The NPD released a new report that says, essentially, consumers have no idea what the hell a “netbook” is. Something like 60 percent of consumers who bought a netbook thought that it would have the same capabilities as a notebook. Even more troubling for the companies who produce netbooks is that only 58 percent people who bought a netbook instead of a notebook were satisfied with their purchase. That leaves 42 percent of people who are terribly upset.

I’ve long thought this was the case, and it all stems from the name “netbook.” Consider this:

Quick and dirty: Apple just announced an updated 15-inch MacBook Pro at WWDC, with prices starting at $1,699. It’s the same unibody design that’s proven to be so popular, but this time with much improved battery life (it lasts about two hours longer than before, and can withstand about three times as many charges as before). Oh, and there’s a built-in SD Card slot.

Lenovo is “exploring” the possibility of a ThankPad-branded netbook. Such a netbook would, one guesses, be the first specifically aimed at the business crowd. Does this mean that we’re beginning to see the blurring of the line between netbooks and notebooks? One can dream, friends. One can dream.

The bottom casing cracking issue that some folks have been experiencing in their 13-inch white MacBooks is real and Apple is willing to replace your MacBook if it happens to you, so sayeth the latest Apple service bulletin.

This is similar to the iPhone cracking syndrome that was eventually accepted as truth but don’t try to take your MacBook back if you dropped it out the window.

We told you it was coming, and put our hands on it at CES, and now HP has released the Pavilion Dv2. Hitting that potential sweet spot between the netbook and normal high end laptops, this HP appears to have quite a bit going for it.

Get ready for the Dell Mini 11! Yup, it looks like Dell’s laptop roadmap has been leaked, and the Mini 11 features prominently. The Mini 10 also gets some love because, why not?

There’s some changes going on at Lenovo. The corporation, of which the Chinese government is its largest shareholder, will turn its attention toward so-called emerging markets, such as the Middle East and Asia, China included. This necessarily comes at the expense of places like Western Europe and North America, where Lenovo will lessen its presence

Far out, kids. Microsoft will release the Arc Mouse later this month in a whole host of colors that will blow your mind. There’s [frost] white, [eggplant] purple, [deep olive] green and [marine] blue. Other than the new colors, yup, it’s the same Arc.

Of all the laptops I’ve owned over the years – at least a dozen or so – I’m proud to say that I’ve never, ever dropped one of them or violently yanked an AC adapter out of its port. I realize, though, that I’m in a very small minority and that it’s also only a matter of time before some sort of laptop catastrophe is brought about by my own human error.

If you’ve had bad luck with laptop power cords and you don’t own a fancy “Mac” with its magical “magnetic” power cord, perhaps you’d be in the market for a $10 device called the JerkStopper that’ll work with your current laptop. It doesn’t stop human jerks, though, ROFL!

Remember that Phantom i7 laptop from Eurocom we heard about last month — the one sporting a non-mobile Core i7 processor? Well, there’s a little more info on it now, and it’s even better/worse than you imagined. Check out these ridiculous specs. Remember, this is a laptop.

We fawned all over it when it was revealed, corrupted it with our pawing hands at CES, and marvelled at its recently-revealed big brothers. And now the X320 and X340 have specs and release dates.

More hinkfo after the bizump.

Earlier this morning on Finland’s YLE (think BBC, but Finnish), Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo was asked if the company had plans to expand into the laptop market. Sure enough, his response:

“We are looking very actively also at this opportunity.”

Yeah. Weird, right? Nokia, making laptops? It seemed strange to us at first, too. Then we thought about it a bit more – and it kind of made sense.

A UK man named Mark Taylor had his Gateway laptop fried by an actual earthworm, which was believed to have crawled inside the machine’s air vent to escape the man’s cats. Taylor received an error message that his processor’s fan wasn’t working and, upon inspection by an IT professional, it was found that the five-inch worm had been “cooked” after wrapping itself around the CPU fan, which in turn broke the fan, causing the computer to overheat.

Any time a company holds a sale for a limited time, you MUST buy something. And what’s more limited than four hours? Three hours, sure, but a three-hour sale would be insane. Insane!

As the U.S. military gets more and more technical, more and more military laptops are finding their way onto the global black market. It’s not really surprising (well, maybe it is), but it’s possible to buy all sorts of military equipment on the black market. But it’s one thing to buy a rocket propelled grenade to use to shoot at someone; it’s another thing entirely to buy a laptop filled with troop deployment plans, personnel information, and known weaknesses in your opponent’s vehicles.

Who cares about that stimulus package, right? Jobs, smobs, I say. No, what we’re concerned about is the nitty gritty of that so-called $10 Indian laptop. Is it even a laptop? What can it do? What’s can’t it do? Where’s Waldo?

When is a laptop not a laptop? That’s what we’re asking (not really, we’re actually reading Lost fanfic!) this morning upon learning that that $10 Indian laptop isn’t really a laptop at all, but merely a “computing device.” Let’s demand a Senate investigation. It’s not like they’re doing anything right now.

Eurocom, a computer maker I haven’t heard of but is obviously bucking for more attention, has decided they can’t wait for late 2009 when Intel is planning on bringing their Nehalem-based processors to a laptop-friendly format. Instead, Eurocom just letting the desktop versions come as they are, and building the laptop around that.

Because really, what is a laptop but a desktop that you put in your bag?