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I’m going to be honest. We haven’t been covering netbooks with very much enthusiasm. Why? Because except for a few, they are all the same components stuck in a boring looking plastic laptop shell. I mean how many more models of the EEE will Asus still release? I have lost track already.

There have been a few netbooks however that stand out such as the S101 or the N10 from Asus. Joining them is the new Mini 1000 from HP. With the base price at $399 you get the standard netbook components inside (1.6Ghz Atom, 8GB SSD, WiFi, 8.9″ screen, VGA webcam); what you don’t get is the boring design. HP has designed what I consider to be the best looking netbook yet. A sleek black case with an imprinted design on the top, glass on the display like the new Macbook and a great keyboard (93% full-size) all in a slim case. If that’s not enough to impress, how about options for built-in HSDPA, 3 and 6 cell batteries, and a 60GB harddrive instead of the SSD?  I want one.

There will be three versions available. The standard black one comes with Windows XP, 1Gb of RAM, 8GB SSD and an 8.9″ Screen and is available right now for $399. A new Mobile Internet Edition will be available early next year and will ditch XP in favor of a special build of Ubuntu created by HP and have 2GB of RAM standard.The designer red version which we have seen a while back will be available for $699 in mid-december, complete with all the flowery details .

Now lets look at the bad things - the 10″ screen is a $50 option, otherwise you get an 8.9″ screen with a plastic bezel around it. Both screens are also only 1024×600, which will not please fans of higher resolutions. Battery life is around 3 hours which is pretty good for a 3 cell. If you decide to get the SSD model you also get a special slot designed for HP USB drives which extend your storage without adding any bulk. Lets hope these aren’t too overpriced.

For more information you can check out the Press release or look at the Mini 1000 microsite. You might even want to go order one at the HP Store.

Well, DataWind has updated their PocketSurfer device with a small touchpad and GPS. There is also a new data plan at 40 pounds a year and a 60 pound one that gives you unlimited surfing for life. While it all sounds like a good deal, I can’t imagine surifng will really be all that nice on this device. Check out some more details over at Pocketables. Has anyone here tried the PocketSurfer or has one? How do you like it?

The Wind is arguably one of the best netbooks on the market today. MSI has just released the U90 8.9inch screen variant a while ago and its already thinking of future products. Andy Tung from MSI recently stated there will be a new “business-minded” U120 (Wind 2) model coming end of November/beginning of December. The new device is said to be a complete redesign, will have 3.5G (HSPDA), and options for an SSD or Harddrive. The price will be under $600 which sounds like a pretty good deal. Look out for numerous rebrands of these appearing over the next few months. Also if you are looking for the current U100 model, you will soon be able to head down to your local “major retailer” (Im guesing Best Buy) and buy the 3 cell/ Win Xp version for $399.

Via Engadget

I am back in full after a weekend of writing lab reports and studying for tests (yes school has started yet again…) and its time to summarize some of the news items we missed over the last few days.

First of all, according to his friendfeed Chippy is in Amsterdam where he will hopefully bring us a hands-on report about the new Opera-enabled Archos Media tablets. I’m sure he will have something up soon.

Second we have new netbooks. They are popping up all over the place - we have the NB105 from Toshiba Mexico and then the BenQ Joybook Lite. Feature wise the Toshiba has an 8.9 inch screen, the Benq has a 10 inch. Both have a 1.6Ghz Atom processor. Nothing new really. More design choices for the consumer.
Specifications here for the NB105 and here for the Joybook.

Third we have some news on netbooks we already know about. People are starting to receive their Mini 9 from Dell, and there is even an unboxing video. Looks good. We also have some info on the temperatures of the Lenovo Ideapad S10 which apparently gets quite hot compared to other devices.

Mini 9 unboxing here, Lenovo S10 heat “map” here.

Jenn over at Pocketables has received a Kohjinsha SC3 extended battery and the results are not good. The battery has twice the capacity but only allows you to run the device for about 3.5 hours. Not very mobile. Read more here.

To end this roundup we have the Menq International’s EasyPC E760 which runs CE and has a 7inch 480×272! Spectacular! And its only $89. No thanks

Looking forward to the upcoming week!

As I happened to be in my local mall I decided to look at what’s new in the electronics store. I was surprised to find the store had a whole dedicated netbook section and among them were the new Eee 904 models. These are basically the 1000h with the smaller 8.9 inch screen. The price here is 1200zl, which happens to be 100zl less than the windows version of the 901. I would still rather have the 901 though as the 904 has a not so good looking bezel around the screen and is definitely not as mobile. I don’t like the fact that subsequent Eee models seem to be getting bigger and bigger… Which one is your favorite at the moment? For me it’s the black 901. I have in fact started learning how to solder in anticipation of getting one in the future

Fed up with the slow speed of the SSD in your Eee PC? Want more storage than what your device currently has? Look no further. Jkk has received a bunch of different Mini PCIe SSD from an online retailer and put them to the test. There are two different types - the faster and more expenisve SLC, and the slower and cheaper MLC. Unfortunately Asus uses the MLC one on some of its devices which results in them being quite slow. If you feel confident enough to swap the disk out in your Eee, head on over to jkkmobile for more information.

Aving has just posted a report from the Asus World 2008 conference about the Asus N10 netbook/laptop we covered earlier. The N10 looks simply wonderful and there is no mistaking that this is a high-end piece of equipment. What is probably the best thing about this device is that it has an Nvidia GeForce 9300GS graphics card. Try finding that on another netbook! Other previously unknown specifications include a 320GB harddrive, 2GB of RAM, LED backlit 10″ screen and an Intel N270 (Atom) processor. Add this to the previously known features (HDMI, Altec Lansing speakers, fingerprint reader) and you have one powerful machine. And it looks great too..my new favorite netbook. Let’s just hope the battery life is good. More pictures over at Aving.net.

Chippy writes: Techticker reports that it will be officially announced on the 13th (Sat?) and will have a price of $1140 and a 6-cell battery good enough for 6+hours.  This is Atom breaking out of its cage and Intel and notebook manufacturers definitely won’t be happy to see it but its definately going to happen. Users are realising that they prefer good-value, small form-factor and long battery life more than anything. It really wont suprise me to see the average size on notebooks come right down with users being happy with 10-12″ models with long battery life as a result of the netbook craze. If Atom is good enough for that then Intel and traditional laptop sales will suffer.

The device was apparently first announced at Computex. I don’t recall reading any news on it but it did make me laugh. Just look at the headline:

Albatron’s “Tee PC” is all that you need with not an inch to spare

As the article on HotHardware.com mentions, it comes out of the box with Windows CE 6.0 and everything you need preloaded: WordPad, MediaPlayer and Internet Explorer…right. The device has both WiFi and Bluetooth, weighs 343 grams, has a 400Mhz ARM926 processor, 128 MB of RAM and 128MB of flash memory. On the device itself there is an SD card slot, a camera, and a headphone jack while the included docking station has two USB ports, built in speakers and line in/out. Assuming you can get a good time-telling application, it would make for a decent bedside alarm clock

Quick Update: The dimensions are 18.8×11.3x 1.3 cm, and the screen is 7 inches. 

Source: HotHardware.com

Have you been anxiously waiting to order the new Lenovo S10 netbook? Now’s your chance: the order page is up on the Lenovo website. Available for $439 in your choice of red, white or black. Order now, ships in October.

Ideapad S Series order page.

This new model is approaching the thin line between netbooks and notebooks. I guess thats why Asus chose not to release it under the EEE brand. Or perhaps they realized people are getting confused having so many EEE models around. Whatever the reason was, this new model sure has some unique features: there is a new glossy black and silver case which looks great, a 10 inch 1024×768 1024×600 screen, Altec Lansing speakers, a fingerprint reader, 1.3 megapixel webcam, and an HDMI out. Thats a pretty impressive list of features for a device that is supposedly only going to cost 400 euro. No mention of processor speed or type, but it will probably be an Atom. Blogeee speculates that it might even be dual-core. At least thats what I understand from my limited French

via Blogeee.net (click link for more pictures)

So yet another name… This time with the wonderful acronym IMT. Anyways, these new Archos devices are running on ARM Cortex CPUs, come with 5 or 7 inch screens, WiFi, and hard drives ranging from 30 to 320 gigabytes. These will also be running Opera with Flash 9 support and have lots of codec support. Most interesting is the 5g model which will include HSDPA. If you are looking for a media player with internet support, this is probably your best choice. Be on the look out for more information.

Via Pocketables.

I was just reading Kevin’s article about how big the netbook market has gotten in just a year. It’s really amazing to me how the category evolved and expanded. I have maybe once seen a UMPC in use in the wild. That was someone using a UX in a coffee shop. But that’s it. Now however, netbooks seem to be all over the place. In school I regularly see people typing away on Eees. Just last week when going through Airport security a woman behind me pulled an Eee 900 out of her handbag. What surprised me the most though, is my visit to the mall here in Italy. I went into a small electronics store and looked at the laptops on display. There were two Acer 15′ notebooks which looked pretty old and as if they were sitting in the store for a long time. In a big display cabinet however where 3 Olidata JumPCs proudly displaying their 299 Euro price. The JumPC is an Italian Eee-like device that runs on the 900mhz celeron and is marketed at children. I think it might actually be the Classmate design. Definitely not what I expected to find in such a small store! I might have bought if only it wasn’t slightly bulky and err… orange

Ahh life is great. I’m sitting out on the terrace overlooking Porto Rotondo in Italy with my laptop out and connected to the internet via speedy HSDPA. It doesn’t get much better than this.

I decided to travel light and not take many things with me on this trip. Here’s what I packed into my Crumpler messenger bag:
- Macbook Air
- Huawei E170 HSDPA modem
- iPod
- Canon SD950
- Blackberry Curve
- Power adapters

And that’s it. Im actually quite proud of myself for not taking any more junk as its been a pleasure running through Italian airports with a comparably lighter bag. I failed in my plan to get a netbook for the summer to take with me around town, mainly because I did not yet sell my HTC Shift (which is still up for sale or trade in the forums). All is good however and I am not finding the smaller amount of connectivity a problem. I’m on vacation after all.

I’m going to finish up this post and go for some pizza. Out of curiosity though, what’s in your sumer gadget bag?

It used to rare that we had more than one computer. Or so I have been told anyways. Today we have a lot more devices – I myself have a desktop, a laptop, a phone and a UMPC. I sometimes also use public computers. Now how do I keep my data in sync and access it wherever I am? Here’s where SugarSync comes in. What is it? Essentially it is a data syncing solution that relies on a central online server instead of syncing straight from device to device. So basically it takes your data and uploads it to SugarSync’s server where you can access it from a web interface and from where it gets downloaded to your other devices running the client software.
(Full post after the break…)

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I have tried and it really was awesome to use. After signing up, you download the client software for your choice of operating system. I chose the OSX version but there is also a version for Windows (both XP and Vista) as well as mobile versions for Blackberry and Windows Mobile.

The software asked me for my login and password, and after that I could choose which files to sync. I created a folder with a couple of pictures and documents, and after about a minute it was all up in the cloud. After logging in to the web interface, I could immediately download all the files that uploaded. I then setup the client on another computer and all the files were there a minute later. I edited the file on one computer, and the changes were immediately synced to the other one.

The fact that everything is stored in the cloud is SugarSync’s biggest feature, yet also its biggest disadvantage. First of all, if you have a slow Internet connection, its going to take ages to upload all of your data, and the real-time updating wont work so well either. Second of all, syncing is basically downloading from SugarSync, so if you have a limited bandwidth you might want to watch out. Aside from that however everything works perfectly as both an online backup and a syncing solution.

While this is a good solution for people who keep their data on their harddrives if you have your files up in the cloud already using services like Google Docs and Calendar, it doesn’t make much sense. Sugarsync doesn’t synchronize your documents down from other servers than their own. This means no integration with services that you might already use. I for one would like to see my photos be uploaded directly to Flickr and my documents to Google Docs, but thats against the idea of a central place to have all your data that SugarSync promotes. There is a part of the interface designed specifically to view your photos online that will satisfy most people.

I would recommend SugarSync without hesitation to anyone who has problems keeping their data in sync by using old-fashioned methods. The service is fast, the interface is beautiful, the pricing is good. However if you are limited by your Internet connection and would rather have data be backed up straight from one device to the other over the network, I would recommend FolderShare instead.

Pricing starts at $2.49 per month for 10GB of storage and a free 45 day trial is available.

Update: We’ve just heard from SugarSync about a new file sharing/sending service:

Send any file from SugarSync’s desktop, web or mobile applications, regardless of the size of the file or number of recipients. Recipients receive a link in an email they can use to access the file for 21 days. Anyone can receive a file, but recipients who use SugarSync can choose to have the files synced across all their computers automatically, stored only their web archive to preserve local disk space, or download it only to the machine they’re on.

It’s an easy way to share home videos with friends, family, and share large presentations or graphic-intensive documents with co-workers. Any number of files can be shared at once. The functionality is free as part of any SugarSync subscription.

Mobile video and modding extraordinaire Jkk has just published a review of the newest Origami software pack we mentioned yesterday. Head on over to jkkmobile to check it out and see what he thinks. Good news is there are no more hardware checks in place so it will run on any device, no installer file hacking required.