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Lenovo reveals 27-inch touchscreen AIO-tablet Windows 8 PC

37 points by jpxxx 14y ago

jpxxx 14y ago
I don't even know how to process this. It's 17.8 pounds with a 2 hr battery life. It runs Windows 8, but then also runs a custom UI on top when flat, but then also runs Bluestack Android apps. And it's $1700 and comes with a HDD. The optional SSD is 64GB. And the intended use case is your five year olds painting on it? WHAT.
- kenjackson 14y ago
  Actually sounds great to me. It's not meant to be something you put under your arm, but for it to be your family's main computer. And is portable within the house, e.g., set up in the kitchen or the living room -- w/o requiring power. And can also be used as a tabletop computer. I wanted a Sony Vaio Tap 20, but I may hold out for this now. The Android emulation though is not needed. Toss that.
  - SirPulse 14y ago
    We have the Sony and its a blast with the kids. Got it just in time for the holidays and with 4 kids playing on it together was fun. The apps were limited on win8 though. With android apps, I can imagine it will be even more fun!
    - jpxxx 14y ago
      In practice, does it remain stationary and tethered to the power cord? Or is the portability useful?
      - SirPulse 14y ago
        It was more fun when it was in the middle of the room with the kids playing either setback joyride or fruit ninja. Its stable on stand but only as much fun as any other desktop. (not much for the kids)
  - lighthazard 14y ago
    I agree completely. This seems like a great multi-purpose machine, not small enough to be a tablet that you have to keep close to your face, and not big enough to be a desktop that you have to leave in a single place. Offers a great screen size and multi-user interface.
  - pigas 14y ago
    Ehmm, we are speaking about 27" or 39" inch sized screens. Your kids can't take it to the other room alone.
- NZ_Matt 14y ago
  Think of this as a Desktop or even a TV replacement, it's not supposed to be an iPad competitor.
  - mikecane 14y ago
    Or think of it as a foreshadowing of a touchscreen iMac. I don't think Apple would put a battery in theirs, however. I think most people would be satisfied with just AC.
    - philwelch 14y ago
      Honestly, at some point the battery is nice just as a faux-UPS. It's one of the nice things about having a laptop that you just don't have with desktops.
    - jdh 14y ago
      Battery is nice when you kick the kids out of the dinner table and they go to another room... No shutdown reboot. Also plugged in is great at a desk but at a dining table it means a tripping hazard. No biggie but a little battery would be great.
- cageface 14y ago
  This would be amazing for a digital audio workstation. Something like Ableton Live built from the ground up to run on this would be a game changer. In fact, Uwe Schmidt, one of the most forward-thinking electronic musicians in the business, said in the mid-90s that something exactly like this would be his ideal music tool. He was just 15 years too early.
mtgx 14y ago
As Mark Shuttleworth said, no OS has ever succeeded by emulating another OS (why they chose not to build a Dalvik VM for Ubuntu phone). The fact that it runs Android apps in this way is not going to make this thing a best seller. If Android apps are the biggest part of the buying decision, then most people would just go straight to an Android device, instead of dealing with such a solution. This is why the Android emulator has also never worked for RIM (and never will).
- SirPulse 14y ago
  That is because the underlying hardware was never powerful enough to support the emulation or the emulation code was not efficient enough. With the current virtualization technology and powerful hardware, I doubt why this would not be effective.
- bryanlarsen 14y ago
  One example of an OS that succeeded by emulating another OS is OS X. It came with a well-developed OS9 emulation strategy. Even though it didn't get used very often, the existence of a smooth transition strategy was key to its success. IBM has also done fabulously well emulating various old mainframe operating systems. Emulation strategies are never the be-all and end-all, but if you want to be a "successor for X", you need to have an emulation story. Emulation, virtualization and dual-booting are a very large part of the reason of the success of OS X. A Mac is the only machine that will run OS9, OS X, Windows & Linux software. So people buy one knowing that they won't be stuck if they end up not liking OS X or needing a critical app. Then they end up staying on OS X. So to be a successor to something, you need to: 1) have an emulation or virtualization story so that people won't be afraid to switch 2) be significantly better so people end up not actually using the emulation or virtualization.
  - runn1ng 14y ago
    >A Mac is the only machine that will run OS9, OS X, Windows & Linux software. Technically, you are incorrect. You can't run OS9 on the Intel machines and you can't run Windows on PPC machines.
jxi 14y ago
Wow, who would buy this? This just doesn't make any sense to me. It's not really portable and it has terrible battery life. I would take a Mac Mini + a nice Dell screen over this any day.
- mikecane 14y ago
  But would that give you a touchscreen?
- duck 14y ago
  It is the perfect size to be portable within your house and I would think of the battery power more as a way to easily move it between rooms without having to shut it down.
- prostoalex 14y ago
  Is "Mac Mini + a nice Dell screen" really portable and does it have excellent battery life? Your criteria seem to be inconsistent.
jpxxx 14y ago
http://news.lenovo.com/news+releases/lenovo-pioneers-interpersonal-computing-with-first-table-pc.htm http://news.lenovo.com/news+releases/lenovo-pioneers-interpe... OK, found the press release. It's running Windows 8, then a custom UI shell when laying flat. Apps are from a Lenovo-rebranded Intel AppUp store, Bluestack Android, and the Windows App Store. Also includes a handful of custom electronic gameboard pieces, and it comes pre-loaded with Miscellaneous Other Stuff. Ships summer, $1,699 base price likely. This sounds like a UX apocalypse, but if everything's properly bound into the Windows 8 Metro UI, maybe it'll feel seamless. Gods, I don't know. I'd strangle for a 30" table iPad, so there has to be something to this concept. But a two inch thick iMac with a fan and HDD lying on its back? Arf.
