back to article Lenovo slates Ice Cream Sandwich for ThinkPad tablet

Lenovo will update its ThinkPad Android-based tablet to Ice Cream Sandwich in May, the PC giant said last night. The business-centric fondleslab currently ships with Android 3.1 Honeycomb. The new version of the operating system will be delivered over the net, across Wi-Fi or 3G, since the ThinkPad has both. Lenovo ThinkPad …

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  1. Jim Coleman
    Happy

    Am holding out for Windows 8, myself. Have downloaded the developer preview and will be installing it onto my HP Touchsmart tablet/laptop convertible over the weekend. People seem to be quite enthusiastic about it and it'll be nice to have the same METRO interface on my laptop/tablet as on my phone. Consumer BETA is out at the end of the month.

    Android is looking better nowadays but the prospect of having a broadly similar user experience across phone, desktop, laptop, tablet and XBox is too good to miss and is something no other company offers.

    1. BristolBachelor Gold badge
      Trollface

      <sarcasm>

      But then what will you do when you get in your car, and it has - gasp - a steering wheel and gear-stick? You will be unable to use it because it's interface is different from Windows 8? What about your kitchen knives? Will you cut yourself because the interface is not W8?

      </sarcasm>

      <TROLL>

      Although in reality I see what you mean. I always have problems because in Visio & IE I have to use CTRL-F to find, but in Word/Excel CTRL-F changes font. In those apps I have to use CTRL-B for find, although CTRL-B does bold in visio. Also I have to use CTRL-S to save in Visio, but in Word/Excel CTRL-S does underline (and your document wasn't saved) to save it I need CTRL-G.

      </TROLL>

      1. Jim Coleman
        Happy

        @BristolBachelor:

        Awww, bless! You're confusing cars with computing devices, and app-specific keyboard shortcuts with Operating System GUIs. Would you like a hug?

        1. frank ly

          @Jim re. hug

          Can you post the source code?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      oh btw

      This is an article about an Android product... your comment has nothing to do with the subject of the article.

      It's like when there is an article able a WP7 product, and the first comment is a statement of how the iPhone 5 will kick it into the bushes.

      1. Jim Coleman
        Happy

        The article was about the Lenovo Thinkpad, which, if I'm not mistaken, will be able to run Windows 8. Just sayin'.

        1. dogged

          "Lenovo Thinkpad [..] will be able to run Windows 8"

          I doubt it, it doesn't have the UEFI gubbins going on.

          1. Jim Coleman
            Happy

            @dogged:

            My understanding is that Windows 8 will support UEFI, not that Windows 8 will only run on UEFI-equipped hardware.

    3. Ian Yates

      @Jim

      Not sure what the hate is against you. I understand your point about having a common interface, but for me a common eco-system is more important.

      I couldn't really care if the way I interact with my touch-screen phone and keyboard/mouse desktop was different, as long as getting data between them is easy and it can be opened on both. Things like Opera Link and Evernote, for instance.

      When someone with an iPhone asks me what tablet is best, I point out that I'm a fandroid and say a Transformer but that the iPad would fit better with their phone.

      I don't even run most of the same apps on my Desire to my Transformer - they're different solutions to different needs.

      1. dogged

        @Ian

        I agree and would also wholeheartedly recommend an iPad to a Mac/iPhone user. Er... wait... no I wouldn't. I'd only recommend it if they had a requirement for such a device. But basically, yes. If you're already bought into one way of doing things, keeping it makes sense.

      2. Jim Coleman
        Happy

        @Ian Yates:

        Common eco-system is pretty much a given, once you have the common GUI. If all your screens are METRO, you'll be using the LIVE ecosystem pretty much - Skydrive, Hotmail, Messenger, Skype, Office, XBox Live etc.

        I can't think of an OS vendor that has an ecosystem quite as broad and well-used as MS. All the elements I've just mentioned are more or less market leaders.

