Connected cars represent an exciting evolution for consumers, car manufacturers and mobile operators

Dear Readers,
Research conducted by agency SBD on behalf of the GSMA reveals that, today, the global total revenue for the automotive embedded telematics market stands at around €1.5bn. But the association’s research forecasts that it will reach €20bn by 2025, by which point all cars on the road are expected to have broadband connectivity

While SBD predicts that connectivity revenues alone will increase to almost €4bn by 2025, the bulk of this revenue is expected to be from the sales of vehicle-related services and content.

These services and content represent the largest revenue generating opportunities for the growing connected car industry and will continue to do so into the future. Francesca Forestieri, Director of the GSMA’s mAutomotive Division states that “the range of connected car services is constantly expanding and only our imaginations today limit the possibilities.”

Connected Cars 2013 | Save the Date

This evolution of the Connected Cars debate away from one of technology, to one of content and services will provide the framework for the Connected Cars 2013 conference, taking place this June 25-26 in Amsterdam. The show will bring together the auto-OEM, app developer, content, services and mobile network operator communities to identify the automotive content and services that will monetise the connected consumer and define the future of the connected car. Review the Connected Cars 2013 Agenda.

In addition, with tethered LTE smartphones and embedded LTE simcards enabling huge amounts of data to be transmitted to connected cars to enable the next-generation of automotive content and services, the Connected Cars 2013 event will run alongside the LTE World Summit – the world’s leading 4G event – for unrivalled networking opportunities and knowledge sharing to fully understand how the latest LTE developments will affect the connected car industry.

More than 3,500 attendees, 150 exhibitors and 280+ speakers from across the global Connected Car, LTE and Mobile App industries are expected to attend.

For full details of the agenda and to register, visit the website at www.connectedcarsworld.com

Best wishes,

The Connected Cars Team

Partnership combines INS’s industrial IT services with the ThingWorx Platform, bringing the benefits of remote asset management and Machine-to-Machine applications to industrial solutions.

EXTON, Pa.—April 4, 2013—ThingWorx™ today announced an integration partnership with Industrial Networking Solutions (INS), a leading provider of network products and engineering services for the industrial marketplace. This partnership will allow INS to offer Machine-to-Machine (M2M) solutions at minimized cost, risk, and time to market for its customers by utilizing the ThingWorx Platform—the industry’s first application development platform designed to reduce the effort required to build M2M and network applications for the emerging connected world.

With industry leading organizations estimating that the number of Internet-connected devices will reach 50 billion by 2020, companies in many industrial markets are seeing M2M as a new avenue for business growth and sustained revenue. By combining INS’ world-class industrial IT services and solution delivery capabilities with the ThingWorx M2M platform, customers can capitalize on these opportunities and take advantage of a 10X improvement in solution development and delivery for connected applications.

“ThingWorx is a revolutionary M2M application platform that INS is excited to be able to offer our customer base,” said Stephen Woram, Founder of INS. “Our new partnership with ThingWorx allows the INS IT Service group to provide a complete M2M solution, assisting our customers in not only connecting remote assets to the cloud, but also in facilitating a secure and reliable data stream between users and remote assets via the Cloud, and developing valuable user interfaces, reporting, and historical data analysis tools for users to manage their remote asset investment.”

INS’s industrial domain expertise and IT services, coupled with the latest in M2M technology offered by the ThingWorx Platform, will help customers capitalize on emerging business opportunities and innovations that are possible through the integration of their connected assets with their business processes. This integrated offering enables customers to rapidly build applications and make business decisions based on data coming from the intelligence at the edge of the network, creating new avenues for business growth and sustained revenue in industrial markets such as oil and gas, consumer product manufacturing, water and wastewater management, and transportation.

“We are pleased to be partnering with INS, a well recognized solution provider for M2M solutions in the industrial markets,” said Russ Fadel, CEO and Co-Founder of ThingWorx. “INS represents another important step in the expansion of our ecosystem and will enable ThingWorx-based M2M solutions to be delivered even more efficiently and reliably. We look forward to continued mutual success with INS.”

About INS

Industrial Networking Solutions (INS) distributes products, and provides industrial IT services and training designed specifically for the industrial marketplace. Founded in 1998, INS is a pioneer of the industrial Ethernet marketplace, and is one of the largest dedicated industrial networking distributors in the world. INS brings a control system engineering perspective to networking technology. In addition to stocking and selling a wide range of industrial Ethernet and M2M products, INS has an experienced engineering team which assists its customers with troubleshooting existing networks, as well as designing and implementing new industrial IT infrastructure. For more information, visit www.industrialnetworking.com/.

