Video: Lenovo's Ideapad U8 MID teases with Intel's Atom

Oh my. Look at what Lenovo is cooking up with the help of Intel's newest Atom processor. Unveiled at Intel's IDF in Shanghai, the new Ideapad U8 device features a 4.8-inch touchscreen display and bullseye, optical mouse for (supposedly) one-handed operation while surfing the web over EDGE or 3G data -- presumably China's TD-SCDMA. The device also features "Live GPS," hand written note taking, and support for MS Office applications. We're guessing it'll also make a phone call or two with that 12-key numeric pad. And with Intel calling this a MID, don't expect to see a Microsoft OS riding that Atom, this pup's looking Linux to the bone. Check the video after the break.

Gallery: Lenovo ideapad u8

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[Via UMPC Portal]

[NakedOldGuy @ Apr 2nd 2008 5:30AM]

Are you sure that Lenovo has anything to do with this? That video had terrible animation on the screen... you would think with all the engineers who work there, that it would have been caught by SOMEONE and been fixed

[Homeboy @ Apr 2nd 2008 5:56AM]

How about stuffing in a cellphone module and call it a day, eh??

[roflercopterer @ Apr 2nd 2008 6:03AM]

When it comes to the ugly Lenovo comes hard or doesn't come at all

[roflercopterer @ Apr 2nd 2008 6:04AM]

HA HA comes

[DiscoCat5 @ Apr 2nd 2008 6:23AM]

your not wrong, i just exceeded my downloadl imit so im rollin dial up speeds, and as the picture was loading i saw the top bit and thought it looked alright, then i came back to it after it had loaded and thought EWW.


haha came

[mattbrown @ Apr 2nd 2008 6:31AM]

I'm a big fan of Lenovo (in fact I own an IdeaPad Y510 and love it), but I just don't see the point of this. I mean what is this, a compromised version of every gadget I already own with a Linux OS? No thanks.

[Vance @ Apr 2nd 2008 6:52AM]

Whatever MID gets my money, it'll definitely have a full-size keyboard. I like to write emails and, you know, comments on blogs.

[MattyG @ Apr 2nd 2008 6:53AM]

liked the optical mouse feature, finally something a little bit different :)

[Yubastard @ Apr 2nd 2008 10:07AM]

indeed! as for the keyboard, well, it's touchscreen, so, I think I can do with a virtual keyboard, as I did with my Axim

[MattyG @ Apr 2nd 2008 4:13PM]

I certainly would like to see this on some of the other small devices that's coming out these days, like that cloudbook or whatever it's called with the large gap between the screen and base

[Mark Brown @ Apr 2nd 2008 8:03AM]

Whats the point in the optical mouse, and whats the use for it, the finger is the best pointer in the world, why not just touch screen and make the device smaller

[Kakkoii @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:22PM]

Because, as was said. "For one handed usage"

It's merely a optical mouse laser that you run your thumb over to move the pointer around on the screen.

I think that's very useful since using touch screen with only one hand isn't that easy when holding in the horizontal position.

[simbiot @ Apr 2nd 2008 8:04AM]

Wasn't Lenovo supposed to come out with the IdeaPad U110 by now?

[darkstar @ Apr 2nd 2008 8:31AM]

im waiting for that u110 too!

[Karel Jansens @ Apr 2nd 2008 8:37AM]

So where exactly did you get that "hand writing recognition" from?

AFAIK, if this thing does run Linux, it will have no useful HWR at all, because it doesn't exist for Linux.

[Thomas Ricker @ Apr 2nd 2008 8:43AM]

1.17 into the video. Perhaps "recognition" is the wrong word since it doesn't actually state that it converts your handwritten notes to text. Will update post.

Thomas

[sinjinn @ Apr 2nd 2008 9:34AM]

if it comes out here itll probably have ubuntu mobile on it which ubuntu and intel are working specially for mids. im guessing hand writing recognition will be standard since half of these mids dont have a keyboard.

[Karel Jansens @ Apr 2nd 2008 11:46AM]

Again: What handwriting recognition? I've been using Nokia Itablets for several years and tried Linux on several full-sized tablets and nothing in the Linuxverse comes even close to PenOffice, which itself is basically the ten year old Newton ParaGraph HWR engine, ported to Windows (albeit with an extremely kewl graphical macro engine bolted onto it).

