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At CES I saw several really drool-worthy products, but the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga was among the best, no question, no hesitation. When the company demoed it for us the first time I was immediately impressed and also immediately aware that I needed one of my own.
This isn’t the first time I’ve had this reaction to a Lenovo product. And I’ve been burned in the past. I’ve seen some amazing notebooks and tablets teased and promised at CES only to receive news later that they wouldn’t be coming to market, after all. They swear this is not the case for the Yoga; it’s just waiting for Windows 8 before it can ship to customers. I begrudgingly believe them.
After we saw the Yoga, Josh Smith (my colleague at GottaBeMobile) found an old post on the site from 2009 showing off a Lenovo Yoga that looked very different. It was just a concept design back then, but it shared the dual notebook/tablet nature and the hinge that allowed it to fold all the way back. Further delving into tags revealed an even older Yoga design from 2005 — it actually won an award — that looks very similar in design to what we have now.
You can see all the pictures I found over on the Gadget Porn Tumblr. (Yes, that’s also one of mine.)
Seeing that there was a Yoga all the way back in 2005 yet the product didn’t become a solid reality until 2012 makes me feel better about the Lenovo notebooks I’ve loved and lost. Two years in a row Lenovo showed off the IdeaPad U1 Hybrid, a combo tablet and 11-inch notebook that was actually two computers in one. The display bit would detach and become a tablet — first running Linux, then running Android — with its own CPU, memory, battery, and ports. When attached to the keyboard base it switched to Windows, again with separate memory, ports, battery and so forth.
I wanted this thing so bad, my friends. Lenovo never did bring it out in America, though, because they couldn’t get the hinge/connector up to snuff (so I hear). Even I could tell that this was the weakest point of the design. Still, some of the devices I saw this year gave me hope that the company could get over that hurdle if they so desired.
Another product I’ve always mourned is the Lenovo Skylight. This was meant to be a smartbook, back when smartbooks were deemed a viable notebook category. Here’s a primer if you care, but the basics are that they were meant to be inexpensive notebooks running lightweight operating systems like Windows CE, Android, or similar that acted like smartphones. They’d sleep instead of tuning off, resume instantly, and stay thin thanks to the components inside.
Putting aside the smartbookness of it, the Lenovo Skylight was is one of the best looking laptops I’ve ever seen. It’s not just thin and light, but crafted and designed so well that you instantly want it, no matter what it’s running or what the limitations. The company even brought in the guy who designed the original ThinkPads to create this thing of beauty.
The whole smartbook thing didn’t last. In fact, I don’t think any ever came out. It’s a shame because smartbooks are what netbooks were supposed to be before mainstream consumers started giving their opinions. Anyway, back in 2010 I asked a Lenovo exec if the Skylight was truly dead, because I felt that it would be such a shame if so. He told me: Not quite. Somewhere in the bowels of the company someone still cares about the Skylight.
Given what’s going on with the laptop category right now, I suspect that it’ll be reborn as an ultrabook. As of right now it’s too thin to deal with the components (I think…) but perhaps when the next generation of Intel chips comes out the Skylight can live again. I can also see the U1 Hybrid making a reappearance as a Windows 8 tablet hybrid.
Hopefully it won’t be another 5 years before I see these products again. But if they rises from the ashes as amazing as the Yoga is today, I won’t grumble about the wait too much.
If you’ve seen some of Sony’s latest commercials you may have noted that Justin Timberlake is shilling for them these days. So it’s natural that they’d sponsor the William Rast[1] show at Fashion Week. Thus I got to attend the show and sit in fancy VIP seats right behind one of the most powerful fashion editors evar[2]. Also, Jessica Biel was apparently there.
It was actually very cool. Having never been to a runway show I was only vaguely aware of what to expect. I thought it would be longer, but it was only 20 minutes, maybe, from start to finish. The models walked very quickly down the runways and there were about 30 pieces overall. The idea of the line had something to do with nomads and “New America” and reflecting biker culture, the midwest, trees, mountains, and deserts. I guess I saw that. The AP has some images.
What I mostly fixated on was the number of raccoon and fox tails sewn to the outfits in odd places. Like the shoulder or the hip. Also, coon-skin hats ala Daniel Boone. Yes, I am serious. There was a lot of denim, of course, and lots of leather. Lots of fur and skin as if these poor models spent their days hunting small animals for food and clothing. Except they aren’t particularly good hunters because they looked awfully hungry.
It was amazing to me the looks on the models faces. The practiced disdain and the blank eyes must take years to perfect. I kept thinking of this Daria episode where Quinn takes a modeling class and the instructor tells the girls how to look when walking down a runway.
All right, ladies, your worst enemy is at the end of the catwalk. The one who stole your boyfriend. She has fallen and broken her leg. Your job is to tell her — without words — that you’ve come to watch them cut it off!
When you stride down the runway, you’re walking towards your car. You’ve spotted a headless corpse in it… and it’s a brand new car!
Anyway, back to the clothes. If you follow my Twitter feed you’re probably aware of my initial impressions. Dudes in Jack Harkness coats came down the runway first, then some dudes in Vampire Lestat fluffy shirts came down, then a dude wearing a Jack Harkness coat over a Lestat shirt showed up. The one-shoulder capes were interesting but I felt they would unnaturally imbalance me. And, of course, the raccoon tails.
If I were to guess, I’d say that if you spent a three day weekend watching all three series of Torchwood with a break for Interview With The Vampire in-between then fell asleep on AMC showing old Daniel Boone flicks, you might wake up, grab a pencil, and create this year’s William Rast line. These are not bad influences to have. I would actually buy some of those coats and jeans, but I’d remove the tails.
It was a fun night and I’d definitely go to another fashion event if invited. The Sony people were incredibly cool and treated us well. Plus, I met a new friend. What more could I ask?
Notes
Barbie is a Computer Engineer and I’m covering a toy convention — has the world turned upside down!? Not quite. Not yet, anyway.
Thanks to all of you who answered my call (and a bunch of other techy, geeky, engineer-y women out there) Mattel was so overwhelmed with votes for Barbie as Computer Engineer that they made her alongside the historic 125th career: News Anchor. I think computer techs are far more awesome than news people, unless that newsperson is Rachel Maddow. But I digress.
Computer Engineer Barbie comes with a laptop, smartphone, Bluetooth headset and a fancy bag to carry her laptop in. Awesome, right? No pink cable, though. Boo. Her shirt has binary code on it, though!
Over at LAPTOP’s blog we’re asking folks to tell us what notebook you think Barbie is carrying. To write that post I had to research pink laptops. And I discovered that there’s such a thing as the Pink Laptop Blog. Yes.
Anyway, I will get a chance to see this doll in person soon as I’m covering ToyFair for the magazine. Usually we go there in search of tech toys but I think a profile of this Barbie is in order, don’t you? I’m actually looking forward to the fair a lot. I still love toys and I’m looking forward to seeing what crazy shapes USB drives are coming in this year.
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