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The US$999 MacBook may not feature the same swank aluminum togs as its older siblings, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t get its share of the family love. On Wednesday, Apple marginally bumped the specs on the base configuration, giving customers a little more bang for their sub-thousand bucks.

Strangely enough, the white polycarbonate MacBook actually now sports a 2.13GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor–faster than its nearest relative, the $1,300 aluminum MacBook. Other specs on the $999 configuration have been brought closer to the mid-range model: it now sports 2GB of 800MHz DDR2 RAM (up from the previous incarnation’s 2GB of 667MHz DDR2 RAM) and a 160GB SATA hard drive instead of the last model’s 120GB drive.

Otherwise, though, the MacBook remains unchanged, retaining a mini DVI port instead of the aluminum’s mini DisplayPort connector, the Nvidia GeForce 9400M graphics it added a few months ago and–we’re sure you’ll all be happy to know–keeping its FireWire 400 port. Clearly Apple isn’t ready to put the white MacBook out to pasture just yet

The latest Hewlett-Packard Mini netbook was unveiled on Wednesday and in a tip to its popularity the company has made few changes from the previous model.

The new HP Mini 110’s hardware is similar to that of its popular predecessor, the Mini 1000, but it adds extra USB and monitor ports and software including a program that synchronizes files between PCs. The Mini 110 will start at US$299 and run Windows XP or HP’s Mobile Internet software built on Linux.

The netbook, weighing in at 1.06 kilograms with a 10.1 inch screen, will ship worldwide this week, See Chin Teik, senior vice president for HP’s personal systems group in Asia, told reporters. The netbook will ship in black first, followed next week by white and a pink model with a floral imprint.

HP also announced a dual-core processor version of its Pavilion dv2 laptop to go on sale next week. The 1.6 GHz processors offered will come from the Athlon and Turion chip lines from Advanced Micro Devices. The laptop’s other components, including its 12.1-inch screen and ATI Radeon video card, will remain the same as the current dv2 machine.

Also announced was the Pavilion MS200, HP’s first all-in-one desktop without a touchscreen. The entertainment PC, aimed at home users, will hit store shelves in China in June and other countries in coming months.

The piano-black PC will sell for $599 and come with an 18.5-inch screen. Wireless mouse and keyboard functions let the machine use only one cable, for power.

HP’s new products are a response to the difficult economy and rising consumer concern about style, executives at the launch event said.

What It Is: Netbooks have hit a nerve. According to DisplaySearch’s forecast, sales for these small, low-cost notebooks will rise 65 percent in 2009, compared to just a 3 percent growth for standard notebooks. The form factor is attractive. For example, the HP Mini 2140 costs just US$500, sports the low-power Intel Atom processor, has a battery life of six hours and weighs just three pounds.

More on CIO.com

Six Reasons Netbooks ARE Enterprise Ready: IT Pro Speaks

How to Choose: Netbook Vs. Ultraportable Laptop

Why The Hype: Netbooks meet a need. Smartphones, such as the Apple iPhone, are intended for what DisplaySearch analyst John Jacobs calls a three-minute experience–enough time to check e-mail or call the office. A notebook is for longer sessions, maybe three hours. A netbook fits in between. It’s designed for a 30-minute experience including Web access, e-mail and document editing. Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research, says netbooks are travel-friendly, fit well with enterprise hot-swap repair procedures (since they are easy to manage) and thus can work for both IT managers and mobile professionals such as sales agents.

The Real Deal: Netbooks seem viable. JeffreyBreen,the CTO at Yankee Group, tells of an employee who bought his own netbook and found it worked well for quick Web and e-mail sessions. Yet, if there was a jury for enterprise decisions, they would still be deliberating netbook value. Gottheil notes that more robust e-mail products, such as Outlook or Notes, run best on a dual-core processor. In a mass deployment of netbooks, an enterprise might have to add more wireless access points or change wireless configurations to avoid interference issues, which add to the cost. “Netbooks may be an optional [device] in enterprise environments in the future,” says Thomas Endres, CIO with Lufthansa. But right now, they’re not fit for engineering and other complex applications.

Bob Hersch, the global managing director of the workplace technology and collaboration practice at Accenture, thinks netbooks work well for consumers of information but not creators of information.

The company, with 180,000 knowledge workers across the globe, has given a solid “it depends” answer on netbooks. Hersch says it is important to match the needs of the end user to the device. In many ways, that’s even the consensus among netbook manufacturers. Lenovo, which makes the IdeaPad S10, markets the netbook as an accessory.

Should You Invest? In an enterprise environment–where standardization is key and superfluous accessories are verboten–the netbook is a hard sell. It’s another form factor for IT to support, and the more limited processor is not a good fit for anyone who creates information–say, in an Excel spreadsheet. Interestingly, netbooks–and related nettops (for example, thin desktops)–may become a good option for thin computing after the hype of massive consumer interest subsides. According to Jacobs, the sub-$500 price point is also attractive as a quick replacement unit in the enterprise–a Hyundai loaner while your Audi gets repaired.

John Brandon is a Minnesota-based freelance writer.

In an effort to counter the growing dominance of Microsoft’s Windows OS in netbooks, Intel on Tuesday announced a beta version of a Linux OS it has developed for low-cost laptops and mobile devices.

The chip company on Tuesday announced a beta of Moblin 2.0, a stripped-down distribution of Linux optimized for smaller screens on netbooks and mobile Internet devices (MIDs). Intel has fine-tuned Moblin for netbooks based on Atom chips with a simple user interface and improved power-saving features.

