Lenovo Group Ltd. today unveiled a laptop bound in hand-stitched brown leather to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the ThinkPad line. It will sell for $5,000.

Each laptop in the Lenovo ThinkPad Reserve Edition line will be individually numbered, Lenovo said. Only 5,000 will be sold.

For the price, buyers will receive 36 months of “executive class” services that include a one-on-one setup call between the customer and a dedicated service representative, Lenovo said. The same service rep will stay with the customer throughout the laptop’s life. Around-the-clock access to service reps will be available, and Lenovo is even promising access via a toll-free number that will be answered before the fourth ring.

(Full article ‘Leather-bound laptop marks ThinkPad’s 15th anniversary’)

Toshiba Corp. has recalled more defective laptop batteries, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) said last week, the latest move in a long-running problem with lithium-ion batteries made by Sony Corp.

According to a (800) 457-7777 — has also been set up to take calls from users.

Toshiba said that the recent recalls were not connected to the much larger recall of Sony-made batteries in 2006. Then, Apple Inc., Dell Inc., Gateway Inc., and Lenovo Group Ltd. were among the others — forced to recall Sony’s batteries.

In May 2006, a Toshiba laptop which burst into flames prompted the company to again urge users to replace defective batteries. The laptop that caught fire then was running a Sony battery pack on the 2006 recall list.

Lenovo Group Ltd., the world’s No. 3 PC maker, said today that it will start selling versions of its laptop computers preloaded with Linux software from Novell Inc. instead of Microsoft Corp.’s Windows operating system.

The laptops are scheduled to go on sale in the fourth quarter of this year and will be sold to Lenovo’s business customers as well as to consumers.

Lenovo announced its plans at the start of LinuxWorld, an annual conference for IT managers that’s being held in San Francisco this week.

The Linux operating system has been one of the fastest-growing types of software on servers and other kinds of powerful business computers over the past decade.

Last year, Microsoft entered into a business partnership with Novell that includes joint product development on server software.

(Full article ‘Lenovo to sell laptops with Linux’)