After Dell it's now Lenovo's turn to join Microsoft's "downgrade" program and continue offering Windows XP Professional past the June 30 deadline. All customers with qualified Lenovo PCs that have Vista Business or Vista Ultimate versions can now purchase a Windows XP recovery CD until January 31, 2009. That's not the same approach used by Dell, but it's absolutely legit and will let users enjoy the good old Windows XP for quite a while. HP and Toshiba, are the other two companies that will likely take advantage of the downgrade rights provided by Microsoft.

Electronista writes that Lenovo has decided to cease production of the 4:3 screen ratio Thinkpad T61, withdrawing units from stores. Lenovo now offers all its mid-size notebooks, including the 3000 and IdeaPad series, only in a widescreen ratio. The change represents the end to one of the last clear holdouts from IBM's notebook offerings, which used the taller but narrower screen ratio for virtually all its ThinkPad notebooks until the brand name was handed over to Lenovo in 2005. The X61 tablet and its conventional alternative are currently the only Lenovo notebooks to still depend on a standard ratio screen and may be replaced in the future by the X200 series as part of the China-based company's move to capitalize on the success of the X300.

The Lenovo IdeaPad U110 11.1-inch ultraportable notebook is coming soon to the United States, according to product pages at J&R.

The 2.3-pound IdeaPad U110 will be available at J&R in at least two versions - the black U110B and the U110R with a red top cover. Both models feature the Intel Core 2 Duo L7500 low-voltage processor at 1.6GHz, 3GB of RAM, and a 120GB hard drive. The laptop, which is only 0.7-inch high, does not include a built-in optical drive.According to Notebookreview.com, both versions of the laptop should feature Intel GMA X3100 integrated graphics, a 1.3-megapixel web camera, Ethernet LAN, Intel 4965AGN wireless, and Bluetooth connections, with a battery life of up to 8 hours.

The J&R official product page is here.

According to Gizmodo, Lenovo will be adding some new laptops to the X series, namely the X200, X400 and X500. As with the X300, and the whole X series for that matter, these new laptops will be focused on portability. They will come with a 12-inch, 14.1-inch or 15.4-inch screen, respectively, and will all be armed with Intel's latest 45nm Penryn processors. Other features include HSDPA and EVDO, 25% improved battery life, as well as 6MB L2 cache.Lenovo's R, T, and W series should also receive a few updates, more about that after the jump.

Lenovo today announced that nine ThinkVision monitors are now EPEAT Gold qualified, making Lenovo the only computer manufacturer to offer such a distinction. EPEAT, or "Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool," is one of the most highly sought environmental designations in the tech industry. EPEAT's "Gold" designation means that the manufacturer has risen to the organization's highest plateau of environmentally responsible efforts, achieving 23 "must have" criteria involving eliminating environmentally harmful material, product longevity, energy conservation, performance and more; and 75 percent of various optional criteria such as having batteries that are free of lead and low levels of mercury in light sources. The new Lenovo monitors designated EPEAT Gold qualified are: ThinkVision L151, L171, L171P, L194 Wide, L190X, L220X Wide, L174 and L197 Wide. Additionally, the ThinkVision L174 and L197 Wide introduced new technology to reduce power consumption. Lenovo engineers were able to accomplish this by reducing the number of bulbs used in the system from four to two, while adding new brightness enhancement films to ensure greater operating performance. The L174 is priced at $239.99 while the L197 Wide is priced at $259.99. Both monitors will be available on a rolling schedule April 18th through May 9th, depending on the country.

Lenovo's highly-anticipated ThinkPad X300 notebook PC, designed to compete with Apple's MacBook Air is now shipping. The ultra-thin, ultraportable ThinkPad X300 notebook measures less than three-fourths of an inch at its thinnest point, or approximately the height of a U.S. quarter coin, and has a starting weight as low as 2.9 pounds. The ThinkPad X300 notebook combines a number of leading technologies such as 1.8-inch 64 GB SSD, a 13.3-inch LED backlight WXGA+ high resolution display, up to 4GB of DDR2 memory, built-in DVD burner, ultralong battery life and enhanced wireless connectivity. The ThinkPad X300 notebook starts at approximately $2,799. It is available immediately through Lenovo business partners and online at Lenovo.com.

A fire at one of Taiwan's Lite-On fabs could disrupt supplies to the PC industry, with Dell, HP and Lenovo particularly at risk, an industry researcher said on Tuesday. Lite-On's factory, located in the southern Chinese city of Dongguan, caught fire after an electrical line short circuited, fortunately no one was hurt in the incident. However, the fire had caused initial damage of around T$2.266 billion ($71 million), and caused fourteen production lines of liquid crystal display (LCD) monitors to stop working. "This could have a major impact on the landscape of the desktop monitor industry in the first and second quarters of 2008, but most probably in regards to share shift rather than in overall supply and demand," said DisplaySearch analyst Chris Connery in a report. He added that Dell, HP and Lenovo - Lite-On's top contract partners - could suffer from supply distruption. But Connery added that if the Taiwan firm outsources its own production to local competitors or if the PC companies switch to Lite-On competitors the damage could be limited.

