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Today all Apple rumors will either be satisfied or squashed during the keynote address at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference. We’re just a few hours away from the presentation, and the tech world has been in full gear all weekend to get their final predictions out before the speech at 10 a.m. Pacific Time. So here are highlights of the latest rumor and speculation about Apple’s developalooza.

iPhone 3GS

John Gruber of Daring Fireball has weighed in with one last set of predictions on the possibility of a new iPhone. Gruber stands behind his prediction from several weeks ago of an iPhone with a faster processor, and double the RAM and storage of the current iPhone 3G. However, Gruber says he’s heard the codename for the new iPhone is iPhone 3GS, and he bets Apple will also use this moniker as the official name of the next iteration of the iPhone.

IPhone 3GS is the second name to be thrown around concerning the next iPhone. On Friday, we heard rumors the device might be called iPhone Video, which would highlight the new video capability believed to be built into iPhone OS 3.0. So if Gruber were right, what would the ‘S’ in iPhone 3GS stand for? Gruber’s best guess is it stands for “speed.”

For me, a name like iPhone Video or something similar makes more sense than iPhone 3GS. Simply because Apple product names typically follow a basic principle of marketing: use the brand name to identify product value. Consider iPod names like Nano, Mini, Shuffle and Touch, or even iPhone 3G. All of these identify something particular about the product, while iPhone 3GSpeed is just a general promise of improved performance. I’m not buying it, because iPhone 3GS just isn’t Apple’s style.

In other iPhone predictions, Gruber believes the new iPhone will have 15-20 percent longer battery life, and the current 8GB iPhone will downgrade to a $99 model — possibly until Apple runs out of stock of the iPhone 3G.

More blurry iPhone photos

More photographs purporting to be the next iteration of the iPhone have surfaced. The French blog Nowhere Else has photos of an all-black 16GB iPhone. Similar photos popped up last week on the Italian blog iSpazio. The photo sets from Italy and France coincide with previous claims by a Chinese electronics reseller that it is selling official spare parts for the next-gen iPhone. Among those parts was an all-black iPhone bezel, as opposed to the chrome ring that has gone around previous iPhone models.

Snow Leopard

Apple has already said it plans to distribute copies of Snow Leopard, the newest version of OS X, to developers at WWDC, with a public launch several months after. When it was announced at last year’s WWDC, Apple said Snow Leopard would focus on under-the-hood improvements with no new features. However, there has been speculation that Apple would add a few little goodies including a new look, codenamed “Marble.”

Computerworld’s Seth Weintraub weighed in on Snow Leopard saying he believes Apple will port the Core Location feature from the iPhone into the new version of OS X. That would allow your Mac to identify its location, which could then be used by your Mac’s dashboard applications and standard programs. Weintraub is also betting that Snow Leopard may work with ARM-based chips so that Apple can port the OS to tablets and so-called smartbooks. Other predictions from Computerworld’s blogger include out-of-the-box support for Microsoft Exchange, and a new version of QuickTime with direct upload capability to YouTube and Mobile Me.

However, Gruber is also making some bets for Snow Leopard, saying the new OS will not have any new features as promised, and will not include the new Marble look. Gruber also says a free Snow Leopard upgrade for current Mac owners is out of the question due to how Apple interprets U.S. business accounting rules.

Both Gruber and Weintraub agree that Apple may sell Snow Leopard at a lower cost than typical OS upgrades for its Mac and MacBook lines.

MacBook Mobile?

Sticking his neck way out there, Weintraub is also betting that Apple may unveil MacBooks with 3G or WiMax capabilities, including the MacBook Air which could also see an upgrade to 4GB RAM.

The End is Near

At 10 a.m. Pacific, a team of Apple execs will take the stage at San Francisco’s Moscone Center West for the WWDC Keynote Address. At that time we’ll know the fate of the rumored front-facing video camera, tethering capability, and FM transmitter for the iPhone. And we could learn more about the mysterious Apple Tablet. Then again, we could hear nothing new at all. The best way to find out is to tune into PC World for all the Apple-juicy details from WWDC.

Connect with Ian Paul (@ianpaul).

