This is the first time I’ve seen the 3G version of the Samsung NC10 in any sort of official form. iPlus in Poland have already started selling them (Since November 26th) with 4 different 24-month contract options. Specs include Windows XP Home, the 160GB drive and the 6-cell battery. Tasty! Now what’s the Polish for ‘Review’?

More information and links for the Samsung NC10 here.

Via Notebookcheck.com (translation) Thanks Kornel, for the heads-up.

iPlus information page (Polish)

The netbook with ‘the Keyboard’ is getting some press today. JKK has been unboxing a fresh one and Dan of Gear Diary has bought one. The HP MiniNote 1000 that is.

Both give positive comments about the keyboard with Dan going as far as to say that its the best keyboard, on any device, ever - "I’m not just talking about a netbook keyboard but I mean ANY keyboard." JKK likes the design - "Its looking pretty nice and thin. Good for eyes. Nice design" and then precedes to take the device fully apart to check the SSD and connectors for other components.

The small battery only returns about 2.5hr life according to other reports so while it’s a very stylish device, without the 3G capability it’s more suited to portable typing duties than anything mobile. A 3G-enabled version could be nice for mobile bloggers though so we’ll keep an eye out for it.

Gear Diary on the HP Mini 1000

JKKMobile on the HP Mini 1000

Mini Note 1000 specs and links

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.

The good folks over at Dynamism have put up some nice Black Friday deals for those interested in a mobile computing. These will be good through Sunday or while supplies last.

If you are looking for a great deal on a netbook that will be able to handle your basic computing tasks, take a look at the Acer Aspire One [Portal page] [review] which can be bought for $249. The Black Friday Aspire One comes with Linpus Lite (Linux), 8GB SSD storage, and 512MB of RAM.

If you want some serious mobile computing power in a tiny package, Dynamism has the Raon Everun Note [Portal page] [review] for $599. The Black Friday Everun Note is configured with an AMD Sempron 1.2GHz CPU, 1GB of RAM, 16GB SSD, and Ubuntu Linux.

Want something hand-held? You can pick up a well equipped OQO 02 [Portal page] [review] for $1599. The Black Friday Special OQO 02 comes with a 1.6GHz VIA C7-M CPU, 1GB of RAM, 120GB HDD, and Windows XP Pro.

And last but not least, there is an Asus Eee PC 900 [Portal page] for $299. The Black Friday configuration of this computer has the Intel Celeron 900MHz CPU, 12GB SSD, 1GB of RAM and Windows XP.

Check out the rest of the Black Friday Specials page for deals on other products as well. Again, these deals will only last until Sunday or possibly sooner if stock runs out, don’t let this one slip by.

Finally a breath of fresh air in an area of computing where the only major difference in products was appearance and price!

I’m really glad to see some interesting new stuff from MSI. We recently talked about the MSI Wind U120 [Portal page] which is just like the original U100 but with 3G and some increased storage options, but that isn’t very exciting is it?

Now news is spreading that MSI will be releasing two additional netbooks some time around January. The netbooks will be the U110 and U115; I’ve put the interesting things in bold:

• 1024×600 10" screen
• 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530 CPU - which is a more expensive but less power hungry chip (2w) than the Atom N270 (2.5w) which is in almost every netbook you see today
• Poulsbo US15W chipset - most netbooks are using the Intel 945G. Poulsbo in combination with the Z530 CPU will make for a total chipset drain of 4.3w
• 6-cell battery
• Up to 250GB HDD for the U110
• Hybrid Storage - The U115 will feature SSD and HDD combinations. The idea is that the OS and programs can go on the smaller capacity SSD (8/16/32GB) for quick booting and program launching, then there will be plenty of room for media and other storage on the HDD (80/120/160GB). Computers such as the VAIO TZ have used a similar storage configuration. It will be important to the success of the U115 that this doesn’t consume too much power running both drives.
• Wi-Fi B/G/draft-N
• The rest is pretty common; Bluetooth, 1GB of RAM (up to 2GB on the U115), 3x USB 2.0 ports, 2.0MP webcam etc.

Like I said, all of this is new and exciting to see in a netbook. However, after reading this I can’t help but wonder how they plan on keeping the prices down. Nearly everything in this list will run the price up over current netbooks: new CPU+chipset, two storage drives, and draft-N Wi-Fi. We’ll have to wait and see but I would image the top end U115 will run you somewhere around $700 if not higher.

[Blogeee] via [Liliputing] [Electric Vagabond]

After recently adding a 32GB SSD option, Dell appears to be the first in the US to sell a netbook in the with a 3G radio and an actual data plan through a carrier. While some carriers in other countries are subsidizing the entire netbooks bundled with a 3G modems, you won’t get that sort of discount here. At least it won’t cost you much extra, provided you sign up with a 2 year contract from AT&T. It looks as though the modem can only be added to a Mini 9 configured with XP at this point.

