What makes a ThinkPad special... a few models in the spotlight.

True. I was thinking about what advtange it has over a standard tablet, and I'm not sure. Are tablets very good at recognizing handwriting? Because I could see the paper version being good to have as a backup.

Does the Transnote simply copy what you write over onto the computer, or does it turn it into typed font like a modern tablet can? If it converts it over to typed font, it might be nice during a trial - it's somehow easier to keep track of in-the-moment notes as they are taken on a piece of paper for near-immediate reference, but if you unexpectedly get pushed into the next day it might be nice to have a digitized (and therefore cleaner) version to ponder over during your newfound time. That and in a long and complex case I could see how it would be nice to be able to go back over your in-the-moment scribblings in a typed format as they come to amount dozens of pages.

Heck, I just may have convinced myself to buy one of these. Any known issues?

 

I am not sure about these Transnote, they were released a while back. I would think you would have trouble sourcing a working battery for these machines.

Just get something called digital notepad, it functions pretty much the same as the Transnote's paper notepad section.

Pen Computing Magazine: IBM ThinkPad TransNote

 

A USB digital notepad can be had for under $100 it seems. Sheesh, there is a whole world out there I don't even know about.

 

The technology developed in the Transnote between IBM and Cross, is what gave rise to the Digital Notepad.

 

And yet Lenovo doesn't appear to make one...disappointing, or am I missing it?

 

As i have said the market for such product would be limited as it would be both expensive and limited in features over the regular tablet thinkpad. Lenovo right now is more focused in competing with other Tier one competitors in moving more products and gaining greater marketshare.

Basically, Lenovo is weary of releasing an expensive product without enough consumer demand. Cost and benefits analysis would kill any of these fancy products even during the conception stage.

Finally, IBM is one of the most research intensive companies in the world, not really do it sells products and services, it also sells the technology it develops to third party companies.

IBM has the capability to design CPU (xbox 360, PS3, etc), Supercomputers clusters, etc. Lenovo is just a computer company. The whole business dynamic would be extremely different.

It is like asking a struggling working class family to live like Hollywood movie stars...

 

I think we're talking past each other. I meant a digital notepad made by Lenovo, not a whole computer like the TransNote. I'd like a digital Think-notepad, but I guess barring that I'll dig around through the myriad of digital notepad offerings and see if I can figure out which one is good.

 

Given that you have no idea that the digital notepad exists, i think lenovo would have to do a lot of marketing to explain this new product (relatively speaking) and in which case the RRP would also rise. Other digital notepad maker is just going to ride the crest of the marketing wave created by Lenovo without spending a dime. Then, Lenovo sells a few of their products for 200 to 300 dollars a piece, while other companies that benefited from Lenovo's marketing spend nothing and sells their product for 100 dollars.

i think Lenovo wouldn't succeed in this case.

I have had about 2 of these digital notepad, and from personal opinion they have the same quality, which is pretty bad. You really have to put them in a hard casing, they break easily.

 

Hmmm....now I'm less excited by this technology lol. Reading they need to be in a case is all it took.
To be honest though, Lenovo wouldn't have to make it, just give it some Think-branding, and from the sounds of it some magnesium.

 

as far as i know there is only a selected few manufacturers for these digital notepad, if it was magnesium i would gladly stump for 300 dollars. The 200 AUD one that my friend got was some cheap recycled plastic that cracked after 2 months, he got it replaced under warranty, but the plastic clipper broke, and after all the saga he got a secondhand Thinkpad Tablet X200t instead.

 

Ah, my bad. I think I got it confused with the addition of the Roll Cage in the T61's lid? Thanks for the correction

 

I think the TransNote was a refreshing concept. Just like I think the more simple concept of the IdeaPad U1 is refreshing.

I probably wouldn't buy one as I am a notebook kind of guy, but I like the fact that these special concepts are introduced from time to time, just to let people know they are thinking out of the box.

You don't need to be Big Blue to be able to do so. Innovation does not always have to be an extremely costly and high level affair.

 

Innovation does not need to be costly, but it does depend on technology (this could be designers and technicians) and management available. Sometimes innovation are stymied by over bureaucratic and short term profit driven management style within the corporation .

Innovation must be ingrained into the corporate management styles, otherwise many good innovation would never get off the ground.