About ThingWorx

ThingWorx™ provides the first platform designed to efficiently build and run the applications of today’s connected world. ThingWorx’ model-based design and search-based intelligence reduces application development efforts by 10X, minimizing cost, risk and time to market. The ThingWorx platform combines the key functionality of Web 2.0, search, and social collaboration, and applies it to the world of “things,” including connected products, machines, sensors, and industrial equipment. Businesses use the ThingWorx platform to rapidly deliver innovative applications and connected solutions across markets ranging from manufacturing, energy, and food, to Machine-to-Machine (M2M) remote monitoring and service, as well as in emerging Internet of Things applications, including smart cities, smart grid, agriculture, and transportation. For more information, please visit our website at www.thingworx.com and our blog at www.thingworx.com/blog or follow us on Twitter at @ThingWorx.

Listen to DIDX podcaster Suzanne Bowen interview ThingWorx CEO Russell Fadel at http://www.didx.net/podcast/?p=episode&name=2013-02-07_thingworx_machine2machine.mp3 on March 12, 2012 to discover where Thingworx has been and check out this above announcement to see how much they have accomplished since then!

The evolution of the music industry in the last fifteen years is a story we’re all well familiar with. Once the Internet was able to offer a quick, convenient way to consume content, record shop chains were done for, and labels had to either drastically alter their business plans or whither away. Sure, there were a few bumps in the way, but the future always leans towards progress and now the idea of buying your music in a physical format is considered a novelty.

This story is identical for a dozen other industries – once you’re able to consume content or reach a service digitally, it spells doom for the traditional market. The stodgy old institutions that once wrote the rules have to evolve or die. It doesn’t matter if it’s film, television or travel – once there’s a legitimate option that exists online, people flock towards it.

The banking industry is no different, and actually, it’s set to change more in the next three years than it has in the last thirty.

With nearly a third of Americans either unbanked or underbanked, it’s clear that the mainstream banking industry hasn’t come close to complete saturation, mostly due to the high fees, inconvenience and bureaucratic structure currently in place. And even for those in the middle and upper class who can afford financial services, the growing shift towards alternatives like Simple and Green Dot’s recent launch shows that the old stalwarts of the banking industry are falling out of favor. Considering their nightmarish image after the 2008 Financial Crisis, it’s not hard to see why, either.

Much in the same way that consumers just wanted quick and easy access to their music over the superfluous features of record shop chains, people are looking for financial hubs that can offer them the essentials quickly, conveniently and inexpensively. And that’s exactly where PayToo (a member of wholesale didx.net) is planting its flag.

PayToo’s Mobile Wallet is simple: your funds are stored in your account, which can be withdrawn in all of the ways consumers are already accustomed: Prepaid Cards, ATMs, etc. Fund transfers to friends and family, both domestically and internationally, are easy and offered at a historically tiny premium. And with PayToo Direct, for a mere $2.50 per month, anyone can have instant access to their paycheck, sidestepping the costly and tedious process of taking paper checks to cashing stores.

But simply offering what consumers are already used to at a lower price isn’t enough – PayToo is making money management even easier thanks to one of the simplest interfaces every conceived. Aside from accessing your funds to transfer money, pay bills and more by using the mobile or web interface, all PayToo services can be access by simple text messages. So while the next age of banking has already made a splash on smartphones, PayToo is the only player in the market that’s expanding these innovations to the world at large.

All it took was a few dominos falling to spell change for the music industry. Napster to the iPod to digital stores like the iTunes and Amazon Music Stores took less than a decade. So how are we going to look at financial services in five years?

We’ll be looking at them through the lens of innovation that PayToo is providing.

And we’re only just getting started,

Michel POIGNANT
CEO & PRESIDENT

Ten of the United States’ biggest banks felt DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks between September and October 2012. Another set occurred December 11 – 12, 2012 after hackivists warned they would return. Preparation for DDoS attack prevention, detection and mitigation by all financial institutions, small to large, appears to be … at least very crucial. Even QCR Holdings’s CTO Michael Wyffels says the banking industry should educate their employees, the public and their customers about DDoS, what it really does and how they, the banks or other type of business, are prepared.