- dgudkov 14y ago
  Where did you get information about fan? And if HDD will be solid state nothing wrong with it.
  - jpxxx 14y ago
    The marketing shows it powered by a full Intel Core-series chip, and I haven't heard of anyone successfully doing a fan-free design with anything in that family. The default HDD will be a physical HDD. A SSD is optional, at least according to the story.
Zigurd 14y ago
This is interesting, but is it usable? Do you have space on your table? Would you snuggle up on the couch to watch a movie with someone with this held between the two of you? Does it fit down your hallway without turning it sideways? Would you need a butler to carry it and hold it just right for each task? This is just an object lesson in why Windows 8 is an answer to a question nobody asked.
- jpxxx 14y ago
  This is exactly the question I want answered. The idea of a 30" piece of glass running multitouch software is intoxicating. Microsoft tried and shipped it but the units were so barkingly expensive and shitty to set up they went nowhere. Actually using one was marvelous though. A quick and dirty extrapolation of iPad's design up by 5.2X gives you 7.5 pounds (and the obligatory 10mm thickness and 10 hour battery life). This doesn't have to be a fan-driven HDD-bearing poke-ass monstrosity. There must be software experiences that are materially better at these colossal sizes. And it's clearly technically possible... but the whole Windows hardware idiom is anchoring this down into goofy territory. If it can be made "properly", does it have a place in the real world? I want the answer.
  - Zigurd 14y ago
    Two things about that: 1. And it's clearly technically possible... 2. If it can be made "properly"... Consider how hard it would be to turn any particular app that assumes a single user into one where two people can operate on the same "document" or "world" at the same time. I figure you need a UX system with that concept baked into it before you even start writing those apps.
- shmerl 14y ago
  The concept is wrong. They better start making tables with touch aware surface and built in user interface. And no Windows please.
- lotharbot 14y ago
  > "Does it fit down your hallway without turning it sideways?" Hallways in most of the US are required to be 36" wide. This should accommodate even the 39" diagonal screen currently being tested. Most of your objections-as-questions seem similarly overblown.
FiddlerClamp 14y ago
Excellent idea for boardgames and family games. I know quite a few DMs who would die for this.
- jpxxx 14y ago
  Amen. Board games, PDFs, proofs, comps, mass image review and management, oh man... the things you could do with this real estate.
  - johnpowell 14y ago
    The resolution is 1920x1080, the same as my 21" monitors.
    - supergauntlet 14y ago
      Really? I was hoping it would be 2560x1440. The 1920x1080 screen resolution really needs to stop being the only choice as far as desktops.
- jfb 14y ago
  I very much like the idea of physical tokens that are smart enough to interact with the touchscreen. That's a massively cool idea that I most definitely wish I had thought of. EDIT: Although, too little resolution. This damn rMBP has ruined me for lower pixel density screens.
azio 14y ago
They omit the part where the two little girls drop it while talking it down and breaking it into pieces.
patdennis 14y ago
Did anyone else notice how laggy the display looked when she spun the roulette wheel? I hope that's not system wide.
Zigurd 14y ago
There is an interesting part of this video that illustrates just how hard multi-user multi-touch is to do right: Note that the scene of the girls "fingerpainting" is faked. Why fake it? Drawing programs are very modal: You have one brush, with one set of properties. You have one selection you can move or operate on. One property sheet to edit. Etc. Except for games with their own interaction framework, most OSs assume one user with one selection in one document at a time. It may seem like a trivial change, but true realtime collaboration on a single screen seems to demand a UX system designed to support that.
- uptown 14y ago
  "Why fake it?" Because the shot is setup to appear as if you're looking up at the girls from inside the device.
dakimov 14y ago
A 27" touchscreen is not for work, it is for working out! I once bought a notebook with touchscreen, and even have tapped it a few times. In a while I have forgotten it had a touchscreen.
ctdonath 14y ago
I've long wanted a touchscreen desktop. Not a desktop computer like we use the term now, but as the display IS the whole desktop.
uptown 14y ago
Presumably these won't be owned by the same households as those in the Chromebook commercials ... where people are stepping on the computer, and tossing spaghetti about? A 27" screen with a narrow hinge holding it up that's designed to be pressed by children? What could possibly go wrong?
- eliben 14y ago
  No, that would be the richer variant of those families. Chromebooks go for $200. $1700 for this beast is a whole different league.
zem 14y ago
sounds like it would be nice to build into a desk (i.e. have a recessed cavity in the desktop so that the touchscreen is flat with the surface of the desk). you could do the "office of the future" thing the science fiction movies are always speculating about.
wiradikusuma 14y ago
the guy laid down the device while holding his coffee. i wonder what protection they put for coffee spills. and they put it on the floor, how strong is it if kids accidentally step on it?
dragonbonheur 14y ago
I know this will get downvoted but judging from the comments, we've reached a point where self-proclaimed geeks (from the Apple camp, the one that's supposed to think differently) just can't handle innovation... Downvote away (fan)boys...
Tloewald 14y ago
Anyone want to bet this actually ships?

