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1The Museum of Modern Art
2Butterfly Keyboard
The ThinkPad 701c featured a distinctive “butterfly keyboard.” When the laptop is opened, the keyboard expands out, which enabled IBM to shrink the laptop’s footprint while retaining the user experience. It’s a part of the museum’s permanent collection in its industrial design section, along with other objects whose innovative designs, whether high or low tech, have addressed a societal need. Over the 701c, a display runs an early commercial for the laptop.
3Innovation
Other innovative objects in the MoMA collection include the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) $100 XO-1 laptop for children in the developing world, and a rubber fitting for aluminum cans that enable health care workers to safely dispose of syringe tips. The low-tech rubber tops have drastically helped to prevent the spread of HIV-AIDs through accidental exposure to infected tips in countries without hazardous-waste disposal systems like that of the United States.
4TrackPoint
On display throughout the celebration were Lenovo’s little red TrackPoints, a distinctive design feature since the very first IBM ThinkPads. The thinking was that it allowed the laptop to be used on an airline tray-table without a mouse. “The TrackPoint is the center of attention; it draws you into the keyboard. … It’s so efficient, so indicative,” said David Hill, Lenovo’s vice president of identity and design, after quoting Mies van der Rohe: “God is in the details.”
5Colonel Richard Searfoss
Before its big announcement, Lenovo introduced a longtime ThinkPad user, astronaut Richard Searfoss, who described typing on his ThinkPad while weightless and “the sublime beauty of our planet.” To Searfoss’ right is an image from one of his space missions, of the aurora borealis over northern Canada.
6ThinkPad X1 Carbon
7ThinkPad X1 Carbon Measurements
The X1 measures 8mm in the front and 18mm in the back. It can charge up to 80 percent in 35 minutes, has voice over IP (VOIP) technology smart enough to mute out the noise of keyboard clicks and is made of a carbon fiber so light but strong that it’s “what a Dreamliner airlines uses to allow it to get better fuel efficiency,” Dilip Bhatia, a Lenovo vice president, told attendees at the event.
8ThinkPad Tablet 2
9ThinkPad Tablet 2 Stylus
10ThinkPad Tablet 2 Measurements
11ThinkPad Tablet 2 Connectivity
12ThinkPad Tablet 2 Dock
13Keyboard
The Tablet 2 can be connected to a keyboard. Separated, both pieces can be slipped into the soft leather carrying case at right. It’s just one Lenovo-made accessory for the new tablet, which will join what’s expected to be an extensive lineup of Windows 8-running tablets.