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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From the left, Arimasa Naito, Soichi Yokota
From the left, Arimasa Naitoh, Sohichi Yokota A message from Sohichi Yokota Greetings. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. My name is Sohichi Yokota and since April of last year, I have been the executive director at the Notebook Research and Development Center. This year I will be taking over management of the Yamato Blog from my colleague, Arimasa Naitoh. Here at Lenovo, we see this blog as being an invaluable opportunity for us to hear the opinions, hopes and encouragement of the passionate fans of ThinkPad. The voices of ThinkPad fans help guide us as we seek to preserve the ThinkPad DNA, even while providing a platform for new value and experiences in an ever-changing IT environment. I hope you will continue following us closely. A message from Arimasa Naitoh Dedicated Lenovo fans, thank you for reading the Yamato blog! A year has now passed since we moved offices to Minato Mirai 21 in Yokohama, and we are beginning to really settle in. We are renewing Lenovo's social networking presence and decided to take this opportunity to pass the baton for the Yamato Blog to the new head of ThinkPad development and Lenovo Japan Ltd. Corporate Officer, Mr. Sohichi Yokota. I took on a supervisory role for the development of Lenovo PCs and server products. I hope to take advantage of the experiences and things I learned from customers in my work on ThinkPad development and work to make sure that all of Lenovo's products are...
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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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- Some time has passed since the tablet was released, how has the reaction been? Kinoshita: It’s been superb. Right now there are many tablets that all look the same, but the ThinkPad Tablet has been praised as being “recognizably ThinkPad”. - That’s great. What specifically do you think it is about the ThinkPad Tablet that makes it “recognizably ThinkPad”? Kinoshita: I think the ThinkPad Tablet is recognizably ThinkPad in two ways, it’s “toughness” and “design”. There was a lot of debate about toughness, but eventually the development team came to a consensus that sacrificing toughness to make the tablet thinner and lighter wasn’t the right way to go. I’m fairly satisfied with the finished product where design is concerned, considering the “the comfortable feel of the luxurious black rubber coating”, “sturdy and solid construction” and “a style that uses red effectively”. - I suppose that as a ThinkPad, it would have to pass rigorous testing focused on toughness. Kinoshita: Yes, that was a major consideration for us. Some of the testing standards were actually more severe than the ones we use for ThinkPads. We wanted to design a tablet that would be okay to use outside, even if it rained. – Personally, I have some doubts about whether the Android OS can really be used in a “professional business tool”. Is it really up...
