So, an announcement today confirmed the Apple iPad will hit shelves stateside in late April though Brits will have to wait an extra month to get their hands on Apple's holy tablet. But with Steve Jobs' supposedly netbook killing iPad going down about as well as a cool pint of concrete, it would seem that little laptops are here to stay.

One of the criticisms leveled at Apple's tablet offering is that it seems so sternly geared toward media consumption while offering little in the way of production -- an area the netbook copes admirably.

The well-worn cliche of a professional type throwing open their netbook in a coffee franchise and bashing out a blog post, pitch proposal or even a freakin' pie chart isn't something I see changing any time soon.

And what with Apple's infamous and bizarre Atlantic exchange rate mechanism set to land a reasonable mid-spec iPad with 3G somewhere between £450-£600, a lot of people will still be buying netbooks for at least a few years to come.

With that in mind I've compiled a neat little list of the top 10 netbooks currently available.

Click on the image to start the gallery

Samsung have just updated a range of their netbooks by adding built-in connections to high-speed 4G internet. That will allow these computers to access very high-speed internet over a mobile connection, making mobile internet as fast as wifi.

The technology needed to connect to very fast mobile internet is called "Long Term Evolution" often shortened to LTE. Described as the last step to 4G internet, LTE is much faster than the 3G your smartphone is currently struggling with.
Samsung say this will be fast enough to live-stream video from the netbook's webcam, not the sort of thing you could currently do off a mobile phone or a 3G dongle.

The four netbooks Samsung will build LTE modems built into are: the N150, N210, N220 and the NB30.

Samsung also plan to make a LTE dongle which would bring faster speeds to other computers.

The 10.1 inch screen N150 is currently available on standard 3G internet. The screen is an anti-reflective LED display. It runs off one of Intel's Atom Processors and does host Windows 7. The N150 prides itself on energy-efficiency and a strong battery performance (8.5 hours use off one charge). It also has two USB ports and a webcam. On the LTE version, all the specs will be the same.

We don't know when these LTE enabled products will be available yet, but check www.samsung.com for details.
The N150 on standard 3G is currently available for £279 from PCWorld

Nokia the mobile phone makers have just broken into the netbook market by launching a 3G netbook, a mini computer complete with built-in mobile internet access, available in the UK from today.

Focussing on portability, the Nokia Booklet 3G is small with a 10.1" screen, tough with durable aluminium casing and has a 12 hour battery life - pretty good for a netbook. (MacBooks have 8 hours and that's pretty good.)

The Booklet runs Windows 7 but does use one of the slower Intel Atom processors - probably why the battery life is so good. It has GPS and Wifi capability too. Funkily, it runs apps from Nokia's Ovi app store (usually available on Nokia phones).

Can the line between phones and computers get more blurred? I don't know, but apps on netbooks is a great idea and puts this device into the arena of tablet devices like the Apple iPad. A key selling point is the 3G internet connection.

Let's just look at how that 3G internet works. Currently it's the equivalent of buying an unlocked phone - you can put any SIM card in, take one out of your phone for example - and run it off that. Bear in mind that if you're running a laptop off a SIM card you will really want a deal with unlimited data.

According to Nokia, they will be releasing the Booklet on a monthly tariff tie-in scheme with a network provider, but they haven't said who yet, or when that will come. You may want to wait for that to be announced, if you want to save yourself some data-juggling hasse hassle. Wifi of course will work anywhere with Wifi.

Nokia Booklet, £649 from the Nokia Store

Jam, pre-cooked noodles and nice reliable heels are one thing - PCs are another. But British supermarket stalwart Marks & Spencers are forging where no other supermarkets have gone before and offering own-branded computer netbooks.

Manufactured by British PC-makers Elonex, the M&S netbooks look decent, but fairly standard: the MSNB-2009 is a 10-inch, Intel Atom laptop with 1GB of RAM and Windows XP. It costs £279 and has other features like 6hr battery life and a webcam. Nothing outstanding and nothing very M&S-sy (apart from a two year guarantee). Why are they charging into the busy netbook market with competitors like Dell, Acer and Asus? I don't know.

They already sell electrical goods, but maybe the M&S brand will add a reassuring name to electronic goods for its core market, the well-heeled middle-classes. I don't think that toting one of these around will get you much street-cred, but then if you want a nice middle-class netbook.. this is clearly the one to go for.

M&S netbook for £279 see specs on the Elonex site

[via CNET]

The future's bright, the future's wide-screen, touch-sensitive and knows how you're feeling. Well according to netbook-makers ASUS anyway. They unveiled a range of concept products at CES yesterday: which they claim can adjust to your mood and emotions.

The three Waveface products: the Casa (an internet-ennabled TV); the Light (a tablet device); and the Ultra (a wrist-computer) use contextual information to provide you with more relevant information.

As Asus put it: the products "represent ASUS's context-based vision of the digital life; that every element in the users environment even down to the user's own physiology and emotional state can be sources of data to help deliver the right information and services at the right time".