One bank hit on December 12, 2012 was U.S. Bank. What set U.S. Bank apart, from the other banks that appeared to have been attacked by people or bots at multiple locations at one time, was that they communicated publicly and openly about what was happening and what they were doing about it. They explained in language that anyone could understand. They did not hide, and they stated the facts which is what potential and current customers deserve.

BankInfoSecurity, a source of banking information security related content, including fraud, ID theft, risk management, and emerging technology, notes that U.S. Bank spokesman Tom Joyce confirmed the institution’s online banking site had been hit by a DDoS attack, quoting him. “We apologize that some customers might experience intermittent delays today on our website,” he said. “The issues are related to unusual and coordinated high-traffic volume designed to slow down the system for consumers – similar to what other banks have experienced over the past few months. We are working closely with federal law enforcement officials on the issue.”

Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters declared online that five banks were targets for a second phase of attacks: Bank of America, SunTrust Banks, JPMorgan Chase, PNC Financial Services Group, and U.S. Bancorp. PNC and SunTrust, in addition to Bank of America, reported intermittent online issues December 11. The Cyber Fighters say the campaign may last through year 2014 or until a Youtube video “Innocence of Muslims” is removed, according to their comments left at Pastebin “MHLFTk2G” on January 8, 2013. The same group claims that the DDoS attacks cost U.S. banks $30,000 per minute. Whether that claim is true or not, anyone can ask to self, “If my bank’s website was down half of a day, what would I think about it? What action would I take?”

All five banks were attacked in addition to BB&T, Capital One, HSBC, Regions Bank, and Wells Fargo. During the global network of hacktivists’ first attack wave, each bank’s website was down for various periods of time. For some reason, Capital One was targeted twice in this first campaign.

How is the banking industry reacting? Associations and regulators do not say much. In late December 2012, Financial Services-Information Sharing and Analysis Center (a banking group) made a public acknowledgement of the situation. “Targeted institutions have been working together with members of the security community and with government partners to help defend against the attacks,” FS-ISAC stated in its Dec. 12 security update. “Information pertaining to tactics and techniques has been shared among these parties and with the broader FS-ISAC membership.”

QCR Holdings’s CTO Michael Wyffels declared that attention must be paid to public awareness. He says banking institutions must have thorough and effective DDoS response plan now, even if that bank or credit union isn’t among the list of known targets now or in the future. “Clearly, you know something is coming, so you plan an effective way to respond, in advance, rather than waiting to react and figure it out as the attack is happening,” he says.

This article was edited by BlockDoS public relations representative Suzanne Bowen of Elegant Group Inc. Contact www.BlockDoS.net to make effective DDoS response plan. Methods of contact include phone numbers 1-703-222-8649 and 1-866-989-9119. Visit http://www.itexpo.com January 31 – February 1, 2013 in Miami Beach, Florida to meet up with thousands of businesses involved in IP communications, Internet Security, M2M, SIP trunking, mobile applications and services, and more. Visit DIDX and Techistan and industry friends at booth 337.

BlockDos, a DDoS mitigation service provider, announces a promotional offer of 60 % off its Budget Protection Plan during 2012′s most important retail season of the year, the winter holidays with a focus on Christmas and a proactive approach to 2013. DDoS attackers are aware this is a vulnerable season for small businesses. They are motivated by financial gain, access to intellectual property, geopolitical beliefs, military gain or diversion. They see the great potential of DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) on vulnerable websites and e-commerce platforms during the year’s biggest shopping season. BlockDos aims to protect small business customers and to replace fear of DDoS attack with celebration of sales.

“DDoS attacks are distributed denial of service in action with multiple sources and either a single target or multiple targets. Because the sources are multiple, it is difficult to detect and block. A DDoS attack can stop legitimate traffic, cause network meltdown, make customers choose competitors, and destroy a company’s reputation permanently. Customers do not care what happened to one’s company during a DDoS attack. They simply know the e-commerce site was down because of attackers and hackers, and they do not trust the retail company as they did before. BlockDos wants all small businesses to be safe and secure and to maintain their honor, and this is why we offer 60 % off the Buget Protection Plan to new customers to get started,” says Munaf Majeed, CEO at BlockDos.net.

The National Retail Federation in 2011 published that holiday sales represented 19.5% of total retail industry sales. This year 2012, Christmas is on a Tuesday, a typical business day for retail. The NRF predicts that 2012 online sales will increase at least 12 %, but for some small businesses, the total holiday sales can be as high as 40 % of annual revenue. Typically people shop right through New Years’ Day even and beyond for after holiday sales. Not having a DDoS mitigation service tested and in place beforehand can have devastating effects. The BlockDos Budget Protection Plan with 60 % off will include 24/7/365 email technical support and live chat support.

