It looks like the Aeeeris Eee PC tablet kit could have some competition soon. Last month we saw a prototype of a much more attractive tablet PC kit, complete with joystick buttons, speakers, and other controls. Now it looks like the developer is preparing to market the kit. The folks at x-gadget have discovered a print ad for an Eee PC-to-tablet PC kit that looks an awful lot like the prototype.

The kit should provide you with everything you need to turn an Eee PC 701 into a tablet PC with a 7 inch display. Of course, you’ll need to supply your own Eee PC 701. The kit will cost $5000 TWD, which is about $145 US.

via Portable Monkey

The first and second generation of Intel’s Classmate PC designs were quite obviously designed for educational markets. Like most netbooks, the Classmate PCs tend to have 7 to 9 inch displays, full (if a bit cramped) keyboards, and a clamshell laptop design. But unlike most netbooks, the Classmate PC tends to feature a ruggedized design that makes it a bit more resistant to scrapes and scuffs, but also makes it look a bit toy-like.

But when it comes to the Classmate 3, which has the same Fisher Price-like design, I couldn’t care less. Because the Classmate 3 has a touchscreen and a swiveling display which will make it the first convertible tablet PC with a sub-$500 price tag. Sure, it still has that silly handle on the back of the unit with a spot for students to write their names. But a cheap tablet is a cheap tablet. And while the Classmate 3 is targeted squarely at educational markets, some retailers including CTL plan to sell netbooks based on the design directly to consumers in the US and other regions.

Yesterday a whole bunch of Classmate 3 documents made their way to the FCC web site. You can find the user manual, a few photos, and a bunch of test reports for things you don’t really care about. Oh, and if you’re trying to figure out whether you can power up the netbook with some extra memory, storage, or a 3G modem, I’ve posted a bunch of photos of the netbook’s insides after the break.

via Engadget

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CTL plans to bring a sub-$500 touchscreen Tablet PC to the US market in the next few months. The netbook sized device is based on Intel’s third generation Classmate PC design. That means it’s designed primarily for the education market and has a fairly rugged case, and a big handle on the back of the computer to make it easy to carry around without a case.

I’m not a huge fan of the handle and Fisher price design of the CTL netbook tablet. But everything else about this little PC looks kind of awesome. Or almost everything anyway.

Laptop Magazine has had a chance to spend a few days with an early prototype. No, let me rephrase that. The early prototype. Right now CTL only has one unit to show off. The hardware’s not quite perfect. Some colors are a bit off and some of the components apparently feel a bit wobbly at the moment. But for the most part, the pre-production unit is similar to the computers CTL hopes to begin shipping in December and January.

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The Gigabyte M912 is the first netbook-class device to feature a touchscreen display that can rotate 180 degrees for tablet-style use. What sets the M912 apart from your typical tablet PC computers is the fact that it sells for under $1000, weighs less than 4 pounds, and has an 8.9 inch display.

But it also runs Windows Vista Home Basic which isn’t really optimized to make use of a touchscreen. And according to a recent review from Laptop Magazine, Gigabyte hasn’t bothered to bundle any additional software with the M912 to address the situation. So if you want to get the most out of your touchscreen, you’re going to want to install some third party applications.

Laptop Magazine also points out two other problems with the device:

1. The Gigabyte M912 runs a lot slower than other netbooks in its class (if you can honestly say any other netbooks are in its class), taking more than 90 seconds to boot and taking an excruciatingly long time to launch some applications.
2. It gets rather hot under the keyboard when you use it in clamshell mode. It gets even hotter in tablet mode. Like 106 degrees Farenheit hot.

That’s not to say the machine is a complete failure. It’s still probably the cheapest tablet PC you’re going to find anytime soon — even if it doesn’t actually ship with a tablet PC operating system. And while programs are slow to load, the review does point out that the computer does a decent job of multitasking.