NetbookTech

For those of you who believe that nail polish colors rule, you’ll be thrilled to hear that Dell has added six new nail polish shades to the Inspiron Mini 10 netbook as part of a partnership with QPI. The six colors, all inspired by the city of Hong Kong, are Dim Sum Plum, Hot & Spicy, Jade is the New Black, Meet Me on the Star Ferry, Red My Fortune Cookie, and Suzi Says Feng Shui.

Dim Sum Plum:

Hot & Spicy:

Jade is the New Black:

Meet Me on the Star Ferry:

Suzi Says Feng Shui:

Those of you waiting to pick up a customized Dell Inspiron Mini 10 or 10v netbook will be happy to hear that Dell has officially expanded the Dell Design Studio to now include those two netbook systems.

Originally announced a few weeks ago, Dell now allows customers to personalize the look of their Mini 10/10v with artwork based on:

• MLB Team Logos
• (PRODUCT) RED artwork
• Designs from popular designers and artists like Derek Welch and Korakit

You can read more about this by heading over to Direct2Dell and then checking out the Design Studio here.

OK.. this certainly isn’t for the faint of heart but if you’re wondering how you might convert say.. a Dell Mini 9 netbook into a Tablet PC wannabe, then you’ll want to check out this MyDellMini.com forum thread. In it, Rob928 describes his DIY project where he transforms a Dell Vostro A90 netbook (basically a business version of the Dell Mini 9) into a touch-screen enabled Slate device. The touchscreen is complements of the Hoda Technology solderless touchscreen kit. Pretty cool project although I doubt I’ll ever have the time or patience to do something like this myself.

[Check it out via SlipperyBrick, Gizmodo]

While it certainly appears that Apple will stay away from the netbook market (with rumors that the company will instead venture into a tablet PC style device shortly), this certainly hasn’t stopped the competition from releasing a netbook product with OS X installed. The latest example? A company called RussianMac (which is also selling other types of PCs with OS X installed) which is now offering what appears to be an ASUS Eee PC netbook with OS X pre-installed. The system (known as the “MiniBook”) features the following:

• Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz processor
• 1GB of RAM
• 160GB 5400RPM HDD
• Intel GMA 950 graphics
• 10.2 inch 1024 x 600 resolution display
• Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0
• 3 USB 2.0 ports, VGA, media card reader

And now.. the price? 19,200 rubles or approximately $616 U.S. dollars. Not exactly cheap for a netbook.

[Check it out via 9 to 5 Mac]

Not thrilled with the built-in 16GB SSD on the ASUS S101 netbook? Not a problem. Super Talent Technology has announced a new line of Mini PCIe solid state drives designed specifically as an upgrade to the ASUS S101 Eee PC netbook. The new Super Talent drives are available in three storage capacities:

• Model FPM16RSE 16GB drive
• Model FPM32RSE 32GB drive
• Model FPM64RSE 64GB drive

These three SATA Mini PCIe drives have a max read speed of 90MB/sec and a max write speed of 55MB/sec. All three models are shipping now with the high end 64GB model available for a price of $169. Not a bad upgrade price for solid state drives.

[Check it out]

MSI Wind owners who want or are running OS X on their respective netbooks have one more reason to celebrate. Official drivers for the Realtek Wi-Fi card have finally emerged although they are not available directly from Realtek. The drivers are currently floating around in the MSIWind.net forums and also available for download here and here. Cool stuff.

[Check it out via SlashGear]

While we may not see an actual Apple branded netbook system anytime soon, this certainly hasn’t deterred folks from installing OS X on a netbook system. However, at least one person has taken this a step further by not only installing OS X but also physically modifying an MSI Wind netbook – making it look like what a possible Apple netbook could look like (if they would only make one of course). The end result? Say hello to the “MacBook Nano”.

The transformation process from an MSI Wind to the “MacBook Nano” also happens to be documented pictorially on Flickr.com. Very cool stuff though ..I can’t say that I will ever spend the time to do something like this.

[Check it out via eWeek, MacRumors.com]

Here’s an excellent mod that msiwind.net forum member, tankboyben, applied to his Advent netbook. He took some sticky wood vinyl and applied it to the cover of the netbook as well as on the touchpad of the system (and yes the touchpad still works). I have to admit – from the look of the pictures, the application was extremely well done – especially the corners. I personally would shy away from a project like this simply because I’m super clumsy.. but it would be cool if a company like GelaSkins would create a skin for netbook systems (hint hint!).

[Check it out via Wired.com]