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FCC Pics of the IBM ThinkPad X41 Tablet PC
jkendrick writes "jkOnTheRun has posted pics of the rumored IBM ThinkPad X41 Tablet PC pulled from the FCC filing. It looks as expected, a nice black ThinkPad with a major exception, the swivel screen and the Tablet OS."
thats one sweet concept in my opinion. put a little hole on the back so you can hang it when its in tablet mode and you have a picture frame too!
... and heres mirrordot to the rescue 0 a442b089c527c0f/index.html
http://www.mirrordot.org/stories/adae1f7a0023fd6c
Heavy? The X series is 2.7lbs. That's not heavy. The IBM screens are great. My T42P is 14" and does 1400x1050 and is clearer than any other I've seen. They offer 15" screens now on most models if you want the extra size and weight.
If you RTFA there are links to the images on the FCC website.
Now... I'm not saying it is a hoax, but it looks real enough and I don't care enough that I can just leave it at that.
For open source users the ThinkPad delivers a welcome change, in that the majority of the hardware is supported without special patches or drivers. I know the X40 ThinkPads were a favorite among the Linux and *BSD community because of how well they operated. On a side note, a lot of the Dell Inspiron and Lattitude laptops tend to work about as well.
shop.envescent.com - Computer hardware and more.
For those who care, The notebook comes equipped with a 12.1" XGA display and is powered by an Intel Pentium M 1.50 GHz processor. The X41 was first available April 12th and will set you back at least $1,999. - nYx
RTFA? It has links to PDFs on fcc .gov
r et rieve.cgi?attachment_id=533104&native_or_pdf=pdf
r et rieve.cgi?attachment_id=533105&native_or_pdf=pdf
r et rieve.cgi?attachment_id=526692&native_or_pdf=pdf
https://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/oet/forms/blobs/
https://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/oet/forms/blobs/
https://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/oet/forms/blobs/
And they match what's on the blog.
They are not ugly. A purple, plasticy Toshiba or Sony shitbox is ugly. Thinkpads look purposeful, like a Hummer H1 or F-18. They're not supposed to be beautiful, they're supposed to work.
As for heavy, I don't know where you got that - have you ever used a modern Thinkpad? When I was looking for a thin, light 15" mobile desktop, a Thinkpad was all I could find.
As for the "nipple" joystick, most Thinkpads come with both the nipple and a touchpad, so you can use whatever you want. The ultraportables don't, but what do you expect? A touchpad is a waste of space and weight.
As for the screen, you're basing your opinion on shitty spy photos that were submitted to the FCC? I have a Thinkpad T42p, and the 1600x1200 screen is the best I've ever used.
IBM is the last remaining manufacturer of quality PC laptops. I'm glad to see that the sale of the PC division to Lenovo hasn't affected that.
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No, time will not tell. If you had clicked on the "FCC doc 1" (and 2, 3) links, you'd find that they lead to PDFs hosted at FCC.gov (the Federal Communications Commission home page). The FCC documents are part of the FCC approval process (something most electronics have to go through, including computers). So, as long as you trust the FCC, then yeah, those are facts.
For the lazy:
-David Ziegler
-
Am I the only one here that passed basic math? I could have *sworn* that screen was only rotated 90 degrees in the picture...
To get the screen to lie flat on the keyboard with screen visible in tablet mode, it's got to rotate 180 degrees from the standard foldup mode.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
IBM demoed these for us several weeks ago, I didn't think its existence was a secret. Was a pretty nice tablet, in my opinion.
as you can see, the screen rotates 180 degress so that it can be used in tablet mode
Even more, my mother is an elementary school teacher, and she has been telling me how they are phasing cursive out of the cirriculum. Laptops are now issued to many students starting as soon as first grade (they get iBooks, I think). She marvels at how well kids can use a computer at such a young age, but it's is the Information Age in which they are growing up.
I have 2 sons, 4th and 2nd grade, and their school doesn't teach cursive either. I expressed my concern over this at a PTA meeting when I asked how my kids were ever going to learn how to sign their name. I suppose this generation and others after will sign documents in block print.
My point in all of this? If this trend is exhibited outside of these 2 school districts, then who will use Tablet PCs? I know cursive but write in all caps, engineering style. It's not efficient for me to write on a Tablet PC when I can just type! I think the same will be said of future generations...
an interesting thing you can see if you open one of the PDF on the FCC website, like the one on the X41 is that it is 210mm*297mm, also known as A4 standard paper.
IBM did have a Thinkpad in the early 90's that the screen hinged at the bottom and then again in the middle. You poped a few clips ant the screen tilted back over itself to become a tablet. I cannot remember the model (something like 755cx) but I worked on them all the time.
There has been a similar laptop from Gateway , which has been shipping for at least 1.5 yrs.
You create your own reality - Leave mine to me.
http://www.pc.ibm.com/ww/announcement.html
Actually, it goes back to before OS/2.
The original concept for the ThinkPad was for a pen slate (hence the name, the inspiration came from leather notepads IBM used to give out to employees w/ ``Think!'' embossed on them). You can get the backstory on this in the book _ThinkPad: A Different Shade of Blue, building an IBM brand_ or in Jerry Kaplan's book _StartUp_.
Early models included the 701T, 703T and 730TE (slate models) and the 360PE (and a couple of other convertible models). At first they could run one's choice of Windows for Pen Computing (Win3.1 w/ HWR and some nifty pen-oriented apps) or PenPoint (but that was more expensive 'cause one had to pay the Microsoft ``tax'').
William
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
Warning - anecdote:
My wife's 1998-vintage Thinkpad (well out of warranty) failed in late 2001. We sent it to a local shop for repairs - they replaced the motherboard at no charge (parts OR labor!) because IBM had had "trouble" with this motherboard before.
When it failed again a year later, it was repaired again at no charge.
You could argue that it shouldn't have failed in the first place (bad solder on a power connection), but you can't beat that support! I won't buy anything but a Thinkpad anymore.
It's hard to find an LCD with 1400x1500 resolution for $400. What makes you think that you could get a whole system for that price? There's probably a reason that the Mira devices cost about a thousand dollars.
Excellent point (hi-res displays are expensive).
If a lower-resolution is acceptable, an older pen slate system such as a Fujitsu Stylistic 2300 would fill the bill quite nicely (the OP failed to note a requirement for battery life which is the big failing of older devices).
http://www.linuxslate.org
Is one site w/ some useful information for such.
William
(who really needs to dig out his Point 510 and get Linux on it)
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.