Boox Note 2 Plus-New Morning Routine

I had stopped bringing home my notebook quite a while ago so accessing information before leaving the house to go to the office had become very cumbersome. Now with my new Boox Note 2 Plus, I have been able to reestablish some of the routines that used to do when I had a working tablet computer in my hands.

I still like the android access to Outlook on my phone better than the town with even though they are very similar. Having color is that of just a black-and-white image is positive in this case. It’s also easier to differentiate what I’ve read an email not on the phone compared to reading it on the Note 2 Plus.

As I stated in an earlier article my primary notetaking application has become the Office 365 OneNote application. My main use for the OneNote application is daily task management and uses it throughout the day to keep track of what I need to do as well as what I have done. This makes it a very easy method for documenting things that I need to enter our ticketing program to support our customers. In conjunction with my workstation running the OneNote application I can easily move a task from one day to another as needed. I come here second because I will take any requests that come in through email and add them to my task list for the day at this time.

I like reading the newspaper digitally rather than the actual paper newspaper that my wife gets so I scan the paper for any new and interesting topics I need to be aware of in local, state, national and of course sports.

The last thing that I access is a program that consolidates my RSS feeds into a quick listing that I can grab for later reading. The program I use is called Feedly. And I capture those articles I want to read at a later time with a program called GetPocket. The thing I like about GetPocket is that it strips out all the advertising from the webpages makes it much easier to read. I can then share that information if I need to with other people through social media or emailing them the link to the article itself.

And that’s my daily routine that is changed because of this new device.

The Yoga 920 Limited Edition Product Tour

Yoga 920 is boldly individual. Now with pen compatibility, it’s our most versatile Yoga 9 series to date. We’ve kept our iconic watchband hinge, upgraded our processor to the latest 8th gen Intel Core i7 U, and introduced 360 degree immersive sound with Dolby Atmos. And we’ve wrapped all of this in a sleek redesign: get yours in bronze, copper, platinum, or limited edition Vibes design with Gorilla Glass (subject to availability). Learn more here: https://www.lenovo.com

Its great that they added the thunderbolt USB3c connectors to it.

Lenovo has released the Miix 520

Pretty impressed with the updates.

Type. Touch. Draw. Speak. Go. The Miix 520 detachable flexes to meet your every need. Grab the Lenovo Active Pen 2 and unleash your creativity. Or leave handwritten edits on a Word document. Scan your surroundings in 3D to help you with your latest home redesign. Stay connected with optional LTE. Miix 520 was built to help you explore new levels of productivity, and deliver an enhanced entertainment experience. Don’t know where to begin? Just ask Cortana. Thanks to our far field mics, she can now respond to you from across the room. Learn more here: https://www.lenovo.com

Microsoft blocking Linux Installations through agreements with some Laptop Makers

Lenovo is one of the laptop makers that is under an agreement with Microsoft to prevent the replacement of the Windows 10 signature edition operating system with one of your choice such as Linux. The Lenovo Yoga 900 S and Yoga 710 S both have this operating system installed on them and as per a Lenovo spokesperson it has been locked up with regards to Lenovo's agreement with Microsoft.

The primary issue with these models is that they are using a proprietary soft-RAID program that cannot be recognized by Linux installers. You can’t change the SATA controller mode in the BIOS setup as well. Windows installers won’t work as well without the special installer drivers from Lenovo. So Lenovo with these models has guaranteed that they only can be used in their designed configurations.

Lenovo has since gone into full damage control and denial. It removed the thread from its support forums (view a cached copy), and even changed its explanation from "we blatantly admitted to anti-competitive practices that could cost us a billion-dollar class-action lawsuit" to "we simply don't have drivers for our deliberately unusual RAID setup."

While this article sounds negative, for most of us this isn’t a big deal because we use the computer as a tool as it was designed to be used. But for those of you that like to play, these models are not the ones to purchase.

Lenovo’s 910 looks like it will be a really nice Executive Ultrabook

You are going to have to wait until October to get your hands on this really nice system but it looks like it will offer some really nice specs. This model is based on the new Intel Kaby Lake  processor series. You have an option in display with either a 4K screen or you can opt down to the 1080p model which will give you better battery life at around 15. 5 hours vs. 10 hours with the 4K. That is still bad either.

