Thanks for the offer to present the Wish-IT concept, as you noticed there is not much information available yet, we have kept a low profile so far, arranging for a lot of stuff, domains, trade marks, patents and such.
(I’m actually not a patent fan, but we considered it safer so…).

best wishes
Roland

I’m interested in these multi-touch tablets / PCs because I want to purchase one for my mom who doesn’t understand the mouse/keyboard input options, and I’m too far away from her to guide her in the beginnings of her computer usage experience. I hope that I’ll eventually be able to find a suitable screen / OS / experience for her to use as a touch-screen PC, similar to service Kiosks where the ease of use is paramount.

Roland, your idea of an eye-wear + touch-screen is a very interesting concept. Maybe bluetooth enabled finger gloves with a tracking sensor bar similar to the one used by Nintendo Wii would be user-friendly as well?

Your comment was not moderated by an editor but sometimes (very rarely) the automated spam detection system removes valid comments. We have thousands of spam comments every day and there is little we can do about it. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Geek with Laptop moderating our posts? That is kinda funny, cause I think the ‘popularity’ in our discussion section certainly warrants moderation. *eyes-roll*

Anyway.

Have you seen the new US website of Lenovo? It has been updated to show some screenshot of the new X200T that has an option of brighter screen for outdoor use, and Multi-touch as standard in anticipation of Windows 7.

You are correct though, those USB dongles are protruding parts, but Lenovo seems to include them as options in some countries, and as standard in others (Asia especially).

I used to run Mandrake and Redhat, but after going into business, I haven’t used Linux for a long time. Given how much the OS is being controlled with DRM / and other methods, it’ll be important to have other options. I might install Ubuntu on my X40 just so it can also run faster.

It is possible that my reference to what I’m doing myself (Wish-IT) could be considered advertisment, but in that case, there are certain references to e.g. Windows-7 which are also clear and unsuitable advertisments. It is a real pity that it is so hard to buy these machines (in Europe) without an operative system from that big evil company.

I also consider the last message from James about “dongles” quite desinformative, as dongles really have nothing to do on these types of machines, as they constitute protruding parts. My last message was necessary as a balance there.

Thanks about the BT hints, although I don’t consider USB dongles to go well with portable computers, as little as any protuding parts like antennas etc. I first tried with PCMCIA 3g card on my X61T, but that didn’t work, the antenna got stuck in everything, got damaged and so.
I didn’t know there were any X61 lacking BT, but in X61 there is room for BT, WLAN and WWAN cards so that’s not a problem.

I see the main problem with the X61 is the heating, as it seems as the cover is part of the cooling system. My Toshiba M200 which has a similar spec didn’t have this cooling problem, but that was built to be kept in a bag (FieldMate) when running, but the X61 seems not.

I would really like a higher resolution than 1280×800 which seems to be thu current maximum resolution on X200T. It is strange that they have lowered the resolution, and it can’t be the resolution as such, which is 140 DPI on my M200 and X61T, as there are plenty of other machines which have at least 140 DPI, all those machines with UXGA and WUXGA.

Regarding your curiosity for Windows 7 I’m sure support for multitouch will come very soon in other OS’s as well. Here is a video demonstrating some cool multitouch effects together with the 2.6.30 Linux kernel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTeUbx_nnM4

For my own I’m not so found of touching the screen at all. I have an Android G1 where some multitouch scaling was enabled in a test distro, but I can be without it, as long as it is about touching the screen on a laptop/tablet. I look forward to these things and much more when they can be done without touching any screen, but these kind of interfaces are still at the research level. With a free hand interface you can do a lot of cool stuff like measuring size/distance to objects by using your view and your fingers, but then it doesn’t work well with a screen anymore, you preferably need some type of display glasses as the computer need to see the same thing as you do.

Use http://www.newegg.com and look for

TRENDnet TBW-106UB USB 2.0 Micro-Bluetooth Adapter
or
ASUS USB-BT21 USB 2.0 Mini Bluetooth Dongle

I’m getting somewhat excited about Windows 7 though, and maybe will take a look again at the multi-touch because with Windows 7, the promise of a Lenovo + OS means the accuracy of digitizer input and also finger-licious interface aka iPhone built right into the OS.

As for your complaints, I agree wholeheartedly. Screen real estate is actually quite important in Tablet mode. Maybe the Windows 7 refresh will allow Lenovo to make some better ones.

I’m following Apple Tablets rumors, and ASUS T901 / Gigabyte Tablet Netbook developments and see if they can do what Lenovo hasn’t been able to do so far: to be a good tablet in a cheap way.

Kinda like Vlad’s too, to have X301 Tablet which would be kinda neat.

It is really a pity to see that the market is not working longer. It seems as manufacturers can arbitrary produce anything without any interest in what people really want. To only produce mainstream products is an insult of the customers. This will change soon, I promise! (we are working on it).

What is the expectation for an announced replacement for the Thinkpad x360?

Phil

Yeah, this widescreen 16:10 format I find strange for a work computer. The 4:3 format is shaped like a paper (letter or A4) and more natural. I haven’t used a wide screen tablet/laptop, but I find the idea a little weird, apart from watching movies of course, but that I prefer to do at home with big screen.

Thanks for the hint about the Outlet, even though I’m completely dependent on Bluetooth (mouse + headset), I don’t see it as a big problem, a Bluetooth card I can easily add myself (but I assume the warranty goes…) as I had to do with the WVAN card which my machine didn’t have builtin. First I used an external PCMCIA card (7.2 Mbit Option GT Max) but I had a lot of struggle with the antenna which was sticking out so I got a Sierra MC8775 mini PCI express card instead as the machine has builtin antenna.

Regarding WVAN (and WLAN) one annoying thing with Lenovo, is that you can only put the Lenovo blessed cards in the machine, which in my case means I’m limited to 3.6 Mbit/s speed, which is what Sierra MC8775 manages (they have now enabled 14 Mbit/s around here…). In my case I had first purchased a Sierra MC8775 card which didn’t have Lenovo written on it, and the BIOS refused to start the machine… so I had to buy another card, exactly the same, only visible difference it had Lenovo written on it.

Hey Roland, thanks for your reply also. I haven’t thought about the newer machines like that. I was looking at the x200t for the touchscreen capability without having to use the pen all the time, and also I read that the X61t had heating problems, which you have alluded to also in your reply.

Is the x61t that hot? What about using it in tablet mode and holding it in your arms? Does it get hot? Or is it just the same as the X40 series? That is apparently a fix Lenovo made for the x200t, but the new machine is lacking a directional pad which I like among other things. I happen to like the square screen instead of widescreen.

Did you know that on Lenovo’s website, if you go to the Outlet store link, there are still a bunch of x61t on sale at discounted price for new / never opened machines. That might be a good place for you to shop if you are still looking for a machine while available. None of them comes with Bluetooth however, which is a pain because I tend to use bluetooth to connect to my mobile for internet when I’m on the road.

Thanks again!

No, for me neither X200T nor X300T. X61T is still the one which rules. It seems as I have to get more of them when they are still available… especially if I can fit them with 8GB. I have one problem with the X61T though, it is often overheating when I carry it in the bag as the case seems to be part of the cooling. The Toshiba M200s I’ve had (and still have) have never overheated, they were constructed to be used within the case.