Lenovo Shows Android Laptop In Leaked User Manuals

itwbennett writes "PC maker Lenovo accidentally posted manuals on its website showing an Android laptop called the IdeaPad A10. Lenovo spokesman Chris Millward said the company had planned on making an official announcement for the device, and that 'the product has not been canceled. It will be going out to the market.' Launch dates and pricing to come, but specs show that it could be a budget product."

Actually, this is kinda nice...

[houstonbofh]

With all the painful attempts to turn my high end multi-headed large monitor computer into a phone, (Unity, Gnome Shell, Win8) it is nice to see some turnabout!

The nightmare that keeps MS awake....

[jkrise]

has arrived. Android on PCs and Linux on tablets are both wonderful for innovation; and doomsday for Microsoft.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspence/2013/01/12/the-nightmare-that-keeps-microsoft-awake-android-on-the-desktop/ [forbes.com]

Re:The nightmare that keeps MS awake....

[jkrise]

bringing Android's touch-first interface to a mouse+keyboard interface

The interface is a minor issue; easily solved by adding a No-Touch app to the default Android OS. The fact that SIM cards, camera etc are built-in and supported by the OS makes so many exciting applications and use-cases possible.

Say, you have a list of clients in a CRM software whom you need to talk to; and record the conversations back into the CRM itself.With an Android laptop; you can just click on the number; and get options to call it; and write simple apps to store the call as well. On a Windows machine or even a regular Linux laptop; you don't have these options and peripherals installed and supported by default in the kernel and OS level. That is a huge game changer.

I have seen cameras that work only with XP Service Pack 2; and fail with later versions of the Service Pack or OS.

Re:Actually, this is kinda nice...

[gstoddart]

Since, obviously, the fact that it uses an ARM/runs Android is evidence it's a mobile device, and not a computer.

Why is that? Because that ARM device running Android does a crap load more than the first PCs I owned.

If it's Turing complete, it's a computer. If it's got a general instruction set in the CPU, it's a computer. Running Android or being on an ARM processor doesn't magically make it not a computer.

Modern 'mobile devices' have far more computational power than any PC made 10 years ago -- and they were still called computers.

I don't understand where this arbitrary distinction of "that's not a computer" comes from. Because it's wrong.

Re:Android is worse than Windows

[gstoddart]

I don't see Android being any better of an alternative than Windows.

Well, it has the benefit of not being Windows.

Android has quite a bit of fragmentation

Buy the Google branded products. That's precisely why I bought a Nexus 7, so I didn't have to worry about vendors taking forever to roll out updates.

has malware and exploit issues (I have some sort of pesky nuisance-ware on my Android phone, apparently from installing some free game outside the Google Play ecosystem)

So, you turned off the thing which prevents you from side loading, side loaded something, and have problems with it? You can do the exact same thing in Windows. But it was you who took responsibility for that and did it. Google just provided the option to shoot yourself in the foot.

and if ends up encroaching onto the traditional desktop/laptop space --- then you are back to hardware interoperability/printer drivers/etc

Which is hardly unique to Android. But I set up cloud printing for my mother in law in about 10 minutes, and she can happily print from her tablet through to her PC.

Maybe what we need are better standards for those devices so it's not the user's problem to sort out interoperability.