There're one or two contenders in the netbook-for-desktop nettop game, but with MSI's new Wind Neton machines it could get a bit interesting. Atom-based, of course, the PCs will come in 22-inch, 18.5 and 15.6-inch screen versions, dubbed M22, M19 and M16, and the all-in-one iMac alikes look like they'll have optional touchscreens. Releases are due in January for the M19, Feb for the M16 and March for the M22 at $US500, $US400 and $US800 respectively. Oh, the M22 has a Blu-ray drive option—Like I said, this could get interesting. [EngadgetChina and Crunchgear]

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You may be wondering why every netbook we write about seems to have the same Intel Atom processor. Some of it has to do with Intel's prominence in the entire processor market at the moment (which makes competition from Via little contest), and some of it has to do with AMD not stepping up to duke it out in the tiny laptop arena. AMD simply has no interest in the mini-laptop market, and CEO Dirk Meyer makes it abundantly clear:

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First, Intel decided to go with Linux for its MIDs, and now it's giving the bird to Microsoft again by revealing a contender to the Zune's social music aspect. TuneWiki, a "social media player" software based on Intel's Atom processor integrates music and video with synchronised lyrics and a social network.

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Asustek executive Samson Hu has confirmed his company's plans to release a touchscreen Eee PC variant for sale by Q1 of 2009. It's not known whether the devices will look like the touch panel Eee mods that have been floating around or take the shape of a tablet, but we'll see in January when the first models are shown at CES. That's not all though — further announcements indicated that the Eee line is changing is some more subtle ways.

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UK supermarket chain Tesco has this Dell "Inspiron Z530" laptop up for sale on their website: it's got a 12.1-inch screen, is Atom Z350-powered and sounds a lot like the Dell E-Slim mini laptop we've mentioned before. The product's features are touted thus: "Ultra mobile web experience. Consume your media where ever you are," which sounds all well and good, but then it goes a bit funny with a "Linux Ubunto" OS and a width and height of "29.9 cm". It seems Tesco's web monkeys are good at making typos. Read on for the full specs:

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I'm confused by the Asus strategy here - after naming everything small and cheap they can possibly come up with as "Eee", from ultraportables to monitors and desktops, they then go and produce another Netbook, but drop the Eee branding. It's confusing, that's for sure, but what isn't confusing is that we've been tipped off from a very reliable source that the N10E (a version of the N10 we saw the other day) will be launching in Australia by the end of the month for an RRP of $1,099.

It's much more expensive than the other Eee PCs, so that's probably the biggest factor in the naming scheme, but considering its 10.2-inch screen, Atom processor, 802.11n wireless, 120GB HDD, 1GB DDR2 RAM, and XP Home OS, it's not too expensive.

What do you guys reckon? Is this an Eee killer or Eee fodder?

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Yesterday it was AMD, and today PC Watch has got hold of Intel's Atom roadmap: looks like the next-generation of chips, dubbed "Pineview," will hit in Q3 of next year. The 45nm processors will follow the route taken by the current gen, using hyperthreading to double up single and dual processor cores so that the OS sees them as dual-core and quad-cores. The microarchitecture is an update on the current Silverthorne system: like the bigger Nehalem chips, it ditches the idea of a frontside bus, instead using a Direct Media Interface to connect to I-O chips. It'll also integrate graphics core and memory manager right into the chip packaging. Wonder what AMD will come up with to counter that? [PCWatch via RegHardware]

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This upcoming mini-PC from Celrun is something a bit like the old iLamp-style iMac, a bit notebooky, a bit low-cost desktop Eee PC... but actually not like any of them too much: It seems to be it's own low-power, neat design desktop genre. It's got an 18.4-inch widescreen LCD, has built-in stereo speakers and microphone and has an Intel Atom purring away inside. Mainly the Lluon A1 is intended to be a multimedia PC since it's got an IPTV function which requires it to be dual boot—Linux for the IPTV, and Windows for standard PC functions. It's intriguing, and though there's no info on pricing, we know it'll be hitting the shops mid-September in Korea, Europe and North America. [Aving]

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Slotting an Atom into a home phone just sounds plain ridiculous, but the Home Media Phone is more than just a VoIP handset and base station. The base station (which doubles as a speaker phone) has its own software platform, developed in flash and furnished with a full API, and serves many purposes of a PC in a picture frame-sized package. The current set of apps is adequate, but after using it for a few minutes it became very clear that the Home Media Phone could actually be a fantastic net appliance.

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Brazilian blog Zumo unearthed these pics of the Classmate Tablet PC at IDF, but the touchscreen netbook apparently isn't the Classmate 3.0. Zumo says this is a Classmate 2.0 in tablet form. The touchscreen netbook will have a 1.6 GHz Atom Processor, SSD, 8.9-inch screen, SD card slot, 2 USB Ports, and VGA out. Details, such as price and release date, were not announced. [Zumo via Engadget]

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