It has a 13.9 inch screen riding on Lenovo’s piano hinge technology so it can rotate 360 degrees to give you a really big tablet screen at just under 14 inches. You can configure Lenovo's new Yoga 910 with up to 16GB of RAM, 1TB of PCIe-based SSD storage, a fingerprint reader, 2 x USB Type-C ports (1 x USB 3.0, and 1 x USB 2.0 with charging support). This series will start at $1299 and configured with the above it will probably put a pretty big dent in your pocketbook.

Looking for a really light, thin ultrabook?

Acer is releasing a new line of notebooks soon based on Intel’s new Kaby Lake processor. They are calling the new series of notebooks Swift and their flagship model looks really nice. Built with an aluminum case, the Swift 7 model is just 9.98mm’s thick, has a 13.3 inch IPS screen that sports 1920x1080 resolution and weighs in at 2.48 pounds.

Priced at $999, this ultrabook is based on the Kaby Lake i5-7300U processor, has 8gb’s of RAM and a 256GB SSD. It also has two USB 3.1 Type-C ports and for connectivity, a T2R 802.11ac with MU-MIMO wireless adapter.

All in all it looks like a pretty nice system for under $1000’s.

We had a great visit with Sam Liebl from Lenovo today

We were able to discuss many ways that we can provide our customers with products and services from Lenovo and how we can fine the best deals for you on the products that you are looking for. We have been having a great year with them and it is primarily because of the wonderful support we have been receiving throughout the process of determining the best product for the best price and support possible. We love the new Flex-3 notebooks that we currently have on the floor and apparently so do our clients. They are priced well, are light and ease to work with and provide you with a wide range ways to work with the notebook, whether it is in the typical notebook mode, tented, or as a tablet. It’s a great choice for a well built notebook for all-around business use.

Jessy just came back from a Lenovo conference in Florida so he is full of some very useful information that you should really take advantage of.  Be sure to give us a call and, Hey!, stop by and see what we have on the floor.

Lenovo ThinkPad 10 Ultrabook and Keyboard Video Demos

Lenovo Posted their Ultrabook Keyboard Video (below) and I though it would be a good idea to also include the video describing the ThinkPad 10 Ultrabook as well.

First Look: ThinkPad 10 Tablet

First Look: ThinkPad 10 Keyboard

Lenovo Yoga Demo

Lenovo Miix 2 Demo Video

Lenovo Helix Demo Video

ASUS' Transformer Book Duet–Dual Identity

If you are not sure whether you want a tablet or notebook, whether you want to use it with Android or Microsoft Windows then maybe this will help you with that decision. The Asus Transformer Book Duet TD300 is a 13.3 inch PC with dual OS. It is a tablet that comes bundled with a keyboard dock that has its own hard drive and ports. The real interesting thing about this unit is that it will run both Android 4.2 and Windows 8.1 on the fly whether you are in tablet mode or laptop mode.

This is a pretty nice little machine running an Intel Core I7 processor, 4GB RAM, 13.3 inch screen that supports 1,920 x 1,080 resolution, 128GB SSD in the tablet and 1TB hard drive in the keyboard. The unit weighs in at 4.1 pounds which is a little heavy for an UltraBook, and is about half an inch thick. This is very comparable to a Surface Pro 2 in weight but a little thicker. There’s also the usual array of extras, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 + EDR, a headphone jack, 1 x USB 3.0, 2 x USB 2.0, 10/100Mbit/s LAN, an HDMI 1.4 output, and support for MicroSD cards.

The real kicker here is that ability for the unit to instantly switch between Android and Windows 8.1. That’s nice for those of us that need to be able to switch back and forth at a whim but it doesn’t sound like they will include some of the nice features of the Samsung Ativ Q which allows you to pin Android apps to the Windows Start Screen. Starting at $599 this looks like it might be very interesting indeed. There has not been a launch date as of yet but this looks like a nice alternative to having two different devices.

