Maybe you arrived here by searching Google for Asus EEE PC resources, or maybe via a link in some other Web site. Whatever the path you’ve taken, you landed on the right planet, the EEE PC Planet, actually.
Here you’ll find EEE PC news, links to Web sites related to the Asus EEE PC and also EEE PC videos and pictures. You’ll be able to quickly find the informations you need, and keep up to date with the latest news and previews about the EEE PC.
My mission is to collect and organize every useful, interesting or just funny bit of data from cyberspace, so that you’ll always come here being sure you reach the information you need about the Asus EEE PC and everything related.
Be patient if the site is not yet as rich of resurces as you may want, I started it on April 6th 2008 after two weeks of flirting with an Asus EEE PC 4G machine borrowed from Asus PR Italian agency for a test. So, why don’t you start just reading my Asus EEE PC review?

This may seem sort of an obsession, but I’m really intrigued by this analysis and by the question: Is there a Web domain containing the Eee PC name still free in the world? It’s never happened for any other niche product, and of course not in such a short time for any product at all, I think.
Actually, the hunt started by the EeePC phenomenon a few months ago had, as its first preys, the following names: asuseeepc, eeepc, eee-pc (and to some extend asus-eeepc or e3pc).
Forget all at once the traditional .com, .net, .info and .org extensions, as they’ve probably been taken first. Forget, also, the major European and international geographical extensions, because in very country of the world  there must have been some smart guy (or company) rady to pick the local asuseeepc, eeepc or eee-pc domain name still available.
All these Web domains, in fact, aren’t massively found in SEDO lists as it happens with some other kind of word or acronym. Instead, they’re often already used for a Web site, blog, forum or simple AdSense oriented mini-site. Those still not hooked on a Web site of any sort, are maybe waiting for a buyer or just an idea or project to be fulfilled.
But the hunt for EeePC-related Web domain names doesn’t stop here. I’m not the only one who tried coupling the usual prefix or suffix words with Asus subnotebook’s name, such in myeeepc, eeepcplanet, eeepcuser, eeepcworld and of course eeepcshop… and I’m not just talking about .com, .net, .biz and .org extensions, but also geographical ones. You can try searching for .it, .fr, .es, .de (or even .pl, .hu and .ru), or maybe for .ca, .au or .br examples using the handy Whois DomainTools interface to check for yourself the (un)availability or use of these Web domain names in the world.
Are you going to be the next lucky owner of an EeePC-named Web domain? Let me know!

I just stumbled upon a Web page where the concept of ‘modding’ related to a small and simple machine like the Asus EEEPC is brought to a new level: it’s the EEE PC Internal Upgrades section of IVC Wiki, a fantastic Web wiki site with lots of great advice and informations about many hardware modding projects.
In fact, the site hosts modding projects of Sony PSP, Nintendo DS, AppleTV, iBook, Mac mini and iPhone, and various other products and peripherals.
About the EEEPC, you’ll also find some more pages related to the installation of Windows XP and Ubuntu from pendrive, overclocking and benchmarks and an incredibly detailed page about the Asus EEE PC hardware you shouldn’t be able to find anywhere else.
This latter page in particular is enriched with clear and useful diagrams that make use of colour to detail the different parts of the internal EEE PC hardware motherboard and components. I was able to learn so much from this page alone.
The author is obviously a real tech wizard, as he’s been able to install (documenting the process) in his EEE PC the following hardware:

• a USB hub and card reader
• a GPS with antenna
• a Bluetooth with correct drivers (not the default Windows crappy ones)
• a Flash drive
• an FM Transmitter
• a new WiFi 802.11a/b/g/n
• an internal modem
• a touch screen
• and even a temperature sensor, a power (dip-)switch for turning on and off the new components and some heatsink plates

All the modding and upgrading process is documented with links to the components, clear images, precious informations and of course witty humour (a vital ingredient to be brave enough for such an enduring project).
If you find the article interesting and useful don’t forget to leave a donation to this hardware genius, of course, and if you’re thinking of getting your hands dirty with such a daring enterprise, maybe consider first the purchase of an already-modded EeePC machine, but be prepared to spend a lot!

