Some guy has ripped out the 9" Eee screen and tested it on a 7" unit, and it works. Sort of.

Maybe there will be a grey market for screen upgrades on the 7" unit.

Tags: asus, eee, hacks

A hyper-modified Eee is being sold on eBay for over $3000. Hard. Core.

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CNET and Trusted Reviews have new reviews of the 9" EEE PC.



I love the new screen, but I think the price boost takes away the "cheap appeal" of the original Eee. Once you breach the 600 dollar range, it's a hard call between buying a full powered laptop and a portable surfing device. With HP's new gear, the small and cheap laptop space is going to get crowded.

Having said that, the Eee's form factor is near perfect when you're traveling. My first generation Eee was indispensable during my trip to San Francisco. I was able to plan my itineraries and book restaurant reservations from the convenience of my hotel room without having to lug a full sized laptop during my travels.

Tags: asus, eee

Looks like the freshly minted HP Mini-Note 2133 is a nice little contender to the cheap and small notebook niche currently owned by Asus.

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So after a long 7 month project, I decided to reward myself with a nice little gadget. It came down to getting an iPod Touch, or an Asus Eee. It was a close decision, but seeing how I plan on getting an iPhone as soon as it's officially available in Canada, it made no sense to get a Touch.

For those of you who aren't gadget freaks, the Asus Eee is a tiny, inexpensive little notebook. The screen is small by today's standards (800x480), but depending on what you are looking for, it's a device with a lot of modding potential. Myself, I'm looking for a device that allows me to surf everywhere (and by that, of course, that would include the throne) and to do some instant messaging.



Out of the box, the Eee comes with a dumbed-down version of Xandros Desktop. By dumbed down, I mean dumbed down. Having used that interface for all of maybe two hours, I'm not even sure I'm convinced that it's great for "grandma" mode. Getting the wireless to work was a serious pain. When it comes to Linux distros, I'm more partial to Ubuntu than Xandros. The fact that you can upgrade the Eee to 2GB of RAM with Xandros supporting only 1GB made it a non-starter.

Fortunately, the Eee is like any other x86 notebook. You can install just about any OS on it, including Windows. There is currently work being done on custom Xubuntu and Fedora distros for the Eee. Personally, the OS I'd like to use on the Eee is Haiku, the open-source project that aims to revive BeOS -- my favorite hobbyist OS ever (BeOS, however, still doesn't hold a candle to Leopard, which I use every day).

As the Eee is based on using SSD technology, tweakers should be careful about how they install the OS on the unit. Heavy OS swapping, over time, will kill the drive.

With a price point between 300 and 400 bucks, the Eee is surprisingly well constructed. It's only a little thicker than the hardcover notebooks I carry to meetings, and while cramped, the keyboard is usable for the average person. Peeps with big paws should avoid this sucker. I got a black one, mainly because most of the currently shipping white ones don't have an access panel to upgrade the RAM. In any case, the form factor of the Eee to me feels like a smaller version of a Lenovo Thinkpad - a Good Thing.

While it is no Macbook Air, the Eee is a handy and useful connectivity device. If your expectations are realistic, it's a great, inexpensive buy.

Tags: asus, eee, notebooks, xandros