Christmas is approaching which means I’ll be heading to the UK for my Turkey dinner soon. It also means that I’ll be checking out mobile broadband and 3G netbook availability just in case I feel the need while I’m there. Here’s a few news items I found as I was checking out offers today.

Virgin Mobile is introducing a  pre and post-pay option to their mobile phone tariff which gives you a full day of web access (We assume that it’s a port-80 proxy service here) for just 30p. OK, it’s only 25MB and you can’t officially tether your phone to a PC but for using something like Opera Mini on the occasional day away from home, it’s more than enough. If you’re looking to use the service on a more permanent basis though, the per-week and per-month option from 3UK are probably going to work out better as they have less restrictive limits. More info here. Via Informatics Online

The ASUS 901 is now available with built-in 3G from Orange UK on a 24-month contract. This must be the same as the 901 GO that’s available in other countries. The device is free but the monthly charge is 25 pounds. I highly recommended this item a few months ago and I stick by it. If you want one of the more mobile netbook options, this is the one to go for. It comes with XP and 16GB SSD. More info at Orange. Note: The same device is available, contract free, in Germany for 449 Euros.

Clove Technology has the Blue Samsung NC10 marked up at 343 pounds and due on Dec 12th. I can’t find any info about a 3G-enabled one though. This is the product I’m hoping will launch soon but it looks like I may have to wait until after Christmas.

Update: There’s a Samsung NC10 HSPA available in Poland now.

The Advent 4213 (ECS G10L) is available for 322 pounds. It has the 3G module built in but comes with a relatively small battery. Its not the device i’m looking for.

Got any UK mobile internet product tips? If so, let everyone know in the comments below.

Jkk, master of all Eee PCs, has put up a video review of the Eee 900A, one of the newest Atom powered Eees. Swing by his site to watch the whole video and listen to Jkk’s thoughts on the netbook.

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.

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)

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

The guys over at TweakTown went out and searched for the newest 10 inch Eee until they found it. They have a video review up which I’m embedding here and some pictures you can check out over at their site. 

AnandTech published some strip-down pics of the Asus Eee PC 901 earlier today and JKK has put them under the microscope to try and work out if there are any new features. Unfortunately it looks like the SSD drive is still split into two partitions making XP a pain to manage but on the other hand, there’s a few really nice surprises in there. Pop over to JKKMobile for the raw, naked details.

Jkk of Jkkmobile has unearthed battery figures for the new Atom based Eee 901. Conflicting with the rumored 7 hours of battery life, the official figures are 4.2-6 hours for the 6 cell 6600 mAh (48wh) battery. Jkk also reports that the 901’s batteries will not be compatible with previous Eee models. Weight of the unit will also increase over the older Eee 900; head over to Jkkmobile for additional pictures and weight info .

Hold your Eee PC 900 orders because the 901 is coming! It’s just been shown-off at a WiMax conference in Taipei and PCWorld picked up the details.

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth will standard features of the 901, and a WiMax version is planned as well. Black and white versions of the 1.14 kilogram laptop were on display, which has a battery life of four to six hours, Asustek said. Pricing was not disclosed.

4 hours on a 4-cell battery. 6-hours on a 6-cell battery perhaps? The 901 will feature the same 12G/20G flash option on the XP and Linux versions respectively but it’s not clear if the flash is split into the same 2-partition setup that makes XP difficult to manage on the 900.

Lots more details are sure to be coming up in the next 24 hours. I’ve just been in touch with Sascha of EeePCNews.de and he’s already made contact with the ASUS guys. News soon!

Via Engadget

This very brief bit of info from Current in Australia could be read one of two ways. Either you read it that ASUS is launching a new, tablet version of the Eee PC and you get excited about the prospect of a new sub-$400 UMPC or you take a wider view and consider that ASUS already have 3 versions of the R2 touchscreen devices already on low-power platforms, one that never launched and another two devices launching with Atom. [Click on images about for details.] The current R2E is already a very good value device and a small bit of re-engineering and re-marketing could easily see this launched as a low-cost Eee-branded UMPC. Moving an old design into a new brand to give it a boost makes total sense to me and although it wouldn’t be ‘new’, I’m sure a new price would stimulate a lot of interest.

We’re just finalising a review of the R2E which will be up next week and I’m going to follow up with a post that shows how the R2E is just a re-marketing exercise away from being an R2Eee

Via Liliputing on Twitter.

This must be a typo right? Buy.com are offering an Eee PC 900, SKU EEEPC900-W012X, with a 1.7Ghz Celeron processor. Click the image on the right to see the details. [Buy.com product link.] The same is also appearing at ZipZoomfly.

I wonder if this is an attempt to sneak a high-end Eee PC 900 out of the door with Windows XP before the rules change!

Thanks, whatever7, for the tip.