Active Media, known makers of solid state drives for notebooks and netbooks has recently announced a new line of SSDs geared specifically for Eee PC netbooks – the SabreTooth S3.   Specifically, these SSD units will be compatible with Eee PC S101, Eee PC 900, Eee PC 900A and Eee PC 901.

Specs of the SabreTooth S3 SSDs include read speeds of up to 95mbps while write speed is up to 70mbps. Available storage capacities range from 16GB, 32GB and 64GB.

These SSDs should fit the Eee PC Mini PCIe card slot. The 32GB goes for $89.99 and 64GB for $159.99 at Amazon.com.

Via jkOnTheRun, Liliputing

SSD producers, Active Media, have a range of 16GB, 32GB and 64GB SSDs that fit many netbook models. The company have created a video guides on how users can upgrade their SSD. The company has focused on showing how to do the procedure on the Asus Eee PC 901 and the Dell Inspirion Mini 9.

In the videos, the company shows how to open the netbooks to get to the SSD card and replace it. Unfortunately, instructions aren’t included for how to backup your data on to the new SSD and so you may need to re-install the OS along with backing up your files before hand and then moving them onto the new SSD.
Read the rest of this entry »

With more and more netbooks being announced or released almost on a daily basis, it’s surprising to see some netbooks go over $400 when similar speced machines go for less. If you want to keep your netbook cheap and portable, Liliputing have put together a list of 19 netbooks which all fall under $350 and come with a 9 inch display or 10 inch. The Asus Eee PC 1000HA, Lenovo IdeaPad S10, Acer Aspire One D150 and MSI Wind U100 are all available for $349. The MSI Wind U100 is also available for $299 and comes with a 3 cell battery. The $349.99 U100 comes with a 6 cell battery and in pink. Likewise the MSI Wind U120 comes in under $350 with a price tag of $319.99 and a 6 cell battery.

The HP Mini 1000 Mi Edition is available in a 10 inch or 8.9 inch model, priced at $279.99 for the 8.9 inch and an additional $40 to upgrade to a 10 inch display. The standard HP Mini 1000 comes in at just under $300, priced at $298.97, along with the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 ($299) and the Asus Eee PC 900HA ($293.99). The upgraded 904HA is available for $15 more at $308.40 bringing with it a larger keyboard like you’d find on a 10 inch model. The Acer Aspire One with a 160GB hard drive teeters on the $300 mark with a 3 cell battery, but a 6 cell battery model will add an extra $30 to the price tag. Where as the 8GB SSD version with Linux will set you back $273.28. Interestingly, the XP model is cheaper at $239.

Other 9 inch netbooks noted in the list include the Dell Inspiron Mini 9n ($249), refurbished Eee PC 900s which sell for $180 and the Eee PC 901 ($279.99).

Remember the uber cool contest we told you about which requires you to blog about an Asus laptop for four weeks. The said contest has been extended and is now being handled by Electricpig.  Applications will be accepted until April 22, and the blogging activities shall commence until April 28.

As a review, Asus will give you a laptop of your choice to use. You are required to blog about your experience using the Asus laptop. You will be required to come up with 3 200 words blog posts a week for four week. So that practically sums up to 12 blog posts for the duration of the contest.

At the end of the contest period, Asus will give you a new Eee PC 901 as a thank you note. What’s more, if you are chosen as the Asus Blogger by public vote, you get to keep the Asus laptop that you used. What can be more cooler than that?

The contest is open to UK residents only. So if you are qualified, head over to Electricpig for more details.  And good luck!

Now this is a really good deal! For only $268 (with free shipping) you get a ASUS Eee PC 901 with the following specifications:

• Internal storage: 20 GB SSD
• RAM: 1 GB DDR2
• Processor: 1.6 GHz Intel Atom N270
• Memory expansion: Slot for MMC/SD(SDHC) cards
• Operating system: Linux
• LCD: 8.9 inches, 1024 x 600 pixels
• Networking: Tri-mode Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n), 10/100 Fast Ethernet
• Peripheral connectivity: Three USB 2.0
• External video: One VGA
• External audio: One headphone and one microphone port
• Webcamera: Yes, 1.3 megapixels
• Battery: 6 cells, up to 6 hours
• Weight: 2.42 pounds (38 ounces)
• Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.9 x 1.5 inches

Grab this one fast at Amazon.com

If you want Windows XP and a 12GB SSD instead of Linux and a 20GB SSD, there is a model that have the same price.

Via Engadget

If you’re living in Taiwan or your visiting the country any time soon, you may want to bring your Eee PC 901 with you and have it’s SSD’s upgraded by technicians of  Asus service center in Taiwan.  The upgrade will set you back for around $43.

Although it was not announced what type of SSDs will be used, the upgrade storage would depend on the existing capacity of your Eee PC 901’s SSDs. So if you have 4GB it will be upgraded to 16GB, or 12GB to 24 GB and so on.

Via Portable Monkey

ABI Research has conducted a survey in the US of over 1000 adult consumers. The survey focuses around how people view netbooks and MIDs.

From the survey, a huge 79% said that they viewed netbooks as an accompaniment to laptops or desktops. While only 11% said they would use a netbook as their primary device.

Shane from Ars Technica seems to agree with the results from the survey as he himself uses a desktop primarily. While his MSI Wind is used as his secondary device, it is noted that it has however, replaced his laptop. Personally, I would be amongst those 11% of consumers that use their netbook as their primary device – an MSI Wind clone replaced my laptop and is used more than my desktop computer, which is used for the only thing traditional netbooks can’t do – read or burn disks.

Would the survey results have been different if you’d answered the questions? Tell us if you use your netbook as your primary device and why or why not.

From July up to this month, the Eee PC phenomeno surges on although it quite down a bit from November to December.

Top Eee PC Related News of 2008 (July-Dec) Read the rest of this entry »

We all know Techmeme as being the web’s top news aggregator read by many as many times as possible. They currently posted Techmeme’s Top 10 Objectively Biggest Tech Stories of 2008. Unfortunately, none of the news items were related to the Eee PC.

So, we decided to come up with our own 2008 Eee PC List, using the Eee PC-related news items that made it to the headline page of Techmeme. But we’re not just going to give you the top 10 as we are in not in the position to rank this Eee PC news items according to their popularity. Instead, we’ve scoured through Techmeme’s 2008 news headlines and picked up those Eee PC News which hit the Techmeme headlines. HappEEEPC New Year everyone! Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks to  jkkmobile, the new 10 cell 13000mAh battery for the Asus Eee PC 901 netbook is in hiding. Branded the “ugliest battery ever”, the huge extended life battery is a little hurt by such a claim. To be fair though, Ive seen smaller batteries on mopeds, so JKK might just be right!

The 10 cell beast was received recently by EeeUser forum member lqbweb who promptly posted images of his new battery on the forums. The battery should apparently offer up a good 10-14 hour battery life according to JKK so if you can cope with the ‘hammerhead look’ and the extra bulk attached to your Eee PC (I would imagine the size and shape of the battery could cause a few issues especially if you are trying to balance the netbook on your lap for example) then the extended life this 10 cell battery can offer isn’t too bad.

Hands up who thinks this is the ugliest battery ever? If it does the job well, it shouldn’t matter – looks aren’t everything after all but, this battery really isn’t pretty!