Never mind the $1000 netbook, how about forking up $3000 for one? The Acer Aspire One has been blinged up in Zen way by UFO-Hayashi. The art of painting on gadgets appears to be quite popular in Japan, with other devices such as laptops and iPods also being decorated by gadget artist Hayashi. The Zen art on the Acer Aspire One describes spring coming into your life after a winter within your life.
Unfortunately the netbook isn’t up for sale by Acer themselves and it doesn’t appear to be sold by Hayashi either. The netbook is up for auction on eBay with a starting price of $3000. As of yet it hasn’t got any bids on it but it does end in 5 days and is listed by a new member.
e-Machine has just launched a new desktop in Japan called the EL1600, and it’s powered by a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N230 processor with the 945GC Express Chipset. If looks could kill, it wouldn’t have any trouble slaughtering its plainly designed competitors, too. It comes with 1GB of RAM, 160GB of HDD, a DVD Super Multi drive, and Windows XP Home. Pricing starts at 35,000 Yen or about $356 USD. Not sure if it will be available outside Japan, though.
Besides Samsung, there is another famous cellphone-making company dabbling in netbooks. That, of course, is LG, and its latest model–the LG X120–is said to be on schedule for a release in the Japanese before the end of the month, followed by a wider release in April. All things considered, the LG X120 doesn’t really differ much from netbooks in its category. It’s got a standard 10-inch screen, 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, 160GB hard drive, 1GB RAM, Wi-Fi and either a 3-cell or 6-cell battery. It does sport an inbuilt HSPA modem, though, so it would be a great choice for mobile computing enthusiasts who are fond of doing work on the go.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen an Epson netbook, but this looks to be the Japanese company’s whitest one yet. Akihabara News has it that this new model will sport about the same specs as the original, with a 10.2-inch 1024×600 LCD screen, Intel 945GSE Express, 160GB hard drive, Intel Atom N270 processor and 1GB of RAM. However, aside from being available in a color that’s a tad bit whiter, it will also be offered cheaper, about 3000 Yen cheaper according to some estimates. It won’t be winning any “best netbook ever” awards and certainly doesn’t have a killer design, but anyone looking for savings can look this one up and be satisfied.
The DVD burner-equipped Mouse Computer netbook ain’t no myth. You can see it here, in the photo above, live and in the flesh. This photo, along with a couple of others, were taken at Osaka where it is now available. It’s official model name is the Mouse Computer LB-F1500W (wherein LB stands for LuvBook). Surprisingly, the inclusion of a built-in optical drive doesn’t add much to the netbook’s overall footprint. What’s more, it is quoted with a 5.2-hour battery life. Too bad it’s priced insanely, at 64,800 yen in Japan or about $729 USD. Way to break something that would have been great, wouldn’t you agree?
Since Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, it would be a good idea for you male readers out there to start looking for gift ideas while you still can. Sure, your girl might love that cute netbook you’re planning to give her, but wouldn’t it be nice if you add *just* a little more cuteness to it? Yes, it’s not impossible. With the help of glitter, beads, and possibly a little scotch tape, you very easily can. Just check out this girlified Acer Aspire One for inspiration. It belongs to Japanese model Momoka Eri, who doesn’t look so bad herself in her official blog. She actually owns a company that does this kind of stuff, but she won’t be able to service you if you aren’t in Japan. Well, at least she’s given you an idea. Now, try and find out how you can do it on your own.
It was only a matter of time until the next pink edition netbook was announced. This time round, the Eee PC S101 from Asus gets the pink treatment.The S101 is currently available in black, brown or champagne colors, with the pink model being exclusive to Japan. The keyboard and screen bezel remain black in color, with the lid, wrist area and touchpad bringing the pink to the netbook.
Asus are also holding a competition until the 31st of January 2009 that will see 150 winners pick up a pink case for the pink S101 as well as a Swarovski decoration in the shape of a heart. The competition is open to anyone who purchases the pink S101 and registers it before filling in the competition form.
More Wind news with the announcement of the new Wind U100 Vogue netbook from MSI.
The ‘Vogue’ is available in three color variations including pink – “romantic pink”, white – “white angel” and black – “black empire” along with a white model which has heart graphics adorning it’s white exterior, will be Atom powered and was due to be released in Japan on the 13th of this month. There doesn’t seem to be a release planned for the rest of the world currently.
Specifications are posted below and include the addition of Windows XP SP3:
10.2-inch wide display
Intel ® Atom ™ processor (1.6GHz)
Intel ® 945GSE + ICH7M chipset
1GB RAM
160GB HDD
1.3 Megapixel Webcam
260×180×19.4 40mm
IEEE 802.11b/g/n
4-in-1 card reader
Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
The product page is located here, in it’s Google translated form.
Lenovo have already rolled their S10e out to the UK for a starting price of £299 ($440). The S10e is to hit Japan next, on December the 6th for 54,800 JPY ($590).
The increased price indicates that this isn’t the base model, and will instead come with 160GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM and will come installed with Windows XP Home. Other features of the S10e include a 10.1 inch wide screen with a 16:9 ratio, Intel 945GSE Express chipset, 1.3 mega pixel web camera, card reader, bluetooth and wifi.
The netbook will be launching with a white finish, followed by a blue and a pink S10e in January.
JkOnTheRun have posted up a flyer from the press in Japan which gives details of the subsidized 3G service for both the HP 2133 Mini-note netbooks and the Inspiron Mini 9 from Dell. According to their source, the subsidy is worth around $370 if users subscribe to a 2 year deal with EMobile.
Looks like Japan are getting a really good deal on these 3G data plans with their purchases of one of these two desirable netbooks. Hopefully this kind of service will roll out to the rest of the world sooner rather than later.
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