Then came reality. Truth is, the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer is here, but only on a pre-order basis. Unfortunately, you can’t just go to your favorite store and ask for one. They won’t have it. At least with this pre-order system in place, you know that the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer and you will somehow meet soon.

So what’s all the fuss about the tablet that is more than just a tablet?

As you can see, the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer TF101 can be transformed into a netbook if you find yourself in a situation wherein using a tablet inconvenient. Yup, that can happen. With the detachable keyboard, you can pretend that you are using an ASUS Eee or any other netbook for that matter.

Technical specs of the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer TF101:

• 10.1-inch screen
• NVIDIA® Tegra™ 2 1.0GHz dual-core CPU for excellent multitasking & 1080p video playback
• Android 3.0 Honeycomb O.S. with Adobe® Flash® 10.2 support
• Full QWERTY keyboard, touchpad input with Polaris® Office® for mobile productivity
• 16 hours long battery life for all day computing with docking station
• Brilliant IPS panel with ultra-wide 178⁰ viewing angle made from scratch resistant and super tough glass
• One year of Unlimited ASUS WebStorage, two USB ports, SD and Micro SD card readers for easy sharing & storage expandability
• 3D stereo with max bass response with SRS premium sound

This tablet weighs only 680 grams and is only 12.98mm thick.  Of course, those numbers will change once you attach the keyboard.

Pre-order the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer TF101 on Amazon for $399.99.

The second quarter of the year has barely started, and yet we hear news about a new Acer Aspire One in the works! If the grapevine can be trusted, we shall soon see the Acer Aspire One 722 in the market. Like its predecessor, the 522, the 722 will also have the AMD C-50 chip. The rather obvious difference is the size. While the 522 was a 10-inch netbook, the 722 will be an 11.6-inch one, with a display of 1366 x 768. As for the graphics, rumor has it that the 722 will have Radeon HD 6250 (DirectX 11) integrated graphics. The operating system included in Windows 7. No surprises there, really.

Some photos of the upcoming Acer Aspire One 722 have been leaked, and I think it is pleasing to the eyes – at least when closed, like how it looks in this photo.

The water drop design on the cover shell is reminiscent of the AO257, and I think it is a good move. I am not too sure about the compatibility of the shade of blue and the black, but blue is blue and I am partial to this color. This is what the keyboard and screen look like.

Another important detail – the battery life is supposed to be 7 hours, which is a mere 1-hour improvement over its predecessor. No details have been released about the launch of the new netbook and its pricing scheme yet, but the Acer Aspire One 722 will make its way to your nearest store soon.

Via Macles

That’s where netbooks come in handy. They’re small and compact. They’re light. On the downside, they’re slow, and you can’t do everything you want with them. It’s an old discussion, really, but here’s something that may help you: Dell’s new netbook that promises to give you what you need in terms of computing power.

The Dell Inspiron M102z was recently released, although rather quietly. The specs:

• 11.6 inch-WLED backlit screen
• 1366 x 768 resolution
• 1.56 kg
• 1GHz clocked C-50 APU; although a version with the E-350 APU is also available
• Radeon HD 6250 graphics
• 2GB of memory
• 320GB harddrive
• 1.3M webcam
• 802.11bgn WiFi
• Bluetooth 3.0
• Card reader

That’s not so bad for a netbook, don’t you think? If you opt for the E-350 APU model (1.6GHz), you will get HD 6310 graphics, 4GB of memory, and a 500GB harddrive. Now that is a vast improvement. Both models run Windows 7 Home Premium. You can also choose between the 6-cell and 9-cell battery, although you have to bear in mind that you will feel the added weight if you opt for the latter. The lower model goes for $699, while you have to add a hundred bucks for the better model.