Apple delivered a variety of hardware and software news today at the opening keynote for its Worldwide Developers Conference, but the company took its time building up to the big news: The new iPhone 3GS will be available in stores on June 19, and the current iPhone 3G will drop in price to $99 as of today. Unfortunately, I found the keynote offered empty calories: The lack of a significant hardware upgrade for the iPhone was especially underwhelming. (See the transcript of PC World’s live blog report of the keynote)

The keynote — the company’s first marquee event since CEO Steve Jobs took a medical leave in early 2009 — actually played out more like a MacWorld keynote than a WWDC keynote, from when the company announced products at the show. And since the start of the year, its product announcements have been minimal.

Smartphones for All
Apple’s announcements today underscore the company’s plans to expand its scope as a smartphone maker. NPD Group data puts Apple as the number two smartphone maker today, second to Research in Motion; surely, the company has its eyes set on that top spot.

“We want to reach even more customers,” noted Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing Phil Schiller, who led the presentation in Jobs’s absence, during the keynote.

To achieve that end, Apple reduced the current 8GB iPhone 3G to $99, half the price it sold for when it was first introduced last year. “There really has never been a smartphone at this price,” says Schiller. That price was long-rumored; now, it’s confirmed.

Certainly, never a smartphone that’s held wide appeal has carried that price tag. In our database, the iPhone’s new price ties the Nokia E71x for the least expensive smartphone we’ve seen (street price, not including rebates). Though that phone has a reasonable degree of usability, it can’t compare to the simplicity and sexy “It Phone” factor of the iPhone.

The new phone, the iPhone 3G S, will be go on sale nationwide and in select countries (including the France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom) on June 19. In keeping with previous trends, the phone’s pricing tiers stay the same, only you get more memory for your money: 16GB for $199, and 32GB for $299.

You may need that extra space: Two of the big features for iPhone 3G S are the camera (upgraded to 3.0 megapixels), and the inclusion of video recording (finally) at 640 by 480 pixel resolution, 30 frames per second.

Modest Hardware Boost
The camera and the inclusion of hardware encryption — a welcome feature for business environments — are the only new features that clearly mark a hardware change, though. Even though Schiller said during the keynote that “everything inside” the phone had changed, when asked, Apple representatives declined to specify what hardware had actually changed, and instead pointed to the spec sheet on its Web site (an Apple spokesperson indicated that we could “infer” what had or hadn’t changed based on those published specs). Winks and nods offline away from the glare of the WWDC spotlight indicate that the iPhone 3G S has a faster processor, and more memory, too, as compared with the original iPhone 3G.

As such, it’s easy to point to most of the iPhone 3G S’s improvements being in software and not hardware. Some, like the addition of white balance controls on the camera, are obvious. Others, like the inclusion of voice control, for example, are less so: Apple didn’t indicate this feature would be available on earlier generation iPhones, but it also didn’t say what specifically in the new hardware enables this feature.

Likewise, some of the performance enhancements could be attributed to the new iPhone OS 3.0, available for free download to any generation iPhone (and $10 download for any generation iPod Touch) on June 17. This is especially true if one were to assume that the new OS has the same kernel core as the forthcoming Snow Leopard operating system for Mac computers; Snow Leopard also features performance enhancements.

Apple does claim a speed boost from the iPhone 3G to iPhone 3G S. According to Apple’s benchmarks, messaging will be more than twice as fast, loading Sim City 2.4x as fast, and loading the The New York Times’ home page 2.9 times as fast. Battery life improvements point to factors other than the hardware, as well. (3G S talk time, sadly, remains the same as the 3G, but data over Wi-Fi, for example, can muster an additional three hours on the iPhone 3G S as compared with the iPhone 3G-and Wi-Fi battery improvements could be due to a new chipset, or to a new software stack for the existing chipset).

Apple: Standing Still, But Reaching Deep
It was surprising to see the iPhone 3G S’s hardware be outwardly identical to its predecessor. At a time when competitors are making headlines with fresh designs, Apple instead appears to be marching in place. Recent rumors indicate this could be part of Apple’s long-term strategy, a strategy that could prove a mistake over time.

The announced features in iPhone 3G S are a modest upgrade, not a must-have upgrade — which in turn keeps users from considering a new handset purchase. Thus far, Apple has conditioned users to look forward to dramatic hardware improvements once a year. While the iPhone 3G remains a pleasing device, nearly as much as a year ago, that doesn’t mean the hardware didn’t have room to evolve. That Apple hasn’t innovated and improved upon its existing hardware and design leaves room for others to ratchet up the competition. And, it also opens room for speculation that innovation may stall without Jobs at the helm.

