Since January when the Ion platform from NVIDIA first launched, not many netbooks or nettops have taken advantage of the HD capable platform that crams a 9400M GPU into the netbook chassis. A few machines have trickled onto the market using Ion but not as many as NVIDIA had hoped.

NVIDIA has confirmed that Samsung will be launching an Ion-powered netbook model soon. The GPU maker won’t confirm details like model, specs, or pricing other to say its Ion platform is being used.

Always Innovating has something very interesting with its Touch Book tablet, a touchscreen device with a detachable keyboard, embedded Linux OS and a low $300 price tag. The company has published photos of a production device on their page.

Along with the photos, comes this announcement: “We intend to start shipping the Touch Book next month, in July 2009. Our first batch of Touch Books is already in production.” Pre-orders are still open for $300 ($400 with keyboard). Specs below.

Gateway’s latest Timeline netbook is now available for purchase. The netbook is powered by a 1.2GHz Athlon 64 L110 processor with an integrated ATI Radeon X1270 graphics card, a WXGA resolution display, a 2GB RAM and a 250GB HDD.

Some other features include a memory card reader, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g connectivity, integrated webcam, three USB 2.0 ports and a 6-cell Li-ion battery. You can get it in two colors, NightSky Black and Cherry Red. The Gateway Timeline LT3100 will cost you $400 and up, depending on the specs you choose.

HP may have been late getting into the netbook party. However, it is making up for lost time by introducing all sorts of new models. HP announced this week a new netbook called the Mini 5101 series offered through its small and medium business site.

The machine has an Intel Atom N280 processor running at 1.66GHz and uses the Intel 945GSE chipset. Memory options include 1GB or 2GB of 533MHz DDR2 SDRAM. Storage options include 160GB, 250GB, and 320GB 7200 rpm HDDs or a 128GB SSD.

Fujitsu Japan has launched an updated version of its LOOX M netbook. The latest is powered by an Intel Atom N280 processor running at 1.66 Ghz. You’ll get a 10.1 inch screen with a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels and the battery that offers 2.7 to 5 hours of use.

Some other features include 1GB of RAM, Intel 945GSE Express chip set, 160GB hard drive, webcam, multi card reader and Bluetooth. It is available in Japan in four flavors: white, red, black and lavender for 59,800 Yen or $660.

Disney gadgets always tend to be more about branding than giving you a decent gadget, but we know that some of you will still want to check out the love child of ASUS and Disney. A Disney branded Netpal netbook for kids, available in “Princess Pink” or “Magic Blue” colors. (the latter even has tiny Mickey Mouse icons).

Each netbook features a kid-friendly Disney interface and built-in parental controls, as well as some customizable themes based on Mickey Mouse, Toy Story, Wall-E, and other Disney stuff they need to pimp out.

Archos has added a new netbook to its range in the form of the Archos 10s. This baby is slim and light measuring only 0.87 inches thick and weighing just 2.2 pounds. But aside from that, the specs remain the same to the original Archos 10.

Those specs are: a 10.2-inch display with 1024 x 600 resolution, a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, a 1GB of RAM, a 80GB hard drive, Microsoft Windows XP Home OS and your choice of either three-cell or six-cell battery. The Archos 10s will be available later this month for an unknown price.

According to Acer chairman JT Wang, the first Android netbooks will ship with Windows in dual-boot configurations. If you wanted a clean break from windows with your new Acer netbook, looks like you are out of luck.

It’s actually a smart move by Acer, since Android is unproven as a netbook OS. The last thing they need is computers that surprise the consumer by crashing every ten minutes. However, this is not the android netbook that people want. Loading windows on alongside of Android just makes it a bit of a novelty.

SanDisk has made their latest SSDs available for purchase. The pSSD P2 and S2 both use nCache technology, which boosts random write speeds up to five times over standard hard drives. The new tech is non-volatile and should reduce the times the SSD stalls out or glitches.

These drives are built for performance, with speeds equivalent to a 9,000 RPM HDD and they are small too, so they are perfect for netbooks. It will also withstand extreme temperatures and is shockproof.

The netbook market is saturated with models form different manufactures, most of which have the same exact specifications. With netbooks being the fastest growing segment in the computer market, more machines will continue to be announced.

Toshiba has announced its first entry into the netbook market called the mini NB205. The netbook has a full-size keyboard and a large track pad along with a 10.1-inch screen that is LED backlit. The machine is available in two models; the NB205-N310 comes with a stylized finish in pink, brown, blue, and white colors. The NB205-N210 comes in a fushion finish in black onyx color.

I am a big fan of netbooks and use a MSI Wind U100 when I am traveling and have never missed my larger and much more bulky Dell laptop. Being a big fan of computers and gadgets, my desk is full of old notebook and desktop hard drives and sticks of RAM. If you have the same sort of hardware lying around, today we are going to check out what could well be the perfect netbook for you. The OCZ Neutrino is billed as a DIY netbook and if you are the type who builds your own PCs, it’s not nearly as DIY as you are used too. The machine lacks storage, RAM and an OS. What it does have comes at a lower price. Is the OCZ Neutrino right for you? Read on to find out.

HP was late getting in on the netbook game. There were a number of netbooks already on the market before HP debuted its first machine. HP is now adding several more netbooks to its lineup in an effort to grab a larger portion of the booming netbook market.

Among the new HP Mini models being added to the lineup today are the HP Mini 110 XP Edition, the Mini 110 Mi Edition, and the HP Mini 1101. The Mini 110 is available in pink chic, black swirl, and white swirl colors. The Mini 1101 is available in black swirl only.

Sony showed off its new Vaio P back in January at CES 2009. The little machine was nice looking, but the odd size that is long and thin left a bit to be desired in my book. The screen was freakishly narrow and wide making for some strange font sizes.

Sony has now announced that it is shedding Vista as the OS of choice for the expensive Vaio P and going with Windows XP. I think the addition of Vista to begin with was a way for Sony to justify that the P wasn’t a netbook — which it is.

With the IdeaPad S12, Lenovo is first to offer a netbook based on Nvidia’s Ion chipset. So far, we like what we see. The 12-inch netbook will give you the whole HD, game-playing thing for about $500. Nividia’s Ion is basically Intel’s Atom processor combined with the Nvidia 9400m graphics unit.

The resulting performance offers smooth 1080p video, accelerated h.264 playback, Blu-ray playback and moderate gaming capabilities. When it’s in a netbook, you get a midrange, 12-inch netbook with a multimedia slant.

Onkyo just released their latest netbook in Japan. It’s the Atom-powered DC204A3 and it comes with all the usual suspects like an Intel 945GSE Express chipset, 1GB RAM, a 10.1” LCD display at 1,024 x 600 resolution, integrated Wi-Fi, built-in web cam for video calls, D-SUB and Ethernet.

No hard drives here. Instead, you’ll get a 32GB SSD. No NVIDIA Ion either. What are ya gonna do? Prices start at €380 and go up from there.