On September 16-17, 2011, Lenovo will be holding its first ever 24-hour Code-a-thon in Singapore for Android developers who are ready to “DO the Extraordinary”!

Competitors will be tasked to create applications in 24 hours on the Android platform for the new Lenovo IdeaPad Tablet K1 or the ThinkPad Tablet. The winner will get a cash prize of S$3,000 plus two Lenovo Tablets. An additional Lenovo Tablet will be awarded as a special prize for applications that are developed for Lenovo customers.

Winners will also have an opportunity to work directly with MobiHand, leading distributor of software and content for mobile devices, to publish their application to the Lenovo App Shop.

In HP’s recent conference call meeting just a few hours ago, they’ve announced they’ll cease to make anymore webOS devices due to the lack of demand and failure to meet HP’s financial targets and unit sell-through expectations. HP will be shutting down the entire webOS hardware business unit and will be looking to license webOS software to manufacturers such as HTC and Samsung.

In light of this new development, the future of webOS is uncertain and it might just disappear into the abyss.

Now, my rants after the break.

WHY!!!???!!! Android devices had very bad sales initially, and this is your first tablet launch, and several other new phone launches. It has only been 2 months since the HP TouchPad was released (few weeks for Singapore market) and you should have already known that the initial launch will take a loss. Why won’t you (HP) stick it out for the long run and see where webOS goes? Personally, I’m very bitter about HP taking a laissez-faire attitude with webOS. HP could easily have overtaken Android in the next year or 2, after it has solidified its branding and developer strategy across the world.

There are a few scenarios where webOS will be now that HP has divested its interest in webOS.

Scenario 1 – License webOS to Samsung

If HP successfully licenses webOS to Samsung, and Samsung sees value in webOS (which I hope they do), then we might see a complete shift in the Samsung + Android strategy due to the fact that Android is having too many problems on every single front – open-source licensing, patents infringements, version fragmentations, etc – just some of the several problems Android is currently having.

However, Samsung has too much invested in the Android ecosystem, and to start afresh will mean competing against already established ecosystem with their other competitors, namely HTC. Samsung might just do the same thing as what they’ve done with Windows Phone 7, which is just to slap it on one of their “cookie cutter” devices and sell it to test the waters without investing too much effort into webOS.

Scenario 2 – Open Source webOS

HP can give webOS to the open source community and let them run the entire project. However, it wouldn’t be in the best interest of HP, but it might just keep webOS alive for a longer period of time. Everyone I know who has used and developed webOS software are impressed with it, and the open source community might be able to take it to the next level – integrating it to every device on the planet, extending it to the enterprise space, mini web servers or application servers – with webOS who know what else it can do.

Scenario 3 – Sell webOS off

If HP couldn’t do what Palm tried to do, maybe someone else could. I truly believe in webOS and its well thought-out user experience (UX) and developer experience (DX) that it will become the next big thing, with properly investing time and efforts into branding, sales and marketing, consumer feedback, developer engagements, and evolving the webOS to greater heights. However, whoever buys it needs to be completely committed to webOS and is willing to do everything it takes to make it successful, which HP didn’t have the balls to do that. Maybe some Chinese company will buy it *ahem Lenovo ahem* and break new grounds into the mobile space.

Scenario 4 – Burying webOS

There comes a time when one must admit defeat, and bury a great technology into the ground. It’s sad, I know, but at least webOS tried so hard, and it could be time to give up. webOS will be missed, and I will mourn for it, as how I mourn for BeOS when it got buried.

What other scenarios do you think might happen to webOS in the next few months to come?

The PC Show 2011 is Singapore’s longest running IT and consumer electronics show and it is back again from 9th to 12th June 2011 at Suntec Singapore. This year, The PC Show will be spread over four floors – 1, 3, 4 and 6 – of Suntec Singapore.

Over 600 exhibitors will be showcasing IT and consumer electronic products by leading brands such as Acer, Apple, ASUS, Canon, Creative, Dell, Fujitsu, HP, Lenovo, Samsung and Toshiba. There will also be several first time exhibitors such as Fujifilm, Fuji Xerox, Lexmark, Sonic Gear and ViewSonic.

The PC Show 2011 encompasses four sections – The PC Show 2011, Digital Imaging 2011, Game 2011, and Consumer Electronics 2011. It opens  daily from 12pm to 9pm. Admission is free.

Lenovo is having their “Enhanced Experience 2.0” boot up challenge at the IT Show 2011 this year. All you have to do is bring down your Windows 7 PC to compete with Lenovo’s onstage, and if you beat their bootup time – you’ll get to walk away with a cash prize of SGD$500.

Details are as follows…

Dates: 10-13 March 2011
Location: Suntec Convention Hall, Level 4, Hall 401, Booth #8358
Challenge Timeslots:
1:00pm to 2:00pm
3:30pm to 4:30pm
6:30pm to 7:30pm

Check out the video of this challenge from CES 2011.

Lenovo IdeaCentre A700 is the first desktop that uses the Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) Touch Technology, which caught my interest quite a bit. I asked Lenovo about this technology they are using, and researched a little about it myself. Here’s what I came up with.

What is Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) Touch Technology?

Think of it this way – When you touch a pool of water, it creates a ripple effect radiating outwards. Similarly with this “Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW)”, the sensors radiates a ripple effect on the horizontal and vertical axis. When you touch on a certain point, the sensors pick up the distortion in the ripple effect and is able to figure out the position where you’re touching. This is by far one of the most advanced touch screen technologies in the market. You can find out more of the technical details about “Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW)” on Wikipedia.

What are the benefits of SAW Touch technology as opposed to the commonly known resistive touchscreen (used by HP TouchSmart) and capacitive touchscreen (used by most devices)?

SAW technology has proven itself by distinct accuracy, high sensitivity, good transparency and less vulnerability to vibration, dust or ambient light conditions. In addition, there is a commercial-standard of 10-year warranty attached to SAW touchscreen, which makes the technology more reliable.

Resistive touchscreen is the most commonly use touchscreen technology in the market. Although it is cost effective, their lifespan is relatively shorter than their counterpart. Transmittance, also known as sensitivity, is lower in comparison to other touchscreens and users need to adopt a more forceful touch to it, which will increase the chances of damaged.

Capacitive technologies divide into projected capacitive and surface capacitive. Projected capacitive uses grids to enable multitouch experience and generates higher resolution than resistive technology. The hard glass sheet surface provides projected capacitive touchscreen with higher durability. Projected capacitive has good transmittance and will not be easily affected by external light resources, but it comes with a hefty price tag.

Surface capacitive technology is moderately durable with good transmittance, but has limited resolution. Typically it does not support non-conductive material input.

Is SAW cost effective, knowing that capacitive touchscreens are expensive to produce for larger screens?

Yes, there is no major change in pricing in relation to the size of the screen for SAW technology.

How many millimeters is added to the thickness of the screen to accommodate SAW Touch technology?

9mm.

How many touch points does Lenovo A700 detect?

Currently only 2. But the technology supports limitless number of touch points.

Pricing of the Lenovo A700

It was launched in August and the price is going at SGD$1999 (promo price), SGD$2399 (retail price).

Summary

Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) Touch Technology is definitely a contender of being a great touch screen technology by being the most durable, high touch resolution, with the highest image clarity, which might put capacitive touch screens at a disadvantage. It also scales well into larger displays without changing much in production cost. Time will tell if SAW will replace our current capacitive touch screens on smaller devices, but Lenovo has upped their game by being the first in producing a consumer-centric device that uses SAW Touch Technology. Kudos to Lenovo for innovating beyond.

This photo is probably the best of Lewis Hamilton looking directly at my camera. It’s just brilliant.

Here are all the photos I took.

Results of RapidDrive Technology

Here are the visible results of this RapidDrive Technology, taken from the Lenovo Blogs - Inside the Box. Pictured are two Y560 systems.  The one of the left has RapidDrive.  The one on the right has a standard HDD.  Otherwise, both are identically configured.  A simple script shows loading a series of programs and how much extra speed the RapidDrive can provide.

As you can see, the system with the RapidDrive finishes in about 13 seconds, but the system without takes almost 30 seconds. This is about up to 66% increase in speed.

How does RapidDrive Technology work?

I’m sure you can find many places that tells you how this RapidDrive technology will benefit you as a consumer. That’s not my purpose in writing this article. I want to understand how this RapidDrive technology works, and how it can potentially be different from other hybrid technologies that tries to do the same.

Currently the configuration is as follows: Lenovo Y460 and Y560 will offer SSD options of 32 gig and 64 gig alongside with a 500 gig HDD option (configurations might vary). The SSD will be using a PCI-E internal expansion connector, and the HDD will be connected using the normal SATA connection. When you view the physical storage on Windows 7, you will only see 1 seamless partition for both drives instead of 2 separate partitions for each drive. This means that you don’t have to worry about where to put your files, be it SSD or HDD, this RapidDrive technology will decide for you.

Where are files stored in the SSD?

Based on Lenovo’s current software design, all the key files required for PC boot up and large calculation (paging files) will be stored on the SSD. By storing the key OS files on the SSD, Lenovo PCs enable more enhanced performance overall, even if the SSD is filled and data is being store on HDD. Windows 7 system files and the paging file is located on the SSD which takes up the first 15 to 17 gigs of the total SSD drive. That leaves about 15 gigs remaining on the 32 gig SSD drive, or 47 gigs remaining on the 64 gig SSD drive.

What happens after the SSD gets filled up?

Currently the software is designed to store files first on SSD then HDD after the SSD storage is filled. But the core system files and paging files (for virtual memory usage) are stored on the SSD in order to achieve an overall enhancement on performance. This is only the first stage in their software development and Lenovo will continue to improve the system capability in terms of intelligent loading depending on file size and usage.

So where is my System Recovery partition located?

The system recovery partition is hidden in the last partition of the HDD, which is not part of the combined SSD and HHD of the large C Partition. So the user just needs to use Lenovo’s “OneKey Rescue System” to restore their entire system and will not require special system tasks compared to non-RapidDrive systems. Users can still customize their partition if they choose to, but to maximize RapidDrive performance, the OS and necessary system files should be hosted on the C partition to benefit from the faster performance of the SSD.

Can I install another OS and/or repartition my drives?

The system does enable user to customize their partition as they choose to, however, changing the standard setup of the system, such as installing dual OS will affect the performance consistency of RapidDrive and security of your data.

Does this RapidDrive technology only work on Windows 7?

Currently, only Windows 7 “Enhanced Experience” by Lenovo is supported.

Summary

So there you have it. Lenovo has taken up the mantle from IBM and continued to innovate their PC brand, not only providing the ultimate hardware experience, but also new ways to bring more value to consumers with their software “Enhanced Experience”. I hope that answers most of your questions about RapidDrive technology because those questions were exactly what I wanted to know. Special thanks to Derrick Koh, Lenovo’s communications manager for the ASEAN region, for providing me with the answers.