Apple’s new MacBook Pro notebooks don’t help promote the company’s position as an innovator. The company announced a refresh today of its 13.3-inch and 15-inch models, with lower prices, and more powerful components. Although it brought back FireWire 800 and introduced an SD Card slot, these models lacked the wow factor we’ve come to expect from Apple hardware.

Where Apple continues to hit it out of the park, though, is its App Store. As of April, more than 1 billion apps have been downloaded, and more than 50,000 are available for download. The competing App Store numbers remain modest and negligible by comparison.

The App Store juggernaut may well be the reason Apple feels it can rest easy for the moment, but Apple will have to tread carefully to keep the iPhone from becoming less an innovation and more a presumption and commodity among mainstream consumers.

Intel has definite ideas about how it wants small laptops based on its Atom processors to evolve, but a senior company executive readily concedes that the market — in the form of consumers and companies that buy these machines — will ultimately decide what happens next with these devices.

When hardware makers build a small laptop, or netbook, based on the Atom netbook platform, they are generally bound by constraints that limit certain specifications, such as a screen size that doesn’t exceed 10.2 inches. These guidelines are meant to segment the laptop market and define a product category that is different from mainstream laptops.

“They are not so much constraints. We are trying to frame the category that we’re trying to encourage,” said Mooly Eden, vice president and general manager of Intel’s mobility group.

Cannibalization of mainstream laptop sales is also a concern. Intel doesn’t want netbooks to supplant larger, more powerful laptops based on more capable — and more expensive — Intel processors. That has happened to some degree, with Intel estimating it accounts for approximately 20 percent of netbook sales.

Netbooks are intended for basic computing tasks, like e-mail and Web surfing. But they have grown larger and more powerful over time, and some users find them sufficiently capable to serve as their primary computers. By keeping netbook screen sizes in check, Intel wants to limit the cannibalization of laptop sales and manage user expectations.

“If you use a netbook with a bigger screen, people expect a standard notebook. The responsive of the system might be disappointing,” Eden said.

That hasn’t stopped other companies from trying to give Atom-based netbooks bigger screens and more computing muscle. For example, Dell sells an Atom-based laptop with a 12-inch screen, called the Mini 12, that it bills as a “laptop/netbook” and graphics chip maker Nvidia’s GeForce Ion brings high-end multimedia and graphics capabilities to Atom.

Intel wasn’t particularly impressed.

“You saw some people trying to experiment with Atom and a bigger screen and stuff like this. Try to open the system, open more windows. Try to open some more demanding applications, and I believe you will see the responsiveness is not what we were planning for,” Eden said.

Eden believes Intel struck the right balance between computer performance and battery life with the Atom platform. In Intel’s view, bigger screens and more powerful graphics chips upset that carefully constructed balance, even if some users crave these features.

This is where rivals Advanced Micro Devices and Via Technologies sense an opportunity to push their own offerings. Both companies have released chips designed for thin and light laptops with bigger screens, such as Samsung Electronics’s Via Nano-based NC20 laptop and Hewlett-Packard’s Pavilion dv2, which uses AMD’s Athlon Neo processor.

But Intel hasn’t wavered in its vision of what an Atom-based netbook should look like, and believes end users will agree.

“If you ask me, our solution will be the majority of solutions because it is optimized, but everyone can do their experiments and the market will decide,” Eden said.

Companies that try to tweak the platform by increasing screen size or adding better graphics also end up reducing the battery life of these machines.

“It’s not magic. If you want to get more performance, you will pay with more transistors, you will pay with more leakage, you will pay with more power. You will end up with [the netbook] being slightly thicker with lower battery life,” he said.

Instead of upgraded specifications, Intel is pushing netbooks towards thinner and lighter demands with Pine Trail, the next version of the platform built around the upcoming Pineview version of Atom. Unlike the current versions of Atom used in netbooks, Pineview integrates a memory controller and graphics core with the processor, features that are designed to boost performance and save power.

“We’re trying to take this category to the next level and I will not be surprised if you see even the netbook space will be shaped differently because, again, we can give better battery life, we can give you better performance. We can give you smaller form factors,” Eden said.

Apple senior vice president of worldwide product marketing Phil Schiller wasted no time during the keynote of Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) on Monday morning, unveiling a new generation of MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops within minutes of taking the stage. (See PC World’s live blog coverage of the WWDC keynote.)