The Lenovo ThinkPad X300 ultra-portable notebook with a 13.3-inch LED backlight display (1440x900 pixels), Intel Core 2 Duo ULV 2GHz CPU, Intel GMA X3100 integrated graphics, a 64GB solid state drive, 2GB DDR2 PC2-5300 memory, and an ultra-thin DVD burner is now available for preorder at select retailers. The X300 was first mentioned not long ago after Apple announced its MacBook Air. This model is supposed to be Lenovo's direct MacBook Air competitor. Aside from the main hardware specs, ThinkPad X300 offers built-in 802.11n wireless module, a Gigabit Ethernet connection, broadband wireless and WiMax support, Ultra-WideBand (UWB) technology, integrated web camera, fingerprint reader and more. Major online retailers such as BestBuy ($2,743.99) and Buy.com ($2,939.99) are starting to take preorders now.

CNET News.com has learned that Lenovo and Fujitsu are in the process of putting together systems based on the special Core 2 Duo chip that Apple is using in the MacBook Air. The new laptops should be out shortly, according to sources familiar with the companies' plans, and will give customers a chance to see what the rest of the PC industry can do with the ultra-low-power chips. Both manufacturers did not comment on the story. Apple asked Intel to design the special Core 2 Duo chip last year as it was putting together the design that would become the MacBook Air. The chip fits into a package that's significantly smaller than the standard Intel notebook chip, and it uses less power than the standard Core 2 Duo, allowing it to fit into the slim MacBook Air without melting the inside of the package or eating the battery.

Lenovo has decided to change its manufacturing strategy and will outsource the whole of its own-brand notebook production to Taiwan makers, according to a Chinese-language Economic Daily News (EDN) report, citing the vice president of Lenovo's worldwide consumer notebook division. In order for Lenovo to expand its economic scale, the company has decided to remove one maker from the original four (Quanta, Compal, Wistron and Inventec) that produce consumer-based notebooks, while the company will add more makers to its ThinkPad manufacturing list.

New offering from Lenovo may threaten Apple's MacBook Air soon enough. At a glance, the new ultralight X300 series Thinkpad from Lenovo will feature a 13.3-inch LED backlit 1440x900 screen, an ultralight 2.5 pound form factor, optional 3G or WiMAX, Intel Merom Santa Rosa Dual Core CPU 2.0GHz (800MHz FSB), single 64GB SSD drive, up to 4GB of DDR2 PC2-5300 memory, and 4 hours of battery life. No release date or price has been announced.

Whilst HP may be the top global computer brand, Dell has retained its crown in the US market, accounting for 29.6% of sales. Dell managed to ship 5.5 million units, which represented a 15.2% year-on-year increase, with HP in second place selling 4.5 million units, a figure which gives it a 24.3% market share. Acer took third spot following its acquisitions of Packard Bell and Gateway last year, with sales of 1.5 million units - up 294.2%. Apple was fourth in the US with 1.06 million units, ahead of Toshiba in fifth. Global sales saw HP commanding a market share of 23.3%, with Dell on 14.6%. Acer, Lenovo and Toshiba came in third, fourth and fifth respectively.

Lenovo has launched three new notebooks aimed at the heart of the consumer market. The new IdeaPads are available in three models: the U110, the Y510 and the Y710. All three IdeaPad mobile devices feature Centrino technology, frameless widescreen displays, touch-sensitive control surfaces, VeriFace face recognition security feature and premium Dolby Home Theatre surround sound systems. The IdeaPad U110 is the smallest member of the family and features an 11.1" widescreen display screen backed by a red, aluminum-alloy LCD lid. The notebook weighs just 2.3 pounds and is only 0.7 inches thick. Lenovo will make a solid-state disk (SSD) optional when the notebook launches in March. The 6.4 lb, 15.4" widescreen Y510 is the middle-child and sports a textured black LCD lid. Lenovo includes a Core 2 Duo T5550 processor, 2GB of memory, a 250GB HDD, DVD+-RW drive and adds four speakers plus a subwoofer with the Y510. The Y510 will be available for purchase on January 6, 2008. The top-of-the-line 7.9 lb, 17" Y710 features hot-swappable second hard drive bay. Also included is Game Zone functionality which provides larger directional keys for gaming and four user-defined buttons and a secondary display. The Y710 also supports overclocking of the Core 2 Duo T9300 processor and includes an ATI Mobility Radeon HD2600 GPU - a Blu-ray drive is optional. Like the U110, the Y710 will be available in March. Pricing begins at $799 USD for the Y510 and $1,199 USD for the Y710. Pricing has not yet been set for the U110.

Laptop manufacturers Toshiba, Lenovo and HP Compaq are joining Sony's updated Penryn VAIOs. Up first is a pair from Toshiba (13-inch Satellite U300 / 17-inch Satellite X200), followed by a refreshed ThinkPad T61 and R61 from Lenovo and a trio of HP Compaq 6820, 6720 and 6520 laptops.

After purchasing IBM's PC division three years ago Lenovo has continued to use the IBM brand until now. Although the agreement gave Lenovo rights to the IBM name until 2010 the company has now announced that, starting from next year it would drop the brand.

