The nation’s “fastest” (and often most frustrating) 3G network (i.e. AT&T) is adding another netbook to its lineup of 3G portable devices, the Samsung Go. So what exactly is said Go? Well, according to Sammy, it’s “a compact and lightweight netbook with instant access to broadband speeds powered by the nation’s fastest 3G network and the Microsoft Windows 7 Starter Edition operating system.”

Despite what he said back in August, Asus CEO Jerry Shen confirmed this week that they will in fact be releasing a smartbook product sometime during 1Q2010.

I hear (via John’s review) that Astro Boy is a fine movie. I doubt I will actually see it until my boy catches wind of it in a few years. but I tell you what, this Astro Boy netbook is geek chic and I sort-of want it. The specs are standard fare with an Atom N270 CPU, 1GB of RAM, 160GB hard drive, and XP home, but it’s the special edition lid that I can appreciate. It’s notebook art done right; clean, simple but yet slick. So here’s what you do.

Reading e-books on a netbook is a nuisance, right? But e-readers are a pain because they’re a single-function device, which means your man-bag gets filled with yet-another-specialty-gadget. Behold the enTourage eDGe: “the world’s first dualbook, combining the functions of an e-reader, netbook, notepad, and audio/video recorder and player in one.”

Toshiba’s 18-4-inch laptop Qosmio G60, which the company announced today, is quite cool, but at $3,200, it may be a bit too pricey for most of us. And sometimes, a smaller laptop does the job, too. So it’s good to know Toshiba has some (relatively) affordable netbooks among the dozens of new computers the company announced today for the Japanese market.

BFG is well-known for their video cards and other gaming peripherals, but did you know they make systems too? It’s true. BFG announced their first desktop system earlier this year, and now they are jumping into the performance notebook arena with the new Deimos system.

So I have been using the Viliv S7 regularly for about a week now and I have concluded that it is the best netbook I have ever used. But yes, it’s a netbook. The S7 might have a touchscreen, convertible design, super long battery life, and a modest size SSD, but at the end of the day, it’s a luxury netbook.

Think that the Viliv X70 is hot? (It is.) The unreleased S7 is shaping up to be even hotter with a 9.5 max battery life, physical keyboard, and convertible design. Our review model is currently somewhere over the Pacific so until we can post some hands-on images and first impressions, head over to Dynamism. The retailer just posted the S7 product page that not only lists all the specs but also the price and a whole bunch of photos.

One might think that netbooks and similar ultracompact laptops have all manner of specialized, custom made pieces and parts in order to cram all that functionality into such a small frame. One would be wrong: netbooks are chock full of a surprising number of fairly generic components. For a nice visual breakdown of what, exactly, goes into a generic netbook, take a gander at this netbook teardown over at Shanzai.com.

HP announced the Mini 5101 back in late June and we just got one into the ‘Gear office for review. As John noted back when it was announced, the 5101 isn’t a netbook and it’s fallen into the relatively new category of ultralights. I really liked the Mini 1000 and 2140, but the 5101 might be my new favorite.

Here’s a quick rundown of the specs for the review unit we were sent:

Expect to starting seeing ATSC tuners in notebooks, netbooks, and UMPCs soon. MaxLinear and Hauppauge Digital are working on a minicard that should tune in ATSC, QAM, DVB-T, DVB-H, and DTMB signals. The small card also consumes 50% less power than other tuner cards, and the small size means that it can make its way into more packages. Sounds great, right? I’m just doubtful that it will pull in ATSC signals without a large antenna and therefore killing any portability.

Here’s a quick update from AT&T on the state of their netbook offerings this afternoon in case you’re interested. AT&T stores will now be carrying the Acer Aspire One (160GB HDD/1GB RAM), Dell Inspiron Mini 10 (160GB HDD/1GB RAM) and the Lenovo S10 (160GB HDD/1GB RAM). All three netbooks will retail for $200 after a MIR and a two-year service contract.

Data plans for the netbooks are as follows: 200MB for $40/month, 5GB for $60/month. AT&T is also offering three tiers of ConnecTech services for your brand new netbook.

Samsung is about to break the mold with its latest netbook: It’s going to have an 11.6-inch screen! On noes. Intel isn’t going to like that as it breaks the company’s so-called restrictions on netbooks. Anyway, according to DigiTimes, this netbook should come equipped with an Nvidia Ion platform paired with an Intel Atom N-Series CPU.

A Japanese company called Marshal (yes, one “l”) announced [JP] the MAL 1925 today, a netbook stand that doubles as a DVD super multi drive, has room for a second HDD and comes with an extra USB 2.0 port. Century’s stand, which I blogged in April, is pretty similar but lacks the slot for an alternative 2.5-inch SATA HDD or SSD.

In case you didn’t know, Apple refreshed its notebook lineup a few weeks back and rebadged the 13-inch unibody Macbook as a Pro model. Apparently the masses like it as that model now occupies the top spot in Amazons best selling laptop computer list and number four overall. It wasn’t that long ago that netbooks ruled that second list and the white 13-inch Macbook was the top selling Apple computer at number 14.

I’ve been rounding up a lot of ultralights(more about that next week) – I wouldn’t call this a netbook – and this looks to be one of the purdiest of the bunch. The 5101 will cost about $449 and runs an Atom processor. It has a 10-inch screen and full keyboard.

Look for more of these “ultralights” to pop up this year. Notebook manufacturers have realized that selling a tiny laptop for $5 and a few bottle caps was not a very good strategy and so they’re rethinking this whole “netbook” moniker. You’ll see ultralights – smaller notebooks with more powerful hardware – and MIDs like the iPod Touch or whatever Nokia is planning.