Adding the HSDPA modem to your Mini 9 [Portal page] configuration will also add $125 to the bill, however you can reclaim $120 of that through a rebate if you sign up with AT&T. So an extra $5 for a 3G modem doesn’t sound bad right? Unfortunately it isn’t the hardware that makes up the real cost, it is the data plan, which will run you $60/month from AT&T. Brad from Liliputing points out that for some, it might be more cost effective to use an AT&T 3G USB dongle if you own more than one mobile computer. It would cost the same amount per month, but offer the flexibility of using one piece of 3G hardware on more than one computer.

[Liliputing]

The upcoming MSI Wind U120 has been unboxed over at MSI WIND en Español. The MSI U120 is very similar to the original MSI Wind U100 [Portal page], apart from the U120’s standard larger capacity battery, larger HDD (120GB), 3G option, and color. The unboxing video isn’t terribly exciting; it seems a bit confusing that the box says "MSI Notebook" and "Wind Netbook" [my emphasis] on the very same side of the box. Head over to MSI WIND en Español to read some Google translated first impressions and see the unboxing video below.

[Liliputing]

According to Akihabaranews.com, Acer will sell an estimated 5.8 million (you read that right, 5,800,000) Aspire One netbooks [Portal page][review] by the end of the year. That is a pretty big number considering that the Aspire One wasn’t even released until Q2 of 2008. Akihabaranews says that Acer sent them some press info showing the sales for each quarter as well as the estimated number for the final quarter:

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:

Maybe in honor of jkk’s ‘SSD week’ last week, Dell has recently put an option into their Mini 9 configuration interface that allows customers to select 32GB of SSD storage (previous max capacity offered was 16GB). It will add $100 to your price if you jumping up from the 4GB option, but that price isn’t too bad as long as the speed of the SSD is decent. Be sure to stop by jkkmobile for lots of good info on SSDs with good price:speed ratios. If you are the hardware type, it may be more effective to buy the cheaper 4GB SSD option on a new Mini 9, and upgrade it yourself.

[Engadget]

It looks like HP might have moved some Mini 1000 [Portal page] units that actually have 3G radios integrated into them, but were sold without mentioning that little gem. Probably wanting to get the product out the door before having to close deals with carriers, some Mini 1000’s have a 3G SIM card slot that can be revealed by removing the battery. The radios in these devices were sold to consumers without the proper software to operate them, but luckily someone over at the Pocketables.net forum managed to acquire the software and get their 3G radio working. The software has been linked on the forum so that others can download it and make the 3G radio in their Mini 1000 work (if it is there, that is). Please do yourself a favor and make sure your have the right data plan before testing out the 3G in your Mini 1000, it would be easy to rack up a large monthly bill if you have no data plan.

[Liliputing]

The Samsung NC10 [Portal page] is all the rage right now in the 10" netbook sector and it is starting to show up in more colors than just white. MobileComputerMag has some nice shots of the black variant, and they mention that they are starting to trickle out to consumers. A dark blue model should also become available eventually. Hit the MobileComputerMag link for a few more images.

[Electric Vagabond]

Chances are: this is a highly targeted ad designed for tech shoppers like myself, but it is cool to see the biggest online retailer getting serious about netbooks. The ad is inspired by Theodore Roosevelt’s famous "speak softly and carry a large stick". Amazon has obviously been taking notice since they saw netbooks topping their laptop sales charts recently.

The ad is nice and all but can anyone spot what is wrong? If you said "That’s the old HP Mini-Note 2133!" you’d be correct (give yourself a pat on the back). I guess I really can’t expect an e-retailer giant like Amazon to stay up to date on everything that happens in the market but I would have been more impressed if they had the new Mini 1000 [Portal page] featured in the ad.

It was bound to happen. Here it is, the worlds first Hello Kitty branded netbook. And my oh my is it cute. On the inside however it comes with what we now consider standard netbook specifications (1.6 Atom, 10″ screen, 120GB HD), and a shell fairly reminiscent of the orignal EEE 701. Its available to order now for the crazy price of $890 from GeekStuff4U. Expensive? Yes. But its the only netbook that will perfectly fit in with your collection of Hello Kitty items. That includes the Hello Kitty outfit you bought without your wife’s approval and have been hiding in your closet. Its ok. One day us kitty fans shall rule the world…

The Samsung NC10 is currently riding high. High in the UMPCPortal charts, the most searched-for laptop on a number European price comparison sites, number 2 on the Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.de computer chart and rising quickly in many other countries. In my opinion, based on my hands-on and the numerous good reports out there, its one of the best consumer notebooks, yes, notebooks, there is and when I go to the UK in Dec, I’ll be keeping an eye out for a black NC10 with 160GB drive, BT and built-in 3G. If I find one (fingers crossed that this combination of specifications launches soon) then I’m swapping out my Gigabyte M912M and Medion Akoya. I’ll be sad to let the fast, touchscreen M912 go but battery life is more important for me and the NC10 has oodles of it.

Someone that has already bought one is Jez, a regular reader from the UK who I’ve been emailing with recently to find out about the status of the device in the UK. He bought it last week and immediately started to log his experiences on his ‘Unofficial Samsung NC10 blog.’ He’s also been kind enough to write an introduction just for us so before you pop over to the NC10 blog (and possibly never come back!) take a look at what Jez has to say about the NC10…

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