Hasta La Gadget!

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.

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.

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.

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.

Power is the final frontier in the war against fully wireless laptops. Dell is stepping up the fight with the Latitude Z. The notebook offers a slew of wireless features, including 802.11n, UWB, Bluetooth, and WiMax, but it’s the inclusion of an inductive notebook charging stand that’s really unique.

The technology, Cisco Cheng points out in his recent hands-on, over at PCMag, is similar to the one employed by the Palm Pre’s Touchtone charger. Sitting the notebook on the stand will charge it up, without having to plug a wire directly into the device.

There’s plenty more to like about this thin 16-inch business system. You can check out the rest of the features over at PCMag.