I find it intriguing and predictable that we’re starting to see various flavors of Netbooks from more than just Asus these days. The MSI Wind U120, (starting to be called the Wind 2) which is being characterized as a more business like netbook (curious?) is one of those new flavors. We’re seeing pictures pop up all over the Internet today. Apparently the differences here are the design and the inclusion of 3.5G WWAN, and a 120GB HD, with SSD options to come later. Interesting to note that MSI is holding off on WiMAX at the moment. (I guess the marketing data for Baltimore didn’t look so good right now.) Price is around $600 and word is December is when to look for these.

More pictures at Fudzilla

Asus just keeps on working to add to what it offers in the Eee line. According to Digitimes, Asus will be offering versions of the Eee Netbook with touch screens in the first quarter of 2009. Asus isn’t saying yet which of the many Eee’s will be offered with touch screens but plans on showing off touch Eee’s at CES2009. Asus is also planning to offer dual-core Atom based Eee PCs as soon as Intel makes the chips available. Not surprising news on either front, but what will be interesting to watch, is if the other netbook makers will follow suit.

Want a SSD for that Eee PC?  Coming next month there looks to be nice option from Super Talent Technology.  The prices don’t look too bad either with a range of $53.00 to $149.00 for 16GB – 64GB respectfully.  The press release says they are currently testing these now!  Won’t be too long till that standard 20GB drive will be history with this upgrade!!

Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of Flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, today announced a new line of mini PCI-Express SSDs, available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB capacities, that were designed explicitly for the Asus Eee PC.

File this one under the category of “wish I’d a thought of that." Intel purchased the domain, netbook.com last week. Wonder how long it had been available or if they bought it off of someone? That doesn’t matter now, as Intel owns it and at the moment it is pointing to a page about the Atom processor and all that it offers.

Intel is describing a netbook as follows:

“Wireless internet laptop with Intel® Atom™ processor features internet, email and instant messaging capabilities. It delivers the high performance needed for streaming videos and music.”

Via Notebooks.com

We’re seeing more and more mods of Netbooks using Mac OS X, but this is the first one I’ve seen that works with a touch screen. The Gigabyte M912 does come with a touch screen (see this Laptop Mag review) and it looks like it is working just fine with the hack. Thanks to jkkmobile for the link.

Now that the MSI Wind is going to be available at Best Buy, but at the moment with only a 3-Cell option, you might be looking for some extra juice. It turns out that Lion Battery has a Mugen 9-Cell option for sale if you are willing to go the third-party route. It will set you back $180 (ouch) and it weighs in at one pound, but if you are looking for six extra hours it might be worth a look.

There’s also a code (MSIWIND.NET) that will save you an additional $20 on check out.

Via Gizmodo

We brought you news about the Asus S101 Eee last week, which is Asus’ shot across the bow of the thin portable makers. Apparently if you’re if you’re in the parts of Asia bordering the Pacific you could see this released tomorrow. Those in Europe will see it in a couple of weeks and it is targeted for the US for sometime later this month. One note on that though, according to Engadget, only 1000 will be available in the US initially. No word on pricing yet.

Speaking of Engadget, Engadget Chinese got there hands on the unit and have posted up a series of pictures for you to ooh and ahh over.

Only one question. Where’s the feather?

jkOnTheRun links to a report from DigiTimes that says Asus shipped 700,000 Eee PCs in September and looks to have similar numbers heading into the Holiday season. It is no secret that Netbooks are all the rage, and we’re even beginning to see them on Big Box store shelves. New reports of the Sylvania Netbook at J&R are surfacing.

So, I’m curious. Are you buying a Netbook this year? If so, what are you decisions based on? Are you going XP or Linux? (Laptop Mag has a report on the MSI Wind coming to a major retailer this week  that also says returns on Linux devices are higher than those running XP.) What are your thoughts?

Just when you thought Asus had come up with enough new options for the Eee PC line out pops a fashion friendly line of Eee’s. the Eee S101 supposedly has a sleek new exterior complete with your choice of colors: Brown, Champagne, or Graphite. Oh, and it also has crystal-adorned hinges.

