One of the significant disadvantages of being an early adopter of any new technology is what comes after it, specifically, the improvements that every technology experiences over time. Such appears to be the case for those who rushed to pick up the G1 - the first Android phone on the market - as questions have begun to pop up over whether the device is in line to see its last update.

According to several reliable sources, Dell's very first smartphone dubbed as Mini 3i has arrived. It runs on Android-based operating system but has fairly limited amount of features.

Now, the spotlight is starting to focus on digital textbooks. One reason is an initiative from CK-12 Foundation, a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to jump starting the distribution of textbooks in electronic formats.

Berkeley, Calif.-based system integrator ZaReason is selling a netbook that includes Ubuntu, and even is available with a matching "mocha" case. The Terra A20 includes the usual Intel Atom N270 CPU, a 160GB hard disk drive, and an optional internal cellular modem, the company says.

In an effort to expand its Linux offerings, Dell is researching new netbook-type devices and will soon offer netbook Linux OS upgrades, a company official said on Wednesday. The company is researching the possibility of offering new Linux-based mobile devices called smartbooks, said Todd Finch, senior product marketing manager for Linux clients, at the OpenSourceWorld conference in San Francisco.

It's too hard to use, it's not familiar -- it's not Windows -- people return them at a higher rate than Windows.
But, not according to Dell, it seems.

A Dell executive said that his company's Linux netbook returns are roughly equivalent to those for Windows-based netbooks, says an industry report. The remarks were in response to Microsoft's COO Kevin Turner, who gave a speech claiming Linux netbook returns were four or five times higher.

Dell shoots back at Microsoft's false claims about GNU/Linux adoption and return rates