As I’ve previously written, you can measure the success of a product also from the hunt for web domains related to its name, and this frantic search for domain names containing the words Asus EEE PC, E3PC and similar has obviously been terrific and probably still is.
But another value meter is of course the world-wide interest in the subject, which can be clearly seen in the stats of a Web site like this: as you can spot analyzing the graphs and values presented in the images I’m including here, there’s people coming from really ANY part of the world, and this trend is growing as the site projects its contents on the major search engines.
A large part of the searches are for questions about where to buy the Eee PC or its accessories, but the spreading of this machine among active users is arising also questions about backing up and restoring the Eee PC internal disk, about upgrading the Eee PC RAM memory, or (more often) about Eee PC 701 or 900 reviews especially now that its arrival on the shelves is near.
In the USA, where the price range is between 349$-399$, offers for the Asus Eee PC abund both in the street shops and on the Web, the latter from ecommerce sites like CompUSA, NewEgg or TigerDirect, but they can be in the form of a presale buy and you need to wait from a few days to a couple of weeks to get what you’ve already paid for. Eee PC eBay ‘Buy Now’ sales are in the same 349$-399$ range, with upgraded models sold at 599$. Of course Amazon is riding the wave of this success, and stands in the frontline with its offers.
In Europe, the situation is more or less similar, and the average European price tag of 299 Euros makes the Eee PC a very desirable hitech gadget in France, Germany, Spain, Italy and many other countries of the Old Continent. In the UK the price tag is still arount 239,99£, as see in the British Amazon Eee PC offers.
The overall impression is that we’ll see more and more offers for the Eee PC 701 4G even when the new Eee PC 900 arrives, maybe combined with gadgets, accessories or upgrades to keep the price from falling too much. Who’s going to bet on this scenario?

If you’re still pondering the purchase of the new, expanded E3PC model, maybe this competent review of the Asus Eee PC 900 by Riyad Emeran on TrustedReviews will give you some more grain of salt and wise advice. Riyad opens his article with a parallel I appreciated, recalling an example of small-form factor, LCD, solid-state disk device which ‘mature’ computer users probably know: the Psion’s palmtop series of PDAs. The comparison is used just as a proof that Asus simply recalled this ‘essential device’ concept bringing it in today’s world of personal computing. Besides this, the review underlines again the welcome improvements in screen, webcam and touchpad size, with the new multi-touch gestures in the latter, and the larger RAM (1GB) and SSD (12GB and 20GB for the Windows XP and Linux versions respectively). The choice of a smaller SSD is of course a smart and tactical move to keep the overall price down even with a Windows XP licence included, but users who already have a Windows XP CD spare may, as Riyad suggests, buy the Linux Eee PC 900 version and install the OS themselves, gaining the extra 8GB in the process. No other upgrades or expansions to exepct from this new model, as you’ll read again in this new article, and even the fake modem port disappears as showed one of the many great pictures the author has included in his review. One negative point is, as many expcted and feared, a reduced battery life in the Eee PC 900 model, due to the larger screen to be addressed and managed by the same CPU as previous models. Compared to an extimate 2,5 hours by Asus itself, Riyad declares about two hours but with full brightness and an active wireless connection, so the official battery life is probably reached with a little tweaking towards optimization.