Apple’s aluminum unibody MacBook Pro line now includes 13-inch, 15-inch and 17-inch models. (PRNewsFoto/Apple)
The new 15-inch model sports processor speeds from 2.53GHz to 3.06GHz, at prices ranging from $1,699 - $2,299 depending on how it’s configured. The MacBook Pro can handle up to 8GB RAM, and a 256GB Solid State Disk (SSD) is also an option. Nvidia graphics, both integrated and discrete, are included.

The new 15-inch MacBook Pro is based on the same “unibody” architecture that Apple has used on the last round of MacBook Pro designs — a single slab of aluminum used to craft most of the body.

It features a built-in battery similar to Apple’s 17-inch MacBook Pro, which provides up to seven hours of run time between charges, according to Schiller — that’s two hours longer than before, or 40 percent more charge. Like the lithium polymer battery found in the 17-inch model, the new 15-inch MacBook Pro’s battery lasts up to 1,000 recharges before it needs replacing. Apple claims the battery design is more environmentally friendly as a result.

Schiller claims the 15-inch model has the “nicest display [Apple] has ever put in a notebook” with 60 percent better color gamut than before. What’s more, the new 15-inch MacBook Pro replaces the ExpressCard slot found on older models with an SD card slot — Schiller said this was done to better accommodate users who have digital cameras, many of which use SD media cards to store photos.

The 17-inch MacBook Pro model also gets a refresh; it now features a 2.8GHz processor, 500GB hard drive and keeps its ExpressCard slot, all for $2,499.

Both the new 15-inch and 17-inch models ship today.

Aluminum MacBook becomes MacBook Pro

The 13-inch MacBook has been improved, as well — so much so that Apple is adding the “Pro” moniker to it.

The new 13-inch MacBook Pro gets a lithium polymer battery similar to its 15-inch sibling, that lasts for up to seen hours. It also has the improved display, and it gains an SD card slot. The new 13-inch model can also accept up to 8GB of RAM, and can be outfitted with a 500GB hard disk drive or a 256GB SSD.

The 13-inch MacBook Pro also gets a FireWire 800 port, and a backlit keyboard standard. With prices starting at $1,199, it’s less expensive than the MacBook model it replaces.

The 13-inch MacBook Pro comes in two models: 2.26GHz, 2GB RAM, 9400M graphics, 160GB hard drive, for $1,119; and a 2.53GHz, 4GB, 250GB hard drive model for $1,499. Both models also ship today.

MacBook Air also improved

Lest we forget, the MacBook Air also gets a refresh. The $1,499 model comes equipped with a 1.86GHz processor, 2GB RAM, and a 120GB hard drive. For $1,799 you get a 2.13GHz MacBook Air equipped with a 128GB SSD. Prices have come down — that’s $700 less than before.

Macworld will update this story with more details about the new MacBooks presently.

Asustek kicked off an entirely new category in the mobile computing space when it presented a prototype of its Eee PC at Taiwan’s Computex trade show two years ago. Since then, many users have embraced netbook PCs for their small size, light weight and low cost. Their popularity pushed Microsoft to extend the life of Windows XP and they’ve turned out to be one of the bright spots in the PC industry over the last few months.

But the sector hasn’t been a hotbed of innovation. Except for a few exceptions, most netbooks share pretty similar specs and are based on the same Intel Atom processor and Microsoft Windows XP operating system. But now, as the netbook sector enters its third year, new chips and operating systems hold the potential for massive change in the sector.

Leading the charge on the hardware side are Qualcomm and Nvidia.

Qualcomm has produced a new chip called the Snapdragon that uses less power than Intel’s Atom, so it runs cooler and doesn’t require a heatsink. That means laptops built with it can be thinner and have a longer battery life — Qualcomm expects between 8 and 10 hours. The chip comes with a feature that will be appreciated by any traveller: compatibility with both major cell phone standards in use worldwide.

But there are potential drawbacks. Qualcomm’s processors don’t understand the x86 instruction set used by chips from Intel and AMD, so they won’t run mainstream Windows. Instead, netbook makers are turning to Linux, which has been ported to many non-x86 processor architectures.

Prototypes of Snapdragon machines, and some based on similar ARM-based chips from companies like Freescale and Texas Instruments, were on show at last week’s Computex, but no one was talking launch dates.

