Blue H1: A Philippines-only Eee Competitor?

Blue Digital Systems

It got the attention of Engadget and it also got mine.  The Blue H1 has a rather decent specs is said to have a better battery life than the Eee PC considering its larger 40 GB hard drive.  It is reported to run Linpus, a distro that I'm not too familiar with.

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Blame it on the iPhone!

I know... I know...

I haven't been updating this blog for a while now.  Well, you guys can blame it on the Apple iPhone!  I just got one from a friend (which I have to remember to pay :) ) and its been keeping me busy these past few days.

Add to that the week-long training that I'm slated to take between May 21 to 25.

To my 4 loyal readers, my apologies.  I will try to update this blog as soon as the inspiation hits.

In the meantime... I'll continue playing with my new phone :)

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MSI's 8.9- to 10-inch "Wind" [Know They Eee-nemy]

MSI's 8.9- to 10-inch Wind breaks in Q2 for less than $500 - Engadget

The ultraportable pc niche is really starting to get scorching hot as more and more PC manufacturers announce their own version of small laptops.  This is really good news because it offers users with a wealth of inexpensive ultraportable computing choices.  Together with cheap broadband access, the introduction of these types of machines may indeed help in bridging the digital divide.

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The Cloudbook Has Landed! [Know Thy Eee-nemy]

The Eee PC's first serious competition will soon be available locally -- end of April 2008 to be exact. I chanced upon this juicy piece of information through an email I received earlier today. The distributor will be "Advance Microsystems Corp." a local company and they can be found online at http://n1smartbook.com/ -- too bad their website doesn't show the Cloudbook... yet.. The local Cloudbook will have an SRP of Php 19,999, the same SRP of the Eee PC when it was first iintroduced locally.

Will this pose a serious threat to the Eee?

I'd love to hear some comments from my readers :)

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Test Driving SafePup

Out of boredom, I tried to install SafePup from a seldomly-used flashdrive I have and I must say that I'm a bit impressed with the performance of the diminutive Linux distro.  SafePup is a variant of Puppy Linux, one of the so-called minimalist Linux distribution.  The whole SafePup system occupies a little less than 65MB of my unused 128MB flash drive.

Making SafePup boot from a flashdrive is as easy as formatting the flashdrive using FAT as its filesystem and simply copying the SsafePup files into it.  Then to use it, simply press the Esc button while the Eee is booting up and choose the flashdrive in the boot up routine.

SafePup seems quick and robust and may well be  a worthy alternative to the bundled Xandrox Linux.

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Dell to Release its own Eee PC Competitor [Know Thy Eee-nemy]

CNN reports that Compal, one of the large contract manufacturers for Dell says that they are manufacturing yet another 8.9" ultra portable laptop that Dell intends to sell by June of this year.  Reported to retail for less than $499 (around Php 20,000+), this will definitely be another Eee PC competitor.

This niche is really starting to get interesting considering that HP has already released their own 8.9" model (the Mini-Note) and other manufacturers are also coming out with their own version of the ultra-small laptop.  I sure hope that the industry sustains this thrust because these types of computers are highly instrumental in truly bridging the digital divide.

The "powers that be" at Asus should start patting themselves at the back for starting this trend.

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F9 to the Rescue!

An Eee PC user that often tinker with his computer would know how invaluable the F9 key is in restoring the Eee PC to its factory default. By pressing the F9 key while booting up, one can wipe out everything in the Eee PC and return it to its factory fresh condition.

I often used the F9 key to restore my Eee PC each time I bork my system but today I found another use for it. Last night, I spent a lot of time reading using the built-in ebook reader of the Eee PC. When I realized that it was time to sleep, I promptly turned off my Eee but it got sort of stuck in the shutdown window. So I forced it to turn off by performing a long-press of the power button.

This morning, I turned on my Eee PC but it just boots up to a black screen! Thinking that the system simply "slept", I pressed the power button to wake it up but upon pressing it, the Eee shuts down immediately. I tried to start my system twice and the same thing happened! Thinking that I messed up my Eee, I thought of wiping out my system and starting again fresh. But instead of restoring my Eee to factory default, I decided to use the option to check the disks.

After a few seconds of checking, my Eee restarted normally! This saved me a lot of time tweaking and reinstalling my apps. So there, if you think you messed up your configuration, don't wipe out your system just yet, maybe a simple disk check can breathe new life into your Eee -- saving you time in reinstalling and re-tweaking.

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HP's 2133: Great Hardware, Crappy OS

PC World - HP's 2133: A Tiny Laptop an Adult Can Really Use

If we are to take this review seriously, it seems like the HP2133 is a worthy adversary for the Eee PC in terms of hardware specs but the praises ends there. It seems like its preloaded Microsoft Vista is acting like a millstone around the HP2133's neck causing this little wonder to slow down and not perform at its peak,.

Too bad, it certainly looks really good but at almost double the price, I'll take an Eee PC anytime... for now...

UPDATE: Hours after posting, it seems like the 2133 is now available in the U.S. with an SRP of $499 (around Php21,000) for the base model, its higher spec'ed sibling will retail at around $749 (around Php 31,000). See more details here and here. It is now oficially known as the "HP Mini-Note".

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Fix for Eee PC's "Out of the Box" SAMBA Vulnerability

There was a buzz on the 'net about the Eee PC's "out of the box" vulnerability through SAMBA. As a stop-gap measure, I simply uninstalled SAMBA from my Eee because I have no need to access any Windows box. I did this by typing the command "sudo apt-get remove samba" from the console.

A few days ago, I was looking for things to install through Synaptic (by typing "sudo synaptic" at the console window) and I saw this.



So I promptly installed it and now I can breathe a bit easier.

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Globe Telecoms Finally Relents: Allows Time-Based 'Net Connection!

One of the reasons why people refuse to go online using their Globe Handyphones is the expensive rates they charge -- Php0.15/KB.  Under this pricing scheme, a 10-minute visit to a media-rich website will cost a user a lot!    This is why Globe's chief rival, Smart Communications has gained a lot of subscribers because Smart has een offering GPRS/EDGE/3G access at Php10/30mins which means that no matter what kind of website is visited, the charge remains to be tied to Php10 as long as the access does not go beyond 30 minutes.

Globe has finally come to their senses and now offers GPRS/EDGE/3G/HSDPA access at Php5/15minutes!  Based on my experiences, I find going online using Globe a bit faster than using a Smart.  Anyway, this is a real welcome news because I am a regular (not prepaid) subscriber of Globe for the longest time now.

Source: http://www.philmug.ph/forum/showthread.php?t=34562

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PornEee: Eee PC vs. Fujitsu U1010

Picasa Web Albums - Bernie - Talkin' Tech - DSC00042.JPG

I had a chance to (man)handle the Fujitsu U1010 early today.  It belongs to the boss of my boss which is actually the president of the small company I work with.  It is obviously smaller and lighter than the Eee PC **BUT** it is running Windows Vista Home Premium which makes the machine really sluggish.

But despite its rather slow performance, I find it really attractive despite it being four times more expensive than my Eee PC.

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Extra Eee PC Batteries Now Available Locally!

Eee Accessories -- look at page1 for the items...

An enterprising member of the local Eee PC enthusiast forum (silieee) is now taking orders for the elusive extra batteries for the Eee PC.  This is a god-send to a lot of Eee PC users because of the not-too-impressive battery life of the current generation Eee PC.

Just click on the link above for pricing and availability.

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