Have you been waiting patiently for the past year and change for Asus to get around to releasing the 10 inch convertible netbook/tablet that it first introduced at CES 2009? Asus polished the Eee PC T101MT up a bit for CES 2010 by adding a new Intel Atom N450 processor, Windows 7, and a multitouch display. And the company put out a video this week to demonstrate the computer’s touchscreen user interface. But the T101MT still isn’t available for purchase.

Asus promises that the netbook should be available this year. But if you just can’t wait, it turns out there are other options. Most of them are either really expensive, such as the Gigabyte TouchNote T1028, which sells for $728 at Amazon, or cheap computers from Chinese companies you’ve never heard of. But if you’re wiling to take a risk, some of those Chinese 10 inch tablet-style netbooks are available in the US through companies that import products from China.

Here are a few models I came across today:

• 10.2″ netbook w/1.6GHz Atom N270 CPU, 1024 x 600 pixel touchscreen display, 160GB hard drive, 1GBof RAM, 802.11b/g WiFi and 3 cell, 2 hour battery for $429.99 from ChinaGrabber
• 10.2″ netbook w/1.6GHz Atom N270 CPU, 1GB of RAM, 160GB hard drive, 1024 x 600 pixel touchscreen display, 802.11b/g/ WiFi and 3 cell, 3 hour battery for $469.99 from ChinaGrabber
• 10.2″ netbook w/1.6GHz Atom N270 CPU, 1024 x 600 pixel touchscreen display, 802.11a/b/g WiFi, 1GB of RAM, 160GB hard drive, 3 cell, 2.7 hour battery for $365 from HightonTech

All three notebooks come with Windows XP or Linux, so if you’re holding out for Windows 7 you’ll need to install it yourself or wait for Asus or another PC maker to offer the 10 inch tablet of your dreams (hopefully with a higher capacity battery). You could also look at the Asus Eee PC T91MT, which has a 9 inch display, a smaller keyboard, and a slower processor.

I should also point out that while ChinaGrabber offers free shipping, HightonTech charges $69 to deliver a netbook to a US address.

YugaTech

The Lenovo ThinkPad X100e and Asus Eee PC 1201T both have 1.6GHz AMD Neo MV-40 processor and ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics processors. So you’d think they’d perform pretty much the same on most benchmarks. But it’s not just the CPU and GPU that determines a computer’s performance, as the folks at YugaTech recently discovered.

For instance, the two computers have different memory clock speeds and different hard drives. And while they both have ATI Radeon HD3200 grpahics processors, the Eee PC 1201T has 256MB of video memory while the Lenovo ThinkPad X100e has 336MB of video memory.

And those differences seem to have affected each computer’s score in the PassMark benchmark, with the Eee PC 1201T coming out ahead in the 3D and 2D graphics benchmarks and the memory test, but straggling behind in the hard disk test.

For more details, check out YugaTech’s breakdown.

Solid State Disk maker RunCore has released a new line of 50mm mini-SATA PCIe SSDs for the Asus Eee PC T91 and Dell Inspiron Mini 9 netbooks. Both versions are part of the RunCore Pro IV Light line and are designed for netbooks with mini PCIe slots rather than hard drives.

In a nutshell, these SSDs offer faster read and write speeds than you’ll get from the disks that come with those netbooks. RunCore offers 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB versions of the Pro IV Light SSDs.

The SSDs designed for the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 will also work with the Dell Vostro A90 netbook, which is virtually identical in most respects. These SSDs feature read speeds up to 90MB/s and write speeds up to 55MB/s. The list price for these SSDs are $110 through $250, although MyDigitalDiscount sells them for $90 through $230.

The Eee PC T101MT models are a bit faster, with read speeds up to 125MB/s and write speeds up to 80MB/s.  These SSDs run between $130 and $260 at the RunCore store, or $120 through $230 at MyDigitalDiscount.

via MyDellMini

Eeebuntu is a popular Linux distribution designed to play well with netbooks. It’s optimized for laptops with small screens and Intel Atom processors. And as you can probably guess from the name, it was originally designed as a custom version of Ubuntu Linux for Asus Eee PC netbooks. Today the Eeebuntu team launched the first public beta of Eeebuntu 4.0, which drops the Ubuntu base for Debian Linux.

Unfortunately, the servers are getting hammered right now, so you might have to wait a little while to download Eeebuntu 4.0 Beta. Riccardo at Eee PC.it grabbed a screenshot (shown above) before the site went down, and it looks like Eeebuntu 4.0 ditches the Ubuntu Netbook Remix interface for a desktop with a dock-style application launcher and a single panel at the top of the screen. Update: Users can also install the Netbook Remix interface from the Eeebuntu repositories. It may be available out of the box after Eeebuntu 4.0 leaves beta.

I can’t say for certain whether all the applications in the dock are included with Eeebuntu out of the box, but I spot icons for the Google Chrome and Firefox web browsers, Skype and Pidgin communication software, Thunderbird email client, GIMP image editor, VLC media player, and OpenOffice.org office software. There are a few icons I don’t recognize.

Anyone have a chance to download and try Eeebuntu 4.0 Beta yet? Let us know what you think in the comments.

thanks Bennett!

Netbooks and Notebooks

• Lenovo IdeaPad U150 11.6″ laptop w/Celeron SU2300, Win 7 Home Premium for $549.99 + free shipping – Amazon
• Asus Eee PC 1001P 10.1″ pink netbook w/Atom N450, Win 7 Starter, 11 hour battery for $324.99 + free shipping – Newegg
• Refurbished Asus Eee PC 1005HA 10.1″ netbook w/Atom N270, Win XP, 3 cell battery for $219.99 – Mwave
• Samsung N150 10.1″ netbook w/Atom N450, Win 7 Starter, 6 cell battery for $344.99 + free shipping – Newegg
• Free Compaq netbook with a purcahse of a Double Play service bundle – Verizon

Accessories

• Rosewill DVD Burner Model for $39.99 +$1.99 s&h – Newegg (coupon: EMCYNYX39)
• Refurbished Targus Universal Laptop Docking Station w/ audio for $15 + $5 s&h – DealsClick
• Logitech V220 Cordless Optical Mouse for Notebooks – Dark Silver for $13.99 after rebate – Buy.com
• AGAMA M-900LS RF Wireless Laser Mouse Black for $9.99 after rebate – ZipZoomfly
• Kingston 1GB PC2-5300 667MHz 200-pin SO-DIMM DDR2 Laptop Memory for $22.75 + free shipping – Buy.com
• Kingston 8GB DataTraveler 102 USB Flash Drive, Blue for $18.88 + free shipping – Buy.com

You can find more deals on netbooks, gadgets, and accessories in the Liliputing Deals section.

NVIDIA is introducing a new technology that allows computers with integrated and dedicated graphics cards to seamlessly switch between the two. If you’re surfing the web, you probably don’t need your high performance, energy-hungry NVIDIA graphics card to kick in and suck your laptop’s battery dry. But when you’re watching an HD movie, playing a game, or performing other actions that would benefit from a graphics boost, NVIDIA’s new technology will automatically switch to the higher performance graphics card.

NVIDIA calls the system Optimus, and it’s designed to work with GeForce 200M, 300M, and GeForce M GPUs as well as the as-yet-unannounced NVIDIA ION 2 graphics processor. It supports Intel’s Core 2 Duo, Core i3, i5, and i7 processors and Intel Atom N450 CPUs.

The move makes a lot of sense for a few reasons. First, since Intel’s latest processors integrated the graphics and CPU functions on a single chip, there’s no way for NVIDIA to simply replace the integrated graphics processors with its own chips. And second, on existing systems that have two GPUs, you have to toggle between them manually which takes time and sometimes requires you to close applications.

The Optimus system will let users manually switch graphics. But for day to day use, it will automatically determine which graphics solution meets your needs.

The first laptop equipped with the new Optimus technology is the Asus UL50VF, a 15.6 inch laptop with a 1.3GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 processor, Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics and NVIDIA GeForce G210M. Engadget’s Joanna Stern has been testing the laptop for a few days. She says it made the switch seamlessly when she wanted to watch HD YouTube or local videos. But the Optimus software didn’t recognize the video game she fired up during her test, which meant that the switch wasn’t automatic.

