ASUS Eee PC is America’s Most Wanted Christmas Gift

The ASUS Eee PC is once again in the limelight. This time, it has been billed as America’s most wanted Christmas gift among notebooks products. Several large American shopping websites have started investigating what the average American would want as a Christmas gift in lieu of the fast approaching Christmas buying season; and the result from the American Amazon shopping website and CNET based on 14th of November unanimously places the ASUS Eee PC at the top spot on the wish list.

ASUS | Eee PC

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Internet kahit saan? Just plug it - SmartBro's New Product

Smart has launched a new product under their Smart Bro line. Smart Bro is a series of wireless broadband offering, riding on Smart's 3G services.

This new product is in actuality, an extension of Smart's 3G services on their cellular phone products, but is purely for data. At the moment anyone with a Smart SIM card and a 3G capable phone can use this service by simply attaching their phone to their computers, either thru USB or wireless such as Bluetooth or InfreRed. At the moment, Smart is charging P10 for every 30 minutes, which for me is a very good deal, (as long as I get more than dial up speed, compared to the P100/hour in WiFi Hotspots).

Using a device called a USB modem that can easily be plugged to a laptop or a desktop computer, users will be able to access the Internet with speeds ranging from 384 to 768 kbps. This latest offering of the wireless broadband subsidiary of leading wireless services provider Smart Communications, Inc. (SMART) is initially available under Smart Bro Plan 799. The plan includes Internet usage of 60 hours per month, and P10 every 30 minutes in excess thereof.

The kit comes with a data modem, PC software and a user guide in a DVD casing and a cool denim sock for storing the modem. The modem will work in Windows 2000 and XP. Before the end of the year, the modem will be compatible with other operating systems.

As of end-September 2007, Smart Bro has over 259,000 users, adding about 138,000 new subscribers in the first nine months of the year. Smart now has 2,678 wireless broadband-enabled base stations providing high-speed Internet access to over 625 cities and municipalities nationwide. Smart Bro is an integral part of the PLDT Group’s strategy to be at the forefront of “broadbanding” the country

I would love to get this and use it with my ASUS eeePC and have total wireless connectivity and mobility.

4GB lang? EeePC

4GB lang?! This is the top remark I get when I tell them about my new toy. "Ang liit naman ng capacity?" and "walang windows?". This makes me laugh.

Everytime someone asks me what a good notebook computer is, I always ask them back, "what you going to use it for?". Unfortunately, most of them would rather buy an expensive notebook pc, without considering the different factors. Most would be looking at the processor. They would like to have the "best" the "newest", "kailangan Core2Duo!", yeah right! "Tapos dapat Windows Vista" or "why not buy a MacBook?" oh ok! "You should get the one with the biggest hard drive capacity" said one, "oh and that wide screen is much better to look at" said another.

Ok so you bought that spanking new notebook PC with Core2Duo, 1GB RAM, 160GB hard drive, Windows Vista Home Premium, glossy 15 inch screen. Ok what now? What are you going to use it for? Uhm, let me see, oh ok, update my Friendster and Multiply account, I have to blog my "new" notebook. Hehehehe HELLO! OK KA LANG! CORE2DUO and the first thing you'll be doing is to update your profile?! nyahahaha

Then what? "Oh and I have to install iTunes, I now have a laptop to sync my iPod with" ok, then? "Uhm, oh! I have a report on Thursday, I can show my classmates my new computer while I use PowerPoint for my presentation!" Yeah right! Hehehe I would bet that that Microsoft Office didn't come with your new notebook? Ha! Huli! hahaha

Ok then, let's say, let's meet up at Starbucks in Greenbelt, just to hang out, and did I mention that's a hotspot? Yeah, you can bring your laptop and we can talk and surf there. I'm ok with my ASUS EeePC, it fits in my backpack, heck, I can even bring it as it is, no bags, because it has it's own sleeve. How about you, will you bring your notebook as is, not inside a bag? You wish! Most notebook PCs at the moment are heavy, plus you have to carry around that very BIG power brick! Excuse me, my power brick is small and light, I'm using a MacBook. Yeah right again! The EeePCs power adapter is as small as a cellphone charger, beat that!