37 points by jpxxx 14y ago

jpxxx 14y ago

I don't even know how to process this. It's 17.8 pounds with a 2 hr battery life. It runs Windows 8, but then also runs a custom UI on top when flat, but then also runs Bluestack Android apps. And it's $1700 and comes with a HDD. The optional SSD is 64GB. And the intended use case is your five year olds painting on it? WHAT.

kenjackson 14y ago
Actually sounds great to me. It's not meant to be something you put under your arm, but for it to be your family's main computer. And is portable within the house, e.g., set up in the kitchen or the living room -- w/o requiring power. And can also be used as a tabletop computer. I wanted a Sony Vaio Tap 20, but I may hold out for this now. The Android emulation though is not needed. Toss that.
- SirPulse 14y ago
  We have the Sony and its a blast with the kids. Got it just in time for the holidays and with 4 kids playing on it together was fun. The apps were limited on win8 though. With android apps, I can imagine it will be even more fun!
  - jpxxx 14y ago
    In practice, does it remain stationary and tethered to the power cord? Or is the portability useful?
    - SirPulse 14y ago
      It was more fun when it was in the middle of the room with the kids playing either setback joyride or fruit ninja. Its stable on stand but only as much fun as any other desktop. (not much for the kids)
- lighthazard 14y ago
  I agree completely. This seems like a great multi-purpose machine, not small enough to be a tablet that you have to keep close to your face, and not big enough to be a desktop that you have to leave in a single place. Offers a great screen size and multi-user interface.
- pigas 14y ago
  Ehmm, we are speaking about 27" or 39" inch sized screens. Your kids can't take it to the other room alone.
NZ_Matt 14y ago
Think of this as a Desktop or even a TV replacement, it's not supposed to be an iPad competitor.
- mikecane 14y ago
  Or think of it as a foreshadowing of a touchscreen iMac. I don't think Apple would put a battery in theirs, however. I think most people would be satisfied with just AC.
  - philwelch 14y ago
    Honestly, at some point the battery is nice just as a faux-UPS. It's one of the nice things about having a laptop that you just don't have with desktops.
  - jdh 14y ago
    Battery is nice when you kick the kids out of the dinner table and they go to another room... No shutdown reboot. Also plugged in is great at a desk but at a dining table it means a tripping hazard. No biggie but a little battery would be great.
cageface 14y ago
This would be amazing for a digital audio workstation. Something like Ableton Live built from the ground up to run on this would be a game changer. In fact, Uwe Schmidt, one of the most forward-thinking electronic musicians in the business, said in the mid-90s that something exactly like this would be his ideal music tool. He was just 15 years too early.

