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Lenovo's 'Yoga Book' Laptop Is So Thin It Needs A Touchscreen Keyboard (gizmodo.com)
An anonymous reader writes: At IFA in Berlin, Lenovo announced the Yoga Book, a laptop that measures in at just 0.38-inches thick, making it the thinnest laptop currently available. In order for it to retain such a slim profile, the keyboard needed to be redesigned. The Yoga Book features what is called the Halo Keyboard, a touchscreen keyboard that is separated from the display and doubles as a drawing tablet. Gizmodo reports: "Officially it's called the Halo Keyboard, and if you've ever tried to quickly type on a tablet's software keyboard than you'll be familiar with the experience. Only it's a little nicer because the keyboard is separated from the display, so it doesn't suck up screen real estate, and it has a pleasantly rough texture. It's also got haptic feedback, which in the case of a touchscreen keyboard is sort of like sticking lipstick on the pig. A press of a button turns the keys off and turns the keyboard into a drawing tablet. From there, it behaves a lot like a Wacom tablet, directly reporting pen input into your chosen app. It even reads pen inputs through paper laid over the input panel." Some other specs of this 2-in-1 laptop/tablet include an Intel Atom processor, 64GB of onboard storage with support for a microSD card, 13 hours of battery life, 4G LTE, 802.11 AC Wi-Fi, front and rear cameras, and a 10.1-inch, 1080p display.
So it is 10mm thick (or rather 9.6). It is not remarkable. I have a Dell that isn't much thicker at 13mm. I also have a tablet with removable keyboard (A laptop) that comes at less than that. Also Atom - Intel's garbage.. Not interested. Give me a Haswell/Broadwell/Skylake any day (XXXXU processors), but the Atom/Braswell/Bay trail/Cherry Trail are the utter crap
Son'y be dillt, I;n usibh ome rifht niw.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
So yes, it's a Tablet.
Natural sketching? How many degrees of pressure sensitivity does it have?
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
what is this obsession with making things thin, the space it saves is almost irrelevant and tactile feed back is a wonderful thing.
Given the description, I found it rather surprising the linked Lenovo news page didn't include an actual photo anywhere.
Or perhaps the thing is so thin I simply couldn't see it?
#DeleteChrome
does it run Linux? i know one will run android, but android is a little too googly for me sometimes, i would like to slap a Linux distro on it, and i would only buy it if it is testing Linux compatible, i would hate to be in the middle of an install and find the keyboard does not work in Linux, and then be stuck with a nice looking brick that is no more useful than a door stop,
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
Will it teach me how to bend over and blow myself?
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
http://67.media.tumblr.com/7bc...
From TFNR...
"The real-pen accessory can draw with the precision of a pencil or paintbrush, with 2,048 pressure levels and 100-degree angle detection."
#DeleteChrome
The most interesting thing about this is:
"Touch-typists used the Moving Virtual Layout (MVL), which adapted to fit the user’s natural style, learning where the user intended to strike the keys through experience. On a mechanical keyboard, the user could dynamically adjust the position of their fingers onto the keys, helped by the shape of the keys and gaps in between. To overcome this problem on a touch keyboard, the halo keyboard used artificial learning to correct repeated mistakes or mistyping, learning the difference between common errors, like when a user hits the Alt key but intended to hit the spacebar instead."
I long for the day when all my devices are so thin that they cannot support *any* input devices. Think how glorious it will be when you are holding a supercomputer that is only a few microns thick! It will be so thin that it's practically two dimensional!
Input devices are overrated.
That really interests me for artwork. My primary laptop is for development though so it wont ever be replacing that. I just can't do touch screen typing, makes my fingers hurt without some spring action.
yeah I'm a touch typer so touch screen is out for me.. no matter how ironic that sounds.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Cool. Can it simulate nubs on the F and J keys? If it can't then your hands can't find their way back to where they need to be and, your ability to touch type is now lost. I agree that the artificial learning part is pretty cool but, cool doesn't trump useful.
I understand that this laptop isn't meant for power users but, frankly, widescreen laptops weren't meant for power users either. How many power users are still using a laptop with a 4:3 aspect ratio? How vehemently did they object (Hint: A LOT)? I'd be happy to let this slide as a toy that no one will use for real work but, when I see a modern day ThinkPad, I'm inclined to believe that the Yoga series is a staging ground for things to come.
DO NOT WANT.
But, why? Why does anyone want such a thin laptop, other than for boasting to own the thinnest laptop in the world?
Do you have to hover your hands over the keyboard, or is it smart enough to let you rest your fingers on the home row while typing? That's the dealbreaker for most tablet keyboards that want to pretend to be touch typist friendly. If not, you're a hunt and peck machine.
I read the internet for the articles.
THe MS Surface is still the thinnest and Lenovo comes with malware like spearfish by default .... oh and the spyware is installed as drivers which means even if you do a fresh install Windows Store will automatically install the crapware again making it perpetual and impossible to remove!
Fuck em. I will never buy a product from such a company.
http://saveie6.com/
Good, the marketing people are happy. If you would kindly make useful notebook computers for the rest of us, that'd be swell.
https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM
Don't hold your breath. I'm pretty sure Lenovo fired everyone who understood the term "useful" a few years ago. Now it's all about who can out-gimmick Apple.
Does it have 2 screens, or is the keyboard just a large touch-pad with light-up etchings of a static keyboard?
Lenovo is shooting itself in the foot if it produces the "world's thinnest laptop" if it ships with the world's most useless keyboard. Touch typing on a flat bit of glass / plastic will suck big time regardless of whether they draw little boxes around where the "keys" are.
A touch-tablet keyboard that moves the "keys", adjusting to where the user's previous strokes have been. ...
That sounds like one of the features of FingerWorks TouchStream touch-keyboard and I think they had a patent on this.
They stopped making products in 2005. FingerWorks together with its patents was then acquired by Apple.
I think Lenovo must have someone bought or licensed that patent, or they are about to meet with Apple's lawyers
"We mustn't be caught by surprise by our own advancing technology" -- Aldous Huxley
Linux people will miss any hardware novelty or burn the think for lack of fan support, then end up on a xterm with an external USB keyboard, coding their builtin ACPI and keyboard drivers and struggling to get rid of systemd, let alone trying to cope with the lack of any modern and consistent GUI.
Classic.
Amen to that.
The real problem, IMHO, is that when I type, I rest my fingers on the keyboard and then just press the one that I want harder. I also rely on the "feel" of the key under my fingers to determine if I am actually hitting in the middle of the keys or if I need to shift my hands around just a little.
On a touch screen, resting your fingers on the keyboard is called "pressing several keys at the same time" and is bad. So, to actually "type" with a touch screen, you need to hover your fingers over the keyboard, which also means that your fingers can easily shift.
So, yeah, touch screens suck for typing.
"-1 Troll" is the apparently the same as "-1 I disagree with you."
"Lenovo's 'Yoga Book' Laptop Is So Fragile It Needs A Crazy Person to Buy It"
Am I the only one that doesn't care if my laptop weighs 5 pounds instead of 4?
Could be interesting, as well as sketching on paper/screen with the same pen, I'd at least like to try one out
Twinstiq, game news
I do consider myself a "power user," but have never thought much about wide-screen vs 4:3. What's the deal with that? I really like being able to have two applications (typically a browser and editor) side-by-side.
The nubs on the glass as mentioned by the AC below might really help, but I'm also sceptical that I would actually be able to type as well on such a screen. I assume I'd get used to it, just as I have with a phone, I just honestly don't know until I've tried it for a while.