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Eee Keyboard: Due August 2009

james — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 16:50:25 +0000

Eee Keyboard is coming

The Asus Eee Keyboard has been doing the rounds since about January but there’s now a firm releas date: August 09. For any of you living in a cave, here’s a some info on this curious piece of hardware. The Eee PC Keyboard is built from the guts of an Asus Eee PC netbook computer and housed in a keyboard. Pretty simple, eh? It does have a particularly nice touch - you don’t need a monitor. There is a touch screen on the right hand side rather than a screen at the top.

The idea behind the keyboard is that, rather than hooking up to your PC, you will connected via wireless to a HDTV. You can then control the television using the touch screen. Pretty cool.

Eee Keyboard Specs

So now you know what it does, you’ll want to know about the hardware, right? Considering it has been designed as a form of remote control it’s actually pretty powerful. Inside you’ll find the Intel Atom N280 1.66 Ghz processor, a 23Gb SSD (solid state hard disk) and a battery. On the right hand side of the external panel there’s a 5 inch touch screen (resolution of 800 x 480 pixels). Now if you decide you don’t want to connect to your TV you have the option of using the keyboard as a PDA although I’m not sure how you’ll fit that in your pocket.

The only negative point we can see from the specs is the memory: it’s hardwired so you, unless you pretty handy with a soldering iron, there’s not much chance of slapping an extra couple of Gb’s in!

Either way, as a reminder of the way life was with the Amiga and Commodore 64, the Eee Keyboard PC will prove to be a very interesting model to be included in the Asus line.

Install Ubuntu on the Eee PC

james — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 09:01:41 +0000

Eee PC Ubuntu Installation

Want to install Ubuntu on you Eee PC netbook? The Asus range of netbooks has a pretty loyal following but many users simply aren’t happy with the UI that comes as default. Being an Ubuntu fan, and an Eee PC 1000 owner, I’ve been looking for a simple way to install Ubuntu. The lack of CD/DVD on the Eee 1000 has certainly not helped. If you’ve similar problems I’ve got the answer - Easy Peasy - an Ubuntu distro designed specifically for the Eee range.

If you don’t want to wade through all of the Easy Peasy documentation you can take a look at this tutorial: - it’s simple to follow and should have you up and runningin no time at all (ok, the install process is slow…RTFM!)

The current version, 1.1, is not without bugs but you’ll find a huge FAQ with answers to most of the problems seen by users. On a personal not, I did have a few minor bugs but these were quickly rectified with the help of the user community. Anyway, what are you waiting for? Go and try out Ubuntu on your Eee PC - I love and I think you will too.

MSI X-Slim X320:US bound

james — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:09:27 +0000

MSI X-Slim X320 gets US green light

Back in January, we did a small post about drool-worthy the MSI X-Slim X320 netbook. It’s good looking that we actually had a competition in the office to decide which is better looking - the netbook or the rather lovely lady modelling it! The X320 won hands down. Anyway, good new - for the US market, at least - the X-Slim X320 is now ready to ship. American customers can pick it up for only $599 (the netbook, that is).

Here’s a recap on what you get for your money: the netbook features a 13-inch screen (once more, in my eyes, anything over 10 inches is not a netbook! But this laptop is so gorgeous that I’ll let them off!), the Intel Atom Z530 running at 1.6GHz, 2GB of RAM and a 250GB HDD (SSD would be nice but that would push the price up). The X320 gets a 4-cell battery and an integrated GMA 500 graphics card - it’s ok but don’t think about doing any serious gaming on it - and Windows Vista Home Premium!.

There’s a few other goodies such as the 1.3 megapixel webcam (crap!), Bluetooth and 802.11n WiFi support.

Other connectivity options include the venerable Ethernet LAN, three USB ports plus there’s a 2-in-1 media card reader. VGA output means you can plug you X320 netbook into a monitor when you’re not on the go.

Like we said, the MSI X-Slim X320 is available in the US but not the UK. However, I’m sure we’ll be seeing it here soon. If not, we’re sure you can get it through Amazon!

Watch out Apple, here comes xpPhone!

james — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 09:07:06 +0000

Ok, first off, I’m not a huge Windows fan as most of my work is done on a Linux laptop but, from time to time, I do use Windows. But not Vista. Both of my doze PC’s are running XP for the simple reason that it works without eating memory/asking me a question every time I click an icon!

In my opinion, Microsoft rushed Vista out to the masses just so that they could have a replacement for the aging XP OS but put little thought into what users want.

