D.C.

Apple MacBooks – Fix for Glass Trackpads

by

A fix has been issued by Apple for the new 13.3″ aluminum MacBooks. The fix concerns a problem where clicks on the trackpads would not be picked up by the MacBook (and the MacBook Pro) that were released last month. These are referred to as … Read more

Asus Eee PC 901 – Faster SSD, Larger Battery

by

The Dell Inspiron Mini wasn’t the only netbook receiving an upgraded model. It looks like there is a new model of the 8.9″ Asus Eee PC 901 available (or soon to be available) in Europe, specifically France and Italy, with a couple of notable upgrades. … Read more

Lenovo S10, SSD, Windows 7

by

Lenovo IdeaPad S10 A few weeks ago I picked up a 2.5″ Patriot SATA 32GB Solid State Drive (SSD) intending to use it in a netbook. The reasoning – it was under $100 at Fry’s after a mail-in rebate (and because I had wanted one for a while). It’s got a read of up to 175MB/s and a write speed of up to 100MB/s. Keep in mind these are MLC drives (possibly still based on the Microns), hence the cheaper costs versus the much faster SLCs. It’s hard to beat for the price, especially given that it’s going into a netbook (in this case, a 10.2″ Lenovo S10).

You can find the same drive at Amazon for under $100 after a rebate. I also happened to have a 2.5″ SATA 320GB Western Digital Scorpio drive (down to $77 at Amazon).

Last week, a Microsoft executive mentioned that 16GB would make for “a good Windows 7 experience” when it came to SSDs and netbooks and that Windows 7 would need around 8GB of install space.

Since I’m doing some testing for an offline project involving Windows 7, I decided to put those claims to the test, as well as do some very unscientific benchmarking with the SSD. Note: This is not really a test of Windows 7 – I plan on doing that in the future. I will say that so far Windows 7 has impressed me and Microsoft is definitely doing it right this time. I’ve loaded no drivers (although everything was picked up by Windows from what I can see) nor have I changed any settings. Rather this is a test of a budget SSD versus a similarly priced conventional HDD under similar conditions.

I’ve posted the benchmarks below (click “Read More” if you don’t see them).

Oh, as far as drive space required, the Microsoft executive was right (this is after an install, but with no optimizations or anything):

Read more

Asus Eee PCs at Target

by

Asus Eee PC A few weeks ago, I posted some photos of Asus Eee PCs on display at a Best Buy. Last week, I happened to see a full display for 8.9″ Asus Eee PCs at Target. There were a couple of display models (non-functioning) along with a couple of actual boxed Eee PCs.

There was a nice display explaining just what netbooks could be used for. There were also several accessories – mouse, cases, etc.

I didn’t take a close-up of any of the cases / sleeves, because I thought they would be easy to find at Belkin’s website, but they aren’t. There were some sleeves called “Belkin Mini Laptop Carrying Case”. There were several different styles. They could be the ones on Belkin’s site that are listed either for Dell Inspiron Minis or for the 7″ Eee PCs. I plan on going back and picking one up, because after looking online, there is some debate over just what they are capable of holding.

Keep in mind this was an end-cap, that is it was at the end of an aisle, and it was actually at the end facing a major walking area in the electronics / movies department and not at the back of the store.

That’s a good sign that Target expects them to sell well, and Target is carrying a large selection of Eee PCs and accessories at their online store. There were only Linux models, but it’s a start.

Included are some images below (click “Read More” if you don’t see them).

Read more