With HP’s touchscreen laptop looming on the horizon, out come the leaks of an ASUS touchscreen lappie scheduled for launch in the first half of 2009. Touchscreen Eee PCs too (finally, right?) if DigiTimes‘ sources at panel makers are correct (which they tend to be with regard to ASUS). According to the Taiwanese industry rag, ASUS will likely use either a 12.1-inch or 11.6-inch touchscreen panel developed by AU Optronics (AUO) or Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO). What’s odd here is the claim by sources that the touch-panel notebooks “are expected to take advantage of Windows 7″ and presumably the new Microsoft OS’s multi-touch capabilities. Strange, since Windows 7 isn’t officially expected until sometime in early 2010 — a date looking more and more like a publicly padded goal to avoid the bashing Microsoft received for its Vista delays. The whispers certainly add a bit more credence to rumors of a 2009 release as expressed by Bill Gates himself, or more specifically June 3rd, 2009 as allegedly marked in the internal Microsoft calendar.

9:08AM PT — We’ve got a little less than an hour to go, so we’ll just kind of be loitering outside Apple Town Hall, waiting to spot Steve and the unicorn that is his new MacBook Pro.

We’re at Apple HQ! There’s going to be a bit of a wait before we get going, but stick close by!

Photos by Ryan Block

The pre-WWDC Apple rumor mill has finally churned out something that doesn’t have the words “3G” and “iPhone” involved — sources have told both Ars Technica and our friends at TUAW that Steve will also use his keynote to introduce the next major version of OS X, codenamed “Snow Leopard.” As the derivative release name indicates, there aren’t many changes in store from 10.5 Leopard — Apple’s said to instead be focusing on tightening up speed and stability as it starts producing more mobile devices. What’s more, this could be the end of PowerPC and Universal support in OS X, as Snow Leopard is said to be Intel-only. That’s bound to ruffle a few feathers, but things could get even more heated if Carbon is deprecated as is also being rumored. We’ll see when we see — Monday can’t get here fast enough.

Read - TUAW post
Read - Ars post

It’s definitely not for everyone, but if you’re looking for something decidedly larger and less flashy than the usual Xbox 360 replacement case, it looks like you’ll soon be able to get your fix courtesy of case-maker Lian Li, which is apparently set to release its Lian Li 360 case in just a few weeks. Among other things, this one promises a quieter operation courtesy of some air cooling and a 120mm fan, and relatively easy access to the internal components, although that of course does come at the expense of your warranty. No word on a price just yet, but Lian Li is apparently at least working to keep costs down, opting simply for aluminum side panels and standard screws instead of the more expensive thumbscrews it had originally planned.

Verizon has certainly courted Alltel before, but this time, the two could finally be rounding third base. According to a breaking report at CNBC, Verizon is “in deep in talks to acquire Alltel,” which of course is America’s fifth largest wireless carrier. It’s no secret that Alltel has been riding fairly high of late, and unless your memory is totally shot, you’ll likely recall that it was just recently “taken private by TPG and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners in a $27.5 billion deal.” Not surprisingly, officials at both outfits refused to comment on the rumblings, but if this does indeed go down, analysts are expecting Verizon to pay around 8x Alltel’s current EBITDA, whereas TPG / Goldman Sachs paid 9.2x. We’ll keep you posted on any developments.

Update: The talks have been confirmed by Vodafone which owns a 45% stake in VZW.

This whole “it’s web video, on your TV!” space is getting crowded fast, but we’d say there’s certainly room from this new “PoD” device from Verismo Networks. Not content to merely concentrate on one form of content, the PoD can handle content from YouTube, BitTorrent, vTap, Amazon Unbox, CinemaNow, you name it. It’s a pretty simple box, with an Ethernet plug, a couple of USB ports for flash storage, some sort of wireless (we’re guessing WiFi), and outputs for S-Video or HDMI, up to HD resolutions. It’ll sell later this summer for $99, with a bit of a marketing push from YouTube, so this probably won’t be the last you hear of PoD.