The point, most people consider the features a big factor in buying a laptop, and yet, they don't utilize the features at all. Most would just be using a web browser, powerpoint and document editor, oh and picture viewer and that's it! And yet they want the latest and most expensive notebooks out there. Just like what they do with mobile phones, they want the most expensive, but as them what they do with it, it boils down to texts and calls (that is kung may load! Nyahahaha nakakahiya, worth P35K ang phone mo tapos naka prepaid ka lang? SHYET! Smart Buddy pa! Nyahahaha what JOLOGS!) hehehe oh and taking pictures of me in the car with my teeth and tongue out! Hehehehe galing.

Notebooks are meant to be portable, mobile, easy to carry and light. The ASUS EeePC is all that. If you don't edit videos and pictures, why get an expensive laptop that will be obsolete in 6 months time (this reminds me of the early adapters of the MacBook, in less than 6 months, there gadgets became obsolete with the coming of the Core2Duos at the same price NYAHAHAHAHAAHA!).

These laptops, mostly has 13, 14, 15 inch screen size are HEAVY! Not too portable. Eh excuse me, I have a car so I don't worry about the weight, yeah right AGAIN, then what, most of the time you leave it in the car because it's heavy. With the EeePC, I can replace it in 6 months to one year, because it's not that expensive. Heck it's cheaper than my mobile phone.

So stop being a prick and drool over. If I'm a student, and laptops are not allowed in the library, I would just get this one and I can sneak it in and enjoy surfing and updating friendster and multiply inside the library. Take that hahaha

Modifying the OS of eeePC

This is very fun. Much fun than when I first tried UBUNTU. I now have modified the ASUS eeePC Easy Mode to the Advanced Mode (desktop).


The EASY Mode is the default screen of the ASUS eeePC. I understand ASUS for doing this, to stick to the gizmo's motto EASY to work, EASY to Learn, EASY to Play.
Anyone who has used a mobile phone will find the icon based user interface of the eeePC, very useful. But for serious users, this is a bit boring. They want more usability. Thus, being Linux the base architecture of this operating system, in just a few days, users now have figured out how to transform the icon-based EASY MODE to the typical desktop ADVANCED MODE. Much more, users can shift from one user interface to another.


I warn you though, it's not that simple and some newbies have "broken" their units (which was recovered simply by pressing and holding F9 after pressing the power button), doing the process. Although just like me, when the process is successful, there is joy felt all throughout (what a geek nyahahaha).

For detailed instructions on how to do it, just click here.

Wow! SRP for the EeePC Locally from ASUS

"Asus Philippines Sales Manager Peter Chua said the Eee PC will be targeted at extremely mobile executives, students and home users who have neither the space nor budget to have a notebook PC.

Chua said the Eee PC comes in 2 Gb, 4 Gb, and 8 Gb models. The 4 Gb model will be rolled out in the market in November and will be priced at 19,800 pesos. The other models will be introduced in early 2008." -- Inquirer.net

If this is the case, then I guess I got mine at a very good price. It's going to be a grand more than I got it. Hopefully PC Corner will not change their prices. It will still be a deal.

Resigned on Leopard

After convincing myself to upgrade my lowly iBook to Leopard (Mac OS
10.5), I never thought I was up for disappointment.

I always end up with an error saying that the "ESSENTIAL FILES" or
something like that cannot be found from the install disc. Which led
my iBook to loosing all it's data (good thing I did a back up before
the procedure), even my TIGER. Which means that I have to reinstall
TIGER after the series of failed LEOPARD UPGRADE.

Even the TIGER reinstall was tiresome. Because I had to re-install my
applications and the worst thing was the updates!

Then I found out that I was not alone (no thanks to the local very
"helpful" mac users group, all I saw was all praises for LEOPARD
without any hitch, YEAH RIGHT!), from apple forums around the world.
There were installs that led to bricked macs. The reason that they
are pointing to is the dual layer disc of LEOPARD, looks like, some
old mac (running PowerPC processors), it's optical drives, have some
issues accessing the 2nd layer of data from the DVDs.

Still, up to the present, APPLE has not issued any resolution on this
problem.

