If you liked the Inspiron Mini 10v that Dell launched in May, but didn't have the $299 to pay out up front, you may be in luck: Sprint is offering essentially the same notebook for $199, after a mail-in rebate. Well, at selected Bay Area stores, anyway. Take that, Big Apple!

The Dell Inspiron Mini 10 features embedded EV-DO Rev. A wireless service from Sprint, something Dell's own Mini 10v does not.

Of course, the only way you'll be able to take advantage of the offer is by signing up for a two-year service plan worth $59.99 per month for a 5-Gbyte data cap, or an additional $1,439.76 over the life of the contract. But what happens if the Wi-Fi at the coffee place goes down?

Bad news for those running Snow Leopard on their netbooks--Apple is pulling another Palm Pre, cutting off the operating system's support for the Intel Atom processor.

OS X Daily has this to say about the 10.6.2 update,

StellaRolla recommends staying with 10.6.1 (or 10.5.8 if you're running Leopard on your Hackintosh, sine 10.5.9 will likely have the same Atom problems) for the time being, otherwise you can try upgrading to 10.6.2 but run an older or modified kernel. I think I'll just stick to 10.6.1 when the update rolls around, I have a lot of confidence in the Hackintosh community so I imagine there will be a workaround rather quickly.

So, why would Apple cut off support for a processor? Well, the company doesn't currently manufacturer any systems that use the Intel Atom. Like the Palm Pre/iTunes syncing issue and the suits against Psystar, this just seem to another way of ensuring that the company's software stays tied exclusively to its hardware.

Do Microsoft's new storefronts look eerily family to you? The company's new mall-based retail locations seem to have taken more than a few aesthetic and spiritual cues from Apple's successful stores.

The company opened up its first location in Scottsdale, Arizona this week, and PCMag sent a photographer with a last name rather similar to our own consumer electronics managing editor. You can check out a slideshow of the company's new Windows 7-centric location at PCMag, Surface computer included.

Microsoft opened up a second location in Mission Viejo, California, to what was apparently a rather enthusiastic reception. According to the OC Register, over 1,000 people crowded into the Orange County Mall, in an attempt to check out the new store.

Maybe it had something to do with the gift bags that Microsoft was handing out, which included a $25 Zune Pass gift card and lip balm, among other MS swag. Times are tough and lips are chapped all over, I guess.

For plenty of folks in the tech community, this week was all about Windows 7, sure, but Apple has never be one to be outshone. Earlier this week the company launched refreshes to much of its hardware line, including new versions of the Macbook, iMac, and Mac Mini. The company also introduced the hyperbolically-named Magic Mouse.

Apple sent along a number of these products along for review in the PC Labs. Over at PCMag, you can check out the recent reviews of the Macbook and iMac. We've also got some exclusive hands-on video with those two devices and the brand new Magic Mouse after the jump.

Announced earlier today, the Acer Aspire AS5738DG is the first budget 3D laptop around. The notebook uses TriDef's technology to bring users 3D video, pictures, and games, once they don the included glasses.

It's a cool gimmick, to be sure, but it turns out that 3D or not, Acer has a pretty solid budget notebook on its hands with the Aspire AS5738DG. The notebook features a 15.6-inch screen, HDMI, a 5-in-1 card reader, a 320GB hard drive, and a 2.2-GHz Core 2 Duo T660 processor. According to our laptop lead analyst, Cisco Cheng, it packs a lot of bang for its $780 price tag.

Check out a hands-on video of the new notebook, after the jump.

Between movies like Coraline and Up and consumer electronics like the Fujifilm W1 Digital Camera, 2009 is a big year for those pushing a mainstream adoption of 3D technologies. Acer, too, is looking to get into the game. Today the company announced the Aspire AS5738DG, a budget notebook that utilizes TriDef's technology for viewing games, movies, and pictures in the third dimension once you slip on the included glasses.

From a hardware standpoint, this is a pretty standard budget notebook. It's got a 15.6-inch screen, HDMI, a 5-in-1 card reader, 320GB hard drive, and a 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo T660 processor. All said, it's a pretty bulky notebook, but if you're looking for budget 3D system, it's hard to beat this $780 Aspire.