Of course the guts are what we are mostly accustomed to, featuring Intel’s Atom chipset, XP or Linux as an OS, WLAN, Bluetooth, etc… For the 10.2 inch screen you get a wide active matrix LED-backlight at 1024x600. The trackpad is multi-touch, and there is also a dual-array mic to go along with the webcam. Your drive options range from 16GB to 64GB with the latter option running you a total of $799 US with Linux installed.

I think the feather is optional.

Via The Hardware Zone

I’ve pretty much decided that I’m not going down the Netbook route. I just don’t think I’m the market they are after. That said, I’ve been following Kevin Tofel, Dan at Uneasy Silence, and a few others who have successfully installed Apple’s OSX on the MSI Wind, the Eee PC, and now the Dell Mini-9, and it is getting my geek curiosity up. For those not afraid of breaking licensing agreements it looks like we’ve got instructions, a modified install version, and patches to get some basics like WiFi working all floating around.

Like it or not, Netbooks have moved along the inevitable demise of the UMPC and we hardly hear any news about Ultra-Mobile PCs anymore. But I guess some folks can’t quench their desire for a UMPC. Over on TodoUMPC, one of their forum members took matters into his own hands. He’s ripped apart an Acer Aspire Netbook, added a touch screen kit, and created his own version of a UMPC running Vista Ultimate and Ubuntu Netbook Remix.

I have to say from the pics, it looks like they guy did a great job. Take that Netbooks.

Hat tip to MobilitySite

One thing I’ll give most of the companies jumping into the Netbook fray. They at least are coming up with names. That is certainly better than just stringing some letters and numbers together and calling it a product name. I won’t comment on the “stickability” of some of the names though. LG is entering the Netbook wars with the Momo X110. Yep. That’s Momo and that is short for More Mobile. The Momo also features an embedded 3G option. The Momo X110 also seems to have a keyboard solution that might make some happy, as it offers full size enter and shift keys. No word yet on pricing or availability.

Via Wired

Product page link.

This is a great thing for the community. Three fantastic resources on ultra mobile computing, UMPCPortal, jkkmobile, and Liliputing are teaming up to help provide us with more information on what is going on in the wacky world of mobile computing.

We’ve always tried to keep up with all the UMPC, MID and netbook products by at least entering them into the database but recently there have simply been too many products to handle. It’s a problem that needed attention so we’ve decided to open up the product information platform to partners that can share the load, offer the info as extra value to their visitors and have the option to generate some advertising revenue for their sites. I’m pleased to say that our trial with JKKMobile went very well. JKKMobile will continue to offer the product database and will help with adding information across the range of products. In addition to that, Liliputing is joining us with their netbook expertise and will be entering netbook device information and links to important news items. With the two new websites and UMPCPortal working together we’ll be able to continue to offer one of the best resources on the Internet for consumer research in the MID, UMPC and Netbook product categories. About 100,000 people visit the product database every month where they view over 160 devices, a huge database of links to hand-picked news items, links to important videos, pricing information, user feedback and statistical information. With this partnership, the database has already grown to over 200 products and a sharp increase in visitor numbers is expected which will help generate revenue that can be put back into developing even more features for the database. Let us know what features you want to see in the database and we’ll add them to the to-do list.

Netbooks are certainly capturing a lot of attention and apparently a lot of sales. They’ve certainly captured the imagination. In the long run, it will be interesting to see what the impact we’re all feeling today will really mean in the long run.

Iyaz Akhtar of gadgetell has published thoughts on why Netbooks have succeeded where UMPCs and Table PCs failed. Iyaz lists five reasons:

• Form Factor (small and light)
• Price
• Simplicty (primarily Internet Devices)
• Time (the timing was right)
• Microsoft (Microsoft had nothing to do with the platform according to Iyaz.)

While I wholeheartedly agree about UMPCs, I still hold out some hope for Tablet PCs, I can’t argue with any of the points raised. Can you?

I never thought of playing Call of Duty 4 on a Netbook… wouldn’t have ever thought it was possible.  But that has changed thanks to Mobile Computer.  They did the install, took it for a few rounds and it doesn’t actually look half bad.  The whole video isn’t just about the game though.  There is a nice overview of the unit included.  Makes me think though, with the dedicated graphics card it would probably be good at my GIS work.

Check out the video below from Mobile Computing: