While Asus has yet to ship a spare battery charger for the Eee PC, it looks like eXpansys will begin offering one on July 31st. The eXpansys battery charger will cost $41, and will let you recharge a battery while you're using your computer. Right now the only way to charge an Eee PC battery is to plug your Eee PC into the wall.

[via jkkmobile]

Asus is sending out emails to UK Eee PC 900 owners letting them know that they will not be able to trade in their 4400mAh batteries for higher capacity 5800mAh batteries.

When Asus sent out review units of the Eee PC before launching the computer, Asus included the higher capacity batteries. But when it came time to ship the Eee PC 900 in the UK, Asus went with the lower capacity version. The decision makes some sense, since there's a global battery shortage at the moment. But it kind of stinks to read about a machine getting decent battery life in all of the product reviews, only to find that the real world version gets significantly worse mileage.

A few weeks ago Asus announced a promotion to let British Eee PC 900 owners upgrade their batteries. You still had to pay £10, and because you have to send in your battery before getting your replacement, you have to be willing to go battery-less for a few days. But it's better than having a crappy battery, right? Right?

Anyway, now it looks like Asus is postponing the battery trade-in indefinitely. EeeUser reports that customers are getting friendly letters alerting them that the program will be "postponed until further notice." No reason has been given. I'm guessing it probably has something to do with the battery shortage.

HP is now selling 6-cell batteries for the HP Mini-Note. And while I reported a few days ago that HP would be charging $191 for a 6-cell and $207.10 for a 3-cell battery, it looks like you can pick up a 6-cell battery today for the low, low price of $129. Yeah, that still seems like a lot of money for a battery for a $499+ computer. But laptop batteries have always had unreasonably high price tags.

Incidentally, the $191 version is still listed at the HP Parts Store. I have no idea what differentiates it from the $129 "HP 2100 Series 6-cell primary battery," but it costs a bit more and is listed as orderable, but not currently in stock.

[via HP 2133 Guide]

Want a spare battery for your HP Mini-Note? You'd better have $200 or so to spare, because HP is charging $191 for a spare/replacement 6-cell 55Wh battery. Yep, a single battery will cost you almost 2/5ths the price of the cheapest Mini-Note laptop.

But wait, there's more. The 3-cell 28Wh battery actually costs more, with ridiculous price tag of $207.10. Now, its not unusual for computer makers to charge what seem like unreasonable rates for spare batteries. But it seems especially obnoxious when you're talking about batteries for computers that sell for as little as $499.

There was a fire in a major battery manufacturing plant earlier this year which has affected the global supply of laptop batteries. But it's not clear whether it's also affecting the prices for these batteries, especially since HP is accepting orders but doesn't actually have the batteries in stock yet. In other words, I see no evidence that HP will lower the prices for spare batteries later.

The moral of this story: If you want the higher capacity 6-cell battery, spring for a more expensive computer configuration up front, because adding a battery down the road is just going to make your wallet cry. Well, until cheaper knockoff batteries start showing up eBay anyway.

[via MiniNote User]

If you live in the UK and bought an Eee PC 900, odds are you got stuck with a 4400mAh battery rather than the 5800mAh battery that the company sent out to early product reviewers. Responding to customer complaints, a few weeks ago Asus promised to offer UK customers a way to upgrade their batteries. The upgrade will cost you £10, but it's better than nothing, right?

Now Mobile Computer Magazine has the full details on the trade-in program, and it looks horribly awkward. First, you have to call the Asus UK service help desk at 0870 1208340. Then they'll give you the information you need to ship your 4400mAh battery to the Asus service centre. Once it arrives, an Asus rep will call you and ask for your credit card details, charge you £10, and then ship your battery. The whole process is expected to take about 5 days.

That means you have to go without a laptop battery for 5 days. Most other companies do things in the reverse order. They take your credit card information, send you a replacement part and then ask you to send back the original part. That way you don't have to live without a necessary component for a week, and the company can always charge your card if you fail to send back the original part.

Asus is offering UK Eee PC 900 customers a chance to trade in their 4400mAh batteries for 5800mAh batteries. But there's a bit of a catch.

Asus initially sent out review units with the higher capacity battery, the company has been shipping Eee PC 900 models with a lower capacity battery that runs out of juice a little sooner. When Hong Kong customers complained, Asus caved and allowed people to replace in their 4400mAh batteries with a 5800mAh battery for free. But UK customers will have to pay £10 + VAT to trade in their batteries.

Mobile Computer reports that the offer should be available in the UK starting June 10th.

[via EeeUser]

Asus has confirmed that the Eee PC 900 will ship in the UK with a 4400mAh battery, while customers in the US and several other markets will get a higher capacity 5800mAh battery. The Eee PC 701 2g Surf, for comparison, comes with a 4400mAh battery with an estimated life of just about 2 hours, while the Eee PC 701 4G comes with a 5200mAh battery that gets 2.5-3 hours.

