With their latest introduction to the Vaio line Sony is looking to bring their newest netbook, the Vaio W, to the states.

The 10.1-inch netbook will feature some pretty common specs: a 1.6GHz Atom CPU, 160GB HDD, 1GB RAM, Windows XP, Bluetooth, 802.11b/g/n, VGA out, two USB ports, Ethernet, a webcam, and MemoryStick/SD card readers. It’ll also come with a three-cell battery stock, and feature an 86 percent size keyboard.

It’s reported to cost about $500, and is set to release about mid-August. And best of all, it’ll come in three flavors: berry pink, sugar white and cocoa brown.

According to some recent rumors that have surfaced over at DigiTimes, Intel will be using some intellectual property from their new foundry partner, TSMC, in order to help fill out its upcoming ultramobile chipset.

The intellectual property, currently codenamed Langwell, will work as the southbridge for Intel’s Atom successor, which is only known by the codename Moorestown. The diagram above displays how an Atom-based CPU core, a GPU core, a memory controller, and two video processing blocks can be worked around the Moorestown platform.

No word yet if this rumor is true, but the evidence looks pretty solid.

In a recent flub, Twitter has unfortunately suspended hundreds to thousands of accounts with little or no reason whatsoever.

Twitter has come clean about the whole issue, stating on their blog, “Earlier today, we accidentally suspended a number of accounts. We regret the human error that led to these mistaken suspensions and we are working to restore the affected accounts—we expect this to be completed in the next several hours.”

So, if you find yourself amongst the suspended, be sure to enter a ticket as soon as you can. Chances are good that plenty of accounts were suspended, so you may as well help them find and correct their mistake.

According to recent reports, Samsung is planning to launch an 11.6-inch netbook based off of Nvidia’s Ion in July.

The reports haven’t said much, but what is known is that the netbook will be run off of an Intel Atom N-series CPU, and that it’ll break Intel’s previously listed 10.2-inch size limit for netbooks. Intel has since cancelled preferential pricing for Samsung.

No official word yet on exactly what the netbook will be called, or what regions can expect it.

Until now, it was assumed that Microsoft would only sell single license versions of Windows 7. But, thanks to a recent discovery in the latest license agreement, there’s some evidence suggesting otherwise.

In section two, there’s a new clause that clearly details a family pack, which will allow you to “install one copy of the software marked as ‘Family Pack’ on three computers in your household for use by people who reside there.” Which, for those keeping score, would finally let them combat Apple in this particular field.

Still, there’s no official word from Microsoft on pricing or availability, or if this is even true.

In what appears to be a desperate dig for traffic, Bing has decided to add Twitter messages to their search results in an attempt to take some market share from Google.

“We’re not indexing all of Twitter at this time… just a small set of prominent and prolific Twitterers to start. We picked a few thousand people to start, based primarily on their follower count and volume of tweets. We think this is an interesting first step toward using Twitter’s public API to surface Tweets in people search,” wrote Microsoft search general manager Sean Sucher. These results will appear in a separate box alongside the normal search results within Bing.

Ultimately, it’s not too surprising to see Microsoft do this – considering how Google has already admitted defeat in the real-time information race with Twitter.

Google recently introduced another tweak to their Gmail interface, allowing users that aren’t quite at home with the labeling system to use them as folders.

With the introduction of drag and drop to Gmail, your list of labels will move from the lower left-hand corner to the upper left-hand corner, directly underneath “Inbox” and “Sent Mail.” Google hopes that this will allow users see them more like traditional folders.

Drag and drop comes into play with the use of the labels themselves. Instead of adding tags to each individual message, you’ll instead be able to drag and drop your messages into the label of your choosing.

Earlier this week Asus announced their RT-N16 router, which brings their “three ‘S’s’ – Speed for ultra-fast data transfers, Simplicity for unparalleled ease-of-use and ease-of-setup, and Security for absolute peace of mind when performing online tasks.” (Seriously.)

The RT-N16 will feature wireless speeds up to 300Mbps, use an innovative “EZ UI” which will let system administrators easily setup and manage their networks, as well as allocate bandwidth to suit specific needs. And lastly, it’ll sport WiFi Protected Setup (WPS), so that users can lock down their networks quickly and easily.