Nokia's own HWR is a joke and the only thing Linux has ATM is Cellwriter, which is a character recognizer, in Graffiti style. The reason everybody seems to want keyboards -- make that "thumbboards", or even dumbboards! -- on their UMPC/MID/Itablet/whatever is that there simply is no decent effort done in creating a usable HWR solution.

But, and contrary to the popular hubbub, the venerable Newtons had near-perfect cursive HWR on the latest (and, thanks to the Satan Jobs, last) iteration of NewtOS. It actually worked better than a keyboard in most cases, other than static use on a desk, but CalliGrapher/PenOffice and Inkwell still use that very same, now decade-old technology.

I realize people are already queueing up to tell me that keyboards works sooo much faster than stupid handwriting, and they're basically correct, provided you're sitting at a normal desk, typing on a standard keyboard with ten fingers (or possibly more, if you're from the American Mid-West). Let me tell you this: Jabbing with your thumbs at a minuscule keypad, unable to keep your eyes on the screen while typing, you're never going to achieve the speed a frakking stylus is going to give you (don't forget that handwriting is the only means of text input that'll allow you to see both what your hand is doing and the result of it on the screen). Fullscreen input HWR is the perfect way of getting text stuff into a pocket-sized tablet computing device and it's not because Jobs hates HWR (and only so because Scully came up with it), that he's also right.

[sinjinn @ Apr 2nd 2008 9:25PM]

its a new linux especially made for mids , its not released yet.

also , i think thumboards , when done right beat handwriting recognition hands down. it takes a lot longer to write a letter than to just tap it, not to mention you have to write and then correct it.

[Karel Jansens @ Apr 2nd 2008 8:47AM]

That only says I can write on the screen. Big deal, I can do that in MS Paint as well. Where is the mention of handwriting recognition?

[Philippe @ Apr 2nd 2008 10:20AM]

"U8" is a terrible name.

From a usability perspective, buttons shouldn't be that thin.

[ciscoguerrero @ Apr 2nd 2008 10:22AM]

The side 'stretched' buttons look straight from one of those fancy 1989 Casio home calculators. Someone call Doc Brown! Lenovo's been using a time machine to steal 20 year old designs and parts.

[Ayle @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:12PM]

Lenovo, what are you waiting to realease the u110???? We're in April already!

[Kakkoii @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:25PM]

"One handed web-surfing, for all your porn surfing needs"

[Thornd7 @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:47PM]

Reminds me of my Nokia n800. Doubt it will cost $200 though.

I'm curious how much oomph Atom is gonna have and whether it will be enough for playing back DVD rips at full speed.

[Thor Erik @ Apr 2nd 2008 3:03PM]

Awesome :D
I'd like one of those and play some doom, on the tram

[Gideon Mayhak @ Apr 2nd 2008 4:15PM]

You could just get a DS Lite and play Doom on that. Or, y'know, pretty much any other mobile device from the last few years that has any kind of homebrew following.

[Thor Erik @ Apr 2nd 2008 4:37PM]

Would't be half as cool :P

[Petur @ Apr 2nd 2008 3:24PM]

I like to think that this is Lenovo, and ocf the GUI of the screen could change in the future. Lenovo is a great company and i don't think that they will screw this one up. Their laptops for example are the bests around imo.

[MPallavicini @ Apr 3rd 2008 12:09AM]

DO NOT WANT! I thinks its ugly. When will these people find out that successful products need balance and proportion. just another piece of moderately impractical garbage. but linux is fun. i still think win2k would be epic on one of these MID/UMPC type devices... but thats just me. And where's the U110? That thing looked pretty slick @ CES but has been hiding from me ever since.

[Babau @ Apr 3rd 2008 5:23AM]

I like. The interface looks very GTK, especially the icons in the top right of the screen. It's a big speculation, but linux based + gtk = openmoko?

[Atanas Boev @ Apr 3rd 2008 8:47AM]

(0:58) "Email-, Calendar-, Office fully support" :)
This is getting far from the old IBM's attention to detail...

[murray @ Apr 3rd 2008 2:06PM]

I don't like odd shapes (why does it have to deviate from the rectangular?) and I don't like the look of those skinny buttons, but if this thing has wifi and is priced competitively, it could be a Nokia N8xx killer.

[Grunchy @ Apr 6th 2008 7:02PM]

Nobody mentioned a word about Android. Not one person.