More laptop computers preloaded with Ubuntu Linux are coming from Dell Inc. in response to demand from potential customers around the world.

Starting today, Dell will offer Ubuntu Linux 7.10 on its XPS 1330 laptops in France, Germany, Spain and the U.K., the company said on its Direct2Dell blog. U.S. customers will be able to order the machines in “a week or so,” the company said. For customers in Spain, this will be the first time that Dell has offered a pre-loaded computer for sale with Ubuntu Linux. Pricing details for the U.S. machines were not available.

The move to add more Linux-loaded offerings in more countries came from consumer requests on the Direct2Dell Web site, according to the company. The new XPS 1330n laptops include built-in DVD playback.

Dell launched its first three Ubuntu-loaded computers in the U.S.

(Full article ‘Dell offers another Ubuntu Linux laptop’)

SAN FRANCISCO — With various and months in some cases — it didn’t come as a surprise when Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the company’s new it may be one of the best laptop displays ever created. Its immediate full brightness is a nice feature, though the real value comes in the power savings when compared with traditional laptop displays.

The display’s environmentally friendly design addresses criticism that Apple has received from Greenpeace International and other environmental groups over the past year. Indeed, no Apple-made circuit boards in the MacBook Air contain polyvinyl chloride (PVC) or rely on brominated surfaces. The result: a laptop that’s thin, light, bright and green.

The super-svelte MacBook Air, courtesy of Apple.

(Full article ‘First look: On cloud nine with Apple’s MacBook Air’)

Everex may not be one of the things that has held Windows-based ultramobile PCs back.

“We need to incentivize people, so we are going very, very aggressive” on price, Kim said.

Everex sold 10,000 gPCs in the U.S. during Christmas, Kim said. Version 2 of the gPC in a slightly smaller case will be available by the end of February, and Everex hopes to sell 100,000 gPCs by September.

Though not well-known to mainstream consumers in the U.S., Everex’s parent company, First International Computer Inc., has long supplied components and whole desktop and notebook PCs to Fujitsu Siemens, Hewlett-Packard, Gateway (now part of Acer), NEC and others.

Apple Inc.’s CEO Steve Jobs took center stage at the Macworld Conference and Expo today to introduce what he called “the world’s thinnest notebook,” dubbed the MacBook Air.

The new laptop, which is priced starting at $1,799 and will ship in two weeks, was the final, and flashiest, of the new products and upgrades that Jobs touted in a 90-minute keynote at Macworld, which opened yesterday in San Francisco. He also talked up a new wireless backup device called the Time Capsule, spelled out changes to the iPhone that will be delivered later today via a firmware update, and announced the relaunching of Apple TV, which now features a lower price and movie downloads via iTunes. View more news from the Macworld Expo

“There were no surprises today,” said Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research Inc.

(Full article ‘Update: Apple airs out ‘world’s thinnest subnotebook”)

With its launching of an antitrust investigation of Intel Corp., New York’s state government is once again taking a leading role in challenging a titan of the technology industry. The state played a key role in the antitrust case against Microsoft Corp., which was settled five years ago, and by its action today opens up the possibility of another landmark legal battle against a powerful and influential IT vendor.

Intel already has been facing probes of its microprocessor business practices in Europe, Japan and South Korea. But the company hadn’t been the subject of any investigations in the U.S.

(Full article ‘New York’s Intel probe may start new IT antitrust battle’)