Hardware advancements seem to be the biggest buzz, if you really want to call it that, here at TechXNY, a.k.a. PCExpo, at least on Tuesday. I met with both HP and IBM this morning to talk about future plans for their product lines. While HP reserved some of its ‘announcements’ for those reporters willing to subject themselves to NDA’s, both companies did announce new desktops that Tom Krazit of the IDG News Service covered in a story that we ran. During the meetings I sat down with two of the IBM folks who design the ThinkPad line of notebook PCs, for a glimpse at some of the prototypes they are kicking around as they move toward a new laptop design. David Hill, director of PC design at IBM, likened the process of honing ThinkPads to Porsche bringing out new models, say the 911, every year in that the concept remains the same but improves through refinement. In a bit of mild irony, HP’s director of commercial PC design center, Randall Martin, on this very day showed me a slide comparing the history of automobiles to that of the PC. The theme was strikingly similar: “The automobile started as a single-purpose device to get from point A to point B,” Martin explained, adding that today cars are more complex and, while the same principal still exists, modern automobiles have more capabilities than the original models. As part of the refinement process, IBM is trying to make its ThinkPad notebooks more effective for road warriors and desk-bound workers alike. To wit, it showed me two prototypes that came from different angles: One was a notebook designed to offer more of what users expect from a desktop, the other started as a desktop design with an eye toward mobility. I’ll spare you the 15 minutes they spent talking about the keyboard and TrackPoint because, well, it’s just not that all interesting. And, I’m reasonably certain that most people do not base high-volume corporate purchasing decisions on either. The first model was built on the ThinkPad T40 base, but is a bit thicker. To more closely resemble a desktop scenario, IBM enabled the screen to be raised, and to pop forward and closer to the user. Picture a flat panel monitor attached to the notebook. The keyboard, meanwhile, slides out and down closer to the surface on which the system is resting. Naturally, this system can also be used without raising the monitor, exactly like a traditional laptop. Hill said that in IBM’s Research Triangle Park labs they have real airplane seats that recline, and testing showed that even if the passenger in front of you puts his seat all the way back, you can still reach the keyboard and actually see the monitor. I know I cannot do that with the ThinkPad I am using to write this. The second prototype is noticeably thicker, heftier, and the screen has more flexibility when it is raised. The keyboard is the biggest difference, though. It can be removed from the system to operate wirelessly. Again, the automobile analogy. “These are like concept cars. We’re exploring the user reactions,” Hill said. And he declined to provide any timeframe that IBM hopes to deliver the new form factor. Hill was careful to point out that the design to eventually reach market may be somewhere in between these two prototypes. Technology Industry