Apple-Made Netbook Caught Surfing the Web

An unknown search engine has reported traffic from a product sending Mac-like signals, TechLime reports. The portable device, purported as “Apple-made,” allegedly has a screen larger than that of the iPhone, but smaller than a MacBook's, suggesting an Apple Netbook is being tested over the web in the Cupertino labs.

However, the rumor doesn't exactly say where the accessing was made from. It only suggests that we're dealing with a device smaller than the MacBook and larger than the iPhone, boasting Internet capabilities. The disclosure was made to John Markoff of the NYT, says the report, “on the understanding that their identity be protected.” As you would imagine, speculation on a “NetMac” began immediately.

Steve Jobs' surprise appearance at the company's quarterly finance call seemingly provides more fuel to the rumor, as Apple's chief executive hinted there's more in the scope on the portable front. Still, should Apple roll out an iNetBook, it would be priced above the $500 entry level. Jobs himself noted, “We don’t know how to build a sub-$500 computer that is not a piece of junk.” Quite frankly, Apple isn't even likely to bother selling something so simple, and so cheap. If the netbook is indeed to materialize, Apple is sure to spice up the concept a bit. However, Mr. Jobs added at the conference call that the company “had some pretty interesting” ideas if the iPhone did well as a tool to browse the web with.

The term netbook refers to a category of small to medium sized Internet-focused laptops. Such a device is (conceptually) light-weight, low-cost, energy-efficient, and optimized for web surfing and e-mailing. However, Apple doesn't do everything by the book (not in the least, actually), so we can trust Apple's “wait-and-see” stance any time of the day.

The concept of the netbook started with the HP OmniBook 800 CT laptop running Windows 95 in 1997, while the term itself was introduced by Psion in 1999, and re-introduced by Intel in the first quarter of 2008. There is an Ubuntu Netbook Remix, the official distribution of Ubuntu for netbooks. The stripped-down version of the Linux OS is optimized for laptops using the Intel Atom processor. It boasts a window picker and an application launcher optimized for netbooks.