If you have an ASUS Eee PC and you think it takes a lot of time to boot up, then you probably wonder how to speed up the loading time. So how you do it for the common user? Here’s what two Intel engineers did last Thursday at the recent Linux Plumbers Conference (what they used) on an SSD based Eee PC.

1. A modified version of Fedora. They’ve cut down different boot elements that aren’t necessary or have functions that are already replicated elsewhere.
   - examples : “setroubleshootd” (Security Enhanced Linux (SELinux) configuration troubleshooting) or “initrd” (that takes at least half a second).
2. A special patch that allows several things to be run simultaneously : link (site down at the moment)

These guys submitted their work to Moblin.org, which means sooner or later we may see faster booting times on other devices, as well.

via SlashGear

The Eee PC from ASUS have always been a great addition to the market and really managed to set a trend. A lot of other companies tried to compete with them, with good or not very good results. But know what? ASUS is not stepping on the second place. They’re going to build a “high-end” Eee PC S-Series that should feature dual-core Atom processors, 120GBs of hard disk, 32GB SSDs, a 10-inch LED backlit display (16:9 aspect) and a battery that should keep it on electricity for some 4-5 hours.

If everything goes well the new high-end Eee PCs should be available from September from prices ranging from $700 to $900

Does it need any more comments? Probably not, and knowing ASUS to build high quality I’m pretty sure their new S-series are going to really kick ass and the company will easily break the annual targeted shipments of five million units. What do you think about the new Eee PC S-Series?

via DigiTimes

Rumors regarding the new Windows XP powered Eee PC 4G are now over. The “new” mini-laptop which has the exact hardware items inside, is going to be available from April 9th for $399 on BestBuy. LaptopMag got their hands on it a few weeks before the official sale and they liked it. It boots Windows XP Home, pretty fast in 40 seconds.

Check out the videos.

The popular mini-notebook from Asus will get some competition. Taiwan’s Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) has presented its plans to built a low-cost computer with 3G support. That means the Asus Eee PC will have a tempting rival.

Besides the 3G support that enables Internet access via HSDPA and HSUPA (High Speed Downlink/Uplink Packet Access) technologies, the ECS models will feature Wi-Fi support, 56Kbps modem and Bluetooth wireless. Moreover the ECS computers will run on Intel’s Atom microprocessor paired with an Intel 945 GSE chipset. The hardware configuration includes either a regular HDD or a SSD (solid state drive) and up to 2GB of DRAM. ECS users will have the option to choose between the 8.2″ screen or the 10.2″, respectively.

The notebooks will run Microsoft Windows XP or a Linux OS. No price or availability details were revealed, but ECS has got at least a fan in my person.

via InfoWorld

Not sure if you can consider this a laptop, but I am telling you that’s exactly what it is. It went on sale on NewEgg yesterday and there are already unboxing and reviewing videos. To go a little bit off-topic, I am not a fan for the OLPC project mainly because they wanted to create a $100 laptop and ended up with $200 and probably above that, in the near future, but I think for $399 (or even lower because they may offer a discount for hundreds of thousands of laptops) the reviews are extremely good. Here is a video of unboxing and some more comments after the jump.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQ-NRAnRrhE[/youtube]

Now that we’ve seen it unboxed I guess you would be interested to know what it has inside? TweakTown did the dissection and it’s not gross at all. Here’s the gallery.

via MobileMag