Every now and again someone will ask me whether one netbook or another has a backlit keyboard. No. Pretty much no matter which netbook you’re talking about, the answer is no, it does not have a backlit keyboard. Netbooks are, by definition, cheap laptops. And that’s a premium feature that you’re not likely to find in a cheap laptop anytime soon.

But that doesn’t mean that there’s no hope for anyone that wants to use their netbook in the dark. MyDellMini user vrg3 came up with an interesting solution. He opened up his Dell Mini 9 netbook and added a LED into the bezel near the webcam. Then he wired it up so that he could turn the light on and off by resizing and holding the Ctrl key.

In the end, it’s probably easier just to carry a flashlight around with you and shine it on the keyboard. But if you’re cool with drilling holes in your netbook and voiding your warranty, hit up the MyDellMini forum for details and more photos.

via Lifehacker

For a company who’s CEO thinks netbooks are about as useful as steel wool underpants, Dell sure is pumping out its fair share of Google Chrome OS news.

Yes, Doug from Dell has been hard at work (though arguably not as busy as Hexxeh) and has now released an updated version of the Chrome OS build originally released for the Mini 10V. The new version adds support for Dell’s Mini 9 and Latitude 2100 systems.

It’s also been trimmed down to 300MB – which Chrome tells me will download in about 25 minutes. That’s a nice improvement over the 8GB all-day job they released the first time around. Of course, Hexxeh’s latest build is smaller and probably supports all these Dell models anyway and there’s a torrent available.

Probably worth noting: your Dell may boot in 15 seconds, but if it’s running a Broadcom wireless card you’ll have to wait 5 minutes before the connection manager sees it.

Dell has also shared a video clip, in case you want to see how speedily Chrome OS boots on the three systems. Check it out after the break).

Hey, isn’t it too bad they didn’t bother to see how fast Moblin, xPud, or Jolicloud boots on them?

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