We’ve been hearing about ATI’s external graphics schemes for years, but apparently XGP is finally ready to go. The platform houses an external graphics card — ATI-branded, of course — which connects to your laptop via a proprietary 4.0Gbps PCIe 2.0 connector. The new tech is being initially launched with AMD’s new ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3800, which can work in a multi-GPU CrossFireX configuration with your laptop’s internal graphics card. The first out of the gate with the tech is Fujitsu’s AMILO Sa 3650, which packages a Mobility Radeon HD 3870 cardbut there’s still no word pricing or exactly when or where this all is shipping. XGP also supports some extra USB 2.0 ports, Blu-ray decoding, and outputs over HDMI with integrated audio and DVI, powering up to four displays.

Resisting the Microsoft takeover may effectively have ended the Yahoo careers of not only a number of board members, but also CEO and co-founder Jerry Yang

Icahn is stepping up his campaign to takeover Yahoo’s board and shake up the company’s leadership with tough talk. DailyTech has closely followed the ongoing drama between Icahn and board, which have significant ramifications on the possibility of a possible Microsoft merger.

This week Icahn delivered his hardest-hitting comments yet. In them he says that if his takeover is successful, he will seek to depose Yahoo co-founder and CEO Jerry Yang, whom he sees a roadblock to a merger. While Icahn was delivering his comments, Yahoo’s board was busily meeting to discuss possible limited partnerships with Microsoft or the possibility of outsourcing its search functions to Google Inc.

In an interview Icahn laid on the criticism thickly for what he believes are disingenuous actions on the part of the board and Yang in their willingness to consider an offer. He also accuses them of intentionally setting of an artificially costly employee-retention plant to deter a potential deal. Icahn comments, “I am amazed at the lengths that Jerry Yang and the board went to entrench themselves in this situation.”

He will seek to oust the current board at the annual shareholder meeting. He seeks to replace it with a Microsoft-merger-friendly dissident board, which includes billionaire buddy Mark Cuban. The meeting was originally set to be held on July 3, but it got pushed back August 1 by a nervous board. The board blasted back at Icahn in a statement, saying, “Yahoo’s board of directors, including Jerry Yang, has been crystal clear that it would consider any proposal by Microsoft that was in the best interests of its shareholders.”

A new Yahoo shareholder lawsuit just unsealed provides details which cast a surprising new light on the Microsoft-Yahoo saga. The suit refers to a refusal of an informal $40 a share offer from Microsoft in January 2007 when shares were trading between $26 and $29.

However, Yahoo and the board publicly stated that they would consider favorably offers of $37 a share or more. Microsoft had publicly stated that it was only willing to offer $34 or $35 a share, but it is entirely possible that it offered more behind closed doors. Unsurprisingly, a Yahoo spokesman said that the board was “not aware” of a $40 a share offer.

Along with the surprising revelation of possible deceit on the board’s part, the suit also provides details on the employee-retention program, which Icahn says was constructed as an artificial roadblock to a merger. The plan would apply to Yahoo employees who were fired without “cause” or had “good reason” to quit in case of a merger. Such employees would be awarded exceptional severance packages — as much as $15,000 in additional reimbursement, full pay for as much as two years, and medical and dental coverage for some months.

Based on his own calculations Icahn says the package would have cost Microsoft around $2.5 billion, which Microsoft was well aware of. This, Icahn said, helped to kill the deal. Yahoo contends the package would only cost between $462 million and $2.1 billion depending on the number of departing employees. Icahn points out that the plan contained seeming outlandishly flexible provisions, such as full severance (including full pay at their former salary) to any employees who saw their job descriptions change. Thus in the case of shuffling of responsibilities, some employees could be taking home two paychecks for one job, for over a year.

Icahn comments, “It’s no longer a mystery to me why Microsoft’s offer isn’t around. How can Yahoo keep saying they’re willing to negotiate and sell the company on the one hand, while at the same time they’re completely sabotaging the process without telling anyone?”

He states that trust between Microsoft and Yang has been completely lost and while Yang heads the company a merger is impossible. Indeed, Microsoft today is lukewarm about any potential deal.

The shareholder lawsuit brought against Yahoo has raised some startling accusations. If they hold true, the picture of the Yahoo-Microsoft saga may change from one that seemed to be a dueling battle of egos, to that of a faltering company trying to jealously and deceptively hold on to its independence at the expense of its shareholders. If this proves true, it will surely aid Icahn in his efforts to oust the board and Yang.