My New Toy: ASUS eeePC sub-notebook

Every since they announced this last summer, I was very eager to get one. What tempted me from getting this was the price point. Then, it was announced to be in the area of $200, that's just in the area of P15T with taxes in. At first, they said it's going to be released sometime August, then it was postponed a couple of months more. Of course, I was not expecting it to be available locally right away (it's not like Apple you know). What made the wait more exciting was the fact that a local PC store kept on teasing me (website), of it's pending release. Add the fact that I kept on reading from the interweb that a lot of users are getting their hands on with their new EeePC and they are all liking it (DAMN what a punishment!). Although all these while, the prices have shot up to more than Php15T. I don't mind, as long as it's portable, and within my price range, it's all ok. One of the top factors I consider in getting a portable computer is, of course, portability. That's why, even though made obsolete by the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros, I am not thinking of replacing my iBook, because it's portable, at 12" wide, that's a deal.

Anyways, PC Corner's website said that the ASUS EeePC will be released on the 5th of November. But when I called them at their Gilmore store, they said that it will commercially be available on the 8th at 6pm instead. Considering the distance of the store from my place and the time, I opted to call the next day. And was very excited to know that it's already available. But having stuff to do on that friday, I opted to go the first thing in the morning on the 10th that's a Saturday. On my way to the store, I was praying that there will still be a unit for me. Good enough I was able to get one. Actually, it is available from the PC Corner website, for delivery, which will take two days, but I'm the hands on person, I want to experience holding the unit right away (I know pretty geeky hehehe).

Just like a kid with a new toy, I was so excited to use it. And just like what I've expected, the booting up is fast, and I was able to use it (surfing) out of the box (of course, that was after I connected to my wireless network at home).

At of the moment, only the 4G Surf is available locally and in white. With the following configurations to follow suit.

	Intel® Celeron® M (256Mb) / 02Gb Media Flash Drive
	Intel® Celeron® M (512Mb) / 02Gb Media Flash Drive
	Intel® Celeron® M (512Mb) / 04Gb Media Flash Drive -- 4G Surf
	Intel® Celeron® M (1.0Gb) / 04Gb Media Flash Drive
	Intel® Pentium® M (512Mb) / 04Gb Media Flash Drive
	Intel® Pentium® M (512Mb) / 08Gb Media Flash Drive
	Intel® Pentium® M (512Mb) / 16Gb Media Flash Drive
	Intel® Pentium® M (1.0Gb) / 16Gb Media Flash Drive

This is the simplified specifications of what I got

Model Name	Eee PC 8G	Eee PC 4G	Eee PC 4G Surf	Eee PC 2G Surf
Display	7"	7"	7"	7"
Intel CPU & Chipset	●	●	●	●
Operating System	Linux Windows XP compatible	Linux Windows XP compatible	Linux Windows XP compatible	Linux Windows XP compatible
Ethernet Communication	●	●	●	●
WLAN	●	●	●	●
Memory	1G (DDR2)	512 MB (DDR2)	512 MB (DDR2)	256 MB (DDR2)
S.S.D. Storage (Solid-State Disk)	8G	4G	4G	2G
Camera	●	●	-	-
Audio	Hi-Definition audio Stereo speaker Microphone	Hi-Definition audio Stereo speaker Microphone	Hi-Definition audio Stereo speaker Microphone	Hi-Definition audio Stereo speaker Microphone
Battery	4 Cells: 5200 mAh, 3.5hrs*	4 Cells: 5200 mAh, 3.5hrs*	4 Cells: 4400 mAh, 2.8hrs*	4 Cells: 4400 mAh, 2.8hrs*
Weight	0.92 kg	0.92 kg	0.92 kg	0.92 kg
Launch Date	End of November	10/16 Global Launch	Mid of November	End of November
* Specificatioin changes are subject to different models * Actual battery life will depend on actual operations and other settings. * Product contains software under GPL license agreement

A little review of the unit after a few days of usage:
IN THE BOX:
- the unit (pearly white)
- charger (a little bigger than an ordinary mobile phone charger, smaller than my iBook power adapter)
- Printed user's guide
- DVD of Windows Drivers
- battery 5200 mAh
- soft case/sleeve (black)

THE UNIT
It has a 7 inch screen. At first I thought, based on what I've read, is small and now resolution at 800 pixels only, but I was wrong, when I pulled up images, it came up as crisp and clear, colors are vivid and comes out much better than the larger LCD screens, this is perhaps to the compressed pixels.

