Mobile Computer Mag had a chance to check out a prototype model of the upcoming Asus T91 tablet-netbook [Portal page] and they captured a great hardware overview, with commentary, on camera. Have a look below:

Something interesting that we see in this video is a SIM slot built into the device. As they mentioned, it isn’t clear yet if this is something they are testing, or something that will be available when the unit launches (we’re hoping for the latter). I’m excited to see the convertible tablet form factor making its way down to netbooks. It seems like a low cost tablet-netbook could be a great way to expand the tablet-PC user base. It is also good that one of the first of these that we are seeing is coming from a reputable netbook maker, Asus. It seems like it will still be a balancing act to get a good price:quality ratio compared to current netbooks when you consider the fact that you need to get the touchscreen and swiveling lid on the unit.

If you are interested to see what the software end of the netbook will look like, don’t miss this post.

[Liliputing]

Welcome back to another edition of the WRN roundup, here is some interesting items from this week:

• Sony VAIO P – HSDPA mod — Tnkgrl of tnkgrl Mobile, has managed to unlock the VAIO P’s EVDO only 3G to allow for HSDPA as well; all it took was a $1 part and a bit of hacking.

• Dell officially launches Inspiron Mini 10 in France â€” The Inspiron Mini 10 has been officially launched in France. Still looking forward to trying one of these out for the unique buttonless trackpad and the high resolution monitor.

• Acer Aspire One AOD150 now shipping in the US — Acer’s second generation netbook is now on sale in the US and for only $350! We liked the first one and are hoping that this one will live surpass the quality of the first.

• SSD Test: RunCore Mini PCI-e SATA SSD for Asus Eee PCs — Jkk does a video test of RunCore SSDs for Eee PCs and sees some pretty impressive speeds. Remember though, these aren’t blindingly fast and super-expensive, but rather have a good price:speed ratio.

• HP Mini 1000 accessories — Brad from Liliputing points us to an HP Mini 1000 [Portal page] site with accessories available for the Mini 1000. A few things are available to order today but the VGA adapter and Mobile Mini Drive still aren’t available yet. Check out our Mini 1000 MIE coverage here.

• Sony Vaio P battery life: Standard vs. Extended — Jenn of Pocketables.net continues here thorough coverage of the VAIO P with tests of the 2- and 4-cell batteries. Click through for a full chart featuring the length that the batteries lasted while running different tasks. While the 2-cell battery probably won’t satisfy your daily computing needs, the 4-cell managed to last just over 6 hours browsing the web (with one hour of that taken up by playing a flash video).

My biggest complaint about many of the netbooks on the market over the last year is that some of them can’t seem to get the keyboard right. Even when the size of the keyboard is reasonable, there can be some problems with key placement, the biggest offender being the incredibly annoying small shift key on the Eee line of Asus netbooks. For someone who really types on a keyboard, and doesn’t hunt and peck, the tiny shift key, which is often on the wrong side of the arrow keys, is a major annoyance. Missing the shift key is one thing, but accidentally hitting the up arrow key causes a whole slew of issues that really get in the way of serious typing.

A few sites got news that Asus would be switching up its keyboard arrangement, and now we can see concrete evidence of this from some of the models being shown at CES 09′. Several new Eee models are featuring the updated keyboard which moves the shift key to the left of the up arrow and increases its size. Some of the new models include the new Eee T101H 10″ ‘tablet netbook’.

[Liliputing]

Dynamism kindly provided us with an Asus R50A [Portal page] to take a look at. It is a slate ultra mobile PC with a 32GB SSD, 5.6″ screen, 1GB of RAM, 3G connectivity, and the less power hungry 1.3GHz Z520 Atom CPU. Will the R50A cut it as a quality UMPC? You’ll have to wait for the full review to find out. For now have a look at the unboxing below and read some initial impressions.

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Read the full story

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.

I just choked on my cuppa! Euro 1450 for the ASUS R50a is a shocking price. Even more so when you know that Vista isn’t very spritely on the 1.3Ghz Silverthorne processor. The R50a is said to have a fairly fast SSD which will help a lot but still… Maybe this video will help you decide yourself. I’m off to wipe my screen down!

All R50 links, specs and resources in the product page.

Via JKKMobile.

The oxymoron-ical "luxury netbook" that is the Eee S101 [Portal page] has now touched down in the US. The S101 can be bought for $699, though people new to the netbook space should be aware that there are other netbooks that easily compare in performance to the S101, but cost a few hundred dollars less. The S101 manages to be so expensive because of its high styling and thin physique. It looks like all of the initial US models have a 16GB SSD, and are available in graphite and brown colors.

S101 purchase page links:

• Newegg.com
• Amazon.com
• Zipzoomfly.com 

[Liliputing]

There has been lots of attention around this end of the blogosphere lately about a site launched by Intel and Asus. The site is called WePC, and it hopes to collectively gather the best ideas for a laptop. Users can submit just an idea, or a complete idea of their dream computer. Submissions can be voted on by the community, and the site says that Asus will build the best computer (based on community votes), and Intel will power it.

The idea seems pretty cool and I’m very excited to see what ends up happening with this project. I’m impressed by the site itself and the time that Asus and Intel put into it. The submission form includes a few fields to enter a name and description for your idea or computer, and even a widget to let you draw your computer.

Have an idea? I encourage you all to submit it to the site; this is a great opportunity to give one of the biggest netbook manufacturers some feedback and suggestions, even if you idea doesn’t come to fruition. Be sure to check out some of the ideas that have already been submitted.