As the new Asus EEE PC 900 reaches the shops and Web shelves, we’ll be seeing the inevitable side effect of second hand and refurbished 4G models appearing here and there. Brad Linder of Liliputing blog has spotted some of these Eee PC bargains on Amazon.com, and it comes as a welcome trend after the rampaging Eee PC auctions seen on eBay, for example.
There’s another factor to take into account, though, and it’s the arrival of 4G Eee PCs with Windows XP as default OS, which are going to cost just a little bit more than today’s Linux versions of the same model. Linux Loop wonders if this new breed of XP-based 4G subnotebooks will mean a price drop for the Linux cousins, or maybe Asus itself will be able to keep the price down thanks to Microsoft’s help. In this latter case, it may appear as an unfair market move and we’ll see a little but meaningful price rise of the XP model in Europe to avoid UE’s acting against a new faux pas by Microsoft.
UPDATE: If it’s not a misprint, it seems you can purchase an EEEPC 4G on CompUSA or TigerDirect now for as little as 349,99$ (check for yourself)

Reading Thoughtfix’ post titled EEE PC and Xandros: No Thank You on his own blog UltraMobilegeek, you can easily spot the double-faced approach of Asus’ EEEPC subnotebook.
Actually, there seem to be two distinct and antithetical approaches to the EEE PC interface and software: an out-of-the-box plain, self-contained everyday use, and a geek-oriented nerdish and hack-prone (ab)use of the machine.
The first is typically preferred by the majority of users, who see the EEEPC’s Xandros O.S. with AsusLauncher graphical interface (probably inherited from PDAs, see image on the left) and preinstalled software as sufficient for their needs, and probably appreciate the fast response and stable behaviour of the software as a whole. This large part of EEE PC’s users, will eventually search for, discover and make use of some ’smart tricks’ in order to hack into the system and expand it in some way, for example using some Terminal commands to unlock the full Xandros Desktop (thus bypassing the AsusLauncher interface) or tweaking the EEE PC icon interface and adding new repositories to download additional applications.
At the antipode are those smart users who prefer the hacking approach, usually starting with a radical change in the EEE PC’s system, for example installing another Linux distribution like eeeXubuntu or eeeDora, and in some cases installing an optimized version of Windows XP whose code has been ‘cleaned’ from the unnecessary stuff wih the use of great utilities like nLite, GameXP or XPLite.
So, as you can see, the Asus EEE PC manages to keep both unexperienced computer user AND smart PC users like techies, geeks, nerds or even hackers (-wannabees) and Linux gurus satisfied, offering them the best of both worlds according to everyone’s computing needs. EEE PC competitors will have to address this aspect too, of course, in order to reach the same level of popularity and success. Are they going to have what it takes to succeed against such a great machine in the same price tag?

There’s no doubt many would-be EEE PC users are waiting for the new Asus EEE PC 900 (E3PC 2.0), arriving on May in the US and June in Europe and offering some improvements (8.9 inch display, multi-touch trackpad, larger storage and memory and a 1.3 Mp webcam) but also some more size/weight (100g hevier and 6mm longer than the EEE PC 701) and, of course, a higher price (the new subnotebook should cost 512US$, 399 Euros or 329UK£).
CNET UK publishes a mini-review of the new EEE PC 900 subnotebook, underlining the advantage of the larger display (Asus moved the speakers at the bottom of the keyboard, below the machine, to make room for the new almost-9-inches screen) and the improved trackpad with improved left-right buttons and the mostly hyped multi-touch gestures similar to those already found on the MacBook Air (and of course iPhone and iPod Touch) by Apple.
As I feared, the larger screen translates into more energy hungry video performances, so there’s about half an hour less to take into account when measuring the EEE PC 900 battery life compared to its predecessor. Of course the 1 GB DDR 400 RAM upgrade helps in speeding the overall performance of this new model, which cannot borrow such speed from an improved CPU as Asus decided to keep the original Celeron 900 processor for this first shipping and adopt the Atom one for the next breed of EEE PC 900, probably to speed the arrival of the new model and thus fight its competitors.
About its hardware, maybe you should take a look at how Richard Swinburne dissected the EEE PC 900 showing its hardware in full.
Also welcome is the new internal SSD, which has been expanded to 20GB for the Linux (same Xandros flavour as the EEE PC 701) and 12GB for the Windows XP version of the machine, coupling a second SSD disk (of 12 and 8 GB respectively) attached to a PC Express interface inside the EEE PC. This latter choice is, of course, a strategy to keep the price down being a Windows licence already a plus that adds to the still high price of the SSD units, but Gates’ fans will surely appreciate and of course be happy to know that, (also) thanks to Asus’ choice, Windows XP will add two more years to its existence.
Will the new EEE PC 900 repeat the success of its predecessor? Are the new features still a bargain in the new tag price? Is there any negative side effect in the new specs beyond the shorter battery life? Only more hands on reviews will tell, and of course your comments will help in forecasting or actually confirming some the hopes and fears about the new machine. In the meanwhile, let’s watch one of the first preview videos of the Asus EEE PC 900 in action.

