Amazon’s Kindle 2 is Actually in Stock

For those who prefer to pack a lot of books with them on trips, or who are trying to simply their lives and move to all digital media where possible, Amazon’s Kindle 2 is actually in stock a day earlier than anticipated.

Specifications:
- Price: $359 USD
- Slight over 1/3-inch (8.5mm) thick
- 10.2 ounces (0.3 kg)
- Built-in 3G wireless to download books (no fees or service plans required)

Improvements over the first generation Kindle:
- Better display - 16 shades of gray, closer to real paper
- 25% longer battery life
- Increased storage
- Faster page turning

It’s also got the “Read-to-Me” feature which is basic Text-to-Speech function that will read anything loaded on your Kindle.

Originally it was supposed to be available tomorrow.

Sales and Deals - Feb 12, 2009

There are some decent laptop sales this week, thanks to a couple of holidays/events in the US - President’s Day and Valentine’s Day.

OnSale:
- $25 Off - ASUS Eee PC 1000HE 10-Inch - 1.66GHz Intel Atom Processor, 1GB RAM, 160 GB HD - Blue Now only $369.99 (was $394.99)
- $25 Off - ASUS Asus Eee PC 1000HE 10-Inch - 1.66 GHz Intel Atom, 1GB RAM, 160GB HD - Black Now only $369.99 (was $394.99)
- $121 Off - Lenovo IdeaPad S10e - Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz Notebook Now only $298.99 (was $419) + FREE Printer after rebate

Lenovo:
- 3 day sale at Lenovo ecoupon USPTHREEDAYSALE
- 15% off all IdeaPads (except S10) + 20% off consumer service upgrades Feb 10-16-use USPIDEASAVINGS for IdeaPad Y & U Series
- $399 IdeaPad S10 Bundle ecoupon- USPBUNDLES10 Feb 10-16
- Click here to get to ecoupons at Lenovo for additional 5% to 10% off select ThinkPads

Lenovo Canada:
- Save an extra 10-15% on Ultraportable Lenovo Notebooks use -CAPULTRAPORTABLE -Feb 10-16
- Save up to 20% on top of sale price during the Lenovo 72 Hour Sale- CAP72HOURSALE -From Feb 11-13
Read more

MSI Wind U100 and 9-Cell Batteries

First reports of the third-party 9-cell batteries for the 10.2″ MSI Wind U100 are coming in. Wired Magazine mentioned a thread over at the MSIWind.net forums where somebody ordered one off of ebay.

They mentioned that currently, you are looking at over 4 hours with a standard 6-cell battery in the MSI U100. An MSIWind.net forums user picked up a 9-cell in the UK off of ebay UK, which cost around £70 ($120 USD). With WiFi switched on, they were getting over 7 hours of battery life (under Windows XP Home), with some OS X users getting just under 7 hours. These are initial charges, so the numbers should change after a few charge / discharge cycles.

A few of these have popped up in the US - Amazon has a 7800mAh 9-cell battery from Lion Battery that is up for pre-order (and pricier than the one mentioned above).

Read:
- Forums.MSIWind.net
- via Wired Magazine

MacBooks and FireWire: Steve Jobs’ Response

A few days ago, I had a long-winded rant about Apple dropping FireWire from the new MacBooks. A lot of other people have been ranting about it as well, going by Discussions.Apple.com and various other blogs and Mac-oriented forums.

Steve Jobs has responded to one Mac user: “Actually, all of the new HD camcorders of the past few years use USB 2” and followed it up with “The new HD camcorders start around $500“.

That’s typical Jobs - he doesn’t mince words, but I think Apple should have handled it better or should have been a lot more upfront. I was in an Apple Store last week, and while waiting, twice I heard Apple Store employees pushing FireWire devices (external hard drives). An ExpressCard slot would have been the best solution. In the past, when they retired a standard, you knew it. There was no doubt, because Apple made a big issue out of it.

Now people are finding out that Apple is phasing out FireWire from emails sent by Steve Jobs on his iPhone.

Read:
AppleInsider

There Will be New MacBooks

It’s now almost certain that there will be new MacBooks introduced in a few days at Apple’s October 14 notebook event.

A PDF-format repair guide was accidentally posted on Apple’s website. It detailed how the Airport Extreme Card would be replaced, and it specifically said “Late 2008″ MacBooks and MacBook Pros. It’s been pulled since then, but did illustrate that the core components would be shared between the consumer and professional-oriented laptops.

AppleInsider also had news and photos of what are claimed to be components of the new laptops, including news that FireWire may not be on the consumer-oriented MacBook. This would be bizarre given the price of video cameras has been dropping, while Apple has been releasing software to allow customers to work with HD video (which is best done through FireWire). Even their consumer-oriented iLife allows you to work with HD video.

The photos show that the MacBook is probably moving to an aluminum enclosure (similar to the iMac’s move to aluminum).

Read:
- AppleInsider (Airport Extreme Card)
- AppleInsider (components, photos)

16GB - 64GB SSDs for Asus Eee PCs

For those who have bought an Asus Eee PC and desire more storage, Super Talent is hoping to help you out.

They’ve announced mini PCI-Express Solid State Drives (SSDs) in 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB sizes. These were designed specifically to fit the Eee PC series, specifically the Asus Eee PC 701, 702, 900, 901, 903, 905 and 1000.

All three models read at 40MB/sec and write at 15MB/sec. Super Talent believes they’ll have them in mass production in November.

Models w/Street Price:
- FPM16GHAE: 16GB , $53
- FPM32GHAE: 32GB, $79
- FPM64GHAE: 64GB, $149

Read: SuperTalent Press Release
Thanks to Khanj for the link

MSI Wind U100 - 9-Cell Batteries

If you are looking to add quite a bit of capacity to your your 10″ MSI Wind U100, Lion Battery is going to be shipping 9-cell batteries for the U100 starting October 31, 2008.

It should increase the battery life of the U100 to over seven hours.

They are pre-order only (for now), have a black casing, and are selling for $179.95 (plus possible shipping charges).

Model: HLI-MU100XL/B
Made by: Mugen Power
mAh: 7800mAh
Weight: 0.46kg / 1 pound

In addition to the Wind U100, the battery also fits Wind clones, including the Advent 4211 and Medion Akoya Mini.

Link: Lion Battery

Thanks to Tim for the link.

Dell Inspiron Mini 9 - GPS

A forum user over at MyDellMini has decided that they needed an integrated GPS solution for their 8.9″ Dell Inspiron Mini 9 netbook.

Seeing as how it’s not offered as part of the standard options available to Mini 9 customers, they’ve decided to add it themselves. They picked up a USB GPS receiver with a SkyTraQ chipset, that supports assisted GPS (AGPS). They took their Mini 9 apart and found a spot underneath the palm rest where the GPS receiver would not be blocked.

Using some creative soldering and the WWAN’s USB connection, they were able to get it installed and working. Once the Mini 9 was put back together, you couldn’t even tell it had been modified.

Read: MyDellMini.com

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