BlockDos.net, with locations in USA and Europe, offers aggressive protection plans, beginning with the Budget Protection Plan at 60 % off, against DDoS. The Budget Protection Plan includes 3 mbps of average clean traffic or 300 GB of data transfer, protection up to 1 Gbps burstable to 1.5 Gbps, 125K packets per second, free upgrade for 12 hours to next level, and dedicated IP. Its mitigation services are ready in advance before attackers take advantage of vulnerabilities. During seasons of higher sales potential such as Christmas, there is maximum destruction potential.

“Choose BlockDos with its quality DDoS mitigation service plan. The company specializes in protection against and mitigation of DDoS. A small business’s choice of provider should have a proven record in successful protection against attacks. Retailers should protect their website and e-commerce platform as a top priority during online retailers’ biggest revenue-generating seasons of the year,” says Lisa Lombard, BlockDos research analyst. “We want small businesses to celebrate a successful, safe and secure Christmas season and beyond with maximum online retail sales. Place a call to BlockDoS tollfree number 1-866-989-9119, and get started with 60 % off the BlockDos Budget Protection Plan during this prime retail season of the year.”

About BlockDos:
BlockDos has 15 mitigation locations around the world. In USA, on the East Coast, locations include NewYork , Washington D.C., and Atlanta, GA. In addition, central USA includes Dallas, Texas and on the West Coast, Seattle, WA and Los Angeles, California. Outside of the USA, BlockDos mitigation centers are in Montreal, Quebec; UK, Netherlands, and Czechoslovakia covering Europe; and Singapore. Visit www.BlockDos.net for more information and to get started with a more secure and safe network minus denial of service and minus distributed denial of service during Christmas and throughout the year.

Contact pr@blockdos.net:
Suzanne Bowen, Marketing Specialist
BlockDos
1515 Britannia Road East,
Suite 303,
Mississauga, ON, L4W 4K1.
Toll Free Number: +1-866-989-9119

Additional Resources
ddos mitigation Christmas retail

About BlockDos:
BlockDos provides trusted, up-to-date, and reliable protection against and mitigation of DOS (denial of service) and DDOS (distributed denial of service) attacks and other cyber threats. We protect and restore online, mission-critical infrastructures for global organizations such as enterprises, businesses and government agencies 365/24/7.

Company Contact Information
BlockDos

ADITIC the Singapore-based brand of Global Mobile Advertising Company, Sofialys, is pleased to announce the company has expanded its service offerings to provide White Label solutions under the ADITIC brand. ADITIC is the fast growing Mobile ad network division of Paris based Sofialys.

ADITIC also announces three new client wins for the company Ambient Digital, mStars and SITTI spanning Indonesia and Vietnam; both key emerging markets that are riding the wave of the booming mobile device market.

The White Label service enables partners to build their own branded Mobile ad network without having to heavily invest in creating their own technology. Each local partner is developing relationships with local mobile properties, and is presenting to local advertisers with mobile media opportunities, including rich metrics on audience, transparency of sites, ability to optimise performance and buys. The system allows publishers to tap into the powerful infrastructure behind the ADITIC Global Mobile Advertising Network, stress-tested with the delivery of more than 10 billion ad impressions across these territories.

Emmanuel Allix, CEO ADITIC & MD Sofialys Asia Pacific said he was delighted to secure new clients in Indonesia and Vietnam with ADITIC firmly on track with its regional expansion plans.

“ADITIC is providing ad serving technology to our White Label partners. With Indonesia having more than 260 million mobile phone subscribers and Vietnam’s population more than 87 million and an exploding mobile market, the potential for ADITIC and its local partners and ultimately to the regional brands is enormous.  Our partners can leverage off our sophisticated technology to provide multi platform campaigns to advertisers and agencies.

As these growth markets develop and consumers become savvier, our White Label clients were seeking a quality technology partner to assist them to develop their strategic business opportunities and escalate their business.”

He added, “The potential for ADITIC in Asia Pacific to provide White Label solutions is tremendous, we envisage offering our technology to other companies spanning news, business, location based services, hospitality, sports, music and social networks. They can create their own brand licensing our technology. We will also target all remaining countries in South East Asia to set up this concept before the end of 2012.”

