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This article from DigiTimes says Wistron will start volume shipments of the Lenovo IBM tablet PC in the third quarter. Wistron is a Taiwanese company that already manufactures notebooks for Lenovo-IBM, Dell, HP, and Acer.
French President Chirac has appointed former Foregin Minister Dominique de Villepin (who is a man) as prime minister.
David's post about "24" brought to mind a few ideas that I thought I might just jot down.
For those times when having a really fast, liquid-cooled purple computer is more important than having eight and a half grand.
(I want a fast computer, but will pass on this one. There should be some middle ground between speed and insanity.
Oh, it's the EU constitution, which French voters set fire to over the weekend.
Beats me what that means, though. Reason:
The French have said "no" to the EU constitution, and if the exit polls are to be believed, by a significant margin. "For France," writes Britain's Times, "this is turmoil." As for Chirac, the Times thinks that "it surely signals the end."
What this means for the continuing redefinition of "Europe" is hard to read, since parts of the French right and the French left opposed the constitution for quite different reasons. But the Dutch seemed poised to vote "no" as well, and it remains to be seen if the Brits bother to have their scheduled vote at all.
The EU itself probably won't be much changed on a day-to-day basis, since it already ignores any standing rules that are inconvenient. "You have only to look at the scrapping, in effect, over the past 15 months, of the financial rules supposed to govern the eurozone. Although these are a central part of the constitution, France and Germany have found them inconveniently tough," notes the Times.
The EU's greatest problem? "[T]he depth of disagreement between members over its goals."
What does it mean when flight attendants say "cross-check" to each other over the intercom?If you're curious, Ask Yahoo has the answer.
Marc Orchand has more on the (imminent announcement of?) the Thinkpad Tablet, via Greg Hughes, Engadget, and Rob Bushway, and an assortment of eage-eyed people on the thinkpads.com forum. Rob provides a link to the US Thinkpad site, where (as of this morning, anyway) you can see details on models by selecting "All Models" from the drop down box at the top left.
The top of the line model shown:
X41 TABLET PENT M LV 758 (1.5) 12 WAXGA 512 60GB BG XPT 8C
LENOVO 18663RU
That translates to: a Thinkpad X41 Tablet with a low voltage 1.5 GHz Pentium M 758, a 12.1 inch screen, a 60GB hard drive, 512 MB of DDR SDRAM, 801.11b/g wireless, and Windows XP Tablet Edition. I'm not positive, but I'm guessing 8C refers to an 8 cell LI-Ion battery. Also, if this unit resembles other recent X Series models, it will come with an SD card slot.
I'm looking forward to seeing one of these. The one thing I don't like (and I really don't like it) about my Toshiba M205 is the keyboard layout. Luckily that hasn't been a major handicap with the Toshiba, because I invariably use it either in tablet mode or or via Remote Desktop from my desktop PC. The keyboard on the Thinkpads has always been a strong selling point, and it is (in my humble opinion) the best in the notebook industry by a long shot, both in feel and layout. The layout on the X Series tablet looks, from the Engaget picture, like it's essentially the same as on the non-convertible models.
It will be interesting to see what supporting utilities are included. The Toshiba has a strong set of utilities and convenience features, like the cross button, that have become an integral part of how I use the machine.
Hey, I wonder if I can persuade my boss to let me trade my T41 for an X41 tablet?
(Highly unlikely. -Ed)
Disclaimer: I work for IBM, in the consulting division. I don't speak for the company, and I couldn't reveal inside information on a product or service even if I had any. My speculation here is entirely based on public information... and my fondness for Thinkpads.
Hey, everybody needs a hobby, I guess. Memorable quote: "This is the first human-poultry interaction system ever developed," said professor Adrian David Cheok." Why do I have a feeling my tax dollars helped fund this project somehow?
(link via Blogs of War)
Reader DC points out in the comments to last month's post on IBM (now Lenovo) Thinkpad Tablet PC rumors that the Thinkpad site in Europe has a listing here for an "X Series Tablet."
Unfortunately, the hyperlinks to "More info" and "See in 3D" don't work.
I'd say showing up on the company website does seem to push this from the "rumor" category, doesn't it? Thanks for the tip, DC.
Obligatory disclaimer: I work for IBM, in the consulting division. I haven't the slightest inside info on what Lenovo is up to, tablet-wise. (But I am looking foward to finding out!)
Diana West recently wrote an op-ed in the Washington Times accusing Fox and the producers of "24" of knuckling under to the Council of American Islamic Relations in their portayal of Islamist terrorists. PowerLine's Paul Mirengoff linked the article, and "several readers wrote impassioned and knowledgeable responses" in return.
I side with the readers on this one; head villain Habib Marwan did his level best to nuke Los Angeles, and I think the show made crystal clear that Jack Bauer and company were the good guys even as they tortured their way across town trying to stop him.
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