NVidia’s proposition doesn’t attempt to cut Intel out of the equation. It has developed a graphics chip called Ion to supplement the Atom processor and provide some nice performance gains.

“We believe that when a consumer shells out 300 dollars to buy a PC they don’t say to themselves ‘I didn’t pay very much for a PC and I deserve a lousy experience,’” said Jen-Hsun Huang, CEO of Nvidia. “Between these two processors we would be able to enable a really delightful experience whether you’re playing games, streaming video or wanting to create some home movies yourself.”

In several demonstrations at Computex Nvidia showed Atom-based computers with the Ion chip could transcode video for a portable media player about 5 times faster than a computer based on Atom alone. The Ion can also add multimedia functions like Blu-ray Disc playback to the small, cheap Atom-based computers.

Intel isn’t sitting still during this assault on the netbook market. The company continues to refine the Atom platform and the latest version of the platform, known by the code-name Pine Trail, has just been released. It consolidates the number of chips required from four to three and should lead to thinner netbooks with longer battery life and, possibly, lower prices.

On the operating system side the dominance of Windows XP remains strong although, due largely to the ARM-based chips, there’s renewed talk about Linux.

Back in 2007 the first prototype of the Asus Eee PC ran Linux and despite a lot of early talk among PC makers about the OS consumers have shown a strong preference for Windows XP. Whether Linux can make it this time remains to be seen but a couple of flavors of the open-source operating system are attracting attention.

Most talked about is Google’s Android operating system that is in use on some smart phones. Several prototype devices running Android are on show at Computex although the current iteration of the OS hasn’t been adapted for the technically richer environment that netbooks. For that reason many are saying it’s quite ready for netbook use.

A second operating system, Moblin, is also attracting interest. Moblin was originally developed by Intel but the company recently turned over stewardship of the OS to the Linux Foundation in the hopes of building wider industry support for it.

How much these technologies will affect the netbooks of tomorrow won’t become clearer until closer to Computex 2010 but there’s no doubt that several of the biggest names in the netbook market feel there’s a lot more room for innovation.

“Acer strongly believes today’s netbook is not close to perfection at all,” said Jim Wong, president of global product operations at Acer. “Today the netbook is not anytime, anywhere, all the time. The battery life is not long enough, the connections are on-and-off and it’s influenced by a lot of things. So we have a lot of room to improve.”

Freescale Semiconductor displayed a number of devices containing its chips at Computex Taipei 2009 this year, including an e-book reader made by an Asustek Computer subsidiary, and a smartphone and two handheld computers with Google’s Android software on board.

The U.S. chip maker is one of a group of mobile phone chip makers promoting handheld computers and a new kind of device they call smartbooks, which look and feel like mini-laptops, or netbooks, but are made using mobile phone parts and chips with ARM processing cores instead of PC components.

The handheld computers fit the profile of the mobile Internet devices (MIDs) the PC industry is peddling as devices with slightly bigger screens than smartphones. At its office, Freescale had a MID from Inventec Appliances with a 6-inch touchscreen running Android that allowed Web surfing and doubled as an e-book reader.

A prototype of a device from Kinpo with a 7-inch touchscreen and also running Android sat by the Inventec device. Both machines use chips from Freescale and are designed to be constantly linked to wireless networks the same way as mobile phones.

Freescale also had a smartphone from Inventec designed for the Chinese market with a 4.3-inch touchscreen, also running Android. The device sported a QWERTY keypad that slid out from beneath the screen.

The devices show Inventec has jumped on the Android bandwagon, along with Acer, Asustek, HTC and Samsung Electronics, among others, with devices running Google’s Android smartphone operating system. The software is meant to make communications and Web browsing easy, especially on Google sites such as Docs, Gmail and Google Maps.

E-books were also on display at Freescale’s office, including Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s Reader Digital Book, which use Freescale’s i.MX31 low-power chips.

These devices sat next to a new e-book made by Unihan, a division of Asustek that develops non-PC products. Unihan won’t market the device itself because it’s a contract manufacturer. It will sell the design to a customer and then take care of the manufacturing.

Freescale also displayed several smartbooks, which with their 10-inch screens and full keyboards look a lot like netbooks, but work somewhat differently. Since they’re built from mobile phone parts designed for power efficiency, smartbooks should run much longer than netbooks on a single charge.

