Follow us on TwitterUnboxing the Toshiba Mini NB205
Posted by Steve Greer on August 26, 2009 in Netbook Market
We just received the Toshiba Mini NB205 netbook. I’ve heard so many good things about this netbook that I just had to do an unboxing video.
I must say that I’m very impressed with the Toshiba NB205. I’ve personally always favored the Samsung Netbooks. This will be my first personal netbook that is not a Samsung.
Check out the video and stay tuned for a review in the near future.
Acer Aspire One AOD250 Unboxing Video
Posted by Steve Greer on August 26, 2009 in Acer Netbooks, Netbook Market, Netbooks, Videos
A few weeks ago Tom finally got his chance to do his first unboxing video. I apologize for the delay in getting it posted. Check out the video and see the Acer Aspire One AOD250 for yourself.
Falling Netbook Prices – 8/20/09
Posted by Tom Greer on August 20, 2009 in Falling Prices, HP Netbooks
Today, we have just one netbook to report in our Falling Prices column..
BuyDig.com has cut their price on the HP Mini 110 160GB 6-Cell XP WWAN by about $10 to $419.00 with FREE shipping. This is the model that has the broadband cellular access built-in.
| HP Mini 110 160GB 6-Cell XP WWAN | |||
 | 10.1" Display (1024x576), Intel Atom N270 1.6 GHz Processor, Intel GMA 950, 1 GB RAM, 160 GB Hard Drive, 802.11b/g, un2400 Mobile Broadband, 6-Cell Battery, Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, 2.89 lbs | Today's Deals From $319.00 To $479.99 At 8 Stores | |
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The deals in the above widgets are updated automatically. So if you visit us a few days down the road, the prices displayed may not match the article. That means you got here too late. So, why not subscribe to our RSS feed and stay up to date.
Moblin 2.0 Review
Posted by Steve Greer on August 20, 2009 in Netbook Market, Operating Systems, Reviews
At Netbook Scoop, we have been testing various new operating systems on our netbooks over the last week.
Earlier we reviewed Google Android as a netbook OS. We also published tutorials on installing Android and Moblin on bootable USB memory sticks so that you can test these OSs without actually installing them on your hard drive.
Today I’m going to show you Moblin 2.0 Beta running on an Asus Eee PC 1008HA.
Booting Moblin
I decided to install Moblin 2.0 to the hard drive of the Asus Eee PC 1008HA to give the operating system a true run. The boot time was about 45 seconds. Not bad for a Linux based OS (note that I did not install the quick boot option).
Once I was booted into the Operating System I come right into the MyZone Screen.
Android As A Netbook Operating System
Posted by Tom Greer on August 17, 2009 in Netbook Market
At Netbook Scoop, we are doing a series of articles on new netbook operating systems (OSs).
In an earlier article, we explained how to download Google’s Android OS and install it on a bootable USB stick. That way, you can test Android on a netbook with out disturbing the existing operating system.
In this article, we will take a look at Google’s Android and decide whether it is a worthy contender as a future netbook OS.
Falling Netbook Prices – 8/16/09
Posted by Tom Greer on August 16, 2009 in Asus Netbooks, Falling Prices, Gigabyte Netbooks, MSI Netbooks
Here is today’s list of netbooks where the lowest price has dropped by $5.00 or more in the past day or so. And it is a great list. It contains some of our most popular netbooks.
First of all, we have the super-slim and really sexy-looking Asus Eee PC 1008HA. BuyDig has reduced their prices on all of the different colors to $399.95.
How To Run Android On Your Netbook
Posted by Tom Greer on August 16, 2009 in Operating Systems
There is a lot of development work on new operating systems for netbooks. Obviously, Microsoft intends to replace XP with the soon-to-be-released Windows 7. They will make the transition gradually. But, they will phase out XP as soon as customers let them.
However, there are others who would like to insert themselves into the mix and grab a portion of the market.
So, we decided to spend time this weekend exploring Moblin (initially developed by Intel), Android (from Google), Kubuntu (from Canonical) and Windows 7 (from Microsoft). All of these are pre-production releases, so we expect some buginess.
Steve just posted an article on how to create a Live USB Stick to boot Moblin.
In this article, I do the same for Google’s Android.
Preparation
First off. Please realize that Android was developed as a smart phone operating system. Then some smart guys decided to load the OS on their Eee PC – and surprise, it actually worked. Sort of.
Since then, there has been a lot of speculation that Google would expand and extend Android as a real netbook operating system. Last month, Google suprised many people by announcing that they would be introducing a netbook operating system named Chrome OS.
Unfortunately, Chrome OS is not available to us. But Android is – and many speculate that Chrome OS will simply be Android with some netbook extensions. So we will take a look at Android.
The first thing we did was to make a bootable USB memory stick containing Android. We thought you might like to experiment with Android as well, so here is how we did it.