        1. Ian Yates

          @Jim

          Market leaders? I'll give you Skype (which they bought) and Office, but I'd be shocked if Hotmail and Messenger are still receiving anywhere near the traffic from the 90s/00s (it's all WhatsApp, BBM, Twitter, G+, Facebook by now) and every individual and company I know (yes, yes, anecdote != data), is using Dropbox, Livedrive, or Spideroak, based on their needs.

          I tried Skydrive a couple of years ago and found it to be really poor at getting data on and off it, compared to Spideroak and Livedrive, that is.

          I'm not disagreeing with you entirely, but apart from XBox and Winpho (separately), I don't really believe MS have a homogeneous ecosystem. Win8 might address that, but their previous attempts to tie in the desktop with Games for Windows and Windows Market are absolutely abysmal, to the point where I now refuse to buy games with WfG because of how seriously it ruins the whole experience. (Have I gone off-topic?)

          Look at what Google did with Android and then Apple with iCloud. If I'm at my Transformer, I automatically have every photo, contact, calendar entry, paid app, etc., waiting for me from my phone. I don't see that with MS.

          Sony seem to have done well with the PSP/PS3 relationship, but the PSP is a pretty niche solution compared to laptops/tablets.

          1. dogged
            Meh

            @Jim

            In the same way that, for example, I suspect it will be all but impossible to install Win8 on an iPad2, I think it's highly unlikely that MS are ever going to release an install firmware for tablets that aren't designed for purpose.

            It's not like buying a copy of Win7 from PC World. At all.

          2. Jim Coleman
            Happy

            @Ian Yates:

            "I'd be shocked if Hotmail and Messenger are still receiving anywhere near the traffic from the 90s/00s"

            Hotmail has around 360 Million users, comparable to Gmail's 350 Million.

            "Look at what Google did with Android and then Apple with iCloud. If I'm at my Transformer, I automatically have every photo, contact, calendar entry, paid app, etc., waiting for me from my phone. I don't see that with MS."

            I get that with Windows 8 (using the developer preview at the moment) and WP7. It all syncs seamlessly via Windows Live. Not sure about the apps bit though, that'll become clearer at MWC later this month but it wouldn't surprise me if WP8 apps and W8 apps were to sync, we shall see. But photos sync via Skydrive and contacts and calendars via Live / Hotmail.

  2. M Gale

    So if I buy a Windows 8 tablet...

    ...I'll get a similar experience across my Arc S, Nintendo 3DS, Mandriva-loaded laptop, Ubuntu-loaded desktop AND the singular Windows 7 installation that will probably live with me for longer than the undead Windows XP? Now that really would be a neat trick.

    Or do you mean a unified experience across one single company's products, which is something many companies do?

    1. Jim Coleman
      Meh

      @M Gale:

      Eh? I would have a unified experience across an HTC phone, an HP laptop, and HP desktop and an MS console. How is that "one single company's products" exactly? Or did you mean something else? The whole point is that METRO runs on ANY manufacturer's hardware, which I think is the point you were trying to make. Unless I've misread you.

      1. M Gale

        Eh.

        I mean Microsoft are only going to provide a similar experience if everything you own runs Microsoft Windows. I'm not about to go out and buy an Xbox when I like Nintendo's current offerings far more. I've already got a reasonable tablet and a decent phone, and I'll replace them when they break. Possibly before if technology progresses so far that the app supply dries up. The replacement will probably be something that can continue to run the old apps, so likely not a Windows 8, 9 or 10 tablet.

        That and I don't like Microsoft very much and I'm wondering if Microsoft's utter failure in the mobile space is the first chance in 30 years for a common platform that's as ubiquitous as Windows but doesn't involve an entire industry dancing to one company's tune and paying through the nose for it. Android's about the best bet so far, even with Google running the "main" branch as it were.

        That aside though, as you can see, Microsoft are asking tall if they think everyone's going to go out and buy a new Microsoft Everything just to have Metro Everything. It's something of a Marmite interface anyway.

  3. The Baron
    Headmaster

    Ambiguous headline

    "Lenovo slates Ice Cream Sandwich for ThinkPad tablet"

    Could mean slates as in schedules, or slates as in disparages.

    Garr, this be nothin' but a sneaky Register trick to make me read the article!

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