UPDATE: Asus EEE PC Demo blog has published a complete collection of EEE PC 900 (or EEEPC 2.0) videos from various sources

One of the questions most often arising from EEE PC users is about the RAM expandability of Asus’ subnotebook, its compatibility with the existing O.S. (Xandros) and, of course, the chance to void the EEE PC warranty in pursuing such a hardware operation.
Let’s take into account the EEE PC 701 4G model with 512 MB of RAM memory, which is particularly fitted for such an upgrade, having a comfortable panel that can be easily removed at its bottom, and will surely benefit from the addition of at least 512 MB more.
First of all, as you can read from an Asus official letter about RAM expansion and warranty, opening the bottom panel with the removal of its two screws and the corresponding adhesive label that covers them, will not void your warranty at all. Under the panel you will find a slot which contains one DIMM memory module, so you can just put a 1 GB or 2 GB module after removing the original 512 MB one.
The EEE PC 701 4G model uses DDR2 SODIMM (pc5400) 667 MHz ram modules and has just one slot available.
Second, you can easily (and cheaply) swap your 512 MB RAM DIMM module with a 1 GB one without worrying about O.S. issues, but installing a 2 GB DIMM module we’ll need a ‘kernel recompilation’ if you’re using the original Xandros Linux version, and believe me it’s not an easy task. If, instead, you’ve installed some other flavour of Linux (for example Ubuntu) or Windows on your EEE PC, you’ll be able to enjoy the 2 GB of RAM straight away.
Third, if you need some pictures describing this operation, German CHIP magazine Web site has three very clear snapshots in this slideshow, just be sure to click on pictures number 5, 6 and 7.
Fourth, you may prefer a video to have a more clear description of the steps required to open the EEE PC bottom panel and change the RAM module. In this case, just watch this YouTube video which describes the EEE PC RAM upgrade. If that’s not enough, maybe this other EEE PC RAM upgrade video has a better close-up and you’ll find it more satisfying.
Finally, if you’re wondering about the chance to upgrade to 4GB of RAM (and God knows why you’re going to need them on such a machine!) the EEE PC informations on Wikipedia say that its hardware just supports up to 2 GB of RAM, so please cease and desist.

So here it is, the new 2133 Mini Note subnotebook from HP, just a little ahead of the next generation of Asus EEE PC machines, with a price-features ratio tailored to challenge those of the forthcoming cheap subnotebooks from Asus. With $499 you get a 8,9 inch display (1280×768 resolution), 512 MB RAM, 4 GB SSD, VIA C-7M CPU ULV 1.0 GHz processor, VGA Webcam, WiFi and, of course, Linux in the SUSE Enterprise flavour. You can add $100 more and get 1 GB RAM, a 120 GB real hard disk and some more horsepower, or go higher and add more hardware features and Windows Vista instead of Linux. About size and weight, the 2,8 lb (1.27 Kg) the HP 2133 Mini-Note 10.04 x 6.5 x 1.05 in (255 x 165 x 27 mm), then it’s larger and hevier than the EEE PC 4G.
HP 2133 Mini-Note’s batteries should provide around 4 hours with normal use and more than 2 hours with wireless surfing.
The only feature criticized by most of the reviewers is the strange and not very comfortable scrolling buttons on the side of the HP 2133 Mini-Note display, besides the usual readability problem of a high resolution small display that has also a coated anti-scratch/glare surface. Anything else seems right and may really be a reason of defeat for $499 EEE PCs. For example, one aspect of the HP 2133 Mini-Note that may appeal to most users is its brush metal case which suggests quality and toughness, and many other features have been positively commented on the major hitech Web sites.
If you need more info to decide it this is going to be a tough EEE PC challenger, you can read and see more about the HP 2133 Mini-Note subnotebook on Gizmodo, Notebooks.com, LaptopMag and, of course, JKOnTheRun. Don’t forget, of course, HP’s 2133 press release and Mini-Note’s full specsheet.

