It didn’t take long for the people over at Mobile01 to strip down the newly-available M912V! If this is your bag, then take a look. Its an easy device to take apart but for most things, you only need to remove the access panel on the back. At least the keyboard should be easy to change as I believe its the same as an Eee PC keyboard. (Country-specific keyboard mods should be possible.)

Thanks, Itechnews.

You may recall the leaked spec sheets and rumored August 22nd release date that popped up a few weeks ago. Well August is now over and Gizmodo is reporting a new release date. September 5th, this Friday. With no info on the source and the note that this release date is not "concrete", this could be just as wrong as the previously rumored date. Luckily time is on our side and one way or another, we’ll get to September 5th and find out whether this is true or not. No word yet on pricing, but let’s all hope the Inspiron 910 hits the $300 target price. 

If netbooks are following the traditional product cycle, they must be nearing the peak in Europe this week as two major budget supermarket chains push out the devices to their mainstream customer base. Aldi, the supermarket chain that sold 10’s of thousands of Medion Akoya Minis in the summer, is about to push the device out through its 300 UK shops. Expect at least 6 pieces per store for something like 2000 sales on the 7th of September. Then, in Germany, watch out for Plus who, with their 2700 shops started offering the Zen-ID (like the Akoya Mini, the same as the MSI Wind.) At an average of 6 per shop, that’s another 16000+. Add on the discount electrical stores and office stores and you’re at well over 20000, in just a few weeks, in Germany. Lets have some fun with these figures now and play Gartner because I think we’ve got enough data points to start estimating global netbook sales. [Article continues below…]

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Jkk has spotted a refresh of the original Everex Cloudbook. If you will recall, the Cloudbook was one of the early netbooks and competitors to the Eee PCs. It had a low price point and ran a Linux based operating system called gOS.

The new model looks similar to the original, and a few changes make the new Cloudbook the same old netbook that seems to get announced every day. The 7" screen has been bumped up to 8.9, and accordingly the resolution has been raised from 800×480 to 1024×600. The screen doesn’t have nearly as much of a bezel which is always welcomed. It still maintains the original Cloudbook look, especially in the hinge and speakers. The tiny trackpad has been increased slightly in size and the mouse buttons have been placed in a more common position (below the trackpad) as opposed to the original which had left and right mouse buttons on the left and right of the pad. It is still running a VIA C7 CPU, and I’m sure you can probably guess the rest of the specs: 512MB/1GB/2GB RAM options, VGA output, 2 USB ports, Wi-Fi/Bluetooth, etcetera, you know, the usual.

Probably the biggest difference between the original Cloudbook and this refresh is that the new one will be scrapping the gOS for Windows XP Home. Probably a good move  on Everex’s part as some people cited the not-so-user-friendly gOS as one of the Cloudbook’s biggest problems.

Translated Source: [PC Watch]

To help you edge yourself into another working week, here are a few news items from the weekend.

Fujitsu P1630 appearing at FCC. It looks like Fujitsu might introduce a Montevina-based, Dual-Core 1.4Ghz version of the well-respected P1620/P1610. Its getting a new chipset too which includes the GMA X4500 GPU, a much more powerful option than the previous GMA950 which includes better video playback quality. It also means you can play those business-related shoot-em-ups and flick through cover-flow that much faster in your meetings! No words on price or availability on this, the most powerful 8.9″ convertible seen yet. I’ve added a P1630 product page.

Toshiba SD Multi. An interesting dual-screen portable device designed for editing content on SD cards. Which is a strange focus as the device is also said to be able to surf the internet which means its at least Wifi-capable. No word on OS which gives us no clues about processor which gives us no clues as to whether this is at the high or low-end of the mobile internet scale. At a target price of $300 though, I suspect its not the FIE.

The Techcrunch Tablet. I respect anyone that publicly goes for a big project like this… [article continues]

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JKK and I talk about the press day at IFA where the Fujitsu Amilo Mini and LG X110 Netbooks were launched. We also talk about the Samsung SSDs. The recording was made over Ustream which isn’t the best for audio quality but the MP3 is extracted and linked below.

Direct playback and download: MP3, 21 Minutes

Before I give you an update on some other netbook news happening this morning, allow me to highlight the LG X110 that has been given an outing in Berlin at the IFA today.

Its all pretty standard HDD/XP Netbook stuff here with the exception of the built-in 3G module and the price.

When the HTC Shift and Q1b came out in 2007, they were two of the cheapest 3G-enabled PCs available at around 1200 Euro. Previous to those two, you’d have to look at the LG C1, P1610 and Flybook V5 for 3G and think about dropping 2K for the privilege. Today, with the X110 it looks like you’ll be getting 3G capability for just 399 Euro which I personally find too cheap to believe.

The information comes from The Register who also report that the X110 has a 10″ screen, 160GB of HDD (nice for media storage) and will be available in October.

However..

Eee PC news also reports that a ‘top model’ will be available for 499 and may have GPS and Engadget report prices between 399 and 499 with 120GB, 6GB SSD, GPS and HSDPA options.

Before you make those 1000H vs MSI Wind decisions people, you need to wait for final specs and price confirmation on this one. Check our X110 product page for details as we update them.

Source: The Register.

I think that completes my hands-on with almost every netbook out there (*1) and I’ve decided which one is the best for the average customer. Its the MSI Wind with XP and 80GB drive.

Over the last week I used it (in Medion Akoya form) alongside a Kohjinsha SC3 costing twice as much and its been a superb portable all-rounder. So much so that on the third day of IDF, I left the SC3 in my room. The SC3 works well most of the time but after a number of Bluetooth failures, Vista lock-ups, drive thrashing and a lack of processing power for Skype operations, it became too risky to rely on it. The Wind took over and performed flawlessly.

While I was at IDF I also got the chance to test out the Aspire one, G10L and Eee 901 and neither of them really seemed to offer anything special over the MSI Wind. The Aspire One, a previous favorite of mine, seemed to have a lower build quality and have a lower quality keyboard, the 901 has an even worse keyboard. The G10L isn’t available! Don’t get me wrong, none of these devices are bad and I doubt that any of them would actually disappoint. For all-round table-top use though, I can’t find any faults with the MSI Wind.

Many of you will cry ‘battery life’ of course and yes, that is a consideration if you’re 2-hours away from a power socket but the reality is that in the table-top usage mode, there’s nearly always a power socket nearby. Be careful to remember I’m not talking about ultra mobile computing here and I’m also talking objectively. The MSI Wind is not the best device for my usage scenarios but it’s likely to be the best for most people. I’ll talk about my own requirements again soon (In short I think I’m going to go for a Gigabyte M912M + Gigabyte M528 until I can test a Raon Everun Note and Viliv S7 that may replace both early in 2009.) but for most of you out there, if you’re thinking about a no-fuss do-it-all netbook, the MSI Wind with XP and HDD is the one that should be at the top of your list.

More information, images, links to reviews and news articles on the MSI Wind.

(*1) I haven’t personally tested the HP 2133 but I know from other peoples testing that its not the best device out there. There are processing limitations that cause problems with some higher-end apps like Skype. The keyboard and design is good but it needs a processor boost before it becomes a flawless device in my opinion.