IBM will on Monday unveil a machine in its ThinkPad range which will come with an integrated digital notepad.

The device looks, feels, opens and carries like a leather portfolio, IBM will claim, and has different ways of entering and finding information, including a pop up touch screen, and a keyboard which it describes as a "95 per cent keyboard".

Has it taken some keys off the keyboard, we would like to know, or is it like the famous old Butterfly design which IBM canned, to the regret not only of customers, but to IBM engineers themselves?

The machine uses a Pentium III mobile processor, comes with at least 128MB of memory, and includes the usual selection of ports, as well as both wireless and wired connectivity, we are given to understand.

You can even use it when you're standing up, a not infrequent situation on British trains or while you're waiting for that bus that never seems to arrive.

No pricing details are available yet, because the machine is launched next Monday.

Meanwhile, Darhl Stutz, who writes about IT technology on About, wonders if perhaps he should get some royalties out of Big Blue for writing this piece last year... ®