UPDATE: take a look at the pictures and EEEPC vs HP 2133 comparison published by CLUMPC blog.

Of course we’re all waiting for Asus’ next move, which is going to be in the desktop market with its E-DT machine (sort of a thin client with more or less the same hardware capabilities of an EEE PC but with no monitor and based on a compact vertical stand desktop form factor).
Who’s not waiting is Shuttle, as their first cheap desktop KPC (Korporate Personal Computer) is already on sale, albeit in barebone format for now. Shaped as a cube, with a black case and ‘green’ specs (less than 55 Watt in full use and 33 Watt in stand-by mode), the KPC is sold in its ’stripped down’ barebone version for 99 US dollars, and already available. Versions with a minimum of standard hardware and software (512 MB RAM, 80 GB HD, Linux), though, will be selling for 299 dollars.
If you want to know more about this E-DT would-be competitor head to Tom’s Hardware review, but be careful about the price mentioned in it, as on Shuttle’s official Web site there’s no track of a 199 dollars configuration. Ready for use configurations, in fact, range from 299 to 449 dollars, offering Foresight Linux an Windows Vista Home Basic respectively and being different for the amount of RAM (512 MB and 1 GB) and the CPU power (Intel Celeron 430 and Intel Pentium Dual Core or optional Core 2 Duo).
Examining the hardware and software specs I could’nt find any revolutionary offer, and this product seems just to mimic the Emperor’s new clothes tale, offering nothing different from its previous cousins and especially not a really interesting price-specs ratio. So, let’s keep waiting for Asus E-DT.