Toshiba Chromebook

Now Toshiba is getting into the Chromebook market with a 13.3” Haswell system. Proposed price is $279 and will sport a dual-core Celeron, 2GB of RAM, dual-band 802.11n WiFi, (2) USB 3.0, (1) HDMI, (1) card reader port and 16GB SSD which puts its specs on the same level as most of the Haswell Chomebooks on the market at the moment. Some other models have up to 4GB of RAM but since Chrome is not a memory intensive operating system having a little less probably won’t matter. Rated at 9 hours of battery life will make this a very useful during a hardworking day.

Toshiba is hoping to differentiate itself from their competitors by offering a 13.3 inch screen as compared to most of the other units at 11 inches. The display resolution will be about the same, 1366x768, a larger screen will probably help with productivity. You know, as we get older, the bigger the characters the better. Weight is in between 11 inch and 14 inch systems being just over 3 pounds. If you are looking at purchasing a Chromebook this might be a good option. Should become available around February 16th.

FAA easing ban on electronics during takeoff, landing

Interesting article from arstechnica:

The words "please stow all electronic devices" may soon disappear from the scripts of flight attendants. The Federal Aviation Administration is poised to lift its ban on the use of electronic devices aboard airline flights at elevations under 10,000 feet. It would also allow the use of e-readers, iPods, tablets, and phones in "airplane" mode even during take-offs and landings. The Wall Street Journal reports that the FAA is circulating a draft set of recommendations from an advisory panel that recommends relaxing the bans. Use of cell phones during flight would still be banned.

The report acknowledges that technology has changed dramatically since the FAA originally placed the ban on electronic devices during takeoff and landing back in the 1960s, when there were valid concerns about interference to aircraft communications from personal radios and other electronics. The panel also admitted that having airlines each evaluate the safety of individual electronic devices before allowing them to be left on at low altitude "has become untenable." Passengers are widely ignoring the ban already, and the FAA advisory panel's report cited research that showed a third of airline passengers had "accidentally" left a device turned on for entire flights at least once.

An FAA spokeswoman sent a statement to the Wall Street Journal that said that the FAA "recognizes consumers are intensely interested in the use of personal electronics aboard aircraft, that is why we tasked a government-industry group to examine the safety issues and the feasibility of changing the current restrictions. At the group's request, the FAA has granted the two-month extension to complete the additional work necessary for the safety assessment."

New Samsung ATIV Q hybrid Notebook/Tablet

So you need Windows for the office and Android for your entertainment, huh? This new tablet from Samsung may just fit the bill. At Samsung’s London event today they showed this new tablet that is very interesting with a high resolution display, low weight and both Android and Windows 8 installed on the unit.

Brent Rose of Gizmodo wrote:

ATIV Q

Samsung's most interesting tablet-type thing is a double-hybrid freak of a device. It has a keyboard that is connected by a rather versatile hinge. It can fold all the way flat against the back so you can use it as a straight up tablet, you can use it as a normal laptop, you can type with having the screen magically floating above your fingers, or you can use it as a stand.

But why is it a double-hybrid? Because it runs Windows 8 AND Android. I guess that's one way to solve the lack of good tablet apps in the Windows 8 ecosystem. The tablet can switch back and forth between modes, and while it won't share settings or apps, at least you can share files and folders back and forth. It will be running a full version of Windows 8 (not RT) and Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean) with the Google Play Store and all.

Switching back and forth between operating systems looks lighting fast. Just the press of a single button. No booting or anything. It looked extremely seamless. You can also add Android apps to the Windows 8 homescreen for quick access, which is handy.

The other highlight on the ATIV Q is the touchscreen. It's at 13.3 inch gHD+ display, which comes in at 3200 x 1800 pixels. At 275 pixels per inch that bests even the screen on the Google Pixel (239 PPI). Samsung claims that it's "the world's highest resolution display," has a 170-degree viewing angle, and is clearly viewable in bright sunlight. Very impressive looking.