Details are sketchy on exactly how they do it, lots of sensors we imagine, but this range certainly sounds intriguing. And they look cool too. Here's the Ultra:

And the Waveface Casa:

We'll post further if we hear about these becoming commercially available.

See more stories from CES 2010

Asus boosted the battery life and performance of their Eee PC Seashell netbook when they launched the latest version of it at CES yesterday. They also gave the casing a retouching with techno-chic chocolate brown check from industrial designer Karim Rashid.

The new Seashell 1005PE is still running on a single core Atom processor but it's an updated version, the Intel Atom N450 and now supports Windows 7.

It's the resulting 14 hour battery life that impresses me most. At over a day's worth of use, that's as good as a mobile phone.

Karim Rashid's design is available in either glossy Hot Pink or matte Coffee Brown.

See more at www.asus.co.uk

Samsung has enhanced its range of netbooks with four glossy hand-bag sized additions.

The big selling point of the Samsung netbooks: battery life. The N210 and N220 deliver a frankly incredible 12 hours of web browsing on one battery charge, the N150 and NB30 managing 8.5 hours and 11 hours respectively.

Other portability-friendly features include durable scratch-resistant cases with built in handles; an alert system that allows you to track the netbook if it gets stolen and One-Click connection to a home or office PC, making it safe and easy to transfer and view files between computers.

They look good too making them attractive and reliable on-the-go devices that you can easily chuck into a handbag.

The catch? These netbooks run on Intel's Atom chips - power-economic yes, but slow compared to the dual-core chips available on higher-end netbooks and PCs.

The Samsung N210, N220 and NB30 will be available during January in the UK at leading online and high street retailers. The Samsung N150 will be available in January at selected retailers. No prices as yet.

See all stories from CES 2010 here

I admit I'm a little bit of a child at heart and I'm not ashamed to tell you that I have my Disney DVDs lined up on display in my living room.

After the lovely Genevieve's post about the "grown up" magic wand this week I felt I had to share this with you, after all we all like Hello Kitty and that's a cartoon.

Disney has teamed up with Asus to give us technology and cartoon loving girls a netbook, which I can only describe as a dream come true.

Admittedly, the Disney Netbook is aimed more at the younger market. It's said to be web-safe and easy to use and is also durable, with a reinforced mechanical design.

However, I'm not accepting that this feature is only for children, after all we all drop our tech products don't we?

We also like the fact that parental controls on this netbook are "optional."

The netbook also has an 8.9-inch LCD display, Wi-Fi capabilities, Windows XP Home, and software featuring Disney characters and a Disney Desktop "gadget tray", which offers a creatively designed 2D menu with several display icons, including a Disney-themed browser (ok maybe these features are slightly below our age range.)

It will be available from October in two models for a suggested retail price of £299.

I'm hoping to review one of these and compare it to another netbook on the market to show you the differences so watch this space.

After our Mobile Broadband Dongle story yesterday, it's clear that these little gadgets can't be trusted to be taken out and relied on when were on the go.

Thankfully, for those of us who like to sit and have a coffee when were writing Starbucks has come to the rescue.

The coffee chain has followed in the footsteps of rival Pret a Manger and has announced it will be offering free WiFi access to its loyal customers at its premises.

To become one of these, coffee drinkers at the chain must sign up to its rewards scheme. They will then be able to log on free at any of the 650 participating branches.

Chris Bruce, CEO of BT Openzone, said "Starbucks is giving more customers access to a great place to work or catch up over email. The agreement marries excellent in-store Wi-Fi with the highest quality coffee."

The girl's tech world is split between women who are happy to buy a girl's laptop and others who refuse point blank to go for anything that they don't see as serious technology.

I have to say I think I'm in the middle. I admit I have a pink netbook, but, I read the specs before I bought it.

However, if you are the kind of girl that goes for fashion then these new laptops are for you.

Hi-Grade has launched its W5900 custom laptop range with a design to suit "all fashion conscious females."

Following on from Hi-Grade's success with its pink W5700P laptop, the computer manufacturer has apparently recognised that women are "currently leading the way in the consumer technology market and customisation is becoming an important way to stand out from the crowd."

The three new designs within the range include the Graffiti pattern, the pink leopard print design and the shopping range, which features four fashionable women on a sleek black background.

Unfortuantely we haven't got any specs to hand, apart from the fact the laptops come with Windows Vista Home. They cost £394.50.

We've had more than our share of mini laptops and no matter how many come out with the latest sparkly pink cover, blue keyboard or silver keys we know we're not going to replace our trusty old one with a new one.

After all, you don't buy a car a few months after the last one because it's got a new wheel arch design or different alloys, do you?

Therefore it comes as no surprise that laptop manufacturers are looking at for a new craze in the market to keep their pockets full, and this time its eBook readers.

Read on after the jump

They're crunching the laptop market but the jury's still out on how useful these cut-price, cut-function laptops are. We say the sales figures speak for themselves. Most people agree that what netbooks have going for them are price and portability. And since price is the netbook trump card we've dug deep into online retailers and come up with the five best netbooks for under £200.