Gizmodo  reports that as many as 50 notebooks with Optimus should be available by this summer. Hopefully that list will include a few Atom-powered netbooks, or better yet, 11 or 12 inch notebooks with CULV processors and NVIDIA graphics.

The Asus Eee PC T101MT is a 10 inch tablet-style netbook with a touchscreen display that supports multitouch gestures. You can fold the screen down over the keyboard for use in tablet mode, or use the T101MT as a traditional laptop. The computer isn’t available for purchase yet, but Asus is expected to release the new model soon. And the company has posted a video on YouTube which shows some of the touch-friendly features of Windows 7 Home Premium as well as the custom software that Asus created for its touchscreen netbooks.

You can check out the video after the break. But in a nutshell, it looks like the Eee PC T101MT will come with the most of the same software that comes with the Asus Eee PC T91MT, the company’s existing 9 inch netbook.

The biggest differences between the two models is that the T91MT has a smaller screen and display and a slower processor. The Eee PC T101MT will pack a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 Pine Trail processor while the T91MT has a 1.33GHz Intel Atom Z520 CPU.

via Netbook News.de

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The Samsung N150 is one of a handful of mini-laptops powered by Intel Atom N450 processors that Samsung introduced last month. It’s one of the cheapest new models, with a rather ordinary looking plastic case and a battery that’s good for up to 7.5 hours (as opposed to the 11 to 12 hours of run time Samsung is promising for the NB30 and N210/N220 netbooks).

CNET has posted one of the first reviews of the Samsung N150. Overall, the reviewer finds the netbook to be a mixed bag. He finds the keyboard to be a little cramped, but he likes the touchpad which supports multitouch gestures.

The 4400mAh battery provided just over 5 hours of run time in a Battery Eater test. Since Battery Eater is designed to constantly stress the CPU, you should expect closer to 6 or 7 hours of web surfing or other light duty activities.

The Samsung N150 is available from Amazon for $349.

via Eee PC.net

When Notion Ink showed off an early prototype of its 10 inch tablet at CES last month, the device was still in the early prototype stages. How early? The case was hand-carved out of wood instead of being made of metal or plastic. But the Adam tablet still got a lot of buzz as one of the most exciting devices on display at CES thanks to two factors. It has a Pixel Qi 3qi display which looks as good outdoors as it does indoors, and which can be flipped from full color mode to a high contrast, low power mode for reading eBooks or web pages. And the tablet uses NVIDIA’s Tegra platform which bundles high quality graphics with a low power processor.

The Notion Ink Adam still isn’t ready to ship yet. But the company sent SlashGear a series of mockup images showing what the finished product could look like. All told, it doesn’t look that different from the device I saw at CES. But the company does have a few new details to share.

First, there could be two different versions of the Adam. One would measure 12.9mm thick, while the other would be just 11.6mm. Both would be thinner than the 13.4mm iPad, although it’s likely that the thinner model would not have a Pixel Qi display.

Notion Ink claims that the Adam might be able to run for 2-3 times longer than the iPad for surfing the web or performing some other tasks. SlashGear reports that the tablet will also launch with partnerships in place with digital magazine, eBook, and comic book content available.

You can check out my hands-on video with the Notion Ink tablet prototype from CES after the break.

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The Gigabyte Booktop M1305 is a 13 inch notebook that comes with a docking station that lets you effectively use the laptop as if it were a desktop by quickly and easily plugging in a mouse, keyboard, monitor, and other peripherals. It’s basically the larger version of the 10 inch Booktop M1022.

The idea is that the notebook is more useful when you stick it into the dock. So to promote the “stick it in” concept, Gigabyte is running a campaign in Taiwan showing another popular “stick it in” action: people sticking their fingers in their nose. Because umm… well, really I don’t know why.

It’s not exactly the kind of campaign that’s going to appeal to everyone. but who knows, maybe it will go over well in Taiwan.

via NewGadgets.de and Mobile and Notebook