According to Akihabaranews.com, Acer will sell an estimated 5.8 million (you read that right, 5,800,000) Aspire One netbooks [Portal page][review] by the end of the year. That is a pretty big number considering that the Aspire One wasn’t even released until Q2 of 2008. Akihabaranews says that Acer sent them some press info showing the sales for each quarter as well as the estimated number for the final quarter:

I was baffled during my review of the Acer Aspire One [Portal page] at the apparent lack of power management software that should have been included with the netbook. Aside from some hardware toggles, there were no settings beyond the default Windows power options to help get the most from your battery. I reported a while back on a nice utility that allowed users to control their Aspire One’s fan, but there wasn’t much more in the way of power management.

Luckily there are people out that who are passionate enough about their technology to spend time making good software for them. Take a look at a small freeware utility called a1ctl. For its tiny size, this utility has a lot of features:

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One of the most popular netbooks here in the Portal can be bought from my favorite deal-a-day website, Woot.com for $289. I’ll cut right to the chase so that those of you who want the Aspire One can get the facts and go pick one up before they sell out!

Take a quick look at my Aspire One review to get a general feel for the hardware; software review can be disregarded as the Aspire One on Woot is running Linpus Lite (Linux) instead of XP like the one I reviewed (of course you could always put your own OS on it). So anyway, here is what you are going to get for $289 (+$5 shipping):

• 1.6 GHz Atom N270 CPU
• 512MB of RAM
• 8GB SSD
• 1024×600 8.9" screen
• Linpus Lite (Linux) OS
• All the other goodies that are common across every Aspire Ones

And there you have it, you can pick up a nice netbook for $289 if you are quick on the trigger, I feel certain that it will sell out quickly. Remember, the deal will only be available today and only until it sells out. Make haste!

Tnkgrl has been on a modding-spree with her new Acer Aspire One [Portal page]. I noted in my review of the Aspire One that some of the important connectivity options were lacking, such as Bluetooth and 3G. Luckily smart people like tnkgrl are here to show us how we can fix some of those important but neglected components.

Moving on to part three of her Aspire One modding-spree, she shows us how to put HSDPA into the Aspire One for 3G connectivity. Amateurs be warned: this is not a simple RAM upgrade, but if you still feel up to the task, tnkgrl has provided a helpful list of steps, images, and a video of making it all happen.

Also don’t miss part one and two where you can find out how to dissemble the Aspire One, add RAM, Bluetooth, and a 1.8" HDD.

This story made its rounds about our end of the blogosphere a few weeks ago, but after seeing someone mod a device so well, that I recently enjoyed reviewing, I couldn’t help but share it anyway.

Check out this very clean DIY project that turned an Acer Aspire One into a touch screen slate PC:

(click to see larger)

I only wish there were some videos of it in action, it looks very impressive from the images. Swing by the todoultra mobile PC forums to see all of them.

[jkOnTheRun]

Allow me to introduce you to the recently released Acer Aspire One. The Aspire One is Acer’s first foray into the netbook space. It is nice to see lesser recognized laptop OEMs such as Acer have the ability to jump quickly into the netbook area with a quality product. I have been testing the Aspire One, provided by Dynamism, for the last few weeks and I have had a positive experience with the computer which is the first Atom based device I have used.

The Aspire One that I have been testing has a 1.6GHz Atom CPU, 1GB of RAM, 120GB HDD, and Windows XP ($450 with that configuration). The whole unit can be bought starting at a very reasonable $399.

Hardware Tour

Check out the formal unboxing here.

Front: Nothing on the front but a spring loaded WLAN radio toggle.

Left Side (right to left): AC plug, VGA output, small vent, 10/100 ethernet, USB 2.0 port, SD slot (SD only).

Back: Nothing but battery. Under the battery is a faux SIM card slot, presumably for integrated 3G on later models.

Right Side: Mic input, audio output, USB 2.0 port x2, multi-card reader (MMC, SD, xD, Memory Sick), Kensington lock.

LED Indicators: Battery status, HDD use, Num-Lock, Caps-Lock.

Screen: 0.3 MP camera.

And a quick size comparison shot.

The good guys at Dynamism have sent me an Aspire One netbook for review; have a look at the unboxing shots (if that is your thing), and read my initial impressions below.

Aspire One Unboxing

Initial Impressions

As I opened the box to take a first look at the Aspire One I was immediately impressed with its design. They went with a very minimalistic approach and they did a really good job. Lots of curved edges make this netbook look really smooth, and it is apparent that they took their time making the device look nice. I don’t think the average person would realize that this is a only a $449 piece of hardware. The red/orange metallic looking highlights near the hinges provide a well balanced contrast between the otherwise minimal tone. For some reason it bothers me that the red/orange rings aren’t actually part of the hinge, even though they appear to be when the lid is closed. Well I suppose it doesn’t actually bother me, but it is perplexing.

The unit is really solid when it is closed and the screen hinge is just tight enough. There is a webcam and microphone in the top of the screen’s bezel. The screen does not wobble easily, and the battery also sits snug in its holder, leaving no wiggle room, which is always an indicator of good build quality. The mouse pad is a bit larger than the Kohjinsha SH8’s and is very usable… if you configure it correctly. The keyboard’s layout is pretty much standard, so there is no need to learn where keys might have been relocated to. Dark blue symbols on the keys are Fn functions; the blue symbols on white keys look good even if it is a very subtle effect.

I’ve been enjoying the device more than I had expected to for the last few days, keep your eyes peeled for the full review coming up in the next week or two. Drop a line in the comments if there is anything in particular you’d like to know about the Aspire One.

Golem.de have done an excellent detailed review of the Aspire One 110. Good pictures too. It’s in German so I’ve picked out a few key points here and summarised them below.

• Battery is 26.6wh and lasting 3.25 hours in Wifi-on, medium backlight tests. (Minimum 1hr and 46 minutes under a 3DMark test.)
• Fan noise is more than Medion Akoya Mini / MSI Wind but still less than most standard notebooks.
• Glossy screen is a problem outside.
• Smaller than MSI Wind. Larger than Eee PC 900.
• The first intuitive clicks on the mouse buttons will miss!
• Bright backlight
• 134 dpi on the screen is ok. [Up to 180 is usually OK for most people – Chippy]
• CPU steps down to 800Mhz under certain condition. [Same as other N270 devices – Chippy]
• 4.8Gb of the 8GB Phison SSD is free on the Linux version.
• SD card reader is SDHC capable
• Wifi module does not support Draft-n
• 19 second boot time
• Firefox version 2, not 3 installed. [Should be available by upgrade from the repositories I guess. Chippy]
• Included Media Mater software plays MPEG-2 (DVB-T, DVD) up to 8mbps. [Good enough – Chippy]
• Return from standby – 10 seconds.
• SSD Write speed. 7.7MBps [Very poor – Chippy]
• SSD Read speed – 26MBps [Acceptable, not impressive though – Chippy]
• Processor speed test results is 10% faster than a Celeron 900. [Exactly as expected – Chippy]

Highlight is that there doesn’t appear to be any show stoppers and that the battery life is over 3 hours. Lowlights are the glossy screen and a slow 7.7mbps write-rate on the SSD.

Source Golem.de. Thanks for the tip Hanno