No word yet on pricing or availability.

Looking to pave the way for Windows 7, many netbook vendors are hoping to clear out all of their Windows XP-based stock.

When Microsoft announced their Windows 7 upgrade program, they didn’t include Windows XP devices, causing some vendors to believe that their customers aren’t willing to pay a premium for the new OS. There are others that believe that many consumers would prefer to stick with the lower-cost Windows XP for their lightweight netbooks.

Currently, an OEM version of XP runs $25-30, while quotes form Microsoft show that Windows 7 for a netbook would run around $45-55. It’s expected that this confusion may cause some negative publicity for Microsoft in the netbook market.

If you’re fortunate enough to find yourself in Portland, you’ll be among the first to use Comcast’s High-Speed 2go service.

High-Speed 2go will be based on Clearwire’s WiMAX service, and will be available in a “Fast Pack Metro” bundle, complete with home internet service, a WiFi router and the WiMAX for $50 a month, with an addition $20 tagged on for nationwide Sprint 3G (which comes with a 3G/WiMAX combo card). Current customers can add the WiMAX for an additional $30.

Comcast is planning to launch the service in Atlanta, Chicago and Philadelphia before the end of the year.

While for some of us, the pricing for Windows 7 is easy on the wallet thanks to the OEM solution, there are others that aren’t too happy due to the retail prices.

According to a recent study by The NPD Group’s VP of industry analysis Stephen Baker, the mostly free upgrade program for PCs bought on or after June 26, 2009 is extremely commendable, but the retail pricing is a bad idea, especially in today’s economy. “Besides the fact that $119 is a price point that fits nowhere in these economic times, it is still way too much for the software,” stated Baker. “… It is in Microsoft’s best interests to erase all vestiges of Vista from consumers’ homes, and by making the upgrade expensive … Microsoft is creating a large disincentive for consumers to move to a far superior platform with a better user experience.”

So what do you think? Is the pricing for Windows 7 too rough on the pocketbook, or is the pricing just fine the way it is?

With the Internet’s vast coffers of data growing day by day, there are some that are looking to play catch up by means of cataloging each and every bit of it. Those people? The military.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) recently awarded a $29.7 million contract meant for developing a universal text engine that would be capable of grabbing tons of knowledge from written matter, and rendering it into a format that artificial intelligence systems and humans could work with.

“The machine reading system that DARPA envisions is not evolutionary, but revolutionary,” said BBN Technologies VP Prem Natarajan. “Such a system could eliminate many of the impediments to stability that our military faces such as a lack of understanding of local customs, and give us the ability to assess global technology developments continuously.”

While the world has proven itself capable of misusing Google Earth in many different ways, its latest application has been to steal fish.

That’s right folks, it would appear that high end fish thieves have been employing the same software that was used to find a downed aircraft, to find valuable koi in people’s back yards. According to Police Community Support Officer Gregory, “Google Earth shows what is in your garden and you can see people’s ponds. One of the properties targeted has an eight-foot fence and is set back from the road. The pond is in the corner and can’t be seen. Unless you were standing right next to the wall, you wouldn’t be able to hear the running water.”

And, while they make a riveting point, Google stands up very well under pressure. A spokesperson of theirs replied: “Google Earth is built from information that is available worldwide from a wide range of both commercial and public sources. As such, Google Earth creates no appreciable increase in security risks, given the wide commercial availability of high-resolution satellite and aerial imagery of every country in the world. Criminals could use maps, phones and getaway cars but no one would argue that these technologies are responsible for the crime itself, that responsibility lies with the perpetrator.”

Talk about a verbal smack down.

Acer has been releasing plenty of new machines as of late, and now it looks like they’re jumping towards the realm of desktops with their latest offerings, the Aspire M5800 Tower, M3800 Tower, X3810 low-profile PC and the H235H monitor.

The M5800 tower will come with a 2.66GHz Core 2 Quad processor, 8GB of RAM, 1.5GB GeForce GT230 graphics, a 740GB HDD and HDMI out. The M3800 and X3810 are about the same, packing a 2.5GHz Pentium processor and an integrated X4500 GPU. These machines will run you $800, $450 and $529 respectively.