Anyway, back to the post: there’s a new Windows XP powered phone doing the rounds. In Technology Group have demo’d their latest release at Computex - the xpPhone - a handset that runs XP. The device is a direct result of collaboration with both AMD and Microsoft, so expect some impressive specs. The xpPhone looks to be running a full XP OS on top of AMD’s Super Mobile processor. There’s also a rather neat 4.8” 800×480 touch screen, 64GB SSD, built-in wifi, GPS, GSM. A really nice touch is the 3G component - and all three major frequencies are supported. No availability details or pricing yet, but watch this space.

Cue sexy image:

Lenovo S12: Nvidia Ion Inside.

james — Tue, 26 May 2009 14:57:22 +0000

Nvidia Ion powered goodness!

A little while ago we had an article about the Nvidia Ion platform and we lamented the lack of any decent graphics card in our ultra mobile gadgets.

Lenovo have answered the rallying call by delivering the Ion powered IdeaPad S12. Ok, I have my gripes; at 12 inches I wouldn’t really class this as a true netbook (in fact, Intel and Microsoft are working on plans to restrict the upper screen size limit of devices running ‘Doze 7!)

Basically, you get all the benefits of ultra mobile computing but with the ability to play HD and do some serious gaming all for about $500 (no UK prices yet).

If you can’t be bothered following the link to our description of Ion, here it is in a nutshell: at its heart, Ion a combination ofy Intel’s Atom processor and a very capable Nvidia 9400m GPU. Performance isn’t an earth shattering: 1080p video decoding is pretty good and the Blu-ray playback and moderate gaming capabilities are fairly decent by a PC’s standards. But think of it this way - this is a netbook and, when compared to its predecessors, the performance IS pretty damned impressive.

Specs for the S12:

1GB of RAM
160GB HDD
4-in-one card reader
3-cell battery (upgradeable to 6)
ExpressCard slot for 3G cards

The IdeaPad S12 comes with XP installed and will be available in the US sometime in July. Don’t rush out to pre-order one of these - Ion will not be in production model until later in the Summer!

Here’s a short YouTube vid - Nvidia Ion Powered Lenovo S12

Eee PC 1005HA…

james — Wed, 20 May 2009 09:39:05 +0000

…yet another netbook from Asus

Asus just can’t seem to help themselves right now - they’ve revealed two more models: 1005HA-M and 1005HA-H. Granted, these two new Eee PC variants have a lower spec (more on this below) than the Eee PC 1008HA but I think the company may be losing sight of their goals. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t have a clue what Asus want; are they aiming to dominate every single niche in the netbook market? If so, pushing out 101 new models per year will not work. I want to understand why model X is better for me than model Z (apart from the obvious price tags). From my perspective, the Asus strategy (whatever it is) sucks. Yeah, I know they’ll no doubt say they are ‘…responding to market demand’! Enough of my perspective, here’s the brief…

on the nuts and bolts. As you’d expect with any decent piece of hardware the Eee PC 1005HA-M comes with the following goodies under the bonnet: 1.6GHz Atom N270, 1GB of RAM and a 160GB hard drive, WiFi, a 6-cell battery (allegedly, you’ll get 8 hours of use out of this), a crappy 1.3 megapixel webcam. All this for €299. I’m not quite finished yet, there’s no Bluetooth! I know that this seems pretty irrelevant to some readers but I find this particularly annoying as I still own a number of Bluetooth enabled devices, in particular my phone, which I’d like to use/synch to my computer. Am I really the lost voice in a sea of techies???

The 1005HA-H variant has pretty much the same running gear as the 1008HA. Improvements in the 1005 includee two extra USB 2.0 ports and a 6-cell battery (the Seashell has 5-cell) and a price of €349 . Expect to see both variants in your Euro stores by July.

P.S We haven’t bothered putting an image up because the Eee PC 1005 looks just like the 1008!

FireFox Mobile: Alpha for Windows Mobile 6

james — Mon, 18 May 2009 10:51:36 +0000

Fennec: FireFox Mobile

The mobile variant of Mozilla’s Firefox browser for a while now. There were also beta versions that ran on certain Nokia Internet Tablets but, at last, it’s available for Windows users to test. As of last Friday, Fennec (as it’s been code-named), was made available for we sticky fingered gadget fans.

Fennec Alpha 1 for Windows Mobile 6 has been custom built to run on the HTC Touch Pro, with Mozilla rolling out the browser to more handsets in future.

The UI looks pretty much identical to that on the Maemo enabled Nokia tablets - the Awesome Bar search field is front and center, which serves up suggested search terms in addition to showing off your search history. Navigating the interface is simple - all you have to do is flick the screen - with bookmarking tools on the left hand side and tabbed browsing icons on the right.

One interesting aspect is the underlying code - it’s CSS, which allows the application to be easily adjusted dependent on screen size and resolution.

Fennec is still in its infancy so don’t expect perfection just yet. Here’s the download link for the Fennec CAB file.

Eee PC 1008HA

james — Mon, 11 May 2009 10:23:34 +0000

Asus Eee PC 1008HA

Somehow, we nearly managed to miss this one - Asus are set to drop another ultra hin, low weight netbook into the UK market - the Eee PC 1008HA Seashell. Like the Eee PC S101, the Seashell has a 10in screen and is just 1in thick and weighs in at 2.4 pounds. A nice touch here is the inclusion of an Intel Atom N280 CPU (1.66GHz). There’s also plenty of memory and storage: 1GB of RAM and 170GB of hybrid storage, including a 160GB hard disk drive.

The Eee PC 1008HA has plenty of connectivity options - Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3G and WiMax.

One of the biggest gripes we’ve always had with netbooks is the keyboard size but Asus seem to have put some serious thought into this model by offering one that is about 93 per cent of full size. Less scope for ‘fat finger’ syndrome! Another nice feature is the one-touch access to a list of most-used applications.

Asus are touting a battery life of about around six hours, pretty much standard now.

If you’re like me, one of my pastimes is making changes to the OS for performance reasons but I’ve frequently broken Windows doing this. The Seashell gives you rather nice system restore feature that can take it back to its original factory settings - for XP users only.

The Seashell comes in six colours, bronze (like the S101), black, white, pink, blue and silver.

Expect to see the Eee PC 1000HA Seashell on the shelves of UK stores 15 May 2009 with a price tag of £379.

Acer Aspire One 11.6 inch netbook

james — Tue, 05 May 2009 13:53:20 +0000

Acer Aspire One 11.6″ coming soon

Back in April, Acer announced some interesting new developments in ‘netbookland’ but, finally, we can see the fruits of their labour in the form of the new Acer Aspire One. Two new models will be launched - the Aspire One 751 and D250. The model we’re interested in is the 751. We’ve already asked “when is a netbook not a netbook?” and this looks to be the model that tips the balance. Of course, this is our opinion and I’m sure some of you will disagree (and I eagerly await your commets).

The contentious point for me is the netbook tag. The Aspire One 751 comes with a rather hefty screen measuring…11.6-inch which is fast approaching the dimensions seen on full-sized notebooks. In fact, on the basis of netbooks being sold on their ultra-small, fit in your pocket credentials, I’d say this is definitely a notebook. Ok, I won’t labour the point. It’s my opinion and I’m sticking to it.

As for the internals, the Aspire One is equipped with an Intel Atom processor and Mobile Intel US15W Express Chipset and boasts a battery life 8 hours (6 cell 5200 mAh battery).

There’s the usual selection of goodies that you’d expect with any mobile solution including 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 3G optionss. There’s also a 160GB hard drive and a multi card reader, Dolby Pro Logic sound and a WXGA back-lit LED screen.

The Acer Aspire One 751 should be in the shops sometime in May 09 with a price tag of about £349, then again you could always grab yourself one of the standard size Acer laptop computers! At least you get a full sized screen without the premium price tag associated with the higher end Acer netbooks.

Ubuntu for Netbooks

james — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:08:44 +0000

Ubuntu takes a nibble at Netbooks

At last, the latest version of Ubuntu Linux features a new “Netbook Remix” ready made for mini genre of notebooks!. The new release, known as “Jaunty Jackalope,” continues Ubuntu’s steady growth with some slick new features, much awaited speed and stability improvements.

The “Netbook Remix” is the latest addition to Ubuntu’s OS family and delivers a stripped down OS that has been optimised for the relatively limited capabilities of netbooks i.e. smaller screens and lower hardware specs.

Ubuntu are making the claim that this release will work with Asus EeePC 900, Acer’s Aspire One and Dell’s Mini 9 netbooks. Some users have also reported running the OS on the EeePC 1000H - after a little tweaking here and there! The resulting interface has been described as “..a powerful, but simple interface that’s far snappier than competing options like Windows XP”.

Canonical has been working with OEMs to pre-install Ubuntu Netbook Remix for some time now and looks like all this effort is finally paying off. The future is looking pretty rosey now…I wonder how long it will before Canonical are bought up???