mtgx 14y ago

As Mark Shuttleworth said, no OS has ever succeeded by emulating another OS (why they chose not to build a Dalvik VM for Ubuntu phone). The fact that it runs Android apps in this way is not going to make this thing a best seller. If Android apps are the biggest part of the buying decision, then most people would just go straight to an Android device, instead of dealing with such a solution. This is why the Android emulator has also never worked for RIM (and never will).

SirPulse 14y ago
That is because the underlying hardware was never powerful enough to support the emulation or the emulation code was not efficient enough. With the current virtualization technology and powerful hardware, I doubt why this would not be effective.
bryanlarsen 14y ago
One example of an OS that succeeded by emulating another OS is OS X. It came with a well-developed OS9 emulation strategy. Even though it didn't get used very often, the existence of a smooth transition strategy was key to its success. IBM has also done fabulously well emulating various old mainframe operating systems. Emulation strategies are never the be-all and end-all, but if you want to be a "successor for X", you need to have an emulation story. Emulation, virtualization and dual-booting are a very large part of the reason of the success of OS X. A Mac is the only machine that will run OS9, OS X, Windows & Linux software. So people buy one knowing that they won't be stuck if they end up not liking OS X or needing a critical app. Then they end up staying on OS X. So to be a successor to something, you need to: 1) have an emulation or virtualization story so that people won't be afraid to switch 2) be significantly better so people end up not actually using the emulation or virtualization.
- runn1ng 14y ago
  >A Mac is the only machine that will run OS9, OS X, Windows & Linux software. Technically, you are incorrect. You can't run OS9 on the Intel machines and you can't run Windows on PPC machines.

jxi 14y ago

Wow, who would buy this? This just doesn't make any sense to me. It's not really portable and it has terrible battery life. I would take a Mac Mini + a nice Dell screen over this any day.

mikecane 14y ago
But would that give you a touchscreen?
duck 14y ago
It is the perfect size to be portable within your house and I would think of the battery power more as a way to easily move it between rooms without having to shut it down.
prostoalex 14y ago
Is "Mac Mini + a nice Dell screen" really portable and does it have excellent battery life? Your criteria seem to be inconsistent.

jpxxx 14y ago

http://news.lenovo.com/news+releases/lenovo-pioneers-interpersonal-computing-with-first-table-pc.htm http://news.lenovo.com/news+releases/lenovo-pioneers-interpe... OK, found the press release. It's running Windows 8, then a custom UI shell when laying flat. Apps are from a Lenovo-rebranded Intel AppUp store, Bluestack Android, and the Windows App Store. Also includes a handful of custom electronic gameboard pieces, and it comes pre-loaded with Miscellaneous Other Stuff. Ships summer, $1,699 base price likely. This sounds like a UX apocalypse, but if everything's properly bound into the Windows 8 Metro UI, maybe it'll feel seamless. Gods, I don't know. I'd strangle for a 30" table iPad, so there has to be something to this concept. But a two inch thick iMac with a fan and HDD lying on its back? Arf.

dgudkov 14y ago
Where did you get information about fan? And if HDD will be solid state nothing wrong with it.
- jpxxx 14y ago
  The marketing shows it powered by a full Intel Core-series chip, and I haven't heard of anyone successfully doing a fan-free design with anything in that family. The default HDD will be a physical HDD. A SSD is optional, at least according to the story.

