The first Nvidia Ion 2 netbook has been benchmarked, and the early results are disappointing: the Acer Aspire One 532G's next-gen GPU managed to underperform the older Ion LE.

Acer's keen on racking up lots of firsts for its netbook arm, with this Aspire One 532G having the claim of being the world's first to use NVIDIA's Ion 2 graphics technology for 1080p playback.

Murmurings of an Acer Aspire packing Intel's new Pine Trail N450 processor have been doing the rounds for a while, but finally pics and more specs have been leaked, cementing the existence of this still-unofficial model.

As you may have heard, the 10.1-inch Aspire One D250 dual-boots between Android and, err, Windows XP. It has a 1.66GHz Atom 280 processor, 6-cell battery rated for 9 hours, and is now up for pre-order on Amazon for $350.

BoingBoing Gadgets' netbook compatibility chart is a great resource for putting Mac OS on netbooks. But before taking the Hackintosh plunge, here are the major contenders' strengths, pitfalls and quirks to consider, plus guides for when you (carefully) jump in.

There's no question, the Eee changed everything. But can Asus offer products that are on par with Apple design? According to Asustek vice chairman Jonathan Tsang, that's the aspiration.

We saw Acer's new netbooks last month—they're not quite as schnice as Asus's latest Eee, but the 11.6-inch Aspire One has a full keyboard and is $50 cheaper. Full specs and prices:

Subsidized-on-contract netbooks aren't uncommon in Europe, but they're a rarity stateside. Now, as rumored, AT&T's probably going to sell more Acer Aspire Ones. Costco training materials point to the 10.1" model, available from May 11th.

UFO-Hayashi, famed Japanese gadget artist, applied his Midas Touch to an Acer Aspire One and gave the budget netbook a fully-loaded MacBook Air price tag. Question is, would you travel with a $3,000 netbook?

Acer is the number one maker of netbooks, so it's not surprising they've got a brand new brigade. They're all 10.1 and 11.6 inchers—the days of the 9-inch netbook are over.