PCMag has a full hands-on review of the system in the works, but having taking the notebook for a test drive earlier this week, I can definitely attest to the effectiveness of its 3D technology. Games and videos optimized for the experience look great, though like many of these consumer 3D technologies, the key is sitting in the right spot--at the wrong angle, you lose the effect. Also, the 3D will no doubt prove a bit tiring for a lot of users' eyes, so I'd definitely recommend giving this thing a test drive if you can, before plunking down $800 on something that might give you a headache after extended viewings.

The Aspire AS5738DG will be available from select retailers tomorrow.

Apple's unexpected hardware refresh on Tuesday included an update to the Mac mini, a piece of hardware some thought Apple had forgotten about.

The new addition is a server option, which includes a pair of hard drives and Snow Leopard Server, to allow consumers, enthusiasts and small businesses to host an email server.

The new minis, priced starting at $599, feature the option of either a 2.26-GHz or 2.53-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and either 2 Gbytes or 4 Gbytes of memory. An additional options page lists an optional 2.66-GHz Core 2 Duo option, available only as an online upgrade for an additional $150.

Specifically, the 2.26-GHz processor/2-Gbyte RAM/160-Gbyte storage option costs $599.00, while the 2.53-GHz/4-GB RAM/320-Gbyte storage option costs $799.00. The mac mini Server configuration costs $999.00.

Apple remained firmly in fourth place in the PC wars, but edged up a couple of percentage points in the battle over market share, according to numbers from IDC.

According to the study, sales for the company grew 11.8-percent, from the second to the third quarter in 2009. The numbers helped Apple grab 9.4-percent of the US PC market share, up 7.6-percent the quarter before.

The entire PC market got a 2.5-percent bump, in spite of economic gloom and doom. According to the numbers, consumers--not surprisingly--tended toward lower priced systems.

More details have finally surfaced on the intriguing Nokia Booklet 3G, Nokia's first foray into the competitive netbook space. Nokia is partnering with AT&T to sell the gorgeous machine for $299 with a 2-year contract, starting Oct. 22. The Booklet 3G will be available exclusively at Best Buy stores through the holiday retail season.

Unfortunately, a 2-year contract with AT&T for its 3G data services costs $60 a month. That doesn't really make $299 a very good deal, since the total cost ($299 + [$60 x 24 months]) with the data services is $1,739. The average consumer might do better to purchase the unit for $599 and buy a wireless card or cellular modem.

We really enjoyed getting our hands on the Booklet 3G at CTIA and think it warrants a much closer look. It has an aluminum chassis and a 10-inch screen with 1280-by-720 resolution, weighs 2.76 pounds, and runs Windows 7 Home Premium. The Booklet 3G also offers Wi-Fi, 3G connectivity, GPS, a 1.6-GHz Intel Atom processor, a 120GB hard drive, 1GB RAM, and supposed 12-hour battery life.

Look out for a full review of the slick machine later this month from laptop analyst Cisco Cheng at PCMag.com.

Dell will shut down its Winston-Salem, N.C. desktop manufacturing plant early next year, cutting 905 jobs in the process.

Approximately 600 of those jobs will occur next month, Dell said in a release. The entire closure is expected to be done by January 2010.

"This is a difficult decision, especially for our North Carolina colleagues, but a necessary one for Dell customers and our company," Frank Miller, vice president of public business unit supply chain at Dell, said in a statement. "The efforts of our team members there have been significant and we're committed to helping them through their transition. Of course, we'll continue to honor all agreements with North Carolina, Forsyth County and Winston-Salem."

In July, Dell sold its Tennessee remanufacturing plant to Genco Supply Chain Solutions. Remaining U.S. plants include those in Miami and Austin, Texas. The company also has plants in Brazil, China, Malaysia, and India, and is in the process of migrating its Ireland plants to Poland.

Will Verizon get Haier? Importer PCD might hope so. Formerly known as Audiovox and UTStarcom, PCD is a phone importer who works with a range of Asian manufacturers to keep Verizon, Cricket and other carriers getting a steady supply of Imagios, Razzles and Sidekicks. At the CTIA Wireless trade show, they told me they're now branching out into netbooks, showing me a pair of black and white netbooks made by Haier that were running on Verizon's 3G network.

