Netbooks News, Hacks and HowTo’s

This morning, ASUS held a press launch for their latest ultraportable, the Eee PC 900. It is the newer version of the original 701 series, sporting wider screen and higher resolution. It also stands with higher disk capacity, 20GB and 12GB for Linux and Windows versions respectively. Both versions will have base SSD capacity of 4GB and the extra volumes are Flash Drives. Other advantages of the Eee PC 900 over the 701 are the FingerGlide touchpad, higher RAM capacity and the 1.3 MP camera.

AsusTek, Microsoft, Intel Execs.

During an interview with Ethan Hung, one of the Execs, he announced that there will be several versions of Eee PC 900 coming up this year, including the multi-touchscreen version, longer-lasting battery version and the Intel Atom in June, which I believe will be quite expensive. [ Read ]

Black Asus Eee PC 900. Rare.

Hung also said that while Microsoft’s support for Windows XP will end sometime in June, ASUS will continue the support for their customers as long as they can.

Another thing from Hung is that the Eee PC 900 will come with 4400 mAh. Sad to hear about this when the higher capacity cells are not on their way yet. In Hong Kong, they replaced all 4400 mAh batteries with higher ones because when they demoed the Eee PC 900 there, they use higher capacity cells and customers expected to have it. But Hung confirmed it’s really supposed to have 4400 mAh only. Poor battery performance.

Apart from ASUS, Intel was also at the press launch to share their part on this high-rising trend of ultraportables. Microsoft also shared their part on how they sinked-in Windows XP and some productive tools ( MS LIVE and MS WORKS 9 ), which is quite impressive since it has all your basic needs. That’s according to them, I still want to prove it myself.

Final SRP in the Philippines was revealed at Php 24,999.00.

Globlines, a local Telco in the Philippines is offering a postpaid bundle of Asus Eee PC with up to 384 kbps Broadband speed for Php 1,620/mo (cash basis) for 24 months. The primary target of this promo are families with relatives in other countries, to have a cheaper means of communication.

But there’s a little problem I noticed with the promo. I saw a demo of the promo one time and they were using a black 4G eee pc. They were actually demoing it to some customers which are mostly not too inclined with computers, showing off the video calling capability. But when you check their actual package offered, it only includes the 2G version.

Anyway, in my opinion, the said price is not reasonable for the package. How frequent does the broadband speed reach the 384 kbps? And by the end of the 24 month lock-in period, what’s the value of Asus Eee PC 2G?

When the first editions of Asus Eee PC was introduced in the Philippines, retailers were somehow too greedy of their prices. From $425, it can go as high as $500 for 4G surf version in different stores. That’s around Php 17,000 to Php 20,000 with the current rate conversion.

Now that the Eee PC 900 is getting closer, prices of the first generation Asus Eee starts to drop as well. According to a thread in EeePH, an Asus Eee community in the Philippines, prices can now go as low as Php 16,000 for 4G and Php 21,000 for the 8G.

Via asuseeehacks

One weird thing I encountered when I installed Ubuntu Eee on my Eee PC is that the screen just shuts off just suddenly and at first, I blamed Ubuntu Eee. I was wrong.

Whenever I browse in Firefox and starts scrolling long pages, the system starts to crawl as well and eventually the monitor will shut down in few minutes. To be more sure about it, I browsed the same heavy page with Opera and it was smooth. I tried again with Firefox and boom, it shut off.

So I guess that could be an evidence. So I uninstalled Firefox 3 Beta and replaced it with Firefox 2 and it was smooth. I kept the Opera browser as backup when the problem comes back.

This might not be the exact reason and solution to this kind of problem but it worked for me. I’m keeping my Ubuntu Eee for a while until I find time to install and test another OS on my eee pc…

If you’re famous, and everyone gets envious, expect death threats. Asus EEE PC is famous, thus, a lot of so called ASUS EEE PC KILLERS popped out like mushrooms weeks after the eee pc was born.

The newest hitman I read about is the 3K Longitude 400 Mini-Notebook which just came from nowhere. It sports an equally powered 7 inches screen, WiFi, SD Reader, 3 USB ports and rides on a horse that runs at 400Mhz. You can hire one at $400.

I say good luck to this one and I hope it can catch up with the EEE PC.

Via liliputing.

After so much issues I encountered installing and configuring Ubuntu Eee on my Eee PC, I was finally able to make it work like complete OS. Compiz Fusion is also working but apparently, it crawls easily. I’m running it on my 630Mhz, 512MB Asus Eee PC.
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Ubuntu EEE comes along with compiz-fusion so you don’t have to post-install it. It is pre-configured to its default values, thus, desktop cube and other coolness factor of compiz don’t work initially. Now, you have to install, compizconfig-settings-manager (ccsm). ccsm is an application, very useful in configuring compiz-fusion. It comes with pre-installed plugins including Desktop Cube, Rotate Cube, etc. etc.

HowTo install compizconfig-settings-manager on Hardy Heron

sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager

After ccsm is successfully installed, you may now follow Forlong’s guide on how to setup compiz-fusion.

Note that it’s not vital to have the rotating cube and all eye candies, but it’s worth it. Cool to have it. Here’s mine.

Truly is. John Ramvi once mentioned the title on a comment to my previous post. It was indeed. I just finished installing Ubuntu Eee for the 6th time. And this time, I did not even think of opening the Screen and Graphics.

With my previous installations, I always had to fix the screen resolution after the next restart. Why? Because the first time the system boot up, I used to take a look at the Screen and Graphics to check the available resolutions, then back up the xorg.conf. Just in case I might need it. Then the next boot, I always see a warning dialog box saying something like “Ubuntu Eee is running at a very low resolution.”

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