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.

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:

I was baffled during my review of the Acer Aspire One [Portal page] at the apparent lack of power management software that should have been included with the netbook. Aside from some hardware toggles, there were no settings beyond the default Windows power options to help get the most from your battery. I reported a while back on a nice utility that allowed users to control their Aspire One’s fan, but there wasn’t much more in the way of power management.

Luckily there are people out that who are passionate enough about their technology to spend time making good software for them. Take a look at a small freeware utility called a1ctl. For its tiny size, this utility has a lot of features:

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Read the full story

One of the most popular netbooks here in the Portal can be bought from my favorite deal-a-day website, Woot.com for $289. I’ll cut right to the chase so that those of you who want the Aspire One can get the facts and go pick one up before they sell out!

Take a quick look at my Aspire One review to get a general feel for the hardware; software review can be disregarded as the Aspire One on Woot is running Linpus Lite (Linux) instead of XP like the one I reviewed (of course you could always put your own OS on it). So anyway, here is what you are going to get for $289 (+$5 shipping):

• 1.6 GHz Atom N270 CPU
• 512MB of RAM
• 8GB SSD
• 1024×600 8.9" screen
• Linpus Lite (Linux) OS
• All the other goodies that are common across every Aspire Ones

And there you have it, you can pick up a nice netbook for $289 if you are quick on the trigger, I feel certain that it will sell out quickly. Remember, the deal will only be available today and only until it sells out. Make haste!

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:

(click to see larger)

I only wish there were some videos of it in action, it looks very impressive from the images. Swing by the todoultra mobile PC forums to see all of them.

[jkOnTheRun]

Coming off of the Acer Aspire One review, I was baffled at the inability to control many of the hardware components in the interest of power-saving. Maybe a remedy to a small part of that is the Aspire One fan control utility, which is a freeware application written by Ralf Neumüller.

Just download the tiny file (right around 700kb), unzip, run the installer file, then launch using the AA1 Fan Control icon within the same folder. Once you run the installer, you can put the icon anywhere for easy to reach access. You’ll need to do a restart after the installer runs. Once you boot back up you can launch the fan control utility and you will be greeted with a clean little bar that pops out of the task bar and will allow you to change the temp threshold for when the fan turns on/off. You can also see the current temperature of the CPU.

A quick install on the Aspire One that is heading out soon and I was able to confirm that it works on XP as well as Vista (judging by the image on the AA1 Fan Control download page). It looks like it has also been recently updated to work with all Aspire One BIOS. Just make sure you know what you are doing when changing the fan thresholds so you don’t end up frying your Aspire One!

[Liliputing]

Allow me to introduce you to the recently released Acer Aspire One. The Aspire One is Acer’s first foray into the netbook space. It is nice to see lesser recognized laptop OEMs such as Acer have the ability to jump quickly into the netbook area with a quality product. I have been testing the Aspire One, provided by Dynamism, for the last few weeks and I have had a positive experience with the computer which is the first Atom based device I have used.

The Aspire One that I have been testing has a 1.6GHz Atom CPU, 1GB of RAM, 120GB HDD, and Windows XP ($450 with that configuration). The whole unit can be bought starting at a very reasonable $399.

Hardware Tour

Check out the formal unboxing here.

Front: Nothing on the front but a spring loaded WLAN radio toggle.

Left Side (right to left): AC plug, VGA output, small vent, 10/100 ethernet, USB 2.0 port, SD slot (SD only).

Back: Nothing but battery. Under the battery is a faux SIM card slot, presumably for integrated 3G on later models.

Right Side: Mic input, audio output, USB 2.0 port x2, multi-card reader (MMC, SD, xD, Memory Sick), Kensington lock.

LED Indicators: Battery status, HDD use, Num-Lock, Caps-Lock.

Screen: 0.3 MP camera.

And a quick size comparison shot.