Netbooks with 9 inch displays were all the rage for a hot second in 2008. But now they’ve largely passed out of fashion as PC makers pump out larger models with 10 inch displays and nearly full sized keyboards. But apparently the folks at Netsee didn’t get the memo, because this South Korean company just introduced the UNC-890 netbook which looks like something straight out of mid-2008.

The Netsee UNC-890 has an 8.9 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display and a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU. It also bucks the latest trend of outfitting netbooks with hard drives, and instead comes with a 32GB solid state disk.

Rounding out the specs are 1GB of RAM, WiFi, and a 3MP webcam. It measures less than an inch thick and weighs just 2 pounds.

It seems like everybody and their kid brother has a new nettop with next-generation NVIDIA ION graphics to show these days. So how do you set your super-slim and tiny desktop PC apart from the crowd? Simple. You slap a unicorn logo on the side. At least that’s what Sparkle is doing with its nettops.

The company is currently showing off a mini-desktop called the Calibre Cuti with a dual core Atom 330 CPU and first generation NVIDIA ION graphics. But Sparkle plans to introduce a new version of the nettop with next-generation ION in time for the Computex trade show in June.

The computers support up to 4GB of RAM and can handle hard drives up to 500GB. They have 802.11b/g/n WiFi built in, HDMI and DVI video outputs, 7.1 channel audio, 6 USB ports, and optional Bluetooth.

It looks like Lenovo may be planning to add a WiMAX option to the IdeaPad U150  inch thin and light notebook. Wireless Goodness spotted an FCC filing for the U150 with an internal wielress card that would support WiMAX mobile broadband as well as 802.11b/g/n WiFi.

The Lenovo IdeaPad U150 features an 11.6 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display and an Intel CULV processor. It runs Windows 7 Home Premium, and falls into the category of budget thin and light notebooks that are larger and more powerful than netbooks but a little less capable than full sized laptops. I reviewed the U150 last month, but the model I tested didn’t support WiMAX.

No word on pricing or a release date for the WiMAX version.

Asus has pretty much stopped offering its netbooks and nettops with Linux preloaded. Instead, most of the company’s products come with Windows XP or Windows 7. But retailer Newegg is selling a first generation Asus Eee Box EB2020 nettop with Red Flag Linux, a Chinese Linux distribution that’s designed to look an awful lot like Windows XP.

The Eee Box with Red Flag Linux comes with 1GB of RAM, a 160Gb hard drive, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Ethernet, a mouse and keyboard, and a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor.

Newegg is selling the nettop for $219.99, but after a $30 mail-in rebate the price drops to $189.99 plus free shipping.

I wanted to take a moment to let you know about a new web site I’ve just launched, called mobiputing. As you can probably guess from the name, mobiputing is and will continue to be a sister site to Liliputing. But while Liliputing is focused on netbooks and mobile computing hardware and software generally, my aim with mobiputing is to cover the world of smartphone apps.

Right now there’s a pretty heavy focus on iPhone and Android applications on the site, because that’s where most of the development has been recently (and because I happen to have a Google Nexus One Android phone and an iPod Touch to test out new apps). But I’m hoping to touch on most of the major platforms, and I’ve already started lining up writers to help out with app reviews and recommendations for other platforms including WebOS.

While the netbook market was just getting started when I launched Liliputing, smartphones have clearly been around for a little while. But it’s an exciting time in the smartphone space, with Android phones like the Nexus One giving the iPhone some serious competition in terms of specs and available applications. And Microsoft is set to launch the most significant revision to its mobile operating system in a decade later this year.

Of course, I’ll also continue covering software development that’s relevant to the mobile computing space at Liliputing. So you can still expect to see the occasional post about Ubuntu, MeeGo, Jolicloud, Android, and Chrome OS. But if you’re at all interested in news about smartphone apps and operating systems, I hope you’ll check out mobiputing.

The Eee PC 1005PR is the first 10 inch netbook from Asus with a high resolution 1366 x 768 pixel display. It was first spotted at CeBIT in Germany last week, but now Asus has posted an official product page for the mini-laptop.

Here’s a rundown of the specs:

•Display: 10.1″ 1366 x 768 pixels
•Graphics: GMA 3150 + Broadcom BCM 70015 HD video accelerator
•CPU: 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450
•OS: Windows 7 Starter Edition
•Memory: 1GB (Max: 2GB)
•Storage: 250GB HDD (plus 500GB Asus WebStorage)
•Connectivity: 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, Ethernet
•I/O: VGA, mic, headphone, SDHC card slot, 3 USB ports
•Battery:Two options: 6 cell, 63Whr or 6 cell, 48Whr
•Dimensions: 10.3″ x 7″ x 1.4″
•Weight: 2.8
No word on pricing yet, but the Eee PC 1005PR should be available in April. And by all appearances, the netbook is virtually identical to the Eee PC 1005PE in most respects. The two key differences are the high resolution display at the Broadcom Crystal HD video accelerator, both of which are likely to drive up the price. My guess is that we’ll see this model selling for about $50 more than a standard Asus Eee PC 1005PE.

