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PC World have released an EEE PC competitor – the Advent 4211 – with the new Intel Atom chip that the EEE 901 will come with… Amazingly they appear to have managed to get this baby out before Asus!!

Specs are interesting: 80GB Hard drive, 1GB RAM, 10″ screen, Windows XP, Bluetooth, wifi etc and are priced at £280.

Apparently they are released now – but a quick check around the main stores show they are all out of stock… But it is available for home delivery. Looks a very nice machine!

You can buy them here.

According to theregister – ASUS has been demoing versions of the new EEE Box – the EEEPC for the desktop.

They are slated to sell for £167 and come with a 1.6Ghz atom processor, 1Gig ram, 80gig drive, gigabit net, 802.11n wifi and DVI.

Interesting future for the ASUS EEE product line – not really sure about the wood-effect though! I’m getting very interested in these new Atom processors that everyone keeps going on about — are they really that much better than the equivalent celeron (eg. the one in the eee 900)?

It has come to light that the EEE PC 900′s in Europe are being shipped with 4200mah batteries – compared to USA EEE’s are rated 5800mah… This means USA users get 1/3 more power than UK users .

ASUS have hinted the lower powered battery is due to the cost of providing a longer EU warranty.

Apparently there was a similar problem in Hong Kong and ASUS replaced the batteries free-of-charge… Could the same happen in the EU?? I doubt it – due to the amount of sales, however an alternative would be to provide a voucher to use against ASUS products in future as good will?

Update: Have just spotted you can buy 5800mah or even 6600mah EEE batteries on ebay for about £20-£30.

Update Update: Looks like ASUS have back-tracked a little, and are offering a battery upgrade for £10.

Finally got my eee pc 900, after having an xp version sat in my house for a week and not being able to touch it… I’ve returned that one and now got my hands on the Linux version that I originally ordered.

The changes between the 4G and 900 are fairly subtle to be honest – the OS appears to be exactly the same and the only differences that I’ve really spotted are the charger is a brick-type with a figure-8 connection to the brick and obviously the screen is larger. I think the keyboard might have been tweaked ever-so-slightly, but otherwise the unit seems very similar!

The underside of my EEE doesnt have the original ‘warranty’ sticker that was on the 4G – but it does have an “EEE PC sticker” – could this be Asus’ way of getting out of the dodgy warranty situation in the US – whilst keeping tabs on whether the item has been fiddled with?

The screen makes all the difference to me – to be honest – it’s just that little bit of extra space that makes all the difference. The black bars were wasted space really anyway.

I’ll report back here if I spot anything else, but I’m very pleased and glad I upgraded. They are the perfect travel companion – for when you just want to chuck a web-appliance in a bag and not feel the weight of an old style laptop!

I was in two minds about ordering an EEE PC 900 – I know the atom version is scheduled for later this year and I’m very interested in the Atom chipset…. However the 9″ screen with 1024×600 res would just make it that little bit easier to use… And with 1GB RAM/Linux/20GB it’s just a nice little step up from the 4G series…

So when I saw BT Shop with stock of the White 20GB/Linux the other day – I got the credit card out… On Tuesday I eagerly tracked my parcel – and on Wednesday I saw it had been delivered on the home delivery network site… Got home – ripped apart the packing material… Saw an XP logo.

Damn! I don’t want a laptop with XP on it (he says — I’m typing this blog entry on a laptop with XP)… But still – I want Xandros, and I don’t want to increase the sale numbers of EEE PC’s with XP! You never know – Asus might do something silly like start to supply the EEEPC exclusively with XP!!!
So I’ve had to fill in the returns section.. Turned the EEE PC on quickly – to check that it did have XP and wasn’t just marked as such, but unfortunately it’s true.

How disappointing… I’ll probably have to wait ages now! Anyone else had this problem??

So you’ve decided you love the idea of the EEE PC, and you realise you can’t beat it for price… It’s just whether you should pay the extra to get the 900 over the 700…

A quick list of ‘extras’ you get with the 900 over the 700 series:

• 1GB RAM – rather than 512MB. Makes the system smoother. To upgrade a 700 series to 1GB ram would cost about £5.
• 20GB Storage – rather than 4GB. Gives you more room for files. To add another 16GB flash using a USB stick would cost about £40.
• 8.9″ screen – rather than 7″. Easier on the eyes, but still to be seen whether it’s a battery drain. Very difficult to upgrade a 4G with a bigger screen.

The 8.9″ screen, at 1024×600 res, gives that extra chunk of space for firefox… It makes your life that little bit easier!

The other question is… Windows or Linux? A lot of people are worried when buying these PC’s that they won’t be able to use Linux, so plump for the 12GB/XP version. FEAR NOT!!!! The version of Linux installed on the EEEPC is so easy to use… er.. a child could use it… After all that is what the EEE PC was originally designed for! Go for Linux – you won’t regret it.

You can buy the EEE PC at BT Shop – it’s currently priced at £335.99 with free delivery. Here are the links:

• White 20GB Linux
• Black 20GB Linux
• White 12GB XP
• Black 12GB XP

We ADORE the EEE PC.

We applaud the advancements with the EEE PC 900.

But… There’s something missing, if we want to use the EEE PC mobile we still have to buy a USB MODEM and have it dangling out the back of our EEE PC.

This laptop was BORN to be free, it was made to be used out in the open, in the pub, on the train, on the go. But it needs an extra bit of hardware to achieve it’s full potential. Therefore – this page is my petition to Asus to implement a HSDPA (High Speed Data Packet Access) modem BUILT-IN to the EEE PC. There should be a sim-card slot – maybe behind the battery compartment – where we can slot in a 3G sim. Even if it’s just a built-in Huawei E220 (White USB modem that 3/Voda/TMob use) that would be fine! We know you can come up with some cool technology.

We would be willing to pay extra for this built-in functionality, and it would set the EEE PC apart from the other manufacturers – who are desperate to keep up!

Come on Asus – you know it makes sense. Please post a comment if you agree

EDIT July 2008: Looks like Asus are looking into the 3G HSDPA idea – apparently the 901 motherboards have solder points for a sim card reader — just behind the battery compartment!!

… and O2 subscribers are ‘muppets’.. According to O2 PR people.

It’s always entertaining when large companies are caught out – but the article from the reg is pretty amusing.

Apparently O2 offer a puny 128Kbit/sec to some mobile broadband customers – depending on how much they pay per month… Apparently anyone paying less than about £35/month is a skin-flint.

Just thought I’d post that the EEEPC 900 was announced a few days ago.. I’ve been trawling the web for info – and here are a few links that you might find interesting:

Hands on video by jkkmobile

Loadsa pictures on Engadget (Yuk – some pictures show it with XP).

Review from TheReg

Eeeuser reactions

Will add more when I find anything else interesting!

Just reading an item posted on digg about an article on newsweek about the Internet. It’s very interesting the thoughts that this guy had…. He was so-so-so wrong, and it’s so easy for everyone to laugh about it, but I think if you think back to 1995 – you probably had similar cynical thoughts yourself (presuming you were online then!!).

I can remember using the web at the time – and it wasn’t exactly smooth-sailing… None of this new-fangled blogging for sure!! And can you remember having to pay £10 per month to demon for costly dial-up!! (And those 01xxx points-of-presence – no 0845 freeserve back then!)… KA9Q — WTF??
It’s interesting looking back… but I’m glad we’re in 2008 .