Commenting on the new ADITIC client wins, Sofialys’ founder and CEO, Mokhtar Bouchelaghem, said: “Our Asia Pacific office headquartered in Singapore has established itself as a serious contender in the region by winning these new accounts and strengthening our foothold in the region. The same approach of White Labeling was actually initiated in France with SFR, our historic client, who is also running its branded White Labeled ad network based on our technology. We have also pushed a similar concept to Africa with TwinPine and to the Europe and LATAM market with new partners to be announced soon. The objective of our company is to tap into the vast markets inAsia and provide the very best in ad serving technology. With ad spending on the rise, the developments in Asia are very exciting for our company.  We are continuously looking at innovative ways to develop our products and services for these incredibly diverse and fast paced markets.”

The ADITIC office in Singapore is located at 31A Cantonment Road and services clients in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam.

About ADITIC

Established in 2009, the ADITIC network is expanding on a daily basis giving advertisers access to the best possible mobile Internet and application inventories. ADITIC is by far the largest online mobile ad service in France, and has now started offering advertising opportunities in the UK,Germany, Italy, Spain, the Middle East, Africa and the APAC region. The company network proposes 10 billion ad impressions across these territories http://www.aditic.com

About Sofialys

Founded in 2002 and headquartered in Paris, Sofialys is a leading supplier of mobile marketing and advertising solutions and currently works with key players within the telecoms industry, including operators, publishers, media sales houses in addition to a number of prestigious advertisers. The company helps its clients to monetise their mobile inventory by delivering direct marketing, display, search and video advertising campaigns. Sofialys today has clients across all 5 continents including SFR, MediaCorp, StarHub, HTC, Orange, ValueClick and has offices in Frankfurt, Mexico City andSingapore www.sofialys.com

By Asia Pacific Correspondent :

Rani Wemel

LTT Global Brands | 14 Jalan SS3/33, 47300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor DE, Malaysia

T: 03-7877 7023 | F: 03-78777806 |

rani@LTTCOM.com / rani@techistan.com

While thousands of entrepreneurs and start-ups work with the popular GEW (Global Entrepreneurship Week) program in Malaysia, halfway around the world in New York, StartFast Venture Accelerator, an Internet and mobile startup accelerator program, at just two weeks old is even receiving accolades from the Wall Street Journal, specifically one of
its nine startup companies, YouGift (https://www.yougift.com/). YouGift launched its gifting platform last week. It began with a starter-set of 17 brands in which one can attach a virtual gift card to personalized greetings delivered inside Facebook. The recipient chooses which brands they would like to use to redeem the monetary
value of the gift.

A couple questions … first, are YouGifts available for anyone in any country to participate in? Second, do Facebook users want their Yougifts to their Facebook friends to be publicized on their friends’ Facebook Walls? Something to ponder! The YouGifts can be redeemed as a cash card or as a gift card for one of the 9 brands.

Congratulations to YouGift founder Efrem Weiss and the StartFast Venture Accelerator who were featured in the Wall Street Journal article on May 23, 2012, but there is more. On August 16, 2012, over a hundred investors will attend StartFast’s Demo Day in Syracuse, New York.

“Demo Day is the culmination of a 100-day boot-camp, pushing startups to become investment-grade opportunities,” says Chuck Stormon, who co-manages StartFast with Nasir Ali. “Mentorship is key, and we’re fortunate to have 85 world-class mentors to work with our companies,” adds Ali. With roughly 500,000 college and university students, Upstate New York has been exporting talent to great companies around the world.

During week two, StartFast teams met face to face with mentors James Turino, investment banker at Redwood Capital Group, John Max Miller, serial entrepreneur, angel investor and CEO of Grand Slam Alley, Gus Weber, Entrepreneur in Residence at Polaris Ventures and DogPatch Labs, Sean Branagan, Director of the Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship at Newhouse School, Syracuse University, Tom Schryver, CEO of PIXL, Brian Model , Managing Director at Stonehenge
Growth Capital, David Montanaro, serial entrepreneur and investor in the Seed Capital Fund of Central New York, Grant Kirkwood, CEO of Unitas Global and serial entrepreneur, Ilissa Miller , CEO of iMiller Public Relations and by Skype with Brian Cohen, founder and CEO of Launch.it and Chairman of the New York Angels, the largest and most active angel investor group in the world.

StartFast’s nine teams receive honest and diverse opinions about their businesses. The mentors provide the teams with expert advice.

