A member of the MyDellMini forums has modded a Dell Mini 9 and turned it into a Tablet PC. Rob928 took the netbook, stripped the lid off and trimmed the hinges among other things. He used a “Honda Fun and Easy” solderless touchscreen kit to create the tablet. One issue that was found with the mod, is that due to the design of it, it can get a little hot. It loses it’s heat through the keyboard but because the screen is basically upside down, the heat isn’t ventilated. If that wasn’t enough, he also added Windows 7 to the device, which is described as better for a touch screen device anyway. You can view photos of the various stages through Rob’s Picasa account.

via

A recent check upon LG’s patent filings has revealed that the company is once again looking into making convertible tablet notebooks. We say once again because, apparently, the company came out with a convertible tablet netbook back in 2007, when netbooks weren’t even “invented” yet. The new convertible notebook, according to the patent, will have two different operating systems. One for “notebook mode,” and another for “tablet mode.” Of course, the patent makes no claims that the product will be out soon, but it’s in the works if the drawings and descriptions in the patent are any indication. We’ll update you as soon as more information regarding this product comes out.

USPTO via Electronic Pulp

Meant to replace chalkboards that are still in use in some parts of the world, a tablet PC called I-Slate was created by researchers using the probabilistic CMOS technology designed by a certain Dr. Krishna Palem and his team at Rice University. It was formally announced during the IEEE’s 125th Anniversary event, and is supposedly solar-powered, WiFi-enabled and has support for stylus input. One day, the makers hope to see their chip embedded in all sorts of devices besides the I-Slate tablet like cellphones and TVs. But for now the use of their technology will be limited to their creation, prototypes of which are scheduled to get distributed in India this spring.

Popular Mechanics via Engadget

It looks like an Apple tablet PC or mobile Internet device is about ready for prime time, as shown in a recent patent application filed by Apple at the USPTO. The patent, titled “DISPLAY HOUSING FOR COMPUTING DEVICE”, shows what is obviously a touchscreen-equipped tablet with an Apple logo on its back (above is an exploded view of the device in question). If you recall, Michael Arrington of TechCrunch started a rumor just before the New Year that Apple was going to launch a “large-sized iPod touch in the fall of 2009″. Well, this perfectly fits the bill, and now the only thing left for us to ponder is what variation of OS X this computing device will run. Hopefully, more details will come up in the next few weeks/months. See more photos at the site linked below.

Via Electronic Pulp

Intel is prepping up its newest Classmate PC iteration in time for the CES 2009. This new convertible Classmate PC will of course feature a touchscreen interface as it is the current standard for most netbooks and nettops today.

Slated for a release next month in Las Vegas and to be shipped middle of January 2009 by CTL, the new Classmate convertible PC will have the same table form factor as its brother the CTL 2GO PC.

Laptopmag’s got the chance to have a brief hands-on with the prototype of the new Intel Tablet PC and published the following features, 1.6 GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, 60GB HD, Windows XP and an 8.9 touchscreen LCD.

Laptopmag also noted that the touchscreen feature of the netvertible PC is responsive to both finger and pen stylus input.

Tablet PCs are great computing machines but both comes with a hefty price. That’s why for those who are looking for a portable computing machine with lesser power resort to buying netbook insteads. But what if you can transform your netbook, more particularly the Eee PC 700 and its other variants into an improvised tablet PC complete with touchscreen kit?

Aeeeris Tablet Conversion Kit for the Asus Eee PC might be what you are looking for to make your dream of owning a Tablet PC a reality, sort of. The Aeeeris Tablet Conversion Kit consists of your Eee PC 700 or 701, the Aeeeris Faceplate and a touchscreen kit. And since converting your Eee PC into a Tablet PC, UMPC or an ereader is a DIY project, you would need the following aside from the three parts we mentioned. These materials include:

• Dremel
• Screwdriver
• Thermal Paste
• Needle Nose Pliers
• Double Sided Tape.

The process would also require opening up your Eee PC and tampering with the parts inside. So, unless you have another netbook perhaps or knows about technical stuff, you may want to follow these procedures at the Aeeeris site.

You can buy the Aeeeris kit by contacting the developer there. And you can find the Touchscreen kit at various online stores, for example at DealExtreme.

The touchscreen kit costs about $40.
Aeeeris costs $60.
So for a total cost of $100 you can transform your EEE PC to a tablet PC.

And yes, should you embark on this experiment which the Aeeeris site owner said would take only 30 minutes, we just want to wish you – Goodluck!