Hasta La Gadget!

Guess what else Steve Wozniak is doing besides playing Segway polo?

He’s endorsing a new product called the ModBook Pro. As its name implies, the device is a MacBook Pro modified into a tablet.

At Macworld Expo, Wozniak said he joined the advisory board to weigh in on development of the device. He said he felt compelled to join the mod company Axiotron because the CEO was so "friendly with approaching" him.

Wired.com asked Wozniak if there were any other Apple products he would modify.

"I have a million ideas for Apple products I would change, but I can’t tell you what specifically, because you guys will make it sound like I’m putting Apple down," Wozniak said. "But it’s clear touchscreens are going to be big in Apple’s future. That’s my prediction at least."

Of course, he was referring to when media outlets quoted him saying the iPod would one day "die out."

Wozniak’s recommendation for Axiotron was to incorporate the use of an interface called QuickScript for the device’s handwriting recognition. In addition to translating handwriting into digital text, the software enables a user to use the stylus to write the name of an app to launch it. (For example, with the launch mode selected, writing "Chess" launches the Chess app.)

Axiotron is selling the ModBook Pro for $5,000. Owners of a 15-inch unibody MacBook Pro can send their notebook to Axiotron to be modified for $3,050. (There’s a special Macworld discount — $2,600 for the mod service until Jan. 12.) Macworld has a hands-on video demonstrating the ModBook Pro.

Axiotron is a familiar company at Macworld Expo. At past Macworld events, the company showed off its ModBook (below) — a MacBook modified into a tablet.

To modify the MacBook Pro into a tablet, Axiotron installed a touchscreen and slightly moved around the computer’s guts to fit in a custom enclosure. Andreas Haas, Axiotron’s CEO, said the new MacBook Pros’ unibody makes the mod process very easy.

Easy, huh? Does that mean Apple’s new unibody enclosures will open doors to all sorts of crazy MacBook mods in the near future?

We’re going to guess no: The darn things are too expensive for the average geek to mess around with, unlike netbooks.

Photos: James Merithew/Wired.com, Axiotron