Microsoft and Lenovo issued a press release letting everyone know that the ThinkPad X301, T400, and T500 are “Optimized for Microsoft Communicator 2007.” What the hell is Communicator 2007? Straight from the horse’s mouth:

Office Communicator 2007 R2 is a unified communications application that helps end users be more productive by enabling them to communicate and collaborate easily with others in different locations or time zones using a range of different communication options, including instant messaging (IM), voice, desktop sharing and video. Integration with programs across the Microsoft Office system – including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Groove, and SharePoint – gives end users many different ways to communicate directly from the context of their task.

Reading a bit about this, it does sound cool for corporations or other groups who need to collaborate remotely. Let’s face it, most everyone uses MS Office and an integrated platform to share files/edits as well as communicate via IM, voice or video sounds pretty neat. But c’mon, Optimized for Communicator 2007?

Lenovo has designed many of its ThinkPad laptops with leading technologies and usability features to give business users a leading communications experience. Lenovo includes stereo speakers for a fuller, richer experience with 10 band equalization and dynamic range compression for a more balanced sound, optimized speaker and microphone placement and added in Audio Director functionality, which adds up to a fuller and richer sound and allows users to switch between headphones and speakers easily without changing settings. For an excellent video experience, Lenovo designed the laptops with optimized cameras, digital zoom and improved image quality.

Now, we love our ThinkPads here at ThinkPads.com. We really do. But speaker sound quality has never been a ThinkPad strength and while it has gotten better over the years, it is nothing special. Communicator 2007 likely doesn’t have any particularly high requirements in these areas, but you can also bet that Lenovo didn’t actually change their laptops for this software, so what they’re really saying is that your existing ThinkPad X301/T400/T500 will be super duper at using Communicator 2007. And your previous generation ones will probably be just fine too.

Oooh, I wonder if ThinkPads will have another sticker on them to let people know they are Optimized for Communicator 2007?

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