The ATIV Q comes running Intel's latest and greatest Haswell processor, which means it should be mighty fast, and it also comes with an S Pen, so the graphic design crowd should be able to really take advantage of all those pixels.

The ATIV Q comes in at 0.54 inches thick and weighs 2.84 pounds. That's pretty fat n' heavy for a tablet. But for a laptop-hybrid thing? Well, maybe that's not so bad. No word on U.S. It bears mentioning that this entirely dissimilar from Acer's R7 hybrid, though the ATIV 8 certainly wins in on the resolution and processor front.

Will Windows 8.1be enough to begin Windows 8 adoption?

Two of the biggest complaints I keep hearing from users is that Windows 8 doesn’t look like Windows and where is the Start button? I know that anything new always has a hard row ahead of it but the antagonism associated with the Start Screen and the loss of the Start Button has been vicious. I haven’t completed moving over entirely to Window 8 myself but I do have it running on my laptop and I have become quite comfortable with it. Though I don’t have a touch screen on the notebook to take advantage of the what that brings to the table, I have played with tablets that do and if I were to purchase a Windows 8 notebook I wouldn’t do so without it having a touchscreen. You just lose too much function without it.

With Windows 8 booting to the Start Screen doesn’t bother me at all, it does cause me to one extra step every time I boot up to jump to the regular desktop where I do all my work.When the free Windows 8.1 update comes out that will provide a choice of booting to the desktop, this will satisfy one of the complaints that most new users have with it not looking like Windows. On a tablet device the Start Screen is probably more desirable  but in a world where users are trying to be productive and get some work done, this is not the case.

Microsoft’s constant drive to make your experience simpler when using the Windows interface initially makes it harder to change to the simplicity of new Start Screen interface. On a desktop computer that has a keyboard as its primary input interface you can just type the word of the action or program that you are looking for and that immediately brings up a list of things that meet the criteria you are typing in.  I am a touch typist and I find this feature very useful. On Windows 7 I used the Windows Key to jump to the search bar within the Start Button a lot to find things and to launch programs and now if I am on the desktop I can do the same thing to jump to the Start Screen and begin my search in the same manner. Once you think of the Start Screen as the growth of the natural evolution of the contents of the Start Button than the new changes begin to make sense. The Start Screen becomes a more customizable palette for you to access many of the p[programs and utilities that were once found only on your Start Menu. But does Microsoft tell you this?

In a recent Redmond Channel Partner article by Kurt Mackie, many of the new networking features of Windows 8.1 were revealed and they are really sounding pretty interesting. Many of these new features will require adoption of the technology by other device manufacturers to be able to use these new networking functions and only time will tell if they will do this. If the do great but for now it is useless. Tethering will become a big function as well but again, there will be limited use of this function beyond turning your Windows phone into a hotspot I would think unless you are connecting your notebook wired into your internet connection and wanting to then piggy back your Wi-Fi devices on to it to have a sharable hotspot.Read Kurt’s article to find out more about some of the new BYOD Features and Security Features that are being shown at TechEd Conference last week.

Windows 8 touch PC demand strong

I am seeing quite a few posts lately stating that they are starting to see a demand trend towards Windows 8 machines with touchscreens. Personally I wouldn’t want a PC running Windows 8 without a touchscreen because the ability to have direct interaction with the screen greatly enhances the Windows 8 experience.

We have recently set up a four screen set up in our showroom (see the picture to the right) and it turned out beautifully. We also have an All-in-One touchscreen and even though I like looking at the four screen setup I find the touchscreen on the All-in-One to be more enjoyable to use. I can only see this as getting more important to a user when the have a laptop, convertible or tablet with Windows 8 on it.

There are some reports of touchscreen shortages that are attributed to this demand. In general a touchscreen device is more expensive than a non-touchscreen one, which tells us that people really want this capability in their new purchases. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues and if the touchscreen products will start to be produced in greater quantity and hopefully the prices will start to come down.

Let me know your thoughts!

Interesting review on the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 inch

Lenovo is definitely giving us many options with Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro machines and here is one more example. Since CES I have been drooling over this design probably only because it is so much different. Priced in the UltraBook price range it is an interesting the mixed review that I have seen on it so far. The one thing I would hope for with this design is a more substantial hinge. In the early years when I had one of the first Microsoft Tablet/Convertibles.