Their monitor, the H235H, measures 23-inches, will support resolutions up to 1080p, sports a 2ms response time, a 160-degree viewing angle and a 100,000:1 contrast ratio for $239.

In what many within the company are calling a major push, Yahoo is looking to completely rebrand itself, and focus consumers on what defines the very being of Yahoo.

This new effort has come, thanks to the newly added Chief Marketing Officer Elisa Steele. The goal is to finally redo their front page, which has been delayed by new CEO Carol Bartz when she took over in January, and potentially rid themselves of the Purple motif. Primarily, they’re trying to turn Yahoo into a key hub for Internet users that are looking for news and other information.

No official word yet on what direction the rebranding will take, but for now they remain a company that bleeds purple.

The folks working over at the travel site Kayak have noticed some startling similarities between their very own site and Bing Travel.

If you’ll direct your attention to a picture here, you’ll notice that they’ve got a pretty good hunch, too. Given that just about everything in the picture (with the exception of the brand in the upper-left hand corner) is about the same.

Kayak’s Chief Marketing Officer Robert Birge has stated, “We have contacted them [Bing] through official channels about concerns about the similarities between Bing and Kayak. From the look and feel of their travel product, they seem to agree with our approach to the market.”

In a response, Bing’s Whitney Burke has said, “We are discussing the matter with Kayak. Bing Travel is based on independent development by Microsoft and Farecast.com, which Microsoft acquired in 2008. Any contrary allegations are without merit.”

Creating an emphasis towards using a NAS at home, Western Digital recently announced their 4TB MyBook World Edition II that’s compatible with the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

The MyBook World Edition II uses RAID 1 mirrored drives in order to protect data, and it also ships with backup software that allows for continual backups of each computer on your network. The storage capacity is 4TB, but should you use it in the RAID 1 setup, only two of these will be usable. It will work with Macs, PCs, as well as consoles such as the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

“Families have more and more digital media like movies, photos and music to store, share and protect. Having two drives inside the My Book World Edition II network storage system, instantaneously and automatically duplicating data, offers consumers the peace of mind of double safe, real-time protection of their valuable content,” stated Dale Pistilli, vice president of marketing for Western Digital's branded products group. “Families can relax knowing their valuable media is backed up while enjoying the ability to stream their content to a plethora of different devices from PCs and Macs to PS3s, Xbox 360s and the latest connected TVs.”

After a brief moment of availability this week, Microsoft’s free Security Essentials application has been pulled from the virtual shelves.

Microsoft claims that it now has enough users for the beta, stating on their website, “Thank you for your interest in joining the Microsoft Security Essentials Beta. We are not accepting additional participants at this time. Please check back at later a date for possible additional availability.”

So, if you were hoping to get in but weren’t among the fleets of people that did so yesterday, you’re out of luck! You’ll just have to wait for the full version, like everyone else (that is, unless you got actually in).

Microsoft’s main aim with Windows 7 is to make it much easier to use than its predecessor, Vista. Apparently, this also includes the packaging that it comes in.

While the old packaging did take a brief moment to figure out, the new box will work in a way that most of us are very familiar with, and open just like a DVD case. However, the shape of the package will remain the same. It’ll include just the disc and a getting started guide.

Overall, Microsoft reports that they’ve been able to lighten up the package weight by 37 percent with these changes.

According to some resent research by The NPD Group, many of the people that are buying netbooks don’t know that they’re doing so.

Sure, the two names may sound familiar (notebook and netbook), but a whopping 60 percent of the people that purchased a netbook expected the same functionality as a notebook. Needless to say, the confusion has led to some irritation.

“We need to make sure consumers are buying a PC intended for what they plan to do with it,” stated Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at NPD. “There is a serious risk of cannibalization in the notebook market that could cause a real threat to netbooks' success. Retailers and manufacturers can't put too much emphasis on PC-like capabilities and general features that could convince consumers that a netbook is a replacement for a notebook. Instead, they should be marketing mobility, portability, and the need for a companion PC to ensure consumers know what they are buying and are more satisfied with their purchases.”