Apple Inc. (AAPL) is planning to launch a netbook computer with a touch screen monitor as early as the second half of this year, two people close to the situation told Dow Jones Newswires Tuesday.

The mini laptop computers will likely have monitor screens that are between 9.7-inches and 10-inches, one person, who declined to be named, said.

Another person said other specifications and functions are still under evaluation.

I wonder if Apple finally figured out how to make a $500 computer that wasn’t a piece of junk?

UPDATE:Apple Plans To Launch Netbook With Touch Screen-Sources.

I stopped by the studio to talk to Mr. Stone because he had some news: the two men and their partner Comedy Central had consummated a deal with Netflix to stream the first nine seasons of “South Park.”

I really hope Netflix ends up streaming new episodes as well. But, I’ve almost lost hope of Netflix getting any fresh content that I am at all interested in.

The Media Equation – Far-Sighted Moves by Creators of ‘South Park’ – NYTimes.com.

In Facebook’s first public confirmation of the talks, Thiel said the parties disagreed over price and structure when they seriously considered a deal last fall. “It became pretty clear it wasn’t going to happen,” Thiel says from the mid-Manhattan office of his hedge fund Clarium Capital. “The deal would have to be done with Facebook stock. And then you have to figure out how much the stock is worth.”

Facebook’s Thiel Explains Failed Twitter Takeover – BusinessWeek.

Designer Knut Karlsen has come up with the innovative idea of integrating flexible solar cells onto rechargeable batteries.

Karlsen’s current battery is just a prototype and isn’t exactly ideal the charging isn’t that efficient and the battery itself has to be smaller to fit all of the extra components but hopefully the design will get significantly better over time.

Prototype SunCat batteries enable solar charging | Crave – CNET.

The cartoon above (click to enlarge) is absolutely perfect, it clearly explains why we can’t let these large media companies convince our government that their business is more important than our human rights.

Download music, movies, games, software! The Pirate Bay – The world’s largest BitTorrent tracker.

A blatant rip off of the recent MacBook redesign.

MSI’s sleek X320 and X340 to hit in April.

App management on the iPhone and iPod Touch is really good already but this concept above would make things a lot easier. But, I almost wish that this was the way that you installed apps on the iPhone, just by dragging the app onto a homescreen and than syncing.

YouTube – App Management in iTunes ~ concept.

Geforce GTS 240 is set for an April release. It is a 55nm G92 based 9800GT GPU on a P361 PCB.

First GeForce GTS 240 Card Exposed – VR-Zone.com: News and Reviews.

Stop The iPhone’s AutoCorrect Feature Ruining Your SMS Messages – Lifehacker Australia.

Cips: A Brief Nintendo DSi Video Tour.

The social bookmarking service Ma.gnolia reports that all of its user data was irretrievably lost in the Jan. 30 database crash that knocked the service offline.

How’s that for cloud computing?

Ma.gnolia Data is Gone For Good « Data Center Knowledge.

Palm did confirm that games are in development for webOS, and seems a little defensive at accusations that the OS can’t handle that stuff — Palm hasn’t changed its stance on app development, of course, there are no “native” apps allowed currently, but they seem more reticent to admit that web-style app development will limit gaming options.

Palm confirms games are in development for Pre, drops a few other tidbits – Engadget.

I really like this redesign but I don’t think the color screen is necessary. I’m not even sure if ePaper technology is to the point where you can have color screens with no backlight for a price that would allow Amazon to actually sell one of these things.

The new design of the Kindle is great but Raiz’s design is clearly one step further in the right direction.

Kindle Design – Still Sucks | Greg’s Head.

Craig Law of EA has posted some screenshots on the Touch Arcade forums showing the first glimpses of Tiger Woods ’09 for the iPhone. The game was announced in September and although a release date is yet to be announced the game will probably be out in just a few months.

I have to say it is looking really good. I’m not really in to golf video games but I can appreciate the graphics in this game. These screenshots really show that the iPhone has some horsepower and stuff like this gets me really excited for the future of the iPhone as a gaming platform.

First Screenshots of EA’s Tiger Woods ‘09 iPhone Game | Touch Arcade.

I’m sure it won’t happen but I really hope that Apple comes to their senses and starts selling a reasonably priced 20″ Cinema Display. I don’t want to spend $500+ just for a monitor, I would be very willing to pay $300 or so but not much more.

I’d love to get a second monitor to hook up to my 20″ iMac but I am torn between getting a monitor that doesn’t match the iMac or waiting until Apple eventually releases a reasonably priced monitor (and lets hope I don’t have to wait too much longer).

Apple Discontinues 20″ Cinema Display, Product Refreshes Coming? – Mac Rumors.