Apple MacBook Air left for dead by rivals? (and OTT-cop)

It's IT Blogwatch: in which the ThinkPad X300 breaks cover, to rival the MacBook Air. Not to mention a cop with "issues" busted on YouTube...

Walt Mossberg strokes his goat and muses thuswise:

Only a month or so after Apple announced its MacBook Air ... Lenovo is about to spring its own super-skinny machine: the ThinkPad X300. Here’s a sneak peek ... a rare small laptop ... full 13-inch-wide screen display and a full keyboard ... offers a fast, rugged solid-state drive ... unlike the Apple, Lenovo’s new skinny ThinkPad comes with a hefty complement of ports and features ... But it still feels very light to carry around, at 3.12 pounds ... slender and attractive ... biggest downsides to the new ThinkPad X300 are price and limited storage capacity. [more]

Rob Beschizza counts the pennies:

Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal takes a looks ... and finds that it is to his liking. It's not as attractive as the Air, but that IBM style has its own charm and in other respects its surprisingly similar ... You pay for it all, mind you: this little cheese slicer will set you back a staggering $2,500 in its cheapest, most low-end incarnation ... If you like the Air but want a computer rather than bling, this is probably what you're really after. [more]

Kevin C. Tofel runs with it:

There's no doubt that the notebook will be continuously compared to the MacBook Air based on the size, footprint and weight ... [but] The X300 will include an integrated optical drive, removable battery, three USB ports, RJ-45 jack for wired Ethernet, and options for integrated wireless broadband and a GPS radio ... Operating sytem preferences aside, the X300 sounds as though it could be a little more flexible for road warriors and true mobile users. [more]

Brian Lam yawns smugly:

Readers will recognize that everything here was already seen in a wide-open leak on January 18th ... The fact [Mossberg's] gone to lengths to preview this machine says enough about it. But likely he'll say it comes down to OS preference, as it does for us. [more]

But Brandon Hill points out the errors and omissions:

Features a 1.2GHz Core 2 Duo processor (SL7100 LV) rated at 12W using a Mobile Intel 965GS Express chipset -- the leaked specs which detailed a 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo processor were unfortunately wrong. Another feature not previously discussed is the inclusion of Certified Wireless USB over UltraWide Band. The ThinkPad X300 uses rubber paint on the palm rest for increased comfort and a new, longer-lasting paint for the ... backlit ... keyboard ... The bottom cover and keyboard bezel are constructed with magnesium while the LCD cover is comprised of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic. [more]

Meanwhile, James A. Martin offers some other Air alternatives:

There are several thin-and-light Windows laptops that skirt many of the MacBook Air's drawbacks ... Toshiba's Portege R500 manages to offer a built-in optical drive. The R500 weighs only 2.4 pounds ... Fujitsu is a master of miniaturization. Exhibit A: the classy LifeBook P7230. At 2.6 pounds ... [and the] Fujitsu LifeBook T2010 convertible tablet offered one of the best battery performances we've seen--lasting nearly 7 hours. [more]

And Doug Aamoth oversees the zeitgeist:

If for some strange reason it wasn’t before, thin is officially in as far as notebooks are concerned. [more]

And finally...

• Baltimore cop vs. skateboarder [painful to watch]
  

Buffer overflow:

• Layer 8: FBI awards Lockheed Martin $1B biometrics contract
• Matt Stephens: Tools vendors stuck on UML and agility
• Silicon Alley Insider: Getting Fired At Yahoo: A Twitter Log
• Mike Masnick: Giving An Allowance Patented: Acacia Sues Apple
• Data Center Knowledge: Software Upgrade Cited in Blackberry Outage
• Mathew Ingram: Harvard votes to free its research
• Engadget: Palm ranks last in satisfaction survey, no one surprised

Other Computerworld bloggers:

• Sharon Machlis: How Zoho plans to compete with Google
• Preston Gralla: Rush Limbaugh to Steve Jobs: Fix my Mac!
• Mark Hall: Hardware outshines software for security
• Ken Gagne: Hollywood meets MIT
• Martin MC Brown: Grid computing on the wane or being incorporated
• Preston Gralla: Microsoft exec: Vista-Capable PCs are "junk"
• SaaS Revolution: The Infrastructure Conversation
• Douglas Schweitzer: Latest X-Force report reveals security trends
• Shark Tank: When IT people go postal
• Shark Bait: Support the Hard Way

Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/adviser/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and spam. A 20 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. You too can pretend to be Richi's friend on Facebook, or just use boring old email: blogwatch@richi.co.uk.

Previously in IT Blogwatch:

• Intel antitrust raid in Germany (and Mathieu's book)
• Vista SP1 early access for IT/devs? (and Error'd)
• Saleforce.com <3 Oracle (and stuck ghost)