Trying to stay under a $600 PC budget but can’t wait for the affordable ultrathins or ultrapowerful netbooks? Woot’s got a way out with a $549 Dell 17-inch Studio notebook. Built for entertainment, the refurbished Dell Studio 1737 includes a 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 4 GB of RAM, a 320 GB hard drive, a DVD player and burner, a webcam and Vista Home Premium installed. There’s also an HDMI output and a 1-year warranty if you’re a worry wart. I know, PCs don’t make the greatest impulse buys, but normally a 17-inch Studio with these specs will set you back $759, so consider pulling the trigger if you were already shopping.  [via Woot]

With HP losing profits, it certainly makes sense to focus on the segment of the tech industry that’s actually doing well. Two new variants of HP’s Mini series are on the way, including one model breaks the $300 barrier. The new Mini 110s are a lot like their predecessors, but you can add a widescreen display and optional Broadcom Crystal HD Enhanced Video Accelerator for watching high-definition video. The Mini 110 starts at $330 with Windows XP, but you can save $50 by fitting it with Linux instead (it goes great with the Pink Swirl model). For the business set, HP’s Mini 1101 has optional mobile broadband and a six-cell battery, and can be equipped with Windows XP Home, XP Pro or even Vista, though we’re not sure why you’d want the last option. The price begins at $329. Look for the Mini 110 on June 10 and the Mini 1101 on June 1. [via InformationWeek]

If you didn’t snag the $70 Flip Ultra from Woot last month, here’s your shot at redemption. The daily deal site is selling Pure Digital’s Mino 60-Minute Flip Camcorder, refurbished, for just $89.99 plus $5 shipping, compared to a new list price of $180. The camera uses a 1/4-inch VGA CMOS sensor to shoot 640 x 480 video at 30 frames per second. Files come out in MPEG-4 AVI format with a bitrate of 4 Mbps. For previews, there’s a 1.5-inch LCD screen on the back. HD Video it’s not, but at 4 inches tall by 2 inches wide by 0.6 inches thick, it’s easy to break out of your pocket to capture memorable moments. Check the reviews below for more info:

• Review from SoftSailor
• Review from Washington Post
• Review from Internet Video Magazine

[via Woot]

Zune HD – You know Microsoft’s leak culture is bad when its announcement of a new portable media player is not really an announcement, but a “confirmation.” Yes, the oft-rumored and even pictured touch screen handheld is real, and there are bare-bones specs and (more) pictures to prove it. Obviously rivaling the iPod Touch, the Zune HD — we don’t yet know if that name is final — will have a 3.3-inch, 480 x 272 OLED multi-touch screen, with an HD Radio tuner and HD video playback through a dock. It’ll also include Wi-Fi and a special version of Internet Explorer to browse the Web, running on a modified version of Windows CE rather than Windows Mobile. Over on Xbox Live, a Zune-branded store will replace the Xbox Video Marketplace, so expect a lot of cross-branding down the line. As for gaming, Microsoft’s being cheeky, saying we’ll have to wait until E3 to find out how the new Zune plays into that — unless something leaks first. [via Electronista]

Nokia Ovi App Store – Nokia’s mobile application store, dubbed the Ovi Store, may have launched with a bang, but not in ways the company hoped for. Users are reporting a lack of applications, slow access and trouble signing in. There’s an Ovi for that? The store is supposed to make a splash simply by virtue of its reach, being accessible by 50 million devices in multiple languages and countries. I guess things went better than the company thought, because it’s blaming the opening day jitters on “extraordinarily high spikes of traffic.” That’s the problem with online stores: When something sells out in a physical store, it makes the product seem cool, but when demand wrecks a virtual outlet, it’s just obnoxious. [via Information Week]

Lenovo IdeaPad U350 and G550 – Marking its territory in the upcoming battle over the ultra-thin, ultra-cheap, better-than-netbook PCs, Lenovo announced the IdeaPad U350 and G550. The former (pictured) has a 13.3-inch display with ambient light sensing, a 1.4 GHz Core 2 Solo or two less powerful options, a 500 GB hard drive, up to 8 GB of DDR3 RAM, a GMA 4500M or 4500 MHD graphics set and an optional 8-cell battery for 10 hours of life. The G550 has a 15.6-inch display with a Core 2 Duo processor, up to 4 GB of DDR3 RAM, a hard drive of up to 320 GB, a DVD burner and either a GMA X4500 or GeForce G105M graphics card. The U350 will sell in July starting at $649, while the G550 goes on sale in June starting at $599.

Lenovo also announced the IdeaCentre C300 all-in-one, featuring a meager Atom 230 processor but a 20-inch display with up to 2 GB of DDR2 RAM and up to a 640 GB hard drive. You’ll find it in July starting at $449. [via Engadget]

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Your time is, apparently, important to Google. In upgrading its Chrome Web browser to 2.0, Google says it increased focus on speed and added a few other features in response to user feedback. Notably, users can now hide their most visited pages when opening a new tab, preventing potential embarrassment depending on what you do on the Internet. There’s also a new full screen mode and automatic filling out of forms. As for speed, well, naturally every browser claims it’s the fastest — we heard as much when Internet Explorer 8 was released a couple months back — but Google is challenging you to stack everything up with some benchmark software. If you’re not 100 percent satisfied, you’ll get your money back. Oh wait. [via Google Chrome Blog]

Queen Elizabeth puts her pants on just like the rest of us, one leg at a time, except once her pants are on, she gets a gold-plated Wii. Yes, the Queen Mum’s got a fever, and the only prescription is tacked-on motion controls and the illusion of exercise. This is actually a publicity stunt by THQ for its upcoming Big Family Games, with the story that the Royal Family is “arguably the most important family in the country,” so the company had to commission this special console. Nevermind the fact that she already has one. I guess this will allow Prince William to spend more time with Madworld, or maybe the extra attention will help put an end to later game release dates in England (and the rest of Europe, by proxy). Either that, or the golden Wii will collect dust just like everyone else’s. [via Gizmodo, and the reference]

Faced with a Facebook message from a friend, prompting you to visit a mysterious Web site called Areps.at, what do you do? Hopefully you don’t click through, and if you do, hopefully your browser will display a warning like the one seen above. And if not, we hope you’ll have the presence of mind not to enter your login information. Like Fbstarter.com and Fbaction.net before it, Areps.at is just another phishing scam designed to steal your personal information, masquerading as a Facebook login page. If you goofed and didn’t realize that Areps.at is simply not a natural URL for anything legitimate, I’d recommend changing your Facebook password and any similar passwords on other Web sites, especially for e-mail and banking. Because someone’s got your information now, and it’s not a friend. [via TechCrunch]