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Updated at 11:30 a.m. PT with pricing info.

(Credit: LaptopMag.com)

Intel has a convertible Netbook on tap for the CES 2009 crowd assembling once again in Las Vegas next month.

Laptop magazine got a sneak peek at the newest version of the low-cost Classmate PC. It has an 8.9-inch swivel screen with touch and stylus input, a Web cam, and 1.6 GHz Intel Atom processor, 60GB hard drive, and Windows XP, with a few Intel touches to make XP work for the convertible form factor. So far, that includes Vision Objects Pen Input, which makes anything input via the stylus editable as text, as well as a virtual keyboard.

It's manufactured by CTL, like the original Classmate PC (which Intel will continue to sell). Laptop reports that it will begin shipping in mid-January.

Intel says that the price for the convertible Classmate will be slightly more than the original Classmate. The range will likely be somewhere around $250 and $400, though the company said it can't be more specific right now.

Brooke Crothers contributed to this report.

Low-cost laptops are pretty much the bare bones of what a user needs in a computer, so consider this an X-ray.

CNET sister site TechRepublic runs a regular series called "Cracking Open," in which it takes a look inside a variety of gadgets. Here's an excerpt of a photo gallery that takes apart the Classmate 2GoPC.

Click on the picture above for a full teardown of the low-cost portable based on Intel's Classmate PC reference design.

Intel is working on the next version of its low-cost laptop, which could be ready in the next month or so, according to a report in PC World.

The current version of the Classmate PC, to be updated by Intel soon.

(Credit: Intel)

There are no pictures, and very few concrete details on what changes are in store for the device, which is intended for school children. Intel would only say it will have a "new look and feel," and will get both hardware and software upgrades.

We may already have a clue as to what tweaks the software might be getting. Last month, Sugar Labs, a spin-off of rival low-cost laptop maker One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), said it would develop a version of its Sugar interface for the Classmate PC.

The version currently shipping runs Linux and just got a spec bump: It now contains a 1.6-gigahertz Atom processor and 1GB of memory.

Though originally intended for education applications in developing nations, earlier this year Intel began making the Classmate available at retail in the U.S. and Europe.

The inventor of the Sugar user interface used in the One Laptop Per Child's XO says his company is developing a version for Intel's own low-cost laptop.

(Credit: Intel)

Walter Bender said in an interview Thursday with PC World that "a community volunteer is working with Intel on Sugar for the Classmate PC. Sugar Labs helped to expedite the relationship."

Bender is the inventor of the kid-friendly interface, which sits on top of a computer's operating system. His company, Sugar Labs, was spun off from OLPC in May. At the time of the announcement, Bender said Sugar Labs was already talking about sharing the UI with at least four other low-cost laptop makers, including Asus.

He described OLPC as the "primary, but not exclusive, downstream project" for Sugar Labs, and confirmed that the two companies continue to work together on further development of the UI.

That Intel will be working tangentially with OLPC again is notable. The chipmaker left its position as board member of OLPC in January, citing "fundamental differences" between the two companies' visions for low-cost computing. Previous to that, OLPC's founder Nicholas Negroponte had asked Intel to stop selling their Classmate PC platform because it was interfering with sales of the XO. Unsurprisingly, Intel declined his request.

Surprising virtually no one, Hewlett-Packard has finally officially announced its new low-cost, low-power NetBook-style mini-laptop, called the 2133 Mini-Note PC. Of course, we've been following every detail of this system for months, including the presumed launch date, but they're finally officially on sale starting today, from $499-$749.

We've had a chance to play around with an early test unit for about a week now, and so far we like it a lot. Like the Asus Eee PC or Intel Classmate, the 2133 Mini-Note is a smaller-than-ultraportable laptop that trades high-powered specs for portability and price. The HP 2133 keeps the compromises to a minimum, however, with a decent 1,024x768 resolution on its 9-inch screen, and options for 2GB of RAM and even a 7,200rpm hard drive. Its best asset is a unique keyboard, which manages to cram in nearly full-size keys, as opposed to the tiny, hard-to-use keys found on other small laptops.

Our main sticking point was the pokey VIA processor (although VIA's integrated Chrome 9 graphics runs the Vista's graphical interface smoothly), especially with Intel's new Atom ultramobile chips around the corner, and skimpy battery life with the default three-cell battery (you can also get a larger battery, but it's so big as to defeat the purpose of having tiny laptop like this).

The upshot on NetBook-style laptops like this is that they're best for basic tasks, such as Web surfing and working on office documents--but that's 90 percent of what we spend our time doing on laptops anyway.

Check out our full review and video of the HP 2133 Mini-Note PC for a more in-depth look.

(Credit: Intel)

Imagine us saying (in our best Jan Brady voice): "Intel, Intel, Intel!" The chipmaker managed to dominate laptop news this week thanks to the Intel Developer Forum in Shanghai, where the company heavily hyped all things small, especially its next-generation Classmate PC (see our exclusive full review) and mobile Internet devices running on the new Atom chip.

For visual learners, we've got a photo gallery of mobile Internet devices from the show, and Intel has posted a video of one of these bad boys being cracked open. For the more technical types, we've also got the specifications on all five of the Atom processors that are part of the launch. For the gadget freaks, we've got more information on the Lenovo IdeaPad U8.

