Netbooks News, Hacks and HowTo’s

On October 16, 2007, the first 701 based Eee PC model was released in Taiwan, and we’re still in search of that lucky guy, who must be the first ever owner of an Eee PC.

Now, let’s celebrate for its first year. Happy Birthday!!!

Highlights:

• Before 2007 ended, Asus was able to ship over 300,000 units all across the world.
• There were hack ideas from jkk, tnkgrl, jkk, jkk and jkk.
• Later on, Asus unveiled the second generation Eee PC which was the 900 series. They had several models on the 900 series such as 900A, 901, 904HD, etc.
• Many products from different brands rose out and dubbed themselves as the Eee PC Killers.
• Battery supply has been the talk of the internet when a fire at LG stopped its production.
• 1000 series was introduced.
• Followed by NC10 which they argue it’s not a netbook.
• Then the S101 which is currently the prettiest netbook ever.
• Eee Boox was introduced as well.
• Eee PC was awarded as the Hardware of the Year by PC Pro.
• And Technology Innovator award.
• And Gadget of the Year by Stuff Magazine.

Sorry: This is a scheduled post and I was not able to finish it before it was posted. There’s a lot more that I missed on this post, but you’ll certainly be able to find anything about it when you google it. Like Virus on the Eee Box, Touchscreen Eee PC, and a more and more…

Well, it’s here. Happy Birthday.

In a report from Digitimes, AsusTek says that early next year, they will be launching Eee PC with touch panel. There’s no further details about the design and specs yet, but Asus is trying to get customer inputs and market demand before they decide. And with all the successes brougth by the Eee PC line, Asus expects their sales to further increase with this soon to be born Eee PC. The product will be introduced during CES 2009, but there will probably leaked pictures coming out before it. Now, this can be something that leads to what was said before, that Eee PC will eventually evolve to a full touchscreen-input device, rather than traditional clamshell.

To give them an idea for the design, we would like to see the touchscreen Eee PC in a monitor that slides up to reveal the base and keyboard, rather than Gigabyte’s design.

Also in the report, Asus mentions that they will be launching Dual Core Intel Atom based Eee PCs, as soon as Intel starts shipping the CPUs.

Warning: This is an old topic, I just thought it might still be helpful.

Despite all the good things about the Eee PC, there’s also annoyances we’ve been hearing as well. The least I should say is the Right-Shift key, which most user thinks it was misplaced (and small as well). Seems to be true, and we think it’s because of the limited real estate of the keyboard.

Most of us are probably used to using both shift keys when typing, and we can’t blame ourselves if we had to have few errors when typing. But there are always solutions to go around any problems. And this one’s not too big to annoy everyone.

There’s an option that needs hacks to make the keyboard work for you as expected. But it will also require moving keys (arrow up key and shift key). It seems very easy to do, practiced by many users already, but I still opt not to do the same on my Eee PC. It never took a day from me before I get used to using only the left key when I type. On my observation, it did not impact my typing speed at all. The only effect I noticed is that I have not been using the right key anymore, even though I am using the regular sized keyboard.

Who else have tried moving the keys on their Eee PC? And how many of you have opted to practice typing with left shift key?

There has been so many reviews about Asus Eee PC, particularly the Asus Eee PC 701 since it’s the first ever netbook I know to come out and show off. I had mine for almost a year now but have not been able to test it at full speed.

I have been using my Eee PC at it’s most conservative setting @ 630 Mhz. It’s on Ubuntu most of the time, but when it got a chance to try Windows XP, I was able to set it at full speed using the eeectl application. Fan is set to automatic so it sets itself to its most comfortable preference.

Heck I was surprised, my battery drained in just 1 hour and 15 minutes, while I was doing nothing too heavy for Eee PC like just surfing blogs and typing comments every once in a while. The other day, I was able to watch 2 movies with 1:40 mins each at 630 Mhz, and I still got some spare power on my battery for shutting down and booting up again. I have 4400 mAh battery, by the way.

Well, I’m not sure if this is normal or something wrong is happening. I would also want to post a screenshot of the battery meter but I don’t know how to do it while it’s 0%.

It’s totally worth trying to run different OS on your Asus Eee to learn and for something new. At least for me. And my hat’s off for jair2k4 for successfully installing Windows 3.11 on his Eee PC 701. Take a look at a couple screenshots on his page and have your thoughts of it. The OS supports the ethernet but I guess it does not work for wifi.

[via liliputing]

Reported at Laptop Advisor, for the cheapest price of ¥100, one can avail an Asus Eee PC 701 in Japan with publication data plan.

The preparation is tagged sandwiched between $30 and $65 every month.

Surely you’ll miss the effects and animations of your Compiz-Fusion if you get used to Ubuntu and then eventually switched to Windows XP. The rotating 3D effect, which totally amazes your friends who hate Linux. I switched to Windows XP so that not only me can communicate with my Asus Eee.

Well, you’ll not totally miss Compiz-Fusion with Yodm 3D anymore. At least the rotating desktop. Can’t wait to try it!

via My Asus Eee PC

It seems like there’s no stopping for Asus on producing new variations of Eee PC. They are actually like mushrooms popping out in every corner of the Netbook market. Four new flavors came out this week in Taiwan and not sure if the units will become available in other countries as well, but most probably yes. Just a guess.

New flavors of Asus Eee PC includes the following and will all run in Windows XP.

• 1000HD XP 80GB SATA HDD
• 904HD XP 80GB SATA HDD
• 901 XP 12GB SSD
• 900 XP 6GB SSD

via Slashgear