Still remember Dell’s first netbook which Dell officially retired sometime in June 2009?  Well, if you’re on e of those who got disappointed when this happened, probably because you were eyeing the said netbook, well here’s your chance to finally get it. Dell is offering the Inspiron Mini 9 again, but only for four days.

Here’s what the Inspiron Mini 9 has to say about its limited time comeback. (I would have to admit that this is one cute way of writing an announcement):

A few months ago Anne C. was kind enough publish a post about my retirement. It was an bittersweet moment for me – being the “eldest” of the Dell Inspiron Mini portfolio, but my siblings the Mini 10 and the Mini 10v have been introduced, and frankly are capable of offering anything I can, plus more. Imagine my surprise when I got the call to return for a limited engagement. I checked my 401(k) and saw that it really wasn’t at the point I needed it to be to support a comfortable retirement, so I have agreed to return.

I am back, for a limited time, and for now can be found as part of a few key limited time promotional deals on dell.com. Both Ubuntu (starting at $199) and XP versions are available, as are a few color options (Obsidian Black and Alpine White are standard, Jade Green and Promise Pink add $40). Not to sound immodest, but I do want to acknowledge and thank my fan club members who expanded my pre-retirement horizons with various mods and hacks. I hope to renew our acquaintance, even if for a short time and continue our adventures. I do want to assure that this will be my last appearance – I disdain those “final sales” campaigns that seem to go on perpetually. Next time I retire, it will be for good.

So, tell me folks, can you resist such kind of publicity stunt?

If you’re really interested in getting the Inspiron Mini 9, you better head over to this site.

Via Gadgetell

For anyone who is feeling adventurous or just fancies a change from the ‘usual’ operating systems on their netbook, a new version of MilaX has been released, along with a version which is optimized for use with the Asus Eee PC netbook, as reported on Liliputing.

MilaX runs from a USB stick and is an OS based on the Solaris Nevada operating system. The new version – v0.4 and the  0.4 Eee PC LiveUSB version, have been released and are ideal for netbooks due to their minimal need to use system resources.

Reports are that by using the Eee PC optimized version on your Eee PC netbook both wifi and ethernet are working with the OS.

Both the 0.4 Eee PC LiveUSB version of MilaX and the 0.4 version can be found here.

Windows 7 has been tested and deemed impressive on yet another netbook. This time round it’s the Advent 4211. As Windows 7 has previously been tested on the MSI Wind U100, it’s no surprise to read the results of Windows 7 on the 4211, which is a rebadged MSI Wind.

The installation is described as being quick and easy, with Windows 7 up and running within 30 minutes. Once installed the Wifi drivers needed to be downloaded and installed if you plan to browse the net wirelessly. The System Control Manager, which provides on screen details on the brightness, volume and whether bluetooth and wifi are switched on, is also an additional download if you wish to keep this feature on Windows 7.

GamezandGadgetz soon put the netbook to the test by firing up several Firefox windows, Adobe Photoshop, Windows Media Player as well as Windows Live applications. The netbook took all these tasks easily, with the only problems occurring while using Winrar. Desktop Preview is also reported to run smoothly, even with all of the above applications open.

For those unfamiliar with the Advent 4211, a UK exclusive netbook, GamezandGadgetz have also posted a review up on the netbook shortly before the results of Windows 7 on the netbook were posted. Featuring the same specifications as the MSI Wind, the netbook retails for £280 from UK retailer PC World, which is slightly higher than other netbooks. The review states that the extra price difference really is worth it though as it features a familiar operating system, a good hard drive size as well as a good screen size and sturdy keyboard. Installing Windows 7 has only made the netbook even better.

When netbooks were first introduced to market, a lot of people didn’t know where these devices were headed. After all, it was a time when many were rocking OS X and Windows Vista with Intel Core 2 Duo processors, then netbooks came along with a lightweight flavor of Linux and low-power Celeron chips. Slowly but surely Linux gained market share thanks to the popularity of netbooks that followed, but soon people realized they needed Windows on these machines, and Linux was forgotten again little by litte. Now, Robin Harris from ZDNet says that Windows currently claims an 80% attach rate for netbooks. It appears people just still can’t live without help from Microsoft on their computers.

Does this mean that Linux will now just fade away like a fad, and its usage remain only with the hardcore computer users that want more freedom than compatibility in their computing setups? Something tells me yes. And with the advent of Windows 7 for netbooks, especially if Microsoft gets the pricing right upon final release, we just might never see Linux on netbooks ever again. When that happens, I can’t say I will be surprised. I’ll probably just wonder why it hasn’t happened sooner.

Via Storage Bits

Gizmag have done a little research on which games run perfectly well on a netbook – games that don’t need the resources to play them that netbooks generally don’t have.

