IBM Thinkpads now in Titanium

Darksoftnet writes "Lenovo (who now owns IBM's PC business), has introduced a new shade to the Thinkpad range with the launch of a Z-Series laptop that comes both in a "classic black" case or a "special-edition" brushed titanium cover."

Re:In Related News:

[bhtooefr]

Actually, it goes to 14 on both my four-year-old X21 (which I'm typing this post on) and a brand new (shipped 2005-09-09) R50e that I was setting up for a friend.

Poor Richard Sapper...

[onpaws]

For more design history of the thinkpad, check out the "Thinkpad Genesis Series" on:

http://www.thinkpads.com/Genesis3.htm [thinkpads.com]
http://www.thinkpads.com/Genesis%204.htm [thinkpads.com]

Richard Sapper is the German designer who designed the famous Artemide Tizio lamp (which also shares the Thinkpad's red controls and silver hinges).:

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ho/11/euwcm/ho_1988. 236.10.htm [metmuseum.org]

Re:Lenovo

[RAMMS+EIN]

As for doing ``something cool with Linux and PPC'', here are a few things to chew on:

  - Linux runs like a charm on both ThinkPads and Apple notebooks. ThinkPads actually do a bit better, as they use supported wireless cards, whereas Apples have the cursed Broadcom chipset.

  - The main difference between the x86 and PPC CPUs is that x86s go faster, whereas PPCs are more energy efficient.

  - Of course, the CPU also affects what proprietary operating systems you can run. PPC allows you to run Mac OS X, whereas x86 allows you to run Windows.

  - However, you probably don't _really_ want either operating system. Windows is junk, and OS X is great in theory, but is unbearably slow compared to Linux. Just my experience, of course.

ibook vs thinkpad

[brlewis]

You may not have noticed this using a USB wireless network adapter, but the built-in ibook wireless doesn't get signal very well. I have an IBM thinkpad 600E with a Belkin PCMCIA wireless card. I get 80-90% signal in places where my wife's ibook get's none. I think Apple wants to sell lots of airport stations. (This is with a linksys B router).

Lenovo Impact on the Brand

[b3x]

It would be interesting to hear from others who work at companies which are "IBM" houses (Thinkpads and Thinkcentres etc ...). Is there talk of dropping Think* brands now that Lenovo is making them?

My company switched to Dell within a month of the sale. As one co-worker put it: It's like giving up your BMW for a Civic

Re:This is serious news...

[LowellPorter]

Thinkpads have a reputation the workplace for reliability, performance and build quality; the corporate standard (usually HP) pales in comparison

Not anymore. Since Levono has taken over, the quality has gone downhill. The company I work for has had a 20% failure rate with the laptops since Lenovo took over. On top of that, it now takes 6 - 8 weeks to get one because they're shipped directly from China. The same goes with their desktops. The company I work for orders around 2,000 computers a year, and this is unacceptable.

Never mind the colour, does it have a Windows key?

[scottme]

IBM ThinkPads have traditionally omitted this small homage to Redmond, but it looks like this model may see them conforming at last.

Oh well, my next laptop will be a Powerbook anyway.