Glen Burchers, director of global marketing at Freescale, said a smartbook with Freescale chips inside can run for eight hours on a three-cell battery, much longer than comparable netbooks, which can only last two or three hours with such a battery. Most netbooks are sold with a heavier six-cell battery and can run for around six hours before needing a recharge.

Smartbooks from Pegatron, another contract manufacturing spin-off from Asustek, were on show at Freescale’s office. They will cost around US$199 each if they’re made for Wi-Fi wireless Internet access. Adding a 3.5G module would increase the cost by around $50 but would also subject the device to a completely different marketing plan because it would then likely be sold by a mobile service provider and could be free with a signed contract.

Netbooks with 10-inch screens and Wi-Fi connectivity generally cost between $300 and $400.

The Pegatron smartbooks were first displayed at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas early this year, but Freescale showed off some new smartbooks made using its i.MX51 chips, including the N900Z from Wistron, the former contract manufacturing arm of Acer. The Wistron device used Ubuntu Linux as its operating system, while the Pegatron smartbooks on display carried a variety of Linux OSs.

Smartbooks made using chips by Qualcomm and Texas Instruments were also on show at Computex.

Freescale Semiconductor displayed a number of devices containing its chips at Computex Taipei 2009 this year, including an e-book reader made by an Asustek Computer subsidiary, and a smartphone and two handheld computers with Google’s Android software on board.

The U.S. chip maker is one of a group of mobile phone chip makers promoting handheld computers and a new kind of device they call smartbooks, which look and feel like mini-laptops, or netbooks, but are made using mobile phone parts and chips with ARM processing cores instead of PC components.

The handheld computers fit the profile of the mobile Internet devices (MIDs) the PC industry is peddling as devices with slightly bigger screens than smartphones. At its office, Freescale had a MID from Inventec Appliances with a 6-inch touchscreen running Android that allowed Web surfing and doubled as an e-book reader.

A prototype of a device from Kinpo with a 7-inch touchscreen and also running Android sat by the Inventec device. Both machines use chips from Freescale and are designed to be constantly linked to wireless networks the same way as mobile phones.

Freescale also had a smartphone from Inventec designed for the Chinese market with a 4.3-inch touchscreen, also running Android. The device sported a QWERTY keypad that slid out from beneath the screen.

The devices show Inventec has jumped on the Android bandwagon, along with Acer, Asustek, HTC and Samsung Electronics, among others, with devices running Google’s Android smartphone operating system. The software is meant to make communications and Web browsing easy, especially on Google sites such as Docs, Gmail and Google Maps.

E-books were also on display at Freescale’s office, including Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s Reader Digital Book, which use Freescale’s i.MX31 low-power chips.

These devices sat next to a new e-book made by Unihan, a division of Asustek that develops non-PC products. Unihan won’t market the device itself because it’s a contract manufacturer. It will sell the design to a customer and then take care of the manufacturing.

Freescale also displayed several smartbooks, which with their 10-inch screens and full keyboards look a lot like netbooks, but work somewhat differently. Since they’re built from mobile phone parts designed for power efficiency, smartbooks should run much longer than netbooks on a single charge.

Glen Burchers, director of global marketing at Freescale, said a smartbook with Freescale chips inside can run for eight hours on a three-cell battery, much longer than comparable netbooks, which can only last two or three hours with such a battery. Most netbooks are sold with a heavier six-cell battery and can run for around six hours before needing a recharge.

Smartbooks from Pegatron, another contract manufacturing spin-off from Asustek, were on show at Freescale’s office. They will cost around US$199 each if they’re made for Wi-Fi wireless Internet access. Adding a 3.5G module would increase the cost by around $50 but would also subject the device to a completely different marketing plan because it would then likely be sold by a mobile service provider and could be free with a signed contract.

Netbooks with 10-inch screens and Wi-Fi connectivity generally cost between $300 and $400.

The Pegatron smartbooks were first displayed at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas early this year, but Freescale showed off some new smartbooks made using its i.MX51 chips, including the N900Z from Wistron, the former contract manufacturing arm of Acer. The Wistron device used Ubuntu Linux as its operating system, while the Pegatron smartbooks on display carried a variety of Linux OSs.

Smartbooks made using chips by Qualcomm and Texas Instruments were also on show at Computex.