It’s been a long time coming, but someone finally managed to throw some 3G into their Sony VAIO UX ultra mobile PC [Portal page]. It is simple to use a USB dongle, but when you have the know-how, why not make it a challenge to fit everything inside the UX’s tiny case? I’m really impressed that there is even room to add anything inside the UX as the device is already so small and packed full of hardware.
User Oginger1 of MicroPCTalk has managed to put a Huawei E169G USB 3G Modem inside of his UX for internal 3G goodness. The US versions of the VAIO UX come with a built in EDGE modem, but Sony never refreshed the line with a 3G capable model. Oginger1 wasn’t even able to use the slow EDGE connection as he owns an international model (UX50) that comes with a CF slot instead of an EDGE module. He documented the process and gave a rough guide of how to do the mod (definitely not for newbies). To understand just how small the modable space inside the UX is, you should note that he had to cut out one of the back hand grips and raise it up 2mm, then epoxy it back into place to be able to squeeze the unit inside. Head over to his thread to see the whole process.
We’ve seen it done to several other netbooks in the past and now it is the Dell Mini 9’s turn. Jkk points us to a video of a Dell Mini 9 [Portal page] that has been modded with a touchscreen. He says that any of the common 8.9" touchscreen kits can be used with the mod, but connecting the necessary components could be tricky. Check out a short video below:
Jkk has been playing with the first MID that has world-wide availability, the Aigo P8860 [Portal page]. Being the amazing modder that he is, he has already managed to put 3G in it, and has a video demo of the MID browsing with 3G which later goes into details of the mod itself. The video which you can see below, shows various sites including YouTube playback which works great, and I am happy to see that scrolling looks to be very smooth and easy to use in the web browser. The MID manages to load Engadget quite quickly and all of this has my hopes high for MIDs to deliver the full internet experience in your pocket when they finally start ending up in consumer’s hands.
Tnkgrl has been on a modding-spree with her new Acer Aspire One [Portal page]. I noted in my review of the Aspire One that some of the important connectivity options were lacking, such as Bluetooth and 3G. Luckily smart people like tnkgrl are here to show us how we can fix some of those important but neglected components.
Moving on to part three of her Aspire One modding-spree, she shows us how to put HSDPA into the Aspire One for 3G connectivity. Amateurs be warned: this is not a simple RAM upgrade, but if you still feel up to the task, tnkgrl has provided a helpful list of steps, images, and a video of making it all happen.
Also don’t miss part one and two where you can find out how to dissemble the Aspire One, add RAM, Bluetooth, and a 1.8" HDD.
This story made its rounds about our end of the blogosphere a few weeks ago, but after seeing someone mod a device so well, that I recently enjoyed reviewing, I couldn’t help but share it anyway.
Check out this very clean DIY project that turned an Acer Aspire One into a touch screen slate PC:
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.
MicroPCTalk forum member Anh did some serious surgery on his UX280. Taking the unit apart, he de-soldered the factory U1200 Core Solo (1.2GHz), and soldered in a U7600 Core 2 Duo (1.2GHz) CPU. An impressive instillation in a machine that has so much hardware stuck in such a tiny footprint. Was it worth it? Take a look at the graph belo; the benchmark performance almost doubled in certain areas. The graph compares the modded UX280 to a UX380, I compared to the 380 because both machines were running Vista and I wanted the graph to be as accurate as possible. ALU and FPU are the primary CPU benchmarks and as you can see, the 1.2GHz U7600 Core 2 Duo crushes the 1.33GHz U1500 Core Solo. Ahn is most likely the first person in the world to be running a UX280 with a Core 2 Duo, and might even be the first to successfully swap the UX’s CPU for any other CPU in general.
It’s been a long time coming, but someone finally managed to throw some 3G into their Sony VAIO UX ultra mobile PC [Portal page]. It is simple to use a USB dongle, but when you have the know-how, why not make it a challenge to fit everything inside the UX’s tiny case? I’m really impressed that there is even room to add anything inside the UX as the device is already so small and packed full of hardware.
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 
