Engadget

Lenovo's LePad gets LeTeardown

Christopher Trout — Mon, 02 May 2011 16:03:00 EST

Lenovo's long awaited LePad finally made its Chinese debut back in March, and while we may not ever see the tablet stateside -- not as LePad, anyway -- we can at least get a peak under the hood. Thanks to a teardown by IMP3, we're seeing the inside of the machine for the first time, and while there's not much in the way of surprises here, it's always nice to see what makes these things tick. As we already knew, LePad's packing the 1.3GHz Snapdragon chipset with Adreno 205 integrated graphics as well as an internal 27Wh battery. It's also appears to be rocking Toshiba flash memory and a Wolfson audio processor. So we might not have much in the way of revelations here, but at least now you know what the LePad, or Skylight, or whatever, looks like underneath its skin.

Lenovo's LePad gets LeTeardown originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 May 2011 16:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Lenovo's Skylight and U1 Hybrid being revived with fresh Qualcomm silicon?

Darren Murph — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 03:59:00 EST

What's this? A new sliver of hope in a dark, lost world? Before you throw your hands up and shut your eyes, you should know that all of this is coming from Digitimes, so taking it all in with an unhealthy dose of salt is highly suggested. According to them, Lenovo is actually planning to eventually ship its Skylight and IdeaPad U1 Hybrid (yeah, the two machines that were kinda-sorta shelved a month ago), but with far different specifications. For starters, they'll rely on Qualcomm's recently announced dual-core processor line, and rather than using the now-nonexistent Skylight OS, they'll both rely on Google's Android. If all goes well, the official launch will occur before the dawn of 2011, but there's no solid word on when they'll actually ship. In related news, there's also word that Toshiba will be readying a smartbook in its long-standing Dynabook line, with NVIDIA's Tegra 250 under the hood, a 10.1-inch panel and Android running the show. Now, who's up for seeing if any of this actually comes to fruition?

Lenovo's Skylight and U1 Hybrid being revived with fresh Qualcomm silicon? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Jun 2010 03:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Engadget Podcast 198 - 05.29.2010

Trent Wolbe — Sat, 29 May 2010 16:11:00 EST

How many executives does it take to screw in a light bulb? Fewer than you would think! How many screens do you need to coordinate your digital life with the cloud? Less than 3, contrary to popular belief. How many Engadget Podcasteers need be present to convey the week's news to you in a succinct 90-minute audio package? Less than five. How many Foxconn employees should consider suicide to bring you a $99 iPhone? That's right, zero. This week, it's all about reductionism on the Engadget Podcast. Let's go on a trip together - to the clean, compact future.

Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Nilay Patel, Paul Miller
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Music: Bullet With Butterfly Wings

Hear the podcast

00:04:15 - WSJ: Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Division getting a 'shakeup,' J Allard expected to leave
00:04:35 - Microsoft's Robbie Bach and J Allard leaving as part of broader shakeup; Xbox and Windows Phone teams now reporting directly to Ballmer
00:06:00 - Robbie Bach: Project Natal a 'midlife kicker' for Xbox 360, 'absolutely confident' Courier innovations will appear elsewhere
00:08:32 - Apple and Microsoft now neck and neck in market capitalization
00:08:55 - Ballmer downplays Microsoft's shift in market value, says it's a 'long game'
00:30:23 - Windows Phone 7 pops up on a Samsung prototype device, plays Twin Blades
00:32:12 - webOS design mastermind Matias Duarte leaves Palm... and could be headed to Google
00:32:22 - Confirmed: Palm's Matias Duarte joins Google as User Experience Director for Android
00:42:07 - Lenovo kills Skylight OS in favor of Android, U1 Hybrid and Skylight smartbook being shelved
00:51:32 - The next Apple TV revealed: cloud storage and iPhone OS on tap... and a $99 price tag
01:04:00 - Confirmed: Apple's next iPhone will have video chat, feature to be shown in ads directed by Sam Mendes
01:09:53 - Foxconn raising wages, relocating 20 percent of Shenzhen workers closer to home (updated)
00:20:00 - Apple, Dell, and HP comment on suicides as Foxconn CEO shows off the pool
01:29:49 - Introducing Engadget Alt

Subscribe to the podcast

[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes (enhanced AAC).
[RSS MP3] Add the Engadget Podcast feed (in MP3) to your RSS aggregator and have the show delivered automatically.
[RSS AAC] Add the Engadget Podcast feed (in enhanced AAC) to your RSS aggregator.
[Zune] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in the Zune Marketplace

Download the podcast

LISTEN (MP3)
LISTEN (AAC)
LISTEN (OGG)

Contact the podcast

1-888-ENGADGET or podcast (at) engadget (dot) com.