In other words, UK customers will get a computer with a larger screen, a CPU that runs at its full 900MHz speed (earlier models were underclocked to run at 630 or 571MHz) and a lower capacity battery. All of this spells disaster for anyone who was hoping their ultraportable laptop would be able to run for 2 hours or more on a single charge. Maybe it's just me, but if I have to lug a power cable with me everywhere I go to use my light weight, portable notebook, I start to think of it as a little less portable.

To be fair, this isn't entirely Asus's fault. A fire at an LG Chemical plant earlier this year has led to a global shortage of laptop batteries. So the company is conserving wherever they can. But it'd be nice if Asus would at least knock a few bucks off the price. As things stand, the company is trying to convince UK customers that they're getting a good deal because the computer comes with a 2 year warranty. But which would you rather have, a 2 year warranty, or a 1 year warranty and a battery that lasts up to 30 minutes longer?

French site Blogeee has a detailed review of two new extended batteries for the Eee PC from Bluetrade. The site looks at a 6600 mAh battery which sells for 58.79 Euros and a 7350 mAh battery, which sells for 79.04 Euros.

Both batteries provide significantly better performance than the standard batteries that come with either the Eee PC 701 or Eee PC 900. Blogee has several detailed charts showing the differences. But in a nutshell, the extended batteries will provide 3 hour more hours of battery life if you're doing nothing but watching video, and 4 to 5 hours of battery life if you're surfing the web, or working with OpenOffice.org.

The prices are kind of high considering how cheap the computer is. And there are other down sides. The batteries protrude from the back of the unit a bit, making it both heavier and bulkier. And while Bluetrade offers a 1 year warranty, Asus has warned that it's warranty does not cover damage caused by third party batteries. So if your batteries blow up, Bluetrade might replace them, but Asus ain't going to replace your computer.

OK, seriously, did anyone think that their Asus Eee PC warranty would cover damaged by third party peripherals? Last month, high capacity batteries for the Eee PC started showing up on eBay. These 10400mAh batteries have twice the capacity of a standard Eee PC battery, meaning your laptop should run twice as long on battery power. And the batteries are reasonably priced at $60 to $100 -- while Asus plans to charge $99 for its 6-cell 7800mAh battery whenever the company actually gets around to releasing it.

But there's been at least one unconfirmed report of a 10400mAh battery exploding while charging and causing damage to an Eee PC. And that's led to an unconfirmed report that Asus refused to repair the computer. But you know what? I really wouldn't blame them. And in fact, DigiTimes reports that the company says if this did happen, the damage would not be covered by the warranty.

So a word of caution. If you're going to buy a third party battery, you might want to keep an eye on your Eee PC while it's charging, unplug it if it's getting unreasonably hot, and oh yeah, wait until you've read a few thousand reports from happy customers before picking one up. Or you could just wait for Asus to release their overpriced 6 cell battery.

A fire at an LG Chem plant in March has been affecting laptop battery shipments for the past few months, but it looks like the battery shortage of 2008 could end by the third quarter.

Since it's pretty hard to sell a laptop without a battery, the shortage has already had an impact on computer sales. Asus CEO Jerry Shen says his company would have sold far more than 5 million Eee PCs if not for the battery shortage.

What does this mean for computer shoppers? Well, it's not like you're not going to be able to find a laptop in June. You'll just have an easier time finding the one you want in stock around September or so. And honestly, if you're interested in a low cost ultraportable, this fall might be the best time to go shopping anyway. We've already heard that Intel's going to have a hard time keeping up with demand for its new low-power Atom chip this summer, but hopefully that problem will also be resolved by fall.

Just days after announcing the new Eee PC 900 with an 8.9 inch screen, Asus officials are talking about plans for a 10-inch model. PC World reports that the company will release a version with a 10-inch screen later this year. There are no plans to put a screen larger than 10 inches on an Eee PC, since anything larger would basically turn the computer into a traditional laptop.

PC World is also confirming the rumor that Asus plans to introduce a version of the Eee PC running Intel's upcoming Atom processor in June. The atom processor is designed to be more energy efficient than the current Celeron processors used by the Eee PC 701 and 900 series. While it's pretty clear the 900 series will be getting the Atom treatment, I wonder if Asus will use the new chip in the older 701 2G/4G/8G models. Atom is designed to be a low cost chip, after all.

And rounding up the news from PC World, it took just a few hours Asus to sell out of Eee PC 900 models after the Hong Kong launch. That would probably be more impressive if the article didn't say "over 1,000" of the laptops sold almost immediately. Because while I know the Hong Kong release was just the first run, I would have expected the company to have more than a thousand units available at launch. Something tells me there will be a few more to go around by the time the Eee PC 900 hits Europe and the US.

In other news, Asus has been dealing with a battery shortage which has affected some Eee PC shipments. Reuters reports that the company expects these issues to be resolved by June.

And finally, web comic xkcd gives us a new idea for something to do with a low cost, tiny computer.