eeepc

While I was writing a new article about why every web developer should buy a netbook in his arsenal, writing that happens using my tiny daugther's Asus Eee PC 701, I was quite tempted to buy the newest star in Asus line of netbooks: the Asus Eee PC 1000HE.

At US$ 389, with a 10" screen, 1 Gb. of RAM, 160 Gb. hard disk, improved keyboard and the promise of more than 9 hours of battery life looks like a great deal.

I had it already in my shopping cart but then I made a few numbers and decided not to complete the checkout. The reason? I have two daughters now. Beatriz is seven and lovely little Catalina arrived just a couple of weeks ago.

Obtaining the much desired wife acceptance factor of one is more difficult than ever and the finance crisis, worldwide now, doesn't help either.

So, what a man/web developer/father's got to do? Well, ask for a little help from his friends, I guess.

I've created a Chipin account to raise the funds for my new Asus Eee PC 1000HE, see the nice widget above. I'm sure some of my articles may have helped some of you in the past so if you want to put a few bucks in the tip jar I would really appreciate it. Let's see how it goes.

Some weeks ago I told you I had ordered our first Asus Eee PC. Today I'm glad to announce that the little toy is already at home. And even if I had named it Silfen, Beatriz decided to change that to Samantha.

I haven't had much time to play with it but I can tell you that the Eee PC is smaller than it looks on pics, works wonderfully and I really like it. A complete analysis is on its way.

Take a look at more pictures of our new Eee PC.

I'm a weak, very weak, man. I couldn't resist the avalanche of so many good reviews or the fear of the already reduced stock of Asus Eee PC at Amazon completely vanishing, a la Kindle, until 2008.

So, I've ordered my first Asus Eee 4G Galaxy a few hours ago. It's the black model with 512 Mb. RAM, upgradable, unlike the Surf ones, and solid state disk of 4 Gb. Don't confuse this model with the new T-Mobile 7" Samsung tab, which is also called the "Galaxy," because the two are very different products.

I'm counting the seconds (days actually) until this new family member arrives but it already has a name: Silfen. By the way, a very special prize for the guy or gal who can tell where that name comes from.

Now, watch out for the review when the new toy is here.

After the mess of the Palm Foleo and while there aren't official news about a commercial OLPC (it seems we may have some for Christmas) Asus, probably the biggest motherboard maker in the world, announces the Eee PC is almost here.

The name is certainly uncool (it reminds me of Nintendo's Wii) but the feature set looks quite well, let's see:

• A 7" screen.
• Ethernet and Wi-Fi.
• 256 Mb. to 1 Gb. DDR2.
• Solid state disk (SSD) from 2 Gb. to 8 Gb.
• It can run Linux (neat!) or Windows (I wonder who will be the wacko planning to run Vista on these).
• Stereo sound and mic.
• 4 cell battery with duration between 2.8 and 3.5 hours.
• 2.03 lbs.
• 3 USB ports.

Asus press release says they will have 4 models available in North America during the next weeks, with prices ranging from US$ 299 to US$ 399. I find them quite attractive, really.

And now that I've just ordered a Nokia N800 (price dropped US$ 100 in the last days in Amazon so I'm asking for a refund) and I want to get a more compact Darter from System 76, Amber the Pangolin is too much weight while traveling, I'm already adding an Eee PC to my Christmas wish list this year.