With the tagline “More fun on the run,” Dell just might get the attention of users who want something light but can offer more in terms of performance. So, if you’re in the market for a light laptop, check out the new Dell Inspiron M102z. ¹

1. Dell Website

If you travel a lot – say, you take a train ride on a daily basis that lasts 30-60 minutes – that’s the perfect opportunity to utilize that time for something productive. If you’re a freelance web designer, taking your laptop with you means you can work on the code of your page while you’re on the train. Sure, the trackpad and lack of space may prevent you from doing any graphical work (unless you fancy carrying a tablet around), but let’s not forget how tedious your code can get and all the little details that you never seem to find any time for.

Also, taking your laptop with you to work (if you work a full-time job besides freelancing), or an excursion with friends, is the perfect opportunity to get some feedback on your work! A freelance web designer can always benefit from some extra input, and showing your latest project on your laptop’s screen is the best way to get a few lines of opinion from your workmates or friends. Just make sure you don’t nag about it too much, of course.

I know, I know, one of the first things they tell you when you purchase a netbook is to forget gaming. You see, netbooks aren’t made to handle games. Sure, it can handle web browsing, watching non-HD movies, and maybe a little Photoshop (yes, I know of a few people who do that on their HP Minis), but gaming? No way, they say.

Well, we wouldn’t expect much from our netbooks in the gaming department. Most of them are running on a 1.6 GHz Atom processor, 1 GB RAM, and of course no video card. Those specs alone could make Firefox choke in the middle of watching a video on YouTube.

That never stopped determined netbook owners from downloading and running them games anyway. Heck, on the Eee Wiki, we even have a list of games that’ll run with the Eee PC 701. FYI, that list came out mere months after the Eee PC was launched.

Over at Liliputing, Joe has posted a list of 5 recent netbook-friendly games. He names Torchlight, Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords, Sins of a Solar Empire, Trials 2 Second Edition, and, um, World of Warcraft.

Torchlight has been recommended to me by a lot of friends and I am going to give it a try once I finish this article.

I must point out, however, that he left out the insanely addictive Plants vs Zombies. PVZ runs very, very smoothly on netbooks. It killed a lot of productivity for me and my 701 until I forced myself to delete the game for the sake of my sanity.

What games do you run on your netbooks? Tell me about it!

A study done by Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD) published by Core77 featured a variety of netbook usability factors on non-Windows surfaces. The study focused on a variety of factors including user interfaces, various use scenarios, and ergonomics.

Apparently, most of the popular ways of using netbooks are actually not comfortable. Most positions can subject your joints to stress and cause pain.

They discovered that a conventional small clamshell laptop is most comfortably used lying down in bed with the device on the thigh when the knees are kept up.

Take note, however that this study was done with a sample group of children 11 to 14 years old. I wonder if people in different age groups have the results applicable to them. Because, of course, ergonomics that applies to a 14-year old would probably be different for a 26-year old.

So, tell me guys, how do you use your netbooks? Do you put it on your thigh with your knees kept up and lying down, or is another position more comfortable for you? Give me your ideas in the comments!

The lucky writers at Gizmodo were able to get their hands on five new netbooks powered by Intel’s Pine Trail (Atom N450) processor. The netbooks are:

- Sony Vaio W
- Toshiba NB 305
- HP Mini 210 HD
- Acer Aspire One 532h
- Dell Mini 10 HD

Of these 5 netbooks, the Dell Inspiron Mini 10 came off as the best of the Pine Trail netbooks with HD. From their review:

The Dell Mini 10 is a little bulkier than the other contenders, but I’m happy to trade a little weight for the sturdier build. The glossy red top was a welcome splash of color without looking cheap. And where most netbook batteries stick out the back end or bottom like oblong tumors, the Mini’s is safely tucked away in the bottom deck. The result? A small form laptop with a big boy design. The Mini 10 was also the easiest to type on, with flush and raised keys leaving me pleasantly hand-cramp-free compared to the island-style netbook keyboards.