Some of the netbook biggies weigh in far above that: the top of the market Sony Vaio P-series Lifestyle PC is perhaps overpriced at £849, and the pioneering model from Asus, the Eee PC 901 costs £299. Prices vary from retailer to retailer so check before buying, and note that netbooks that operate on the Linux OS are cheaper than those that run Windows. All offer internet access and text-editing.

Deals are also available on mobile contracts, where customers pay around £20 a month for a mobile-internet connection and get the netbook for free, but we've looked at flat-out buying hardware that works with wifi though of course you can choose a mobile internet deal afterwards.

Click on the image below to start the gallery

OK, I admit it, I'm slightly infatuated with the Archos brand, as I've never found another PMP designer that has managed to combine everything a user might want into such a sleek shell. The latest Archos news to whet my appetite (and cause my bank manager sleepless nights ) is that of the Archos 9. Following on from the adored Archos 7 and Archos netbook announcement is the rather stylish looking Archos 9, which tried to be the best of both the PMP AND the netbook world.

How do you sell a computer to women? Give them a pinikified website with a female friendly name and they'll be like, totally all over it. Umm yeah. That seemed to be the genius behind the marketing campaign from Dell, who were looking to get women interested in the Dell netbooks.

Feedback on the site hasn't been as positive as Dell would have hoped (think angry jeering from women who know what a netbook is), and they just re-branded their site AGAIN with slightly less pink graphics (see old version below).

Another day, another new netbook hits the market, but this one is looking rather tasty.

The latest offering from Toshiba offers consumers a 10.1 inch LCD screen, which has a great backlit display to reduce strain on the eyes. It includes an extra large touchpad and a keypad that's almost full size.

The NB200 comes with integrated broadband and wireless LAN, and features the Intel graphic 945GSE chipset. You can also choose the processor power you require, from the N270 Intel Atom, or the more powerful Intel N280 which should makes internet browsing a breeze.

A netbook with Hello Kitty all over it? Hmm. You'd assume they might have sacrificed substance for style, but surprisingly this isn't the case. I test drive the Medion S1211 and discover how impressive the specs are (160GB HDD anyone) whilst fighting my urge to call it cute.

£329 from Medion

The Apple netbook rumours just keep on coming... but considering this 10.4-inch laptop is so skinny it'd give Victoria Beckham a run for her money, coupled with the lack of practicality for any breed of port taking refuge around the laptop's perimeter, it could be easy to deem the leaked MacBook Mini pics null and void. However, according to the Russian magazine supplying the info and images, the MacBook Mini will launch later this year for $899 USD (£640) - there's even some specs. It will apparently sport a 64GB SSD, Atom Z740 processor and in true MacBook style, just one measly USB port.

Do you crave more screen estate on your 10-inch netbook - perhaps just another inch? How about another 1.6-inches? Would you believe it, Acer is rumoured to be breaking the netbook mould by prepping an 11.6-inch Acer Aspire One Pro 731 netbook. And if you're a prosumer or a business user, the Acer netbook's desired target market, the Pro 731 sounds like it could have your name all over it.

The generously sized netbook will have a 16:9 display with a screen resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels and runs on an Intel Atom Z530 processor and the Poulsbo chipset, paired with GMA500 graphics. It's this chipset that could give its high capacity battery up to 8 hours of life. Its keyboard should provide a pleasurable typing experience by offering flat keys akin to those found on the Macbook and Sony Vaio TT.

Another week another netbook - only this one doesn't look like a re-badged version of the one that came out the week before the other one that looked remotely similar. Samsung is leading the way for netbook change. Most noticeably from the N310 is its curvaceous design, for which Samsung used award winning Japanese designer Naoto Fukasawa. Opening it up will reveal its frameless 10-inch screen screen to add to its aesthetically pleasing design and pebble design keyboard, which Samsung claims is 93 percent of the size of a desktop keyboard for easy typing.

Weighing 2.6 pounds, the N310 packs a four cell battery for up to five hours of running time, before you need to make a mad dash to the mains. Its LED display and Intel Atom processor also means there are power saving options to take advantage of. It's a Windows XP netbook , with 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, 1.3 megapixel camera and a three-in-one memory card reader. It's got you covered in the connectivity department too by slapping three USB ports around the edges.

A few weeks ago Asus announced it would be delivering what sounded like a supermodel thin netbook at just one inch thick, with a MacBook Air-esque chassis, a 10-inch LED backlit display, Intel Atom processor, as well as a whole host of high end specs under its hood (160GB hard drive, 1GB RAM, WiFi and Bluetooth). And based on its good looking sibling the S101, it's almost inevitable this model is going to be impressive as much as it is aesthetically pleasing.

So the S1008HA, or the (non alpha-numeric) Shell as it's been dubbed, is a redesigned, uber skinny Eee that from a quick glance, could be mistaken for a smaller MacBook Air. By removing a few pounds from its body mass, Asus tells us the Shell will easier to carry than the S101 and will pack a longer battery life too.