Here's a question for you good folks: should we adopt the term "netbook" for what we otherwise tend to refer to as "low-cost subnotebooks"?

I refer of course to things like the Asus Eee, or the MSI Wind, or the HP Mini-Note. You know, the cheap, little laptops that you'll pretty much just be using for surfing the web.

Is the term "netbook" just jargon (it was coined by Intel this February), or is it useful shorthand for what is pretty clearly a whole new market? Over to you...

Well lookee here. Just four days after publishing a considered opinion on the highly controversial web/ad/monitoring/trialling tech company Phorm - an opinion seen by many as a "green light for lawbreaking" - the Information Commissioner's Office has published a new and markedly different take on the matter.

It's a long statement, but the juicy bit is this:

Phorm products will have to operate on an opt in basis to use traffic data as part of the process of returning relevant targeted marketing to internet users.

Whether or not the Phorm products are a concern for the Commissioner will depend on the extent to which the assurances Phorm has provided so far are true. The Commissioner has no reason to doubt the information provided by Phorm but some technical experts have publicly expressed concerns. The Commissioner welcomes the efforts Phorm is making to engage with concerned technical experts and believes that it is only by allowing its technology to be subject to detailed scrutiny by independent technical experts that it will be able to prove their assertions regarding privacy which will be important for the commercial success of the product.

Now that's more like it! Giving someone a chance when they give their word is one thing, but sometimes healthy skepticism needs to be fully vocalised by those who matter.

Tentatively, I say "trial away". I mean, don't trial it on me, but I'm sure there are some willing guinea pigs out there... no?

HTC are about to launch something. Somewhere. That's about all I can tell you.

I - along with what's turned out to be a very limited number of hacks - am down for a launch of some kind on 6 May. Don't even know where yet. The big speculation is that it will be the HTC Dream, which you can see in the BBC video embedded below. It does seem awfully early for the launch of the first Android phone, but then again there's often a vast chasm between launch and release dates (unless you're talking about Apple).

What am I in for? I'll let you know in a few weeks.

Here's a Firefox error message I haven't had before. Is it me, or does this sound rather world-weary?

As a keen FBer, I'm quite excited about the prospect of the native Facebook chat application. I've tried out several third-party chat apps within Facebook, and none were exactly what I'd call seamless. In fact, all have been incredibly unwieldy, forcing new windows to open or standalone clients (what is the point?) to pop up.

Facebook's been struggling to make money, and this development will certainly make the site more attractive to advertisers by increasing the length of time users spend there. Of course, if this fails then perhaps Facebook will end up consigned to the dustbin of Web 2.0 fads. Personally, I hope it succeeds because I really can't be bothered to set up yet another profile at yet another social networking site.

The chat app will be rolled out this week, but those wanting an early peek can check out InsideFaceBook's coverage here.