The body is quite sturdy, with the buttons firm on the touch and push. This is much better from the buttons I saw on those NEO laptops. I did not hear any squeaking sounds when I slightly twisted the unit. The latch that attaches the monitor to the body is not flimsy. No latch that will lock the lid when close (pretty much like the other notebook pc's out there). The design is well, not like what I've expected. Personally, I have never been a fan of ASUS laptop designs, but this one is nice.

There is a removable panel at the bottom, from what I've read, when opened, it will expose another RAM slot for upgrades, but unusually, there is a warranty sticker that is blocking one of the screws. ASUS made it clear that they are not positioning this as a laptop replacement (yeah!), so if one wants an upgrade, he/she has to purchase another unit with a higher hardware specs (as if that will stop us right?).

The back is bare, because it's occupied mostly by the battery pack. The left side contains an RJ45 port (LAN), supposedly there's an RJ11 port beside it (modem port), but in my unit, it's blocked by a rubber stopper. From what I've read, there is a port and connections, but the modem or one of it's component is missing. One USB 2.0 port and jacks for headphones and mic. There are four LED indicator lights in front. Power, Charging, SSD and WLAN indicators. On the right side, there is a VGA port, two USB 2.0 ports and a card reader that can handle SD, MMC, SDMC.

The keyboard is the catch. Well, I don't think it is. It's small. But I was able to write this article from it, so I guess I don't have a problem with it. Maybe those peeps with humongous fingers will. The response is good and tactile feedback is impressive. The touchpad is responsive as well, though I'm used to the a single button touchpad (because the iBook has only one button), it's on the hard to press side. The layout of the keyboard is the standard layout albeit the small size.

THE OPERATING SYSTEM and SOFTWARE
It's running an ASUS tweaked XANDROS distro of Linux. Others might be turned off upon hearing that it's running on Linux, but believe me, even a 5 year old kid could use this computer. Using it is a no brainer. The applications are arranged into tabs (much like the cellphone that you're using) and in each tab, there are lots of large icons, that even people with Presbyopia will appreciate.

I'm not too familiar with Linux applications, but I will mention those that, I think, people will be using the most.
- Firefox - web browsing
- OpenOffice - counterpart of the usual Microsoft Office suit (Word, Excel, Powerpoint) and the good thing is, it's compatible vice versa
- Pidgin - it's a unified instant messenger where the user can enroll all his/her IM accounts from Yahoo! Messenger, AOL, MSN, Google Talk
- Thunderbird - for those who would rather use an email client in the computer than use the web counterparts
- Acrobat Reader
- Skype

It also has a PIM application, a counterpart for Microsoft Outlook. On the FUN tab, it has a photo viewer, media player (which can detect and iPod), voice recorder and a video recorder from the on-board webcam.

Most of the icons are just shortcuts to websites. There are icons for popular webmails such as Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail and AOL. You will see a lot of Google-ish here, as there is a dedicated icon for iGoogle (which will just open up Firefox and bring you to Google.com/ig.

It's not unusual too that they thought of kids when developing this product. As there are lots of kid-ish applications and links available.

OVERALL
I like the product because of it's size, it's functionality and the price. I got it for almost Php18T. Hey, my mobile phone is more expensive than this hehehehe. It's so portable that you don't need to buy a laptop bag and virtually telling the world, go ahead and mug me because I'm carrying a laptop. Also, it's not that heavy. Laptop users (especially windows laptops) will have the power adapters to add to the weight of the whole thing. With this one, it's just like having a communicator in your bag.

I have an iBook, and (i know I'll get flack from Mac users), I only use it for surfing the web, and making my lectures and presentations. I like my iBook because of it's instant on, but now, the EeePC is challenging that.

I think the sub-20K price is the sweet price point. Because for me, once you cross the 20K mark, better get a full-fledged notebook computer instead. Besides, for less than 20K, it's easy to get another one after a year. Hehehehe I guess I've exposed my intentions.