CES 2012: Lenovo Brings Apple's Touchscreen iMac Concept to Life
Back in 2010, an Apple patent publication was published revealing the company's concept for an iMac supporting both mouse-driven and touch-based input with a hinged display arm allowing the screen to transition from an upright position to a horizontal surface.
While Apple has yet to release such a product and may have scrapped the idea entirely, Lenovo's new IdeaCentre A720 being shown off at CES this week (via Engadget) offers a similar flexibility in its ability to transition between a traditional all-in-one desktop configuration and a flat, table-top touch surface.
Similar to the HP TouchSmart 610, which debuted around this time last year, it has a display that can be tilted between 5 and 90 degrees, the idea being that that 10-point multitouch panel will be easier to use if it's lying at a near-flat angle. Spec-wise, it'll be offered with various Intel Core i processors, discrete NVIDIA graphics and up to either a 1TB HDD or a 64GB solid-state drive. Expect it to hit sometime in the first half of this year, starting at $1,299.
The Verge also posts a hands-on video showing the IdeaCentre A720 in use in both upright and horizontal positions.
The hands-on demonstration shows a rather sluggish response to touch input, but offers a good glimpse of the flexibility afforded by the multiple orientations.
Apple's patent application included descriptions of sensors that would automatically detect the orientation of the display and adjust the operating system being used accordingly, with the idea being that the computer would utilize a Mac OS X interface in its upright orientation and then transition to an iOS-like touch overlay interface when moved to the horizontal display. While Lenovo's concept does not utilize this automatic sensing, it does offer Lenovo's dedicated IdeaTouch layer on top of Windows 7, which itself allows for touch input.
Popular Stories
Apple is set to unveil iOS 18 during its WWDC keynote on June 10, so the software update is a little over six weeks away from being announced. Below, we recap rumored features and changes planned for the iPhone with iOS 18. iOS 18 will reportedly be the "biggest" update in the iPhone's history, with new ChatGPT-inspired generative AI features, a more customizable Home Screen, and much more....
There are widespread reports of Apple users being locked out of their Apple ID overnight for no apparent reason, requiring a password reset before they can log in again. Users say the sudden inexplicable Apple ID sign-out is occurring across multiple devices. When they attempt to sign in again they are locked out of their account and asked to reset their password in order to regain access. ...
Apple used to regularly increase the base memory of its Macs up until 2011, the same year Tim Cook was appointed CEO, charts posted on Mastodon by David Schaub show. Earlier this year, Schaub generated two charts: One showing the base memory capacities of Apple's all-in-one Macs from 1984 onwards, and a second depicting Apple's consumer laptop base RAM from 1999 onwards. Both charts were...
On this week's episode of The MacRumors Show, we discuss the announcement of Apple's upcoming "Let loose" event, where the company is widely expected to announce new iPad models and accessories. Subscribe to The MacRumors Show YouTube channel for more videos Apple's event invite shows an artistic render of an Apple Pencil, suggesting that iPads will be a focus of the event. Apple CEO Tim...
In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman outlined some of the new products he expects Apple to announce at its "Let Loose" event on May 7. First, Gurman now believes there is a "strong possibility" that the upcoming iPad Pro models will be equipped with Apple's next-generation M4 chip, rather than the M3 chip that debuted in the MacBook Pro and iMac six months ago. He said a ...
Apple has announced it will be holding a special event on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time (10 a.m. Eastern Time), with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube as usual. The event invitation has a tagline of "Let Loose" and shows an artistic render of an Apple Pencil, suggesting that iPads will be a focus of the event. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...
Top Rated Comments
Calm down, it could be the OS. Pretty sure it's the OS, let's wait until Windows 8 comes out until we judge. Since Windows 8 should have hardware acceleration.
1920x1080 = HD ;)
Most desktop displays are much lower resolution.
No, they don't.
They have a patent for how the sensors in the hinges and behind the display work in conjunction with the OS to change input methods based on the position of the display.
The patent is very specific and there are other ways to achieve the same results without infringing this patent.