Looking for an alternative to the iPad that looks enough like Apple’s tablet to fool your friends into thinking you have one — until they see you start tapping on a start menu or playing Flash video? Then it looks like the upcoming HP slate might be the way to go.

HP has released a promotional video that markets the slate pretty much exactly the same was as Apple is marketing the iPad — except the HP slate will play web video from sites like Hulu, as you can see in the promotional video.

To drive home the point a bit more, the folks at Adobe have put out a five and a half minute video showing the tablet running Flash and Adobe AIR, which opens the tablet up to a whole world of applications that aren’t available on the iPad of iPhone.

You can find both videos after the break.

Of course, none of this should be surprising, because the HP slate has an x86 processor and runs Windows 7 — which means it can run pretty much any Windows application. It features the touchscreen features of Windows 7 including a rather awkward looking on-screen keyboard and multitouch gesture support for zooming, rotating, and performing other actions.

We still haven’t seen final pricing on the HP slate, but something tells me it ain’t going to come cheap. And with an x86 processor and a desktop operating system, I’m guessing we’ll be lucky if the HP slate gets half the battery life of the iPad. But hey, it supports Flash.

Chinese companies have been producing cheap knockoffs of big name laptops for years. But you know what most of them lack? Big name branding. Fortunately, at least one Chinese manufacturer realizes that the same thing is true for fake brand name laptops as fake brand name handbags: They’re more attractive if you don’t know they’re fake.

With that in mind, said company has slapped the HP name on a laptop that bears a more than passing resemblance to the HP Mini 5102. Except it’s not an HP Mini 5102. How do I know? Because the HP Mini 5102 has a 10.1 inch display, not an 11.6 inch screen.

Of course, that means the knockoff also has a larger keyboard, which might be a bonus for some people. The screen is a high resolution 1366 x 768 pixel display, and the computer packs some of the same features as the HP Mini 5102, including a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processor, attractive red cover, and chiclet-style keyboard as well as 802.11b/g/n WiFi.

The knockoff also sells for just about $337 in China, although it probably won’t be available for that price in the US — or anywhere else, anytime soon.

On the down side, the real HP Mini 5102 has a 7200RPM hard drive, while the fake has a slower 160GB 5400RPM HDD.

The Asus Eee PC 1001P is a bit like the kid brother to the recently launched Eee PC 1005PE netbook. While the Eee PC 1005PE comes with 802.11b/g/n WiFi and ships standard with a 6 cell battery (although there are two versions of the battery), the 1001P has 802.11b/g WiFi and comes with either a 3 or 6 cell battery. But to be honest, on paper the differences between the Eee PC 1005PE and 1001P are pretty small.

Both laptops have 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processors, 1GB of RAM, and run Windows 7 Starter Edition. Both have the same “Seashell” style case design and large keyboard.

And if you can live without 802.11n wireless, here are a few reasons you may want to consider the Eee PC 1001P:

•It has a matte (non-glossy) display
•The case lid and palm rest area are also matte (which means no visible fingerprints)
•The Eee PC 1001P is cheaper, with prices starting at just $299
The model Asus sent me to review is the Eee PC 1001P-PU17, which features a 250GB hard drive and 6 cell, 48Whr battery. It sells for about $336 from Amazon. The cheaper model has a 160GB hard drive and 3 cell battery. It sells for under $300.

You can check out my unboxing and first look video below. I’ll have more to share about this laptop soon.

The Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3 is Lenovo’s third netbook in the IdeaPad line. But you could probably have guessed that from the name. Here’s what you might not know: It’s the best looking 10 inch netbook Lenovo has released to date, and it’s the first with a new Intel Atom N450 Pine Trail processor.

The netbook is thin and light, and comes with a choice of a black or red cover featuring a textured, fingerprint-resistant cover. But in order to keep the laptop as small as possible while providing a nearly full sized keyboard, Lenovo chose to build left and right buttons into the touchpad, making it difficult to use.

The demo unit Lenovo sent me to review features a 10.1 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display, Windows 7 Starter Edition, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, 6 cell battery, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, and Bluetooth 2.1.