Axiotron, Inc. and Other World Computing have produced a portable tablet computer running Mac OSX for show at the Macworld Expo this week. The Modbook is a hardware modification of Apple’s Macbook, which Axiotron is marketing for $2,279 a piece.

“Each ModBook starts off as a MacBook Core 2 Duo but undergoes a surgical operation where its original display and keyboard are severed, then replaced with a new 13.3-inch Wacom pen enabled widescreen display set in a chrome-plated magnesium top shell.

The device runs the current version of Mac OS X and utilizes that software’s built-in Inkwell handwriting recognition. Meanwhile, the tablet retains all of the hardware features of the current Apple MacBook line, such as a 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, an integrated camera and CD/DVD combo drive.”

Also included is Wacom Penabled hardware, the Macbook’s iSight camera and built-in Global Positioning System [the only portable Mac to have GPS]. The Modbook will be available in April to the USA and Canada through Other World Computing.

Read [AppleInsider] Product [Modbook]

The $100 laptop for children in developing countries has been an interesting journey. Kicking off this year, there is the XO machine using Novel software - a version of Linux - for the One Laptop Per Child project.

Through mass production, the computers should reach the $150 mark and will begin distribution in Thailand and Libya.

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A few months ago Google began a pilot program that put 100 advertisers in 66 daily newspapers and their unsold ad space. Much like brokers who buy and resell ad space to last-minute advertisers, Google is allowing businesses to bid online for a paper’s excess ad inventory.

“The volume [of ads sold] is tripling where we thought it would be,” said Tom Phillips, director of print ads at Google. “I think we’ll have real impact next year” on newspapers’ bottom lines, he said. “We open the medium to a whole new class of advertisers.”

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MacScoop has obtained reports from sources believed to be very reliable, claiming that Apple is developing a smaller and ultra-thin form-factor MacBook Pro.The sources inform that the new laptop should be even thinner and weigh less than the current models in the MacBook Pro line-up. In spite of this very tiny and lightweight form-factor, the miniaturized MacBook Pro should keep its built-in optical drive and sport a dual-core processor and providing unequaled size/performance ratio in the PC industry. Sources added that the exact price is not yet revealed, but from the analysis of Apples pricing tactics the Apple’s new laptop could be priced in the $1700 to $1800 range.

Via [Macscoop]

On December 22, 2006, Nintendo and Opera will make a trial version of the Opera browser available to Wii owners. Wii owners with a high-speed Internet connection can download a free trial Opera browser to activate the Internet Channel of the Wii Menu and begin surfing the Web.

The final version of the Opera browser will be available at the end of March 2007, and will be free for all Wii owners to download through the end of June 2007. After June, users who haven’t already downloaded the Opera browser can go to the Wii Shop Channel to download it for 500 Wii Points.

Press Release [Nintendo]