News Bits: IdeaPad U110, Windows XP SP3, $399 "Open Computer" runs Mac OS X

Lenovo IdeaPad U110 coming to the US soon

Image Credit: Laptoping

The Lenovo U110 we took a look at back in January is going to arrive soon in the United States. According to product pages at J&R, there are two known versions of the U110 - the U110B and the U110R. Both feature the Intel Core 2 Duo Low Voltage L7500 processor, 3GB of RAM, and a 120GB hard drive. Both models are priced at $1,999 at JR.com.

Product Link (JR.com - U110B - U110R)
Full Story (Laptoping.com)

Clevo to reorganize notebook strategy

Second-tier Taiwan-based notebook manufacturer Clevo is planning to ship 1.2 million notebooks in 2008. The company is reorganizing their notebook product line strategy; they will focus more on securing orders for mid-range and high-end notebooks and strengthenting their rugged notebook line for military and industrial use. Clevo is also focusing on increasing its ODM orders for companies such as Sager in North America, especially with gaming notebooks. Alienware is the company's main client.

Full Story (DigiTimes.com)

Windows XP SP3 coming at end of April

According to Neowin.net, Microsoft is planning to release Service Pack 3 for Windows XP to manufacturers and IT departments on April 21, and it will hit Windows Update on April 29. It will not be added to automatic updates until June 10.

Full Story (Neowin.net)
Via (Gizmodo.com)
Via (ComputerWorld.com)

$399 Open Computer advertises Mac OS X Leopard support
A company called Psystar is advertising a desktop computer called the "Open Computer" for $399 that they claim has support for Leopard, the Mac operating system. It was originally called the "OpenMac" but its name has since been changed. It is $399 and includes a Core 2 Duo and 2GB of RAM. Psystar is advertising the Open Computer as an alternative to a real Apple Mac computer.

Full Story (MacRumors.com)
Special thanks to forum member Leon for submitting this bit

 

OpenMac sounds interesting and potentially disastrous for the company. Apple's probably going to come crushing down on them like a ton of bricks.

Alienware is Clevo's main client?
Someone in Clevo needs to get their records updated.
That's rather odd considering that Alienware denies it as well.

SP3, can't wait!

 

Maybe this would open the door for other PC manufacturers and my dream would come true, a ThinkPad X series with OS X!

 

As I understand it, I believe this company made a statement essentially saying that they WANT Apple to try and sue them so they can challenge Apple's "monopoly."

Whatever. I likewise suspect this company is going to disappear after Apple's lawyers are done.

It's sort of like "David vs Goliath" ... but in this case David is fighting with marshmallows instead of rocks. Still, I hope the little guy isn't crushed because that would mean average consumers could actually AFFORD a Mac.

 

Finally a confirmed release date for SP3!

Thanks Chaz!

 

... and suing ensues.

 

What does Alienware have to do with Clevo?

 

I would hope that this whole 'open computer' thing reopens the OS licensing wars Apple used to have with Microsoft. I would love to see Vista and OS X go head to head. If I go to Dell's website, I would love to choose between Windows, OS X, and Linux. Competition is good and this would lead to these two companies actually refining their software to make it better rather than to 'annoy users' like Vista was designed to do. Apple is just a smaller version of Microsoft today that's just as evil. Psystar said they would challenge Apple and there's significant legal support to their side due to the fact EULA's are weak.

I would love to see Apple come out today or tomorrow and announce they're going to license OS X and take on Microsoft. Apple has iTunes, iPod, iPhone, and all these other things that they never had back when they originally did OS licensing. Apple is extremely greedy though, so I do anticipate a legal battle or Apple crafting an update that breaks the 'open computer'.

 

Thinkpad with OSX would be great

 

For the record I also found that statement interesting how Alienware is Clevo's main client. Alienware used to be a big client of Clevo back when they had the Area-51/Aurora M7700, Sentia, mALX, and other models but none of their current models are produced by Clevo. I suppose the statement could mean that Alienware has given them the most business (?).

 

That looks to be an expensive court battle ahead.

I'm not so sure if the David vs Goliath comparison is apt here. It seems to be more of a pistol toting man vs a 16 inch toting battleship. Either way, the little guy's probably going to get crushed.

I was looking at the sales figures for Clevo's notebooks and it seemed unlikely that Alienware was their largest customer. I could imagine Alienware being a major customer in the past, but main client seems unlikely. On a sidenote, was there any mention on this site of of Clevo's UMPC? I don't recall seeing anything about it.

 

That U110 looks pretty slick. 11" is a bit small for my taste though...

 

Hmm. I think it'd be great to see better/more competition in the OS department.

It'd do wonders for OS design and quality.

 

Careful that open pc mac clone could be a hoax company:

http://gizmodo.com/380488/psystar-exposed-looks-like-a-hoax

 

Indeed: http://www.tomsguide.com/us/mac-apple-psystar,news-1051.html

Plus... Mac OS X has already been "tweaked" to work on any Intel PC.

 

I don't get why you would want to run Mac OSX on your PC. Why not just skip to Linux? $129 cheaper, with pretty much all the functionality.

 

Because they want to use Apple apps or they like the interface better? And most Linux distributions aren't as beginner-friendly as OS X.

 

I don't think beginner friendly has anything to do with it. If anything, getting OSX to run on a non-Mac is anything but user friendly. If you're installing Mac OSX or Linux on a PC, you're probably not a beginner.

 

The XP SP3 is an awesome news indeed.
The Clevo thing with Alienware must be a misinterpretation of something else.

 

If the Open Computer is real, I'd definitely purchase one lol.

 

The ideapad looks super slick! id love one of those but never would I buy one 2000$... omg that new Asus M50 has 3x better stats for 1500$, but thats the price you pay for a small package....

The open computer thing, I have no idea the legality behind it. I knew OSX had been "hacked" to work on regular PC and I mentioned it before in the Apple forum here when somebody was using the idea that "apple tax" is ok because your paying X$ more for the ability to use OSX and now it can use windows too. If Mac can use windows, then I see no reason why pc cant use OSX, and sure enough when I googled it it can be done.

 

I believe that the Thinkpad X60/X60s equipped with Atheros WLAN gives you the possibility to experience Mac OS X on a fairly new Thinkpad X series without to much driver hassles. But it requires that you go the Hacintosh route ....

I believe that the X300 is no go and thatthe X61/X61s poses a greater challenge driver wise than the X60/X60s.

For more info either check the thinkpads forums or the insanelymac forums ...