There's nothing too unusual about these netbooks; they're pretty good looking and have standard specs, including a 1.6-Ghz Intel Atom processor, 1GB of RAM and Windows XP. The news is that they may be coming to a wireless carrier near you, before the end of the year at a very low, subsidized price. Joe Cufari, PCD's vice president of advanced devices, said he considers these models a sort of experimental vanguard. He'll see who wants them, and then take it from there.

I feel like I'm always picking on Dell, and I feel bad for it. I feel a little less bad though, after events like this morning's Design Studio announcement. After announcing several new artists to join the group already offering designs in the studio, as well as a new partnership with Major League Baseball, Dell invited a representative from cosmetics company OPI up to speak.

The new designs will copy some of OPI's more popular shades, and the swirl design (that looks like it's fresh from the nail salon) certainly has appeal. You know, if you like glittery, pink products. What I found unappealing was the way the designs were pitched to me and my colleagues, as well as a room full of lifestyle and fashion reporters.

Suzi Weiss-Fischmann, OPI's Executive Vice President and Artistic Director started by rattling off the statistics about women's influence and purchasing power before launching into why OPI laptops would really appeal to female buyers. Yes, usability is an important factor to women, she said, but the female buyer also wants to connect with a product on an emotional level. And what's the fastest way to a woman's heart? Pretty colors!

Gateway and Verizon Wireless are teaming up to release a new netbook equipped with Verizon's 3G mobile broadband service.

The Gateway LT2016u will be available starting October 4 on verizonwireless.com and in Verizon stores. The device is available in "night sky black" and will connect to the Web via Verizon's 3G network.

The netbook will retail for $149.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate, which will be sent out in the form of a debit card. Customers will also have to sign up for a two-year Verizon mobile broadband contract. Options include 250MB of monthly access plus 10 cents per megabyte overage for $39.99 per month or 5GB plus 5 cents per megabyte overage for $59.99 per month.

The LT2016u features a 10.1-inch, high-definition WSVGA LED, a 6-cell battery that Verizon says will provide up to six hours of battery life, an Intel Atom N270 processor, 1GB of memory, 160GB of hard drive space, and a digital media card reader.

In addition to the HTC Imagio, Verizon rolled out four other devices today. The Nokia 2705 Shade is a tiny flip phone that's designed to fit in a purse or pocket, and comes in camera and camera-less versions. Despite its small size, it features VZ Navigator compatibility for turn-by-turn GPS directions, switchable covers, a 1.3-megapixel camera, and Bluetooth; it will list for $29.99 with a new two-year agreement beginning October 6th.

Next up is the military-spec Motorola Barrage (pictured), a rugged cell phone that can stay under several feet of water for 30 minutes. It features Push-to-Talk, a 2-megapixel camera, and support for various optional VZW media services. It costs $129.99 after a $50 rebate and with a two-year agreement. This one hits November 16th; a non-camera version will be available for order on October 21st.

The Verizon Wireless Razzle features a tilt-and-swivel design for messaging fans. It also includes a music player, support for V CAST Music with Rhapsody, a 1GB microSD card, a 1.3-megapixel camera, Bluetooth, and a 2.2-inch LCD. This one will check in at $69.99 with a two-year agreement sometime later in October.

Video is quickly becoming the metric by how computing platforms are measured: can a given device play back SD video? HD video? Can it encode them, too?

As of now, these are the dividing lines between netbooks and their more powerful cousins, the ultraportable netbooks. Why I seem to recall Nvidia stoutly maintaining that its ION platform (seriously, it's just a GeForce 9400M, people!) plays back video smoothly, it apparently feels that it could use a kick in the pants from its GPU capabilities. (Nvidia also launched its next-generation GPU-as-CPU architecture, Fermi, on Wednesday.)

According to Hexus.net, NotebookJournal.de has let the cat out of the bag with the video above, which Hexus claims is scheduled for an announcement on Oct. 6. In a nutshell, Nvidia will announce Flash will now be processed using the ION, improving performance dramatically. Here's hoping that it's merely a software or driver upgrade, so those of you with existing Ion-based netbooks will get an unexpected performance boost.

EDIT: The above video has been made private, so you won't be able to play it.