ASUS certainly got our attention with its ultraportable U6S laptop, and it looks like it piqued the interest of the folks at HotHardware as well, who’ve now turned out a full review of the diminutive, leather-bound system. While they expectedly found a few shortcomings with laptop — namely, lackluster battery life (even for an ultraportable) — they found a lot more to like about it, including “excellent” performance, plenty of features (including HSDPA), low heat and noise, an always-welcome LED display, and “cool leather palm rests,” although that last bit is certainly a matter of taste.Best of all, that all comes at a relatively reasonable $1,650 price tag, which leads HotHardware to declare the U6S “one of the best values in the luxury notebook niche.”

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Although Apple has said that it’s still on track to ship 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008, it looks like that rumor about scaled back production may have been true after all: several analysts are now reporting that the company’s pulled back iPod touch, iPhone, and MacBook production for Q1. Of course, Apple is known for managing its channel inventory pretty ruthlessly, so it’s not known if this is a permanent decrease or just a reaction to what some analysts are calling “overbuilding” in Q4, but there is some good news out there — strong sales of the iMac have led to a forecasted 35 percent production increase. You know, the last time the economy soured, Steve promised that Apple would “innovate out” of the downturn — we’d say some new MacBook Pros would be a fine start this time around, eh?

[Via X-bit Labs, thanks Mack]

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Well, would you look at that. The image we’re certain your eyes are fixated on above is indeed the first look at Lenovo’s forthcoming X300 ultraportable, and it’s being provided courtesy of Walt Mossberg. ‘Course, if we were betting souls, we’d guess that nifty office envelope won’t be bundled in, but hey, crazier things have happened. As if a photo wasn’t enough, Walt also clued us in on a few more specs, namely the inclusion of a removable battery, three USB ports, WiFi, an integrated Ethernet jack and optional GPS / WWAN to boot. Heck, users will even be able to order this 3.12-pound critter with Windows XP if they so choose. You getting all this, Apple?

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For those out there (yes, we know you’re out there) who’ve been refreshing Fujitsu’s online webstore like mad just waiting for its cute-as-a-button LifeBook P8010 to become available — well, we’re probably telling you something you’re already quite aware of. Nevertheless, we’re sure everyone else not totally infatuated with the aforementioned machine (but still keenly interested in it) would love to know that it has indeed escaped from the FCC’s lair and is now ready to be shipped to your door. Thankfully, Fujitsu will let you customize it to the hilt, but those looking to get in and out can snap up a low-end configuration for $1,699.

[Thanks, Jack]

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In the oddball acquisition of the day, Dell just swept up email services provider MessageOne in a $155 million cash deal. How odd? Get this, MessageOne was co-founded by Michael Dell’s brother Adam who now manages investment funds — the very funds with partial ownership of MessageOne which Michael and his genetic crew are investors in. As such, Michael, his wife, and kids will receive $12M from the deal, Adam about $970k, and their parents about $450k. For Michael’s part, Dell says that he will donate his family’s proceeds direct to charity and was excluded from negotiating the acquisition. Still, we can’t help but question the merits of such an acquisition when the only comparison that comes readily to mind is Apple’s dot Mac service — a service Apple is rumored to be shifting to Google in order to focus on core business. Don’t get us wrong, we get Dell’s whole Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business strategy, but do they really expect to compete directly with Google and MicroHoo while staying true to their PC roots?

[Via New York Times]

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Acer’s little low-cost laptop plans just emerged from the rumor closet. Chairman J.T. Wang says they’ll launch a cheap-o, 7- to 9-inch laptop in Q2 or Q3 of 2008. That puts the world’s number 3 computer maker in direct competition with the Eee PC and CloudBook in the burgeoning low-end laptop market. However, Acer should really re-think their expected price point of “around $470.” After all, Dell’s full, 15.4-inch laptops start at just $499.

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We’ve definitely heard some horror stories about Best Buy, but it looks like a DC woman named Raelyn Campbell has had enough: she’s opening up a big can of America Sauce on the retailer in the form of a $54m lawsuit after it lost her laptop during warranty service. Campbell says she bought a laptop and $300 extended warranty from Best Buy in 2006, and took the machine in for service when the power switch broke last May. Told repairs would take two to six weeks, she set off on a business trip, only to find that her laptop had gone missing when she returned in August. Fast forward through several more weeks of run-around and delays, and the best the Buy would offer for losing a $1,100 machine with all her data on it was a $900 gift card. After being informed of the potential for identity theft, Campbell filed the multimillion-dollar suit, which prompted Best Buy to up its offer to a whopping $2,100 plus a $500 gift card. Campbell says she’s not dropping the case until she finds out what happened to her machine — and she wants ol’ Blue to train its employees on privacy issues and revamp its warranty policy. Honestly? We’d say she has a better chance of getting the $54 million.

[Thanks, David]

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If you haven’t heard of Haiku by now, it’s probably for good reason: as of a year ago, the OS could barely connect to the internet, and certainly wasn’t anywhere close to replacing your Linux build of choice. Luckily the open source replacement for the gone-but-not-forgotten BeOS of yore is maturing nicely, and it just had a bit of a coming out party at the Southern California Linux Expo this last weekend. There are still plenty of glitches to iron out, with applications like Firefox crashing and glitching frequently, and a shortage of hardware support, but the core elements of BeOS are there and just as lovable as ever. For instance, that few second start time never gets old, same for that 60MB disk image, and the most excellent processor utilization. Check out the in-depth preview on Ars for a better idea of the past future (or is it future past?) of operating systems, or just download the latest nightly on Haiku to find out for yourself.

[Via Ars Technica]

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Those “Vista Capable” stickers certainly caused consumers a lot of confusion, and it looks like they even tripped up some senior Microsoft execs. According to internal MS emails introduced as evidence in the ongoing lawsuit over the program, several MS managers expressed concern that they were misleading people, with the VP of Windows product management saying “I PERSONALLY got burnt… I now have a $2,100 email machine” and Jim Allchin saying MS had “really botched” the program, and that it “had to do a better job with our customers.” Of course, the main reason for all the confusion is the multiple editions of Vista that run with different capabilities depending on your hardware, but that’s a subtle point to make with a sticker — or, as one Microsoft employee admitted in an email, “Even a piece of junk will qualify” as Vista Capable. That’s some pretty damning stuff, but the case isn’t anywhere near resolution yet — the judge has yet to decide whether to certify it as a class action, which looks like it’ll depend on a technical reading of what exactly Microsoft was advertising throughout the Vista Capable program. We’ll know in 10 days, when the judge has said she’ll issue a ruling — we’d imagine the plaintiffs’ legal team has plenty more of these emails in store if the case goes through.

[Via Slashdot]

Disclaimer: There once was a man named Nilay / Who was indeed an attorn-eye / He wrote this post, but he’s not the lawyer of most / And this post is not legal advice or analysis and should not be taken as such.

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As part of their investigation into the company’s alleged abuse of its market position at the expense of rival AMD, EU competition regulators have raided chip giant Intel’s offices in Munich, Germany, along with those of Metro AG-owned Media Markt and other unnamed PC retailers. The European Commission has been keeping a close eye on Intel since last summer, when the company was formally accused of offering rebates and making payoffs to customers and retailers in exchange for preferential treatment — charges that Intel has repeatedly, although somewhat obtusely, denied. It’s not clear at this point what material, if anything, was confiscated in these latest raids, which come exactly a month prior to a closed hearing the megacorp faces on this matter in Brussels.

[Via BBC]

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