Zigurd 14y ago

This is interesting, but is it usable? Do you have space on your table? Would you snuggle up on the couch to watch a movie with someone with this held between the two of you? Does it fit down your hallway without turning it sideways? Would you need a butler to carry it and hold it just right for each task? This is just an object lesson in why Windows 8 is an answer to a question nobody asked.

jpxxx 14y ago
This is exactly the question I want answered. The idea of a 30" piece of glass running multitouch software is intoxicating. Microsoft tried and shipped it but the units were so barkingly expensive and shitty to set up they went nowhere. Actually using one was marvelous though. A quick and dirty extrapolation of iPad's design up by 5.2X gives you 7.5 pounds (and the obligatory 10mm thickness and 10 hour battery life). This doesn't have to be a fan-driven HDD-bearing poke-ass monstrosity. There must be software experiences that are materially better at these colossal sizes. And it's clearly technically possible... but the whole Windows hardware idiom is anchoring this down into goofy territory. If it can be made "properly", does it have a place in the real world? I want the answer.
- Zigurd 14y ago
  Two things about that: 1. And it's clearly technically possible... 2. If it can be made "properly"... Consider how hard it would be to turn any particular app that assumes a single user into one where two people can operate on the same "document" or "world" at the same time. I figure you need a UX system with that concept baked into it before you even start writing those apps.
shmerl 14y ago
The concept is wrong. They better start making tables with touch aware surface and built in user interface. And no Windows please.
lotharbot 14y ago
> "Does it fit down your hallway without turning it sideways?" Hallways in most of the US are required to be 36" wide. This should accommodate even the 39" diagonal screen currently being tested. Most of your objections-as-questions seem similarly overblown.

FiddlerClamp 14y ago

Excellent idea for boardgames and family games. I know quite a few DMs who would die for this.

jpxxx 14y ago
Amen. Board games, PDFs, proofs, comps, mass image review and management, oh man... the things you could do with this real estate.
- johnpowell 14y ago
  The resolution is 1920x1080, the same as my 21" monitors.
  - supergauntlet 14y ago
    Really? I was hoping it would be 2560x1440. The 1920x1080 screen resolution really needs to stop being the only choice as far as desktops.
jfb 14y ago
I very much like the idea of physical tokens that are smart enough to interact with the touchscreen. That's a massively cool idea that I most definitely wish I had thought of. EDIT: Although, too little resolution. This damn rMBP has ruined me for lower pixel density screens.

azio 14y ago

They omit the part where the two little girls drop it while talking it down and breaking it into pieces.

patdennis 14y ago

Did anyone else notice how laggy the display looked when she spun the roulette wheel? I hope that's not system wide.

Zigurd 14y ago

There is an interesting part of this video that illustrates just how hard multi-user multi-touch is to do right: Note that the scene of the girls "fingerpainting" is faked. Why fake it? Drawing programs are very modal: You have one brush, with one set of properties. You have one selection you can move or operate on. One property sheet to edit. Etc. Except for games with their own interaction framework, most OSs assume one user with one selection in one document at a time. It may seem like a trivial change, but true realtime collaboration on a single screen seems to demand a UX system designed to support that.

uptown 14y ago
"Why fake it?" Because the shot is setup to appear as if you're looking up at the girls from inside the device.

dakimov 14y ago

A 27" touchscreen is not for work, it is for working out! I once bought a notebook with touchscreen, and even have tapped it a few times. In a while I have forgotten it had a touchscreen.

ctdonath 14y ago

I've long wanted a touchscreen desktop. Not a desktop computer like we use the term now, but as the display IS the whole desktop.

uptown 14y ago

Presumably these won't be owned by the same households as those in the Chromebook commercials ... where people are stepping on the computer, and tossing spaghetti about? A 27" screen with a narrow hinge holding it up that's designed to be pressed by children? What could possibly go wrong?

eliben 14y ago
No, that would be the richer variant of those families. Chromebooks go for $200. $1700 for this beast is a whole different league.

zem 14y ago

sounds like it would be nice to build into a desk (i.e. have a recessed cavity in the desktop so that the touchscreen is flat with the surface of the desk). you could do the "office of the future" thing the science fiction movies are always speculating about.

wiradikusuma 14y ago

the guy laid down the device while holding his coffee. i wonder what protection they put for coffee spills. and they put it on the floor, how strong is it if kids accidentally step on it?

dragonbonheur 14y ago

I know this will get downvoted but judging from the comments, we've reached a point where self-proclaimed geeks (from the Apple camp, the one that's supposed to think differently) just can't handle innovation... Downvote away (fan)boys...

Tloewald 14y ago

Anyone want to bet this actually ships?