “airbag” accelerometer system, which detects sudden movements to protect the hard drive, and most model feature a magnesium-alloy roll cage to shield critical internal parts from damage. The material used in the ThinkPad roll cage is also used in exteriors of aircraft and F1 cars. A Lenovo engineer who observed an owl fly silently through the air realized...
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Welcome to our virtual museum of ThinkPad print ads, part of our celebration of 20 years of the iconic laptop. We'll promise to go easy on the words and let these images speak for themselves. We begin with two ads from 1992, the year ThinkPad made its debut. One features the ThinkPad 300 and the other has the 700c. I like the swagger in these despite the fact that IBM had no earthly idea how successful this little laptop was about to be. A 1993 ad chose to focus on ThinkPad’s most distinctive design element: the nub, the pointing stick, the TrackPoint. Literary aspirations came calling for this 1994 ThinkPad 360 ad featuring writer John Grisham. This black-and-white newspaper ad from 1997 trumpeted a special deal—$400 off the ThinkPad 380! This one from 1999 is a personal fave, with special art done by Ralph Steadman, the Gonzo partner-in-crime to legendary lunatic writer Hunter S. Thompson. Another one (we think) from 1999—this was designed to appeal to marketers the world over. Thanks to Lenovo Insiders Matthew and Ryan for helping me identify this as a ThinkPad 600—does anyone out there agree or disagree with that assessment? By 2004, security had become a major issue in the cyberworld—this ad for ThinkPad T42 reflects that. Fast-forward to 2011 and we see our first ad from the Lenovo (post-IBM) era of ThinkPad. I like this one because it not only features the ThinkPad X1, it integrates...
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An inspiring year-long science contest—can we say voyage?—is about to come to an end in a most spectacular way. In the grand finale of YouTube Space Lab (powered by Lenovo), three teenagers will have their science experiments performed by astronauts high above Earth at the International Space Station. Best of all, we can watch the event unfold; it will be brought to us in the world’s largest-ever live stream from space. The awesome Bill Nye “The Science Guy” will serve as host. Click the link to go to the YouTube Space Lab channel, where the online broadcast will take place. We got to wondering how the heck a live stream works—and particularly one this complex—so we asked the guys who are in charge of making it happen. David Thorpe (Live Streaming Operations) and Marc Joynes (Creator Space Manager) from Google/YouTube shared the story via email. Thanks for answering our questions. We're naturally very excited about the largest-ever live stream from space. Tell us from a technical standpoint how a live stream works normally, and then explain how this particular one might be different. YouTube live streams hundreds of events every day, so we're used to providing our audience with live music, news, sports and entertainment. But we've never streamed from space before, so this is an exciting new frontier for us! Live streams work by making sure we...
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Can you imagine being in high school and getting invited to be special guest at a real rocket launch? That's exactly what happened to Sara Ma and Dorothy Chen, Michigan natives and winners of the YouTube Space Lab competition. As part of their prize package, the teenage friends got to travel to Japan, where they watched up close and personal as their very own experiments were shot up by rocket to the International Space Station. On the eve of the Space Lab finale, we asked them about this incredible experience. How long was your flight from Michigan to Japan? Did you have any interesting layovers? The flight was 13-14 hours long. We had no layovers. I couldn’t sleep on the plane at all, so the flight felt extremely long. What cities in Japan did you get to see? Any significant landmarks? I just saw Tokyo and Tanegashima on my Japan trip. I was most impressed with the different landscapes of Tokyo: you can see the old classic side in the Asakusa district, the modern electric city in the Akihabara district, and the fashion-forward/young-teen scene in the Shibuya district. Tanegashima was relatively isolated from modern activity, and I really was able to enjoy the amazing nature and calmness that you can’t get in the bustling city. Describe the overall experience, and emotions you felt, while watching your experiment launch on the JAXA rocket heading to the ISS. I was just drowning in...
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