Most netbooks today ship with Intel’s Atom chip but run the Windows XP operating system, which Microsoft ships for low-cost laptops. But Intel wants to ensure that every “ounce” of technology — including Moblin — put into Atom is optimized for size and power consumption, said Doug Fisher, vice president and general manager of the software and services group at Intel, during a conference call on Tuesday.

Netbooks are low-cost laptops characterized by small screens and limited graphics capabilities. The laptops are designed for basic purposes such as Web surfing, e-mail and word processing. Shipments of netbooks grew sevenfold in the first quarter of 2009 to reach around 4.5 million, with the number expected to reach 22 million by the end of the year, according to IDC.

Intel has contributed a new user interface to the beta, which is optimized for the smaller screens of Atom-based netbooks and MIDs. The new UI aggregates social networks under a single interface, which should make interacting with friends easier, Fisher said. Moblin also includes features that take advantage Atom’s sleep state to extend battery life of netbooks, Fisher said.

The beta release comes ahead of Microsoft’s planned release of its next-generation Windows 7 operating system, which will include a version optimized for netbooks. However, Fisher said that Moblin was not designed to compete with Windows. Both offer unique user experiences, and there are no points of comparison, he said.

“It depends on the user experience the [PC maker] tries to put in the [netbook],” Fisher said. Moblin is being designed as a slim version of Linux optimized for size and power that can boot up within five seconds, he said. That is much quicker than Windows XP, which is a full-featured operating system that in some cases could take up to one minute to load.

However, the Intel officials seemed to recognize Windows as the dominant OS and were willing to concede that the popularity of Windows XP might carry over with Windows 7.

“Windows 7 is a good choice and our customers will use that too,” said Noury Al-Khaledy, general manager for netbooks and nettops at Intel, during the conference call.

Netbook users are familiar with Windows environments and may feel uncomfortable moving to a Linux distribution, said Jay Chou, research analyst at IDC. Netbooks started off as devices to run basic applications, but consumers today want to do more, like run more powerful applications or play games, Chou said.

“Client-side Linux is a tough nut to crack,” Chou said. Limiting features in the Linux OS or giving users the inability to install more applications may limit capabilities of devices, Chou said.

Development of the Moblin OS was initiated by Intel in 2007 and was last month handed over to the nonprofit Linux Foundation, though Intel continues to contribute to the efforts.

The beta version of the Moblin OS is available on Moblin’s Web site.

A number of operating systems designed for netbooks are available, including GoodOS’s gOS3 Gadgets and Canonical’s Ubuntu Netbook Remix, which was launched late last month. Built on the Ubuntu 9.04 Linux core and mostly known by its Jaunty Jackalope moniker, Netbook Remix builds applications into a one-touch interface and uses fewer software resources to save battery life. The OS has received positive reviews from Linux enthusiasts.

Thought Out has released the MagStay Uni, a version of the company’s MagStay accessory compatible with the latest “unibody” MacBooks and MacBook Pros (but not the MacBook Air). An update to Though Out’s older MagStay Pro–we covered that version last year–the MagStay Uni is a plastic collar that fits around your laptop’s MagSafe jack, using the adjacent Ethernet port for support, and makes it more difficult for your power cable to detach. A small opening in the collar lets you view the charging light on the MagSafe connector.

The idea behind the MagStay is that Apple’s MagSafe connector, designed to prevent damage to your laptop by allowing the power cable to easily disconnect under strain, makes it too easy to accidentally disconnect. The MagStay avoids such accidental disconnections in situations where it’s safe to circumvent the MagSafe’s protection.

The US$18 MagStay Uni is available now from Though Out Web site.

An anti-microbial keyboard and a “network activity light” to let teachers know when students are surfing the Web instead of paying attention to their lessons are among the features of a netbook aimed at schools unveiled Tuesday by Dell.

The germ-killing keyboard on the Dell Latitude 2100 is coated with a naturally-occurring silver material, according to David Lord, senior manager for product marketing in Dell’s business client division. It is a $20 add-on option to the Latitude 2100, which starts at $369.

Other features of the Latitude 2100 include a rubberized case to help protect against bumps and drops, and a carrying handle designed for smaller hands.

The netbook is based around Intel Corp.’s popular Atom N270 1.6-GHz CPU.

The $369 version weighs 2.9 pounds and runs Ubuntu Linux 8.1 on an 8-GB solid-state disk (SSD) drive with a three-cell battery that lasts 3.5 hours, said Lord.

The price goes to $500 for a fully-loaded version with Vista Home Basic, a 160-GB conventional hard drive, anti-microbial keyboard, touchscreen and six-cell battery for up to seven hours of battery life.

Dell already produced a line of consumer netbooks under the Inspiron Mini brand.

The Latitude 2100 “is an entirely new platform,” said Patrick Burns, senior manager for product marketing at Dell. “It is not a rebranded Dell Mini.”

Dell said the Latitude 2100 could prove useful to some companies, too. Lord said that enterprises are “gravitating to the form factor,” but he declined to comment on whether and when Dell would unveil a true business-oriented netbook, something rival Hewlett-Packard Co. did with its Mini 2140.

The Dell netbooks come in five colors with students in mind: blue, red, green, yellow and black. That, said Burns, can help for identification purposes in schools, i.e. yellow for third-graders, blue for fifth-graders.

Dell is also offering a locking, moveable cart for storing the netbooks securely in classrooms after hours. The $3,900 cart comes with a router and power to recharge the netbooks.