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Axiotron Modbook tablet is the new Macbook.

So this is what 2008 feels like.  It's all bright and minty-fresh, and amazing things happen.  Like the release of cool 3rd party hardware for Apple.

We've been waiting almost a year - since MacWorld '07, actually - to see the Axiotron Modbook ship, and now it finally has.  A few weeks ahead of schedule, no less.  It'll come loaded with OS X Leopard, Inkwell handwriting recognition software, and built in GPS functions, and Axiotron claims "twice the pen sensitivity and control" of any other tablet on the market today.  Bold words, considering this is one of a very, very few Apple products not actually made by Apple.  The 13.3" widescreen Modbook is, however, Apple approved.  Sorry, MacAddicts, but there's an Intel Core 2 Duo processor in there, so if you're still stinging about Intel invading your precious iMac, this isn't the cure to your ills.

So the Modbook is now poised to be the first real Mac tablet, it looks gorgeous, everything we've seen performance-wise so far looks promising.  Where can this thing go wrong?  Well, there is a $2290 asking price, but who wouldn't pay that?  It would bump your SquareTrade 3-Year laptop warranty down to just 8% of the item price, according to the widget in the sidebar.  That's lower than anybody else will go and gets you a better service to boot.

The Axiotron Macbook nabbed Best of Show at Macworld 2007.  Now that it'll be in the wild for Macworld 2008, we're calling it a contender for repeating.

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Amazon's Top Sellers of 2007 include some surprises.

We love you, Amazon.  You make holiday shopping so easy that we buy way too much, and yet always feel surprised when yet another smiley-face box shows up on our doorstep.  And then we lie to our spouses and say "Yes, honey, that one's for you, too." 

We know we're not alone in our unnatural love.  As if to hammer the point home, Amazon has just released its Best Of 2007 lists, and it wasn't all the obvious choices this year.

2007 Top Selling Electronics
Out of all the gadgets, trinkets, and assorted cool stuff available in the entire universe, the top selling piece of consumer electronics on Amazon was the Canon PowerShot A570 IS 7.1MP digital camera.  We're honestly not sure why, aside from the fact that it's the cheapest camera in the PowerShot line, and only by about twenty bucks at that.  The all-around best camera is arguably the PowerShot SD850 IS, but the SD750 and SD1000 are both better options to the A570 for not a lot more money.  You confuse us, Amazon.

The popular but elusive Nintendo Wii was the top seller in Video Games, despite the fact that you can't order (or even pre-order) a Wii from Amazon.  You can, however, buy them for about $150 over list price through Amazon Merchants.  It still blew away the competition, and our Amazon is only getting table scraps out of it.  Sigh.

And for your third head-scratcher in a row, the top-selling computer was the Nokia Internet tablet PC.  Really?  It's not clear whether this is the tally for the N800, the N810, the N770, or all of the above (unfair, but it would explain much).  Sure, it's a neat little device and all, but it just feels strange that the #1 computer is essentially a slider smartphone by another name.  Maybe that's just a sign of Things To Come.

2007 Most Popular Electronics
What's getting the highest ranks (aside from us) by Amazon users?  Well, it 's the Wii.  But besides the Wii, people are really digging their Garmin nüvi 350 3.5-inch portable GPS navigator, and so they should.  It's a nifty little device, even though it doesn't have a built-in radar detector.  Yet.  Whereas on the computer front, the MacAddicts are universally praising the Apple MacBook Pro (also the most gifted computer for 2007), and then voted up Apple Mac OS X version 10.5 Leopard for good measure.  What, Vista didn't make the list?

2007 Most Wanted Electronics
Wii.  Duh. 

But for those of you who still haven't seen a Wii in the wild, the gadget everybody wanted most was the Apple 4GB iPod Nano.  They got it, too, as the 4GB Nano topped the "bought as gift" list.  And while the masses may've liked the Macbook Pro and given the Macbook Pro, what they really wanted all along was the under-$400 Asus Eee 4G-Galaxy 7-inch PC.  Again, we're not sure which model (or if they're lumped in together), but we don't care.  Let's here it for the Budget Notebook!

Like we said, interesting list, and if you got one, gave one, or are getting one before January 6, you can put a SquareTrade Warranty on it for 20% Off our already low price.  Just use coupon code WARRANTYSANTA on the checkout page.

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HP Pavilion Tablet PC Upgraded.

It seems HP hasn't gotten all the hardware upgrades out of their system yet.  Next up: the Pavilion tx1300 tablet PC is getting promoted to the Pavilion tx1400 tablet PC, and while the convertible 12.1" tablet touch screen won't be any different, they sure are changing things under the hood.  Graphics (NVidia GeFore Go 6150) and processing (AMD Turion 64 X2 Dual Core) are backed by a 250GB hard drive and 2048MB DDR2 RAM.  Built-in webcamera, microphone, and fingerprint reader, too, plus a 5-in-1 media adapter.  It's 4.5 pounds of processing fury, sir and ladies.

But for something that's hardly even out the door, it's surprising to find that it's already up for preorder at J&R for $1200.  You can put a SquareTrade laptop warranty on it whenever you like, too, with or without Accidental Damage coverage.

The breakers of this news over at Notebook Italia say this is just the start of the HP tablet PC extreme makeovers.  Of course, they also say the retail price is going to be $150-$350 less than J&R.  Maybe something was lost in Google translation.

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