The guys at Micro PC Talk will not give up. We’ve seen some amazing mods for the coveted (but cancelled) Sony Vaio UX UMPC [Vaio UX only has two internal USB ports. Anh had to install an extremely tiny 4-port USB hub inside of the UX in order to be able to connect all the devices to the computer:

Here’s what’s been carefully packed inside (in addition to the hub above):

• Huawei E172 modem for 3G data (and possibly voice and SMS) [along with this mod, a modified portion of the original EDGE modem was inserted to function as a SIM card slot for the E172 modem, accessible from original SIM card slot]
• Pinnacle PCTV HD Mini Stick for OTA TV
• GPS receiver

On top of all of this, Anh upgraded the UX’s relatively low-powered 1.2GHz Core Solo CPU to the 1.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo U7700. No easy feat as the CPU has to be completely reballed (not simply dropped in with pins).

Anh was also kind enough to provide some great high-res photos of the modified motherboard to show the added components (click for full size):

And the result looks a little something like this (the external body is totally unmodified):

The Vaio UX is one of the reasons why I’ve urged Sony to reignite their innovation in the handheld arena.

For the sake of transparency: I’m a moderator at the source of this story (www.micropctalk.com)

The guys over at Micro PC Talk have had Mac OS X running on the Vaio UX series [for some time now, but a recent video by MPCT forum user perrin21 shows a UX390 running the latest version of Apple’s OS X pristinely. Perrin21 added a few nice mods to his UX390 [Portal page], including a draft-N WiFi card to connect to his/her Airport Extreme, and an Mtron SSD. Everything else on the unit is stock. The video demonstrates the general responsiveness of the OS on the unit and a fully functional, and calibrated, touchscreen. There is some web browsing action, a demo of Boxee, and Front Row, all appearing to work beautifully on the UX390. Not bad for someone who wants OS X in their pocket, am I right? Catch the video below: