Little fingers can dish out big pain for gadgets, and unless your little one is beefy enough to lug around a Toughbook you’ll be wanting something small and durable for them. Enter the $449 PeeWee Power 2.0, the latest revision to the company’s series of kid-friendly computers. This netbook is said to survive drops with aplomb, but only has a “water resistant” keyboard, so don’t toss those sippy cups just yet. It also comes loaded with security software to hopefully keep your kids from finding the worst the ‘net has to offer, but with only a 1.6GHz N270 Atom processor on tap, 1GB of RAM, and a mere 30GB of HDD storage, we’re guessing it could also be a good tool to teach them all about patience.

The headline pretty much reveals the brunt of it, but indeed, it looks like next week Google is going to start talking about how its Chrome operating system is coming along. Multiple sources have told us that Google will be holding some sort of event on Tuesday, December 7th — we’re not sure if it’ll be a live event, a webcast, or something else entirely — and that the shindig will see the launch of that Google-branded Chrome OS netbook we’ve been hearing about. Again, we’ve heard that the Atom-powered laptop isn’t going to be a mass market device — there will only be around 65,000 units available to Google’s closest “friends and family” — and that the Cloud-based OS is still very much in a beta, non-consumer-friendly state. It’s a bit odd that we still haven’t received an invite to this planned event since it’s purportedly days away, not to mention it conflicts with the All Things D: Dive Into Mobile Event, but at the time of publishing this post we had yet to hear back from Google’s PR team with an official comment.

Of course, this all lines up with TechCrunch‘s report that Google will be launching its Chrome Web / App Store very soon, as well as yesterday’s launch of Chrome 8, which supports those aforementioned Chrome apps. (Companies like TweetDeck have already started demoing their browser apps.) Don’t forget that those apps are going to be a large part of the OS, so it would make sense for Google to talk about ‘em in tandem. The pieces sure do seem to be fitting together quite well, and while we still have lots of unanswered questions, we’re feeling confident that we’ll be getting some official answers on all this Chrome-ness very soon.

Update: AllThingsD has also heard a similar December 7th launch date of the Chrome Web Store. The evidence seems to be mounting here…

Update 2: Well, there you have it, Google just sent out invites for its December 7th Chrome event! We will be there!

Image note: As we said last time, that picture above is just our own mockup of what a Chromebook may look like. We even added a Chrome key!

Cherry Red and Midnight Black too harsh for your innocent eyes? How’s about a gaggle of pastel options to take the edge off? Acer has just issued a new line of netbooks catering to those still stuck in the 70s, with the flower-powered Aspire One Happy range offering the most delightful lids of any netbook, ever. This 10.1-inch machine packs a WSVGA panel, six-cell battery (up to eight hours of battery life), Atom N450 CPU, GMA 3150 GPU, 250GB hard drive, WiFi, 2GB of memory and inbuilt Bluetooth. It also supports dual booting (Windows 7 and Android 2.1), but the highlight of the show is the abundance of color options: Candy Pink, Lavender Purple, Lime Green and Hawaii Blue. All four hues are available now across the pond for £249.99 ($397), but mum’s the word on a stateside release. But don’t worry… be happy.

Yeah, we thought netbooks were old news too, but if they all start strapping up with the latest in 4G connectivity, we might have to give them another look. The Samsung N350 is just such a machine, with dual-mode LTE and HSPA+ built in. You won’t be surprised that almost everything else is par for the affordable laptop market course: a dual-core Atom N550 CPU, that boilerplate 1,024 x 600 resolution on a 10.1-inch matte screen, 250GB of storage, 1GB of DDR3 RAM, a multicard reader, and a trifecta of USB ports. The basic wireless options are keeping up with modernity, however, with 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth 3.0 on board, both of which are nice to see. The 3-cell battery should last up to 6.7 hours and the whole package is expected to retail for €429 ($553) in Germany this autumn. You can probably expect a rebadge under the Go label for the US and a relatively swift launch over here as well.

