THAT NOSTALGIC BRAND that is Commodore has been updating its image in recent times and has now announced the launch of its own little lapwarmer.

Those who grew up in the 80s will have fond memories of the Commodore 64, spending hours loading classic games from tape drives which would pack up just moments before the game fully loaded, requiring that entire process to be repeated.

The company, or rather the brand, has made something of a revival over the last few years, building high end gaming machines adorned in very pretty skins. There was talk of a range of media players last year as well, but these seem to have fallen by the wayside.

The company is now expanding its portfolio, jumping on the new craze for cheap and cheerful little laptops, with the unveiling of the snappily named UMMD 8010/F netbook.

Commodore has sided with Via on this one – possibly because they can actually get stock, unlike the Atom - with the device running on a 1.6GHz Via C7-M CPU.

It'll also pack in 1GB of memory, an 80GB hard drive, Wi-Fi, optional Bluetooth, 1.3MP webcam and sports a 10-inch screen.

As with most of these devices, users will have the option of running Windows XP or GNU Linux and the it will be available in white, black, grey and pink.

Prices are expected to start at a fairly hefty £325, and the device should be available later this month. µ