Netbooks are the latest craze for people that want to do basic tasks such as surf the internet and send Emails to friends, family and co-workers. Netbooks are smaller and have less processing power than their relative, the laptop computer. Despite their smaller screens and keyboards, they still pack enough power to conduct basic internet functions and offer modest memory, RAM and even an installed webcam.

Due to their size (most netbooks weigh 5 pounds or less) features like a DVD/CD player aren’t “on board,” but an external player can be attached via USB.

Most netbooks are loaded with Micrsoft Windows, so users won’t have to adjust to a new operating system or learn new tricks to operate the machine. Another Netbook perk is the price – some models are available for as little as $299.00, depending on the manufacturer. Netbooks have also became a new product for wireless carriers like AT&T and they are promoting the product by offering them for as low as $50.00 with a new 2 year customer contract.

If you’re looking for a smart way to surf the internet without having to rob your piggybank, be sure to check out a netbook.

Right now selling a $2,000 notebook computer seems absurd. But Dell is betting that customers will pay for the unit because of its unique design and sleek styling.

Adamo’s aluminum unibody design copies Apple’s recent MacBook Pro update, has a super-thin .65-inch body, and its overall metal/glass construction screams futuristic. Having seen it up close in a meeting last week, I’ll say it beats any current ultra-thin in looks. Where older Dell laptops were highly customizable, but bland, the Adamo is only available in Onyx or Pearl and with two spec configurations.

Dell has been struggling as worldwide sales have dried up.

Source: CNN

But shares of Apple, which have risen about 20 percent since the company last week invited reporters to a notebook event, fell 3 percent in heavy trade on the Nasdaq to $106.99 after first falling as much as 5 percent. Many analysts had expected the entry-level notebook price to fall to $899.

Apple executive Steve Jobs refused to comment on his health during the conference call.

Dell said the company grew consumer sales in China by 54% and the company plans on increasig sales this year.

When we look at the potential for expansion, we do see enormous opportunity ahead,” Dell said. “As far as the U.S. goes, I think the U.S. will be OK, but not the fastest-growing. We expect more growth in Asia.”

The company last month reported its fourth-quarter profit fell 6.4 percent and cautioned that more cautious spending by U.S. customers could hurt its business.

Dell says it has about 18 percent of China’s market by revenue and 10 percent by number of units sold. Worldwide, it has a 16.1 percent market share, according to consulting firm Gartner Group.

Dell is also selling computers through retail channels in the two emerging markets.

“You can’t afford not to be in the U.S.,” said David Daoud, a PC industry analyst at market researcher IDC. “The best way to get into the U.S. is to have something unique, something different.”

Taiwanese computer makers Asustek (2357.TW: Quote, Profile, Research) and Acer Inc (2353.TW: Quote, Profile, Research) are aggressively courting consumers in the United States through retail outlets such as Best Buy Co (BBY.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and online stores including newegg.com and TigerDirect.com.

The push comes as the U.S. lags the rest of the world in PC shipment growth. While Asian companies may have a tough time competing broadly in a saturated market, the laptop segment is still growing.

No matter the plan, the PC business is facing a great number of challenges, not limited to the increase of “SmartPhones” that people already have and are well-connected to the internet. Mobile computing is almost guaranteed to erode the PC market, in much the way cell phones killed the traditional land lines. That’s why all computer manufactures these days are focusing on the one area of the PC business that keeps growing: laptops.

If the Chinese PC makers are hoping to gain any ground, they will need to do so with a reputation for high quality.

Then this nifty USB missile launcher is just the thing you need to make your office livelier.

It plugs directly into your computers USB port and doesn’t require batteries to operate. It includes software CD that installs a control panel on your computer, allowing you to swivel the launcher 180 and tilt 45, and shoot missiles at unsuspecting targets at the touch of a button.

The Desktop USB Missile launcher is available for $49.95 at Hammacher

AMD has been shipping the Quad-Core AMD Opteron chip to server vendors throughout August, but will use its news conference in San Francisco to publicly announce those partnerships as well as prices and benchmark test results.

The company plans to launch a 1.9GHz, 68-watt Barcelona chip that focuses on power efficiency, and a 2.0GHz, 95-watt version that focuses on price/performance, said Randy Allen, AMD’s corporate vice president for the server and workstation division. In the fourth quarter, the company will follow that with a 2.3 GHz, 120-watt version for high-performance applications, and higher clock speeds for the first two chips.

There is a lot at stake. After launching the original Opteron chip in 2003, the company enjoyed brisk demand as customers applauded the power-efficient performance of that 130-nanometer design process chip. But Intel soon got back in the fight, as both companies built smaller, faster components, shrinking their chip scales to 90nm and adding a second core.

AMD executives are banking on the Barcelona. Quad-Core technology is the obvious road forward for microprocessors, and they’re sure that Barcelona can deliver the type of performance that customers expect in high-end machines.

For more information: Barcelona

Based on the new Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® processor 7300 series, these energy-efficient servers are designed for customers running data-intensive business applications such as databases, business intelligence, enterprise resource planning and large mail and messaging platforms in virtualized environments.

The rack-based HP ProLiant DL580 G5 server and the HP ProLiant BL680c G5, HP’s first four processor (4P) quad-core server blade, offer increased performance with double the number of processor cores. In addition, the DL580 G5 has double the memory capacity of its predecessor. These enhancements offer customers more compute power and memory to improve the performance of the applications that run their business.

“HP has a long history of bringing innovative server platforms to market on time,” said James Mouton, senior vice president and general manager, Industry Standard Servers, HP. “These systems allow customers to meet their rapidly growing virtualization and energy-efficiency needs.”

The main selling point for quad processor technology is that it can easily handle data intensive applications (such as many websites). Intel has made a big push into the market in recent years and their newest version of chips hold much promise.

For more infomation: HP