Most importantly, Dell (along with HP) has managed to mitigate the netbook HD problem by throwing Broadcom’s Crystal HD accelerator into the mix. It won’t offer the full 3D graphic support of Ion, and you’ll have to download Adobe’s Flash 10.1 beta 3 for the full effect, but once I did I was able to reliably stream 1080p video off of YouTube, as well as full-screen HD content from Hulu. it’s your best bet until Pine Trail Ion 2 netbooks start popping up later this year.

If you don’t care about HD, then the Acer Aspire One 532h would be perfect for you.

The Acer Aspire One 532h has a sleek design and performs at least on par with the Dell and HP in almost every other respect. It had the best battery life of the bunch, it’s wafer-thin and extremely light, and has a raised trackpad that’s actually enjoyable to use.

What do you think? I’m leaning towards the Acer Aspire One myself, but I’d like to get your opinions, guys.

Smish is an app that lets you organize… apps on your computer. It can work on any PC, and a Mac client is coming soon.

From Liliputing:

The idea is that Smish replaces the Windows desktop and shortcut paradigm with a user interface that lets you bring up tabs for social networks, the web, your files, and so on. In one way, it’s kind of a big app launcher that makes it easy to find the apps you’re looking for by searching or clicking the appropriate tab. In another way, it’s a whole new organizer for your computer that helps you find contacts, documents, media, files and apps all from a central interface.

It looks like Smish will also have some sort of developer program which will allow third party developers to write applications that will play well with the platform.

Smish from The Big Smish on Vimeo.

In three years, netbooks have entered the computer market and have been successful beyond any computer manufacturer’s dreams. If there’s anything the Asus Eee PC 701 and its descendants proved, there are people willing to sacrifice a bit of computing power for a huge price difference and portability. But I wonder, how far have netbooks gone? There’s really no other way to look at it than seeing it in graphs and the like so we’d be able to take it all in.

Fortunately, the guys at GigaOM has done us a favor, and they’ve made a graphic charting the lowly netbook’s meteoric rise to fame. You can visit their site, or you can view the charts here.

Unfortunately, there isn’t anything else the graphic tells us. For instance, the reason why netbooks have been so popular have been glossed over. I don’t have any scientific study behind me to prove anything, but a lightweight, cheap, small, and relatively sturdy laptop that can do almost any basic task its bigger brothers can: it’s a sure winner in my book. Yeah, you can’t edit videos on it, nor can you use it as a primary computer (trust me, I used a netbook as my primary computer for a while, it was a nightmare), but it’s good enough. That there is the bottom line: good enough. Good enough to travel with and to work with. That’s what the majority of computer users do anyway, this writer included.

What about you? Are you into using a more powerful computer or is a netbook enough for your needs? Tell me about it!

The Lenovo ThinkPad X100e is one of the best netbooks out there at the moment. Come on, how could it be not good when it’s carrying the ThinkPad brand? The 11.6 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display, AMD Neo MV-40 single core CPU, and AT Radeon HD 3200 graphics make it one of the best choices to get when shopping for a netbook.

But it looks like Lenovo’s got something else up their sleeve. According to rumors, they’re going to make a 10-inch ThinkPad that’s going to be rocking an Intel Atom processor. From Liliputing:

It looks like Lenovo is also planning to launch a smaller version of the laptop with a 10.1 inch, 1280 x 720 pixel display. An Intel Atom N450 Pine Trail processor option also appears to be on its way. It’s not spelled out specifically, but it’s likely that the Atom CPU will be tied to the smaller screen.

While a number of reviewers have given the Lenovo ThinkPad X100e high marks for its keyboard, build quality, and overall design, it gets pretty lousy battery life for a modern ultraportable. Swapping out the AMD CPU for a low power Atom processor could go a long way to address that.

Say what you want about the ThinkPad’s looks, but I think it looks pretty neat. Seriously considering the future 10-inch ThinkPad X100e as a possible netbook purchase if my laptop proves to be too big to carry around.