All you need is a USB memory stick. I used a 1 GB stick. You can probably fit it on a 250MB stick.
Step 1. Download the latest version from Google.
Go to the live-android download page at Google. Download these two files: liveandroidv0.2usb.iso.001 and liveandroidv0.2usb.iso.002.
Each of these files is about 90 MB.
Step 2. Join the two files
In Linux:
cat liveandroidv0.2usb.iso.001 liveandroidv0.2usb.iso.002 > liveandroidv0.2.iso
In Windows:
You will need to access the command line (Start Button -> Run -> CMD), then:
copy /b liveandroidv0.2.iso.001 +liveandroidv0.2.iso.002 liveandroidv0.2.iso
Step 3. Make the USB stick bootable
Whether you are using Linux or Windows, you will want to download and install UNetbootin.
Plug your USB stick in and fire up UNetbootin.
Screenshot of UNetbootin
Set the DiskImage field to the file you created in Step 2 above. Set the USB Drive to the one you just plugged in. Select OK.
Ready to Test
Now you just need to set the BIOS on your netbook so that it will boot from the USB stick and you are ready to go.
We will publish our results in a separate article once we have some time to evaluate it.
We also plan to shoot a video showing different netbooks running each of the OS’s mentioned above. So stay tuned.
How to test Moblin from a USB stick
Posted by Steve Greer on August 16, 2009 in Netbook Market, Operating Systems, Reviews
It is apparent that Windows XP’s days are numbered. So, naturally there is a lot of interest in several new operating systems being developed for netbooks.
This weekend, we are exploring Moblin (initially developed by Intel), Android (from Google), Kubuntu (from Canonical) and Windows 7 (from Microsoft). All of these are pre-production releases, so we expect some buginess.
There has been some talk about Acer releasing a netbook with Moblin loaded on it. So, first up is Moblin.
We wanted an easy way to test Moblin without installing it to your hard disk. We thought you might like to know, too. So here is how we did it.
Preparations
All you need is a 1 GB USB stick and a few minutes of your time.
There are a few things to keep in mind while testing Moblin on your netbook.
It is recommended that you have an Intel Atom N270 or N280 processor with the GMA950 chipset. I’ve read that Moblin does not have support for the GMA500 chipset as of yet.
While it is possible to create a bootable CD, I would also recommend booting from USB instead. I’ve done some testing with the Live CD an found it to be a very slow experience.
Steps to Create Live USB Stick
Here are the steps to create your own bootable USB key. This takes about 5 minutes and you are good to go.
1. Download the latest Moblin release from Moblin.org
2. Download Win32DiskImager.exe
3. Unzip the file and extract the contents to a known directory
4. Run W32DiskImager.exe (See screenshot below)
5. Select the Moblin Image File
6. Select the drive letter that represents your USB key
7. Select the “Write” button to byte-copy the image to the USB stick.
8. Presto! You have a bootable USB stick.
9. Make sure you set your bios to boot from USB before you try and boot.
10. Boot Moblin from your USB stick and Presto! You have Moblin available for testing.
I will make sure and post a video in the next day and share some of my experience using Moblin.
Just remember one thing while testing. This is a BETA release and does not represent the final release.
Falling Netbook Prices – 8/14/09
Posted by Tom Greer on August 14, 2009 in Falling Prices, MSI Nettops, Samsung Netbooks
Today we have two netbooks and a nettop on today’s Falling Prices listing of products where the lowest price has dropped by $5.00 or more.
| Samsung N110 160GB 6-Cell XP | |||
 | 10.2" Display (1024x600), 1.6 GHz Intel Atom N270 Processor, 1 GB RAM, 160 GB Hard Drive, 802.11b/g, Bluetooth, 6 Cell Battery, Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition | Today's Deals From $349.00 To $414.91 At 8 Stores | |
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| MSI X340 Slim 320GB Vista HP | |||
 | 13.4" Display (1366x768), 1.4 GHz Intel CULV SU3500 Processor, 2 GB RAM, 320 GB Hard Drive, Intel GMA 4500MHD, 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth, 4-Cell Battery, Microsoft Vista Home Premium | Today's Deals From $599.72 To $899.99 At 13 Stores | |
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| MSI Wind Nettop CS120 Atom 230 160GB XP | |||
 | 1.6GHz Intel Atom 230 Processor, 1GB RAM, 160GB Hard Drive, Intel GMA950, DVD-Writer (DVD-RAM, ±R, ±RW), 4-in-1 Card Reader, 802.11b/g, Gigabit Ethernet, Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition | Today's Deals From $308.99 To $360.15 At 7 Stores | |
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The deals in the above widgets are updated automatically. So if you visit us a few days down the road, the prices displayed may not match the article. That means you got here too late. So, why not subscribe to our RSS feed and stay up to date.