Let’s start with our ‘review of reviews’, choosing one of those less enthusiast one, which has been published by the famous Web site InfoSync. In this concise but complete enough test the EEE PC scored a 56%, which as you know means ’sufficient’ or ‘good enough’ to us all. But what were the pros and the cons in InfoSync review of the Asus EEE PC? Mainly, the most criticized components of Asus’ subnotebook were the keyboard, the trackpad and the display, for their small size, of course. Heck, you’re talking about a SUBnotebook, guys! Did you notice the first three letters? S-U-B means ‘under’, so such a device should me meant to be S-M-A-L-L, don’t you think? I’ve already have more than a chance to talk about Dialogue FlyBook’s keyboard, and its clumsy mini-joypad input system used instead of a trackpad, and I was talking about a very, very expensive product, there. If you need a large keyboard, then buy a full fledged one, together with a mouse, and plug them in the EEE PC’s USB ports, damn it! You have a choice of foldable, rollable and maybe even inflatable keyboard, out there, and about mice there’s even more choice, not mentioning the wireless options. So, what’s the point? Oh, yes, the display! Like others, out there, you’ve mentioned the two uselessly large speakers on both sides of the screen as a cause of the latter’s smaller size. Why don’t you just see the REAL thing? Asus decided to put a 7 inch display on this machine, for a start, to lower production costs, but they also looked far beyond and saw the opportunity for less cheap models, so a larger frame was the natural consequence, and putting something like a couple of speakers in the remaining estate was more than justified and wise as a choice. Also, having a black frame around a display, especially an LCD one, visibly enhances its brightness factor, don’t you think? As Apple’s engineers who designed the latest iMac breed, for example.
Also, InfoSync reviewer(s?) describe the EEE PC ‘not suitabe for them‘ and as ‘probably a better choice for young students and hackers than for business travelers looking for something between a smartphone and a 15-inch laptop‘. Er, is there anybody else between YOU, young students, hackers and business travelers? Let me think… oh yes, everybody else, and they’re a damn lot of people! OK, maybe they don’t usually wander around InfoSync offices, but probably you, hackers and businessmen are just enough to fill those corridors and cubicles. And, just about, the something between a smartphone and a 15-inch laptop part of the sentence: try writing your articles or browse your site’s pages on a smartphone, then try carrying your powerful and ‘comfortable’ 15 inch laptops under your arm like a book, then let’s have a coffee and talk about your satisfying experiences of mobile computing, uh?
OK, I know, I just seem a little bit (just a little, yes?) on the Asus side, but let me remind you that the one writing, here on this site, has been testing and reviewing PDAs, smartphones, Tablet PCs, laptops and many other mobile devices since the Apple Newton era. And let me also remind them the meaning of reviewing a product: as journalist, we try to focus on our readers, not on ourselves, and to address their needs and not ours.
If (as you wrote in the final verdict near the unfair score table) the best thing about the EEE PC is its price, why don’t you just ask yourself how did Asus manage to keep the cost low? Ever heard about ‘compromise’? If you put your nose outside your hitech-filled-offices and ask people, you’ll be surprised about their willingness to give up some hardware stuff in a product they’re going to purchase if that helps avoiding a ransack of their back account. If you really want to evaluate Asus’ EEE PC subnotebook, try comparing its hardware and software with that of another product in the same tag price, or make some true and detailed comparisons with smaller and larger devices, for example.
So, let me end this ‘review of a review’ giving a 56% back to InfoSync editor(s?), as their test was an ‘almost good enough’ one, after all. Try it again, InfoSync.

How can you measure the success of a product? In a global market where the Internet and the Web play an increasing role in visibility and marketing, the hunt for Web domains containing the product’s name is a clear symptom of its importance. In the case of the Asus EEE PC subnotebook, of course, the hunt has started soon and it’s already a difficult task to find a free useful name for your own Web domain or blog.
Before launching the EEE PC Planet Web site I’ve searched (as I usually do since a few years in my Web development, nanopublishing and SEO activities) deeply and widely for such occurrences, discovering how many domain names containint the words Asus EEE PC have been already registered and often ‘parked’ (probably by cybersquatter waiting to sell or use them somehow). You can easily check this situation using a tool/service like WHOIS, or even better trying with a wildcard (I.E. using the asterisk) domain name search in Global Whois.
Of course most of the Web domains containing just the three letters EEE are related to various subjects, ranging from the famous E3 fair to the drug ideintified by the same acronym and related to amphetamins. The search, then, in my particular case was related to Web domain names containing the words EEEPC, EEE-PC, E3PC with or without the word ASUS before them.
Don’t forget, by the way, that many people mistype Asus subnotebook’s name writing erroneously EEPC instead of EEEPC, as the stats of my BlogPlaNet blog site have shown, where the post related to the EEE PC, initially published with a missing E in its heading, is often reached by Google searches. The results producted by this sort of wrong search show, of course, also the various articles and even sites wrongly using the ‘cut’ versione of the name EEEPC.
Regarding already registered Web domain names, many of those resulting active and worth being defined Web sites or blogs will be reviewed and listed on this site, of course, but I won’t miss the opportunity to keep an eye on those still ‘parked’ to discover what’s their fate. In my particular case, let me reveal I’ve registered three more Web domain names together with EEEPCPLANET.COM but I challenge you to discover their names, and show me how smart you are as Web detectives
I’m going to help you, just know that on of them has been checked with a mistype during the last week, and as I can see from my stats has re-directed on this site Google searchers from Serbia and Montenegro, Australia, Philippines, Spain, Iran, Russia, Romania, Costa Rica, Canada and of course USA.