International CES

First time at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas? Don’t worry; it’s the first time for everyone at some point. We’ve been heading to CES every year as far back as we can remember, so we wanted to share a few fun tips that we’ve picked up along the way to make the most out of the show.   Make a plan for what you want to accomplish and which venues you want to hit – use the offical CES website. Here you can find almost everything you need from floor plans to schedules to shuttle information. Drink up … water that is – Avoid buying $5 water bottles from hotels and stock up at Walgreens on the Strip to save money! The dry desert air and walking the miles of ground CES covers makes you extra thirsty. Remember to bring some chapstick too! Eat all three meals throughout the day – this might be a no-brainer, but you’ll need every bit of energy you can get. Keep snacks on hand and avoid questionable buffets no matter how attractive the price (read: if the buffet looks anything like Cousin Eddie's favorite spot in National Lampoon’s Las Vegas Vacation, steer clear!) We recommend sandwiches at Jean Philippe Patisserie in the Bellagio (and a crepe if you have time to spare). Also, Lotus of Siam has some of the most authentic Thai food and is a restaurant gem to...

Continue reading “Ten Tips for Surviving CES”

IdeaPad A1 Tablets

It’s officially down to crunch time to finalize your holiday shopping list. Still haven’t found everything you need? Have no fear, Lenovo has a true cornucopia of stocking-stuffer toys to please everyone on your list. The Little Tablet That Impresses The IdeaPad A1 tablet has been turning a lot of heads – it’s a mere 7 inches, comes in four fun colors (black, white, blue and pink) and has all of the fun multimedia capabilities you  want on an Android tablet. Plus, the price is just right starting at only $249. Accessorizing Your Tablet Keep your new ThinkPad Tablet warm, cozy and clean with one of our tablet cover sleeves or cases. ThinkPad Tablet case sleeve – Sleek, soft and designed to fit your ThinkPad Tablet perfectly, this neoprene constructed sleeve is just $17.99.

Continue reading “Get Those Stockings Stuffed! Last Minute Gadget Gift Ideas From Lenovo”

Today we’re sitting down with Sam Morris, Lenovo’s education expert, and Jarrett York, North American product manager for the new ThinkPad X130e, to talk about the laptop and how its design has been heavily influenced by Lenovo’s broad experience in education. Lenovo Files: Can you describe the motivators in focusing so much energy and resources on developing this new product? Sam: As more and more schools are deploying PCs to students, it’s clear the day-to-day activities for students are vastly different than those of the mobile workforce. This has led to many situations where the wear and tear on the laptops has resulted in an overload of repairs and replacements, and as a result decreased learning outcomes and operational efficiencies. LF: How did you assess the impact of the wear and tear? Sam: In addition to industry metrics about repair rates, we also examined our internal data for service and warranty claims. We found that laptops in education were four times more likely to need service than the laptops deployed with our military. In addition, through our advisory councils and our annual ThinkTank conference, we surveyed our education customers about the importance of “ruggedness.” The responses indicated that this was universally critical. LF: Can you elaborate more on the work you did to ensure that the X130e met the needs of education? Jarrett: We’ve analyzed the...

Continue reading “Kids Are Tougher than Military on Laptops”

Guest blogger and PC modification (modding) extraordinaire, Dean Liou, takes us through his journey to create his coolest arcade dock mod to date. Let’s start at the beginning of my journey to create the X1 Arcade Dock mod, on June 14th, one month into the project.  I filmed the final result on October 9th, nearly six months after I first put my pencil on the drawing board. Fear not, good readers, as it wasn’t six whole months of non-stop sleepless modding -- it was closer to just 10 weekends of blood, sweat and tears*. Hey, I gotta work during the week, ya know?  And together with my wife, we have two kids to worry about (*tears were mostly theirs). This is my second arcade dock project, which is essentially an encore to the first arcade dock I created last year – a 15" widescreen IdeaPad Y560 built as an homage to Street-Fighter.  It featured a joystick and eight buttons based on a standard bar-top arcade kit purchased online and modified to fit the dock. This second project was much more ambitious as I wanted to create everything from scratch in terms of the cabinet and physical structure. My formula and objectives were as follows: 1. Cut out the middleman arcade kit purchase (why buy and end up modding it anyway?) 2. Design my OWN arcade kit instead, with all the fittings to be a laptop dock 3. Make it awesome and...

Continue reading “The Mod King’s Newest Arcade Dock: X1”

“Just do something!” Whether it’s making a decision, getting off the couch to work out, or going for something you really want, those three words have a lot of power. And motivation. We’re hoping they have the same effect to empower thousands of teens across the country this summer to do good in their communities. This is a new kind of program for us, but something we think fits naturally with our team of engineers, designers and developers - “our real doers” - behind our PCs. That’s why we’re teaming up with DoSomething.org, a non-profit that’s passionate about helping youth take action, for a Scavenger Hunt starting July 11. It’s 3/4ths service, 1/4th social.  Here’s the website: www.dosomething.org/hunt or QR code if you’re into those. In a nutshell, here’s how it works: Young people (Sorry, only millenials. Those of you 25 and younger.) sign up for the hunt on the website. Starting on the 11th for 11 days, you’ll receive emails each day about a new challenge around...

Continue reading “Changing Up the Game: Social Meets Service for a Scavenger Hunt”