Miffy (or Nijntje) is a small, Dutch, female rabbit who appears in picture books. How exactly she became a cultural hit in Japan we don’t know, but we do have a good idea how she found herself plastered all over this netbook: some combination of Onkyo having a bunch of extra C4 units lying around and Namco-Bandai having a Miffy license it wasn’t fully utilizing. On the hardware side this thing is particularly disinteresting (1.6GHz Atom CPU, 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD, etc. etc.), but its lid has been liberally covered with character silhouettes. Its Windows installation (7 or XP) has received a similar treatment, with Miffy-themed apps and wallpaper ruling the desktop thanks to that partnership with Namco-Bandai. No word on price, but predictably this one is Japan-only.

Got a hankering for Pine Trail? We attest to a certain weakness ourselves, and now MSI’s Wind U160 netbook is on sale for $380 to fulfill your Atom N450 snacking needs. We were intrigued by the little laptop when we played with it back at CES, particularly if its standard 6-cell battery hump can really produce the quoted 14 hours of life. For whatever reason Newegg and Buy.com are showing now-shipping right now, while Amazon’s lagging with pre-orders only at this point, but we’re sure you’ll make the right retail choice, whatever happens.

It sure took ‘em long enough — just over four months if you’re keeping score — but MSI has finally shipped its next-generation netbook. The AMD-powered Wind12 U230 has left the docks today in two distinct flavors (the U230-033 and U230-040), with both touting Windows 7 Home Premium, a 12.1-inch WXGA (1,366 x 768) display, ATI’s Radeon HD3200 graphics, 2GB of RAM, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, a 6-cell battery and a 1.3 megapixel camera. The duo also features three USB sockets, VGA / HDMI outputs, an Ethernet port, audio in / out, a 4-in-1 card reader and a chassis that weighs in at 3.3 pounds. As for the differences? The former ships with an AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 under the hood and a 250GB HDD, while the latter sports an Athlon X2 L335 CPU and a 320GB platter. Both are available for the taking right now at NewEgg, though it’s on you to decide if the second model is really worth the extra $50 over the $429.99 base price.

Yes, we realize that it’s hard to provide too much visual differentiation between tablet PCs with large, ebony bezels, but we can’t help but think that this 8.9-inch multitouch tablet looks a lot like another, recently announced 9.7-inch multitouch tablet. Nevertheless this one’s quite different on the inside, delivering “the web without compromise,” meaning full browser support with flash courtesy of Windows 7 on an Atom N270 at 1.6GHz, with 2GB of DDR2 memory and a 32GB SSD with SD expansion. Yeah, those specs are familiar too, and while we’re not thinking this will deliver the sort of snappy performance seen on the iPad, it will certainly be a lot more functional. Battery life is only four hours, but at least it’s user-replaceable, and a price of $599 matches the 32GB iPad. Likewise it will be available in March — or you can get a non-multitouch prototype for $780 right this very moment. If, that is, you speak enough French to manage the order page.

Whoa, Nelly! We learned back at CES that Alienware‘s pretty-much-a-netbook would launch in the Spring for less than a grand, but now we know precisely what the base price will be: $799. The starting MSRP of the M11x was delivered courtesy of the company’s own website, but not in the most straightforward way. If you surf on over to the M11x microsite and view the source, you’ll notice the following blurb tucked within the code:

The Alienware M11x, with over 6.5 hours of battery life and weighing under 4.5 lbs. will start at an amazing $799! Leave it to the folks at Alienware to enable truly mobile performance gaming at an affordable price.

So, a polarizing (albeit vivacious) design, an 11.6-inch display, NVIDIA GT335M switchable graphics and a 6.5 hour battery, all for $799. Shall we sign you up, or what?

The status quo for the netbook has not shifted much since the Eee PC took over the world, but now Marks & Spencer has come along to revolutionize the segment with the Elonex-sourced MSNB-2009. Delivered using the company’s typically overstated advertising techniques, the machine is said to be “stylishly designed for life on the move,” “both portable and powerful,” and “style and sophistication” wrapped in a “glittery high-gloss finish.” What’s inside is rather less sparkly, the same ‘ol 1.6GHz Atom and 160GB HDD configuration that put us to sleep years ago. M&S calls this “an aspirational laptop for the modern lifestyle” and we totally agree: if you buy this you’ll aspire to buy something better. Available now in three shocking colors for “only” £279 — about $450.