“Entrepreneurs tend to get stuck if their ideas are not challenged.” states Ali. At the end of week two, several StartFast companies (including Mozzo Analytics, YouGift, and Canvita) have launched new versions of their products, while PadProof, Cayo-Tech , RevoPT, and BitePal are testing breakthroughs in their business models. All nine will participate in Demo Day, with one main objective … investment.

For information about StartFast Venture Accelerator and its nine team selected for the inaugural 2012 program, visit http://startfast.net.

Allison Smith is a professional telephone voice. Most likely she has answered your calls, provided you with a wake-up call or given you directions from your GPS.  It’s the voice you listen to and the voice that will get your company heard.

Thousands of businesses have been positively enabled by the world’s most popular telecom voice. Listen to her anecdotes of voiceovers for a prison system, collection agency and one request for a special 1800 service in a DIDX podcast at http://didx.net/podcast/?p=episode&name=2009-07-30_allisonsmithjul302009.mp3.

Most companies use standard voice recordings, in-house representatives or audition numerous people to find the voice for their business because they don’t know their options.  Allison Smith, a professional telephone voice, is available to make sure your telephone systems, recordings, introductions and prompts are clearly communicated, further representing your company’s brand to the market.

For more information about Allison Smith and to learn how she can take your brand to the next level, please email:  info@theivrvoice.com. Follow Allison Smith on Twitter at https://twitter.com/#!/voicegal. Sign up to create a more professional IVR at http://theivrvoice.com/.

Created by IMiller Public Relations at pr@imillerpr.com and edited by Suzanne Bowen, a TMCNET blogger, DIDX podcaster and AstraQom VP.

Lenovo announced a range of products that they will showcase at the event. One of these products is a 55-inch IPS 3D HDTV dubbed the K91 and the highlighted feature of it is that it will run Google’s latest OS – Ice Cream Sandwich. Lenovo states that this is the first smart TV that runs Android 4.0 and will feature some of Lenovo’s cloud services that include an app store.

The highlighted specifications of the K91 include:

8GB internal memory, 1GB RAM, 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor

5MP webcam, SD card support, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, 10M/100M Ethernet

HDMI, USB 2.0, Voice control, facial recognition

According to an announcement from Lenovo, this television will be powered by a Qualcomm 8060 Snapdragon dual core processor and they claim that it will ‘revolutionize technology in the living room.’ This 55-inch 3D HDTV features Video On Demand (VOD), Internet applications and traditional TV programs. As for the 3D playback, it features 3D FPR technology, which delivers flicker-free video on a full HD IPS panel at 240hz with SRS TruSurround.

Additionally, there are over 100 apps preloaded in the TV itself, but if one is not satisfied, they can head over to the Android Market on the TV and download other applications as well.

Lenovo states that the K91 is available for purchase in China and will be available worldwide at a later date. There is no word as to when the global rollout will take place or even the price of the TV for that matter, but as soon as the information is available.

The company just introduced two new ultrabooks that will live alongside the company’s existing model, the ThinkPad X1. These three models put Lenovo in a unique position in the ultrabook game. While other companies are releasing their first ultrabooks, here’s Lenovo, with a relatively large product offering including a high-end model and an attractive entry-level model.

The ThinkPad X1 Hybrid will sit atop Lenovo’s ultrabook product line. As the Hybrid moniker suggests its a variation of the ThinkPad X1. Like original, the ThinkPad X1 Hybrid is available with three Intel Core CPU options (i3, i5, & i7) along with a 13.1-inch Gorilla Glass screen. The main difference between the two models is that the new model features a supplementary Qualcomm dual-core CPU and up to 16GB of memory that runs a custom Linux-based operating system.

Lenovo states this back-up OS is perfect for browsing the Internet, watching movies and other mundane tasks. In this mode the battery is said to last ten hours where it’s only five using the traditional Windows/Intel platform.

Look for the X1 Hybrid in the second quarter with a starting price of $1,599 (that’s currently $200 more than the standard X1). The T430u will ship in the third quarter for only $849.

The ThinkPad T430u approaches ultrabooks in a slightly different manner than the X1. This is a budget ultrabook. But an good lookin’ one at that. The T430u rocks a 14-inch screen but is still less than .8-inches thick. There’s a choice of Intel Core CPUs and optional Nvidia graphics. Buyers can opt for an SSD instead of a traditional spinning disk drive. The larger ultrabook also has a large battery with a stated life of six hours.