The Wall Street Journal suggests that the tablet won’t have its own 3G modem. Instead you’ll be able to pair it with a BlackBerry phone for internet access on the go, something we’d already heard could be a possibility.

There’s still no word on a price or release date. If the previous rumors are anything to go by, the BlackBerry Tablet could have an 8.9 inch display and Wifi and Bluetooth capabilities.

It looks like we should start seeing netbooks with NVIDIA’s Optimus technology soon. The Optimus platform allows netbooks with both integrated Intel graphics and dedicated NVIDIA ION graphics chips so shift seamlessly from one graphics card to the other depending on what you’re doing. Surfing the web? The lower power Intel graphics will kick in to extend your battery life. Watching an HD video or playing a 3D game? The ION graphics kicks in.

The folks at NetbookNews.de spotted an Asus Eee PC 1015N netbook at the NVIDIA tent at Computex. There aren’t a ton of details about this model yet, but it does have a sticker pointing out that it supports Optimus graphics switching.

The netbook also has a matte display and lid, a 6 cell battery, and a single access panel on the base for swapping out RAM. The Eee PC PC 1015N has a 10.1 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display and a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processor. It runs Windows 7 Starter Edition and comes with 1GB of RAM and a 250GB hard drive. Netbook News.de reports that it should sell for around 400 Euros, or roughly $490 US.

We’d already heard that Asus may be launching a 12 inch notebook with NVIDIA Optimus technology called the Eee PC 1215N. It’s good to see that the company may have a 10 inch option as well.

Update: Netbook News has posted a hands-on video with the Eee PC 1015N and a brief look at some of the other crazy stuff going on at the NVIDIA tent. You can check it out after the break.

Update 2: The folks at Notebook Italia noticed something else intriguing about this netbook: It’s one of the first to use Intel’s new 1.5GHz Atom N550 dual core processor.

The introduction of Intel ATOM N455 processor, is to be a little upgrade on the existing N450. N450/N455 are clocked 1.66GHz, design power is 5.5W. Biggest change, N455 program will use DDR3 memory, the memory frequency is 800MHz. Prior to the N450 only supports DDR2 667MHz memory. Moreover, N455 program will be able to directly upgrade to the N470, N550 processor.

Currently, BYD’s ATOM N455 motherboard package for the shell with superhuman Apple L50 (11.6-inch / 12 inch); L70 (13.3 inches); and Yu Chang and Hua Kai 12-inch Apple die. Is expected in June, when the market there will be programs with BYD Apple even

Verizon Wireless

Sure, Palm’s stock might be worth next to nothing and a lot of pundits are starting to question the company’s future. But for the first time, I’m starting to wonder if I should have picked up a Palm Pre last month when I was in the market for a smartphone instead of a Google Nexus One. Because today Verizon dropped the $50/month fee for using WebOS phones like the Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus as mobile WiFi hotspots.

In other words, for as little as $70/month, you get a smartphone and a MiFi-like device. A MiFi alone will typically cost you $60/month.

Sony appears to be working on a 3G-enabled version of the Vaio P mini-laptop. The FCC is showing a few documents related to two new models, labeled the AK8PCG11111L and the AK8PCG31113L. At this point, there’s very little information available about either model, aside from the fact that they sport WiFi, Bluetooth, and CDMA/EVDO connectivity.

As Engadget notes, most of the information about these new devices is hidden away behind confidentiality requests. But that request lifts on May 13th, at which point the FCC might publish some photos and a user manual — although my guess is that the point will be moot, since that’s probably when Sony and/or its partners will officially unveil the product.

You don’t see full sized laptops with Intel Atom processors very often. But this MacBook Pro clone from China is an interesting exception to the rule. It sports a 14.1 inch display and a case that looks an awful lot like a MacBook Pro case including the large touchpad with integrated buttons.

But while the MacBook Pro is available with Intel Core 2 Duo processors, the clone has an Intel Atom processor. It is available with a choice of a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 or dual core 1.66GHz Atom D510 chip — the latter usually being reserved for use in desktops, not laptops. And both versions come with next-generation NVIDIA ION graphics, which should give the computer quite a boost when it comes to HD video playback and rendering 3D graphics. But performance-wise, I don’t think anyone’s going to confuse this MacBook Pro clone with the real thing.

Rounding out the specs are 1 to 2GB of RAM, a 160GB to 320GB hard drive, a 1366 x 768 pixel display, HDMI, 3 USB ports, a flash card reader, 802.11a/b/g WiFi, and Bluetooth. The notebook weighs just under 4 pounds.

The system is called EcoSort, and when sorting 100GB of data, researchers were able to have it sort 36,400 records per joule of energy.

Of course, we’re not talking about a bottom of the line Atom-based system here. The computer had 4GB of RAM and four 256GB SSDs.

With data transfer speeds up to 5Gbps, it’s very possible that the USB port will become one of the fastest components on your PC. In fact, it’s likely that you won’t get the full benefit of USB 3.0 if you’re using a cheap netbook, since the other components might not be able to handle that kind of speed. But Asus will also be bringing USB 3.0 support to its mainstream notebook line.

Intel’s AppUp Center offers netbook users a single place to find and download applications optimized for netbooks with small displays and Intel Atom processors. You know, kind of like the iTunes App Store, but for netbooks instead of iPhones.

Up until today, the AppUp Center was only available for Windows, which struck me as kind of silly, since I’ve never really heard people complain that it was hard to find Windows apps that can run on netbooks. Most of them will, although some apps with minimum processor or screen resolution requirements struggle a bit.

But Linux is another story — especially a relatively new and unusual Linux environment like Moblin. A Moblin app store makes a lot of sense. And today, there is one. Intel has launched the AppUp Center Beta for netbooks running Moblin 2.1. In order to download the Moblin apps, you’ll need to be in the US and Canada… for now. But Intel has also announced that the AppUp Center Beta for Windows and Moblin Linux will hit 27 European countries on March 31st.

The AppUp Center has games, entertainment, social media, apps, and other utilities optimized for small screen netbooks. The app store features a combination of free and paid software.

Remember that OpenPeak tablet we peeked at a few weeks ago? Looks like it’s coming to AT&T’s mobile broadband network. The companies announced today that OpenPeak’s OpenTablet will be available in late 2010 with a 3G modem designed to work with AT&T’s network.

The OpenTablet 7 has an Intel Atom Moorestown CPU and supports 802.11b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity in addition to 3G. It measure 9″ x 5″ x 0.6″ and weighs just 1.15 pounds.

The tablet features a 7 inch touchscreen display and a custom user interface that’s built on Flash. The press release says you’ll be able to download third party applications through an OpenPeak App Shop.

There’s no word on pricing, and it’s not clear whether you’ll be able to pick up a subsidized tablet from AT&T or if you’ll have to pay full price and then sign up for a data plan… but the press release makes it sort of sound like the latter scenario is more likely.