By making substantial progress on all of our critical priorities over the past few quarters, we're now a stronger, healthier company,

One important sign of this progress is our decision to completely transition our Think products from the IBM brand to the Lenovo brand two years earlier than planned.

said William Amelio, chief executive of Lenovo, in a press announcement relating to its quarterly results.

Lenovo Inc. recently found itself in a bit of financial trouble, and so they were called into court for an Order of Examination hearing, which was supposed to have happened on October 5th. If they had actually showed up, Lenovo Inc. would have discussed with the State of California their current assets and debts. However, since they didn't show, Lenovo Inc. is now in contempt of the Superior Court of California. In fact, Lenovo's Corporate Representative, who was supposed to show up in court on the 5th, now has a $10,000 bench arrest warrant.

Lenovo launched today what it claims to be the industry's first 22-inch widescreen WUXGA (Widescreen Ultra eXtended Graphics Array) monitor with 1920 x 1200 resolution. Aside from its unique resolution, the Lenovo ThinkVision L220x features an integrated USB hub, HDCP support, VGA / DVI inputs, 6ms (GtG) response time, 300 cd/m2 brightness, 178-degree viewing angles, and a 1000:1 contrast ratio. The ThinkVision will start at around $550 when it launches in November 2007.

Chinese computer manufacture Lenovo has taken a step towards becoming more environmentally friendly with the introduction of its new ThinkCentre A61e (AKA BlueSky). BlueSky is the first desktop from a major computer builder which uses AMD's new low-power Athlon X2 BE-2350 and Sempron LE 1150 processors, resulting in a maximum power consumption of just 45W. The computer, which is of a similar size to your typical phone book, is also built from around 90% reusable or recyclable materials along with 90% recyclable packaging. Prices start at $400, which will give you a Sempron LE 1150 CPU, 512MB memory, an 80GB hard drive, a 64MB Radeon X1200 graphics card and a 16X DVD-ROM drive, with $100 extra giving buyers twice the memory and a CD burner. The cheapest dual-core model, which features 1GB of memory and a 160GB hard drive, costs $649. It's hardly a power house, but it's nice to see computer companies taking notice of the environment.

Following in the footsteps of other major computer manufacturers such as Dell, Lenovo (formerly IBM's PC division) is set to launch a new line of notebooks at the end of the year which will come pre-loaded with Novell's SUSE Linux operating system. Customers will be able to obtain direct support and updates for the hardware and software running Linux, with the machines being offered to both commercial firms and individuals. This announcement coincides with the start of the LinuxWorld conference in San Francisco earlier today and should help to mix things up with Microsoft a little bit as the open source competition continues to gain momentum.

US software giant Microsoft said yesterday it will set up its first joint research facility with Lenovo Group, in Beijing(China). The facility will be based in Lenovo's research and development center in the capital, with around 40 engineers from Lenovo and tools, training and some staff from Microsoft. "Based on our common understanding that personal computers will extend to every part of people's work and life, we believe our cooperation will bring many many opportunities to Lenovo and Microsoft," said George He, senior vice-president and chief technology officer of Lenovo. Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer at Microsoft, said the two companies will try to identify opportunities in the consumer and mobile markets such as digital photography, digital media and the Internet. He also noted that the joint center will develop products for Lenovo in areas like corporate computing, digital homes, Windows value-added services, as well as ultra-portal computing devices and smart handheld devices.

Greenpeace has produced a new report in which it ranks Chinese-based computer manufacturer Lenovo as the world's most eco-friendly electronics firm, beating other environmentally friendly companies such as Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Dell and Samsung. Out of the fourteen different companies detailed in the report, Apple Inc. came last. The companies are ranked according to the amount of toxic chemicals that are used when producing their electronics, not how energy efficient the devices themselves are, something that is beginning to become a major problem in countries such as China where many of these electronic devices are manufactured. Unsurprisingly, Apple responded by saying "We disagree with Greenpeace's rating and the criteria" as part of a statement.

On March 1, 2007, Lenovo voluntarily recalled certain 208,000 9-cell lithium-ion batteries. These batteries were manufactured for use with ThinkPad notebook computers that shipped worldwide between November 2005 and February 2007. All ThinkPad R60, R60e Series, ThinkPad T60, T60p Series and ThinkPad Z60m, Z61e, Z61m, and Z61p Series with 9-cell 10.8V, 5.2 Ah batteries with part number FRU P/N 92P1131 are being recalled. All affected batteries will be replaced free of charge. Lenovo suggests those computers with defective units remove the battery and use the AC adaptor until a replacement has arrived.

The Inquirer reports that IBM has sold off more than a quarter of its shares in the Chinese computer maker Lenovo.

Lenovo gave IBM the shares as part payment when it bought IBM's PC outfit last year.

IBM sold 300 million shares at a fairly low price, triggering a seven per cent share slide before there was a suspension in sales.

IBM made $123 million by selling the shares which made up about 3.5 percent of Lenovo's holdings.

Lenovo had seen its stock increase in value this week, unfortunately, IBM's sale has wiped out most those gains.