Most consider the tablet function a little unwieldy which I can understand but I still come from a 15 inch display convertible that weighed in at a hefty 5.5 lbs so using a thin and light 13.3 inch unit is like heaven. If you feel that it might be a little big, think about deciding to downsize to the 11.6 inch version. Though it’s hdd is much smaller 65gb and the big difference is that is running Windows 8 RT. So if you need more power and function you have to stay with the larger unit.

Here are the basic specs:

• 360 degree dual- hinge flip design
• At 0.67" (16.9mm) thin and 3.1 lbs (1.47kg), the Yoga is the industry's thinnest convertible Ultrabook
• Powered by the next generation ("Ivy Bridge") Intel Core processor family and a Windows 8 operating system
• 8 hours of battery life
• Up to 8 GB of RAM
• Up to 128GB SSD storage (optional upgrade to 256GB)
• 13.3" screen with 1600 x 900 resolution and 10-point capacitive touch
• Design: Soft touch rubber paint on the exterior for strong grip, a leather cover on the palm rest, and side buttons designed for easier access for all usage modes
• Starting at 3.4 lbs
• Prices range from $999 to $1,549
• Expected Ship date mid December 2012

Take a look at these articles for more in depth reviews:

• Windows 8: Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga Flip - Jan. 9, 2012 by Paul Thurrott's Supersite for Windows
• Lenovo Yoga Review: This Is How You Build a PC/Tablet Freak Machine by Kyle Wagner Gizmodo
• Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 review by Dana Wollman engadget

All in All I think that it is a buy if your are looking at this market but I have two concerns, the keyboard review and how well it will hold up and the sensitivity of the touchscreen.

Yoga 13 Tech Specs

Lenovo IdeaPad U310

Intel is pushing for the OEM partners to produce an Ultrabook at a lower starting point and here is one of the first with this lower price model in mind. A great machine for back-to-school purchasers this is a hybrid drive machine with both an SSD for the operating system and boot up as well as regular spinning drive for your data storage. With a 13.3 inch screen and 3.7 lbs weight and 7-8 hour battery life this is a perfect machine to be carrying around from class to class all day long.

When initially looking at this ultrabook you will see that it has more plastic involved in its build then most other ultrabooks, of course those units in the higher price range have more metal involved in their design. If you are on a limited budget and still want some of what this style product brings to the table then the Lenovo U310 series might be a good choice for you.

See the article by Dana Wollman of Engadget for up close review.

Windows 8 Excitement at Computex 2012

ASUS, Acer and others are showing off some of the products that we should be expecting this year coming with Windows8 and Windows8 RT. There were several interesting products posted on Engadget that look very interesting like the Acer 7600U with a 27 inch screen that has a 64-point capacitive multi-touch tilt and swivel screen. You can view it in either landscape or portrait modes or upright or down in a table display mode. While watching the video demonstration of the product they seemed to have to move at a rather slow and careful rate of speed. It looked like they were afraid it was going to fall over as they were moving it. They were also discussing a 23 inch version of this as well but didn’t go into detail of whether it had the same display functions.

Acer also was showing some Windows 8 Tablet the ICONIA W510 with three different modes of touchscreen operation. A detachable keyboard dock can be connected to add easy typing functions as well as extending the battery life up to 18 hours. When attached to the keyboard you can rotate the screen 295 degrees to position it in a presentation mode which is great for viewing video or PowerPoint presentations.

Asus’s TAICHI convertible notebook/tablet sports a dual 11.6 inch screen. The screens can be run independently and can allow you to present while still doing things on the screen pointing at you. When closed you can use the top screen as you would a tablet. This is also running Window 8 and comes with the new Intel Ivy Bridge Core i7 processor, 4 gigs of RAM, SSD storage, dual-band 802.11n WiFi, FHD/Super IPS+ displays and dual cameras. The screens support 1920 x 1280 resolution on both screens. See Engadget’s video of this interesting product.