Two sources close to the Dow Jones were told that Apple is indeed planning to launch a touch screen netbook sometime in the 2nd half of this year. Wow.

The mini laptops will have touch screens the size of 9.7 inches and 10 inches which thus means there should be two models that come up.

Here’s what we do know: Apple has a WWDC event coming up in June where they announce all their new and upcoming products, so here’s to thinking this may happen in June. We shall see. As always, I’ll keep you covered.

It’s nothing new; you’re browsing the web, reading article after article and watching podcasts to get all your news and gossip in the IT industry. Now and then, a rumor comes up that perks your ears, and I have just the one for you.

According to MacRumors, Apple may be in the works for a new generation of iPhones. Apple just released a new firmware for our iPhones (2.2.1) and within that firmware, some really smart people saw that Apple has a few lines named “iPhone 2,1″. According to MacRumors, “the original iPhone carries the model number of “iPhone 1,1″ while the 3G iPhone is labeled “iPhone 1,2″. These numbers do not change for simple storage increases and instead represent functionally different devices. Similarly, the iPod Touch was originally introduced as the “iPod 1,1″ and the most recent hardware revision was labeled “iPod2,1″. The 2,1 iPod Touch added a speaker, volume controls, microphone support and a much faster processor than the 1st generation model. This new model number can be found in the USBDeviceConfiguration.plist in an unencrypted firmware.”

So based on this alone, bloggers are speculating that Apple is indeed refreshing the iPhone 3G into a newer, better model. Now you may say this is just a rumor, but it looks like there are more points to consider. 

PinchMedia discovered the “iPhone 2,1″ in the firmware release as well as has uncovered some more interesting tidbits. They noticed that only a select few in the San Francisco area have been using this “iPhone 2,1″ device (which generally means that Apple has some of their people testing the new product, just like they did with the 3G version before it was apparent we were getting a 3G iPhone).

So I thought this was worth posting. I’m excited. It’s obvious Apple would and will continue to develop newer phones, but we didn’t think it would be this early! What are your thoughts to this newly uncovered rumor?