Twitter: @joshuatopolsky @futurepaul @reckless @engadget

Filed under: Cellphones, Displays, Misc. Gadgets, Handhelds, Home Entertainment, Household, Media PCs, Podcasts, Portable Audio, Portable Video, Tablet PCs, Wireless, Storage, Internet

Engadget Podcast 198 - 05.29.2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 May 2010 16:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Lenovo kills Skylight OS in favor of Android, U1 Hybrid and Skylight smartbook being shelved

Nilay Patel — Fri, 28 May 2010 16:39:00 EST

Lenovo's been awfully quiet about the Skylight smartbook and U1 Hybrid tablet / laptop since it first showed them off at CES, and now we know why: following weeks of rumors that the custom Linux-based Skylight OS wasn't up to snuff, the company is killing the project entirely in favor of Android. That makes a lot of sense, considering Lenny's already shipping a Skylight-skinned version of Android on the Snapdragon-based LePhone, but it also means that the Skylight smartbook and U1 demoed to us at CES are done for as well -- Lenovo's statement says the "initial version of the Skylight" is being "shelved" and refers to the U1 as a "concept."

We spoke to Lenovo for clarification and it sounds like things are in considerable flux at the moment: the company told us it wants to tap into Android's apps and ecosystem, but it's invested something like 18-24 months into building Skylight OS products and it's going to rethink and retool while it transitions to Google's OS -- although the underlying ideas of the Skylight and U1 Hybrid will live on in future devices, neither will come to market as announced. We were also told that Lenovo is now targeting Q4 as a launch date for Android-based devices, so we'll see what happens -- it'll be a sad day for the gadget world if the U1 fails to live on in some way.

Continue reading Lenovo kills Skylight OS in favor of Android, U1 Hybrid and Skylight smartbook being shelved

Lenovo kills Skylight OS in favor of Android, U1 Hybrid and Skylight smartbook being shelved originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 May 2010 16:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Lenovo Skylight hands-on and impressions (video)

Nilay Patel — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 15:18:00 EST

We just got a chance to play with Lenovo's Skylight smartbook, which runs the company's new Skylight lightweight Linux OS on a 1Ghz Snapdragon. It's an impressively clean little package, with a 10.1-inch display, an integrated WWAN card, and a neat flip-out USB thumb drive for housing user data. Ports-wise you're not looking at much apart from mini-HDMI out, an SD card slot, and a second USB jack, although there is an internal microSD slot for more storage on top of the 8GB system drive. The idea is that all your personal info will live on the thumb drive, allowing users to just plug into any other Skylight and go -- and there were some hints that accessories like Skype handsets would eventually fit into that slot and connect over USB. As for the OS itself, the six-panel interface was certainly workable, although clearly not production-ready: it managed to load webpages and do some light Twittering, although there was some stuttering along the way. We're big fans of the chiclet keyboards Lenovo's got going here, but the mulitouch touchpad still needs some work. The biggest sell of this thing over a netbook seems to be its promised 12 hours of battery life and its trim body, but at $499 (when most netbooks are at least $100 cheaper) we aren't sure we get it. We can't get that thinness of it out of our head, but we'll be waiting on the AT&T subsided pricing on this one. Video walkthrough after the break.

Gallery: Lenovo Skylight hands-on and impressions

Continue reading Lenovo Skylight hands-on and impressions (video)

Lenovo Skylight hands-on and impressions (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Jan 2010 15:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Lenovo Skylight: its first ARM / Snapdragon-based smartbook, coming in April for $499

Darren Murph — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 00:01:00 EST

Remember that Snapdragon-powered Lenovo smartbook we peeked back in November of last year? No? Fret not, as the aforesaid outfit has just come clean with the details surrounding the previously elusive device. The Skylight is Lenovo's first-ever smartbook, and while we're still struggling to see what niche these things are designed to fill, we definitely can't knock the internals. It's the industry's first ARM-based, Qualcomm smartbook, and it's powered by a 1GHz processor. Other specs include a 10.1-inch display (1,280 x 720), a customized version of Linux, 20GB (total) of flash storage, 2GB of cloud storage, an 8GB miniSD card, twin USB ports, 1.3 megapixel camera, WiFi and a battery capable of humming along for ten hours on a full charge. It's also apt to be a lot like the unorthodox IdeaPad U1 Hybrid on the software front. The clamshell enclosure weighs under two pounds, and the integrated AT&T WWAN module ensures that you can get connected wherever a tower is available. The unit will ship this April with 18 preloaded web gadgets (including portals to Amazon MP3, Facebook, Gmail and YouTube), and pricing is set for $499 (MSRP). We're told that AT&T will offer it up as well, but it's unclear whether or not it'll subsidize the Skylight should you commit to a two-year DataConnect contract. Rest assured that we'll be getting some face time with this bugger in short order, but till then, you can peek the press release and a promo /hands-on video just after the break. Oh, and we should mention that we snapped an extremely brief hands-on with the machine a small bit ago, and we're still flabbergasted by how thin it was. Expect a more thorough look tomorrow!

Gallery: Lenovo Skylight: its first ARM / Snapdragon-based smartbook

Gallery: Lenovo Skylight quick 'n dirty hands-on

Continue reading Lenovo Skylight: its first ARM / Snapdragon-based smartbook, coming in April for $499

Lenovo Skylight: its first ARM / Snapdragon-based smartbook, coming in April for $499 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Jan 2010 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments