Subsidized netbooks with integrated 3G are all the rage these days. It seems every carrier is offering them, and the reaction is mixed. There are some who find the convenience of having 3G connectivity in the netbook to be worth the data plan cost, and others who don’t like having the 3G tied to one device. I am definitely in the latter camp, finding the Verizon MiFi meets my needs while letting me use the 3G with any devices I wish. My step-daughter is getting a subsidized netbook, however, and I have to admit her needs make that the best fit for her.

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Amazon is testing using SMS messaging to provide shipping notifications to customers. It is an opt-in service that will send you a text message when your package ships or is delivered. The company says the text message notification is in the testing phase, and is only available to a small set of customers. There is an FAQ explaining how the notifications work along with how to get signed up. Those of you who obsessively check online to see where your new gadget purchase is will want to give it look.

You can expect to see two more netbooks on store shelves when visiting AT&T this holiday season. Later this month, both the Acer Aspire One and the Samsung Go will appear in the cellular carrier’s brick-and-mortar locations. They’ll also be available online at a netbook product page on AT&T’s web site, which is already live. Both devices run Microsoft Windows 7 Starter Edition and are configured with an Intel Atom processor, 160 GB hard drive, integrated webcams and 1 GB of memory. The price for either is $199 after a promotional card rebate and requires a new 2-year data agreement. The standard 5 GB plan is $60 a month, but AT&T is lowering the 200 MB plan cost to $35 a month from $40. Strangely, the AT&T netbook site currently shows the Acer and a Dell Mini 10 for $149, along with a Lenovo S-10 for $99.

Although it’s been said many times and many ways (GigaOM Pro, subscription required) — yes, I’m prepping for Christmas carols — that $199 netbook is really costing you much more due to the monthly data service. If you don’t plan to use the netbook outside of the home or office where you have Wi-Fi, I wouldn’t recommend the purchase. In a more stationary case, you’re better off just buying a device at full price for $350 or $400 with no monthly fee. Having said that, I’m starting to wonder about the success, or failure, of notebook subsidies. I’d love to see some breakout numbers of how many netbooks are subsidized as opposed to how many are bought outright. I know that the subsidy model is a little more prominent outside of the U.S., but I don’t expect that sales of subsidized netbooks are very high here.

Do we have any readers that have bought or considered buying a subsidized netbook?

This is usually the season for door-busting sales, but I think this one has to do with reducing inventory more than anything. MSI is touting a new online promotion in India, the UK, Australia and Italy, and although I’m not near any of those parts, I checked it out. The promotional link took me to a deal for a free MSI Wind netbook with the purchase of an X600 notebook. The free netbook is the same U100 model I purchased in 2008 and is worth roughly $350. To get the deal, you actually have to print out the online coupon and take it to specific vendors.

Purchasing the X600 gets you a skinny 15.6″ notebook with 1366 x 768 resolution running on an Intel ULV chip and ATI Radeon HD 4330 graphics processor. The 2.1-kilogram notebook with 6-cell battery should run for nearly a full workday, and of course, you can always migrate over to your free netbook if you run out of juice.

It’s no surprise that the current Intel Atom platform is long in the tooth. After much chatter about the upcoming PineTrail platform, we’re about due to see a slew of products use Intel’s latest in a netbook. The first one caught on film at Wireless Goodness might be an unnamed Lenovo IdeaPad that is making the FCC rounds. There isn’t much to go on and it looks like most every other 10.1″ netbook we’ve seen in the past few years. Oh, but that telling label might make all the difference in the world: said IdeaPad will have a 1.66GHz PineView processor. Wasn’t that worth the wait?

All other labeled specifications appear to be within normal operating parameters: 1024 x 600 display, 250 GB 5400 RPM hard drive and Wi-Fi. The  keyboard looks fairly standard, but SlashGear notes that the trackpad is buttonless. The label also notes 2 GB of memory right from the get-go, so no need to spend more money on a RAM module after purchase. Of course, we’ll have to wait for an official announcement to see when that purchase will be, and for how much. Any guesses on the number of PineTrail-powered products announced at CES in January? I’ll wager a dollar on 83.

Sony’s old PRS-500 eBook reader gains a new trick with the addition of ePub format support, says MobileRead. Oh, but it’s quite a trick to get the support. While one would expect this to be a simple firmware update, it isn’t. Well, it’s either that or it’s a way for you to get a new model — you be the judge. To get ePub support, you’ll need to send in your PRS-500 to a Sony Service Center. Sony will “update the firmware” — so it is just a firmware update, yes? — and return your reader to you within 14 days. Plan B is to trade up. Sony will give you $50 off of the $199 Reader Pocket Edition or $75 off the $299 Reader Touch Edition if you trade in your older device. Both of the newer models already support ePub, so you gain the new format as well as a newer device if you go the trade-in route. Don’t wait too long to decide — Sony is migrating its eBook platform and store to ePub before the end of the year.

Early adopters of the PRS-500 might be on the fence here, but if it were me and I had the money, I’d probably take advantage of the upgrade for a little cost savings. The newer devices have a faster refresh rate, 8-level grey scale and, in the case of the Touch Edition, offers a touchscreen display. Nice to see Sony give a little something to the first Reader customers.

Memory maker Active Media is claiming their new USB flash memory drive is the “smallest 16 GB USB drive on the planet.” I don’t know about that but no question it is as small as can be. The hardest thing about using one of these drives will be not losing it. The drive comes in capacities from 2 GB to 16 GB, and is embossed with a “wink” emoticon, thus the name. I suspect they’ll be hearing from Sarah Palin’s people pretty soon.

Our platform focus continues this fine Sunday with the e-Book Echo, our take on the week in the digital publishing world. Amazon released a beta version of the Kindle reader software for PCs this week. The app aims to do what Kindle for iPhone does, allow the reading of Kindle books without the need for a Kindle reader. Amazon says a Mac version is coming soon. Early adopters of the PC app complain that it doesn’t have a wealth of features, but it does work well on XP, Vista and  Windows 7, and even on netbooks.

The Readius pocket reader was doomed with the failure of Polymer Vision. The innovative device used a flexible display that rolls up into a base unit, and early prototypes were impressive. This week came welcome news, Wistron bought the failed company and plans to sell a similar device early next year.

When the Barnes and Noble Nook went up for order at launch, the company claimed a Nov. 30 ship date. Early buyers were indeed quoted that date, and it is expected to see the Nook appear in B&N stores around that date. Customers who are buying the Nook currently, are now being quoted a ship date of Dec. 18, so the logical deduction is that sales are going briskly enough to outstrip production. This is similar to the situation when the original Kindle was launched. Maybe it’s an e-book thing.

The week marches on and today being Saturday means it is time to recap the recent happenings in the world of Windows Mobile. It was a quiet week on the Windows Mobile front, perhaps the hoopla with the launch of the Droid and Palm Pixi kept WinMo providers quiet until it all blew over. The Windows Marketplace for Mobile turned the lights on for business, making a place for Windows phone owners to go for the latest and greatest in apps for WinMo. Phones with the Windows Marketplace app get purchased apps pushed OTA to the phone. The Marketplace is confined to Windows phones running WM6.5 currently, but Microsoft confirmed it would be available for WM6.0 and 6.1 later this month.

Windows Mobile 7 is the upcoming version of the mobile OS that everyone, including Microsoft, is expecting to help bring the smartphone platform up to speed competitively. WM7 is long overdue, even Ballmer thinks so, and according to those in the know it is still on track for a release during the third quarter of 2010. That’s almost a year away, and I wonder how far the competition will go in that time. WM7 could be obsolete before it’s even released.