The only thing missing from the IDF small-device love-fest? Microsoft. Oh, and Dell, whose executives said that Intel's smoking crack if it thinks the little guys will be as popular as laptops. (Fine, what they really said was that mobile Internet devices will represent a much smaller piece of the market than Intel projects.)

Other news from the show: an impossibly tiny motherboard, preproduction solid-state drives, wireless display connections, and a new antitheft technology for laptops.

But hey, this week wasn't all about Intel. Toshiba unleashed a boatload of Satellites decked out in pinstripes; CTL announced the official availability of the 2go PC (based on Intel's Classmate PC design); and rumors flew that Best Buy would soon be selling a Windows XP version of the Eee PC. We were also intrigued by both a bag that cools your laptop without a fan and a project that uses your laptop's built-in accelerometer to gather data on seismic activity.

Finally, following in the esteemed footsteps of the MacBook Air, a Vista-based laptop fell to hackers in the PWN2OWN contest at CanSecWest. By the end of the conference, only a Sony VAIO laptop running Ubuntu remained unscathed. Which begs the question: Is open source that secure, or is it just that no one wanted the VAIO?

Have a great weekend!

We've been seeing blurry cellphone pics and hearing rumors for weeks, but Intel is finally showing off the next generation of its Classmate PC at the Intel Developer Forum in Shanghai.

The new Classmate is, as we expected, the same machine we saw a few weeks ago in some surreptitiously taken photos, and referred to at the time by Intel's generic NetBook platform name. Then, last week, we learned that one of the companies selling the new Classmate would be a laptop vendor named Computer Technology Link, or CTL, and they were going to call it the 2go PC (Intel is creating the basic reference design, while OEMS in different regions will manufacture the systems).

The Classmate is designed for students, and Andrew Chien, an Intel vice president and director of Intel Research said in a statement, "Only 5 percent of the world's children today have access to a PC or to the Internet. Education is one of the best examples of how technology improves our lives."

The new version of the Classmate (we looked at the original last year) trades the 2GB SSD drive for a more traditional 30GB hard drive, and increases the display from 7 to 9-inches -- changes intended to appeal to what the company calls "mature" markets, which means the U.S. and other Western countries, where it should sell for about $400, depending on the configuration.

We got to spend a few days checking out one of the new Classmate PCs last week, and you can check out our full review and video for more details.

The 2go PC.

Those recent pics of an Intel NetBook floating around online finally have an official name attached to them. It's the 2go PC from a laptop vendor named Computer Technology Link, or CTL, according to a spec sheet dug up by Engadget (and it looks suspiciously similar to a laptop we had sitting in our lab last August).

Intended for the education market, the 2go PC clearly has its roots in Intel's Classmate PC platform. That's not surprising, since we told you last August that the low-cost design of the Classmate would, "lead to cheaper, smaller laptops for everyone, although likely not directly from Intel, which wants to stay out of the system-selling business." In other words, Intel would come up with the basic design, but the actual laptops would be, "sold by local OEMs, who offer customized software configurations for the needs of each individual market."

The Intel Classmate

The main difference between the Classmate we looked at last year and the 2go PC/NetBook is the 40GB 1.8-inch 4200 hard drive, as opposed to the Classmate's 2GB SSD hard drive, and the display, which has been bumped up to 9 inches, from 7 inches, but keeps the same 800x480 resolution. Both have a 900Mhz Intel Celeron processor and basic 802.11b/g Wi-Fi.

Take a peek at this vendor photo of the 2go PC and our shot of the Intel Classmate, and you'll see a pretty clear DNA match between the two. Expect the 2go PC to hit the market in the next couple of months, for around $400, and we're sure we'll see NetBook-like systems from other vendors in the same time frame.

More low-cost laptops are headed to a retailer near you.

Intel plans on expanding the distribution of its inexpensive, school children-friendly Classmate PC to U.S. and European retail outlets, according to a Reuters report on Wednesday.

Intel's Classmate PC

(Credit: Intel)

The Classmate will sell for $250 to $350, Lila Ibrahim, general manager of Intel's emerging market platform group, told Reuters. Apparently Intel has already been conducting pilot programs using the devices in classrooms in the U.S. and Australia.

Though the Classmate is already available on the retail markets of India, Mexico, and Indonesia, this will be the first time the device has been for sale to consumers in the developed world.

Intel designed the PC for use in schools in developing nations. Local manufacturers build them with customized software configurations for the needs of specific local markets.

The XO from the One Laptop Per Child initiative, which also builds low-cost notebooks for the same markets, has been available via retail in the U.S. for a while. OLPC had a promotion where consumers here paid $400, which bought one XO for them and one for a school kid in the developing world.

But they're not the only ones jumping into this fray. Asus launched its low-cost, stripped-down Linux-based Eee PC last fall specifically for the U.S., Japanese, and European retail markets, and caused quite the stir. It sold 350,000 units in the first quarter it was available here, and is making some of the biggest names in computing a wee bit nervous. It's giving pause to worldwide PC leader Hewlett-Packard, and second-largest notebook manufacturer Acer, both of whom are said to be readying their own low-cost, small form-factor laptops for sometime this year.

The Eee PC certainly is bringing cachet to the tiny, Linux-based laptop segment, but will that translate to the cheaper Classmate PC? The Classmate is a bit clunkier looking, and has a silly-looking (though great for kids) handle on the spine, whereas the Eee comes in a variety of colors and looks like a laptop an adult wouldn't mind being seen with at his or her local coffeehouse.