Geeks.com is selling the Eee PC 4G 701 for just $299. This computer sold for $399 when Asus first introduced it less than a year ago. But since launching the Eee PC 701, Asus has put out over a dozen new Eee PC units, which has helped drived down the cost on the mini-notebook that started it all.

The Eee PC 4G 701 has a 7 inch, 800 x 480 pixel display, 512MB of RAM and 4GB of flash storage. It doesn’t have the roomier keyboard or screen you’ll find on newer Eee PC models. But if you can’t justify spending more than $300 on a netbook (and can’t wait a few days or weeks for Dell to launch a $299 laptop with an 8.9 inch display), this computer might be worth a look.

[via dealhack]

If you have your eye on a new Asus Eee PC 901 or 1000 but think 8.9 or 10 inches might be a bit more screen than you need, fear not. Asus will soon be releasing its first update in some time to the 701 series with its 7 inch display and big black bezel.

The Eee PC 701SD was first uncovered a few days ago when the folks at Engadget got their grubby little paws on a picture showing the Eee PC roadmap. Now Sascha at Eee PC News.de seems to have uncovered some photos of the upcoming laptop. It looks an awful lot like the original Eee PC 701. The major difference? The 701SD has a 30GB instead of a tiny solid state disk.

Hard drives tend to be cheaper than SSDs, but since the Eee PC 701 originally packed just 2GB to 8GB of storage, I’m not going to hold my breath waiting to find out whether the 701SD is cheaper than the 701. My guess is that the computer will sell for somewhere between $300 and $400. But it’s clearly aimed at bargain hunters rather than performance seekers. And with Asus pumping out new model after new model, maybe the company can afford to drive the price down a bit. Could we soon see a consumer oriented $200 laptop?

Think the $600 Eee PC 901 is a bit pricey? If you’re in Japan, you can apparently pick up an older Eee PC 701 4G for just about 100 yen, or less than $1 US. What’s the catch? You’ve got to sign up wireless data plan which will cost you the equivalent of $30 to $65 per month. That’s still a pretty reasonable price for a data plan, plus a computer and modem to use it with.

PC World India is reporting that the Eee PC 901 will hit the streets in “late June” and that Asus will be dropping the price of Eee PC 701 and Eee PC 900. I’m taking this information with a grain of salt, since I haven’t seen an official launch date yet and because computer makers have a tendency to miss their initial ship dates.

Taiwanese web store Mobile01 is selling a touchscreen kit for the Eee PC 701. If I’m translating the page correctly (and I’m not at all certain that I am), you can pick up the kit for 2,350 Taiwanese dollars, which is about the equivalent of $77 US.

Buy an Eee PC and Asus will throw in a little slip cover. But if you’re looking for something that offers a bit more protection or style, there are at least a dozen other options out there. Not bad for a PC that’s only been on the market for about half a year.

The folks at Popular Science have posted an article on Eee PC hacking. They upgraded the RAM, added an internal Bluetooth module, and slapped some extra flash memory into their unit. And to be perfectly honest, absolutely none of this is new. People have been making these mods since day one. But the picture that goes along with the article was just so awesome I had to share it. So that’s what I’m doing. Click the picture to see the full article with more information on Eee hacking.

Eee hacker extraordinaire jkkmobile, the guy who brought us the first touchscreen Eee PC mod, has answered the age-old question: will an Eee PC 900 screen work on an Eee PC 701. The answer? Kind of.

One of the coolest things about the tiny Eee PC is that it’s extraordinarily hackable. You wouldn’t think you could fit so much junk inside of its lilliputian case, but hundreds of people have added touchscrens, Bluetooth, additional memory, and other components to their Eee PC units. If you’re not an expert with a soldering iron, or if you’ve got better things to do with your time than mod your own Eee PC to perfection, one hacker has a proposition: Buy his modded Eee PC on eBay — for $3000, give or take $2000.

The starting bid is set at $2800, and the auction has a Buy it Now price of $3200. So what do you get for your money?

• 40GB solid state memory (8GB solid state drive that shipped with the unit and 32GB of additional storage)
• 2GB of RAM (the unit originally shipped with 1GB)
• 802.11 a/b/g/draft n (originally had b/g)
• GPS
• 7 inch touchscreen
• Air Play for transmitting audio to an FM radio
• Custom heatsink to deal with additional heat from overclocking
• Bluetooth adapter
• 2 internal USB hubs for connecting all the internal goodies
• Windows XP SP3 plus a hacked video driver to display 1024 x 768 screen resolution (although I wouldn’t recommend using this on a day to day basis, as it makes the fonts look horrible)

Apparently the laptop now weighs “less than 3.5 pounds,” which is nearly double the unit’s original weight. You can find more pictures at the seller’s blog.

So far this little auction has gotten a lot of attention, but hasn’t attracted a single bit yet. Because to be perfectly honest, if you’re willing to spend that kind of money on a light weight ultraportable, you might as well pick up a Macbook Air which has a far more powerful processor. The Eee PC is still stuck with a 900MHz Celeron processor. And no matter how much you overclock it, it’s not going to perform like a dual core CPU.

[via Gizmodo]

The main selling point for the Eee PC 900 is that it has a larger, higher resolution display than the Eee PC 701, but fits in the same small case. It turns out that’s not entirely true. The Eee PC 900 is actually a tiny bit bigger than the 701, and it weighs a few grams more.

While I’ve read this before, CNet’s Crave UK has some photos that make it more clear than ever. The screen is a little bit higher on the Eee PC 900, and the back of the unit sticks out a little bit further when you look at the computers side by side. For a few more comparison shots, check out the Crave article.

I doubt the size difference will be enough to discourage any prospective Eee PC 900 buyers. But I just didn’t want you to go around thinking the new unit was identical in size to the old one. There, I’ve done my good deed for the day.