The netbook they used to test the games out is the Lenovo IdeaPad S10 which should mean any Atom based netbook using the Intel GMA 950 graphics module will run the games with no problems also, allowing gamers like myself to enjoy some light gaming relief on our netbooks.

Obviously, you won’t be playing games like Crysis, which is hugely resource intensive, on your netbook but, there are some great titles that Gizmag have noted as working on their S10 including Beneath a Steel Sky which is a free classic adventure game, popular MMORPG Eve online and a handful of Steam titles. Of course their list isn’t exhaustive, there are many other games that a netbook can handle and if any of our readers know of any other working games and would like to add to the list we’d love to hear from you.

Thanks to Brad at Liliputing for the heads up on the new BIOS update from MSI for the Wind U100 netbook.

The update reportedly works fine if you are running Windows XP or a hackintosh Wind running OS X and fixes a few small problems such as an issue affecting the S4 sleep mode. The update is also reported to work on the Advent 4211, which is a Wind clone so it figures that it would, too.

Full changelog for version 1.0A of the BIOS:

1. Fixed auto into S4 issue.
2. DOC percentage item add warning message in setup menu.
3. Update EC file.

Only minor changes but, for owners of  an MSI Wind (or perhaps, a clone of), the BIOS update can be found and downloaded here on the official MSI website.

If you are one of those adventurous Eee PC owners that have had the desire to install OS X on your netbook and turn it into a “Hackintosh” then you may be pleased to know that thanks to some persistant hackers and a new application, your sound issues – it has been virtually impossible to get sound working when using OS X on an Eee PC until now – can all be solved.

Hackers have created a work around, similar to the method used to get sound working on the MSI Wind. You need to install a different audio driver and the Apple developer tools first of all and then grab the new application that developer ipis OS X have created. Audieee allows the sound to be controlled from the menu bar on OS X, allowing you to switch between headphones/speakers as your output of choice, something that doesnt happen automatically yet but, be sure there is a hacker somewhere working on a fix for this too.

A member over at the msiwind.net forums named tankboyben has posted up pictures of their home designed netbook, a rebranded MSI Wind, the Advent 4211. The budding netbook designer has used wood effect sticky vinyl to cover the lid of the 4211 and to cover the trackpad too:

Read the rest of this entry »

Medion and Sainsbury’s have reduced the price of the Medion Akoya Mini netbook to £279 in the UK. That works out at around $480 for the MSI Wind U100 clone.

The medion netbook is only available across Europe and comes complete with a 10.2 inch screen, an Intel Atom CPU, 1GB of memory and a 80GB hard drive. It comes in at the same price as the Advent 4211 (£279 at PC World – UK) netbook and with similar specs they are both decent value netbooks however, the 4211 does come with Bluetooth built in for extra connectivity.

It’s good to see another UK retailer selling netbooks and becoming competitive in doing so, it can only be positive for UK netbook buyers and EeePC.net have also discovered that Medion have reduced the price of their Akoya Mini on their own website here in line with the reduction by Sainsbury’s which is great news all round.

If there will be an award this year for the netbook with the most number of clones worldwide, the MSI Wind will definitely win that award without any objection. Latest information from Cloudbook UMPC showed that there are already 18 MSI Wind clones released so far, including the MSI Worldwide version. And as Liliputing noted, a Wikipedia entry listed 17 clones, but those data may not be updated yet that why it doesn’t tally with the Cloudbook UMPC list.

Each of these MSI Clones sport different names on each of the country. And so far, the most popular of them is the Medion Akoya Mini which was released in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, The Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, France and Ireland.

Here’s the complete list of the MSI Wind OEM’s as compiled by Cloudbook UMPC:

• MSI Wind U100 (Worldwide)
• RoverBook Neo U100 (Russia)
• Advent 4211 (Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Swiss, U.K.)
• Medion Akoya Mini (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, The Netherlands)
• MyBook M11 ( Denmark)
• Mivvy M310 (Czech Republic)
• Tsunami Moover T10 (Portugal)
• Casper Minibook (Turkey)
• Datron Mobee N011 (Turkey)
• Proline U100 UMPC (South Africa)
• CMS ICBook M1 (Vietnam)
• HCL MiLeap MH 04 (India)
• Axioo Pico (Singapore, Indonesia)
• Averatec Netbook (U.S.)
• Mouse LuvBook U100 (Japan)
• Portatil Beep Iridium U10 (Spain)
• Ahtec LUG N011 (Belgium, Netherlands, Spain)
• Sylvania MAGNI Netbook (U.S.)

Those are definitely a lot of numbers for such a netbook which is just the second most popular netbook next to the Eee PC.