Ok well I have been using the eeepc for a couple of weeks now, things have been going well. It has been getting a bit of use in the office as well as getting taken out and about and I am very happy with the performace nd features.

Connection with the nokia N73 is good most of the time but the proprietary connection on the cable that connects to the phone is a pain, get a loop in the cable and the connection can drop out grrrr nokia why didn’t you just use a mini-usb. Ok well finally had enouth this week and got myself a bluetooth dongle so I can connect with bluetooth.

Two options when I go to get one Swann and Belkin, the Belkin had more features was Version 2 yada yada yada so I though hey this is good lifetime warranty etc. So got that one and went home to get it running, two hours later find out due to reasons unknown the particular model I got (F8T012au) has the same id as a belkin network adapter and so will not work.

Ok back to the the shop and swap it for the Swann, home again plug it in and what do you know regognised straight away, couple of commands via the terminal widow and we are in business and on the internet and without that annoying cable. “Look ma’ no cable”

Ok which one works well this is it (SW120-BTA)

Ok it works I even managed to add some keyboard shortcuts to turn bluetooth on and off as required just to make things easier. I will outline the full process to getting it working in a separate post.

Being tied to the PC is fine when you are in the office everyday but what about when you have to get out, travel or go to meetings. Well email on the phone is pretty standard these days even for those of us without a Blackberry, my Nokia N73 does things fairly well but no qwerty keyboard does mean lots of time pecking out emails on a number pad.

Bluetooth keyboard works well but still stuck with a small screen and its a bit fiddly. Next step up take the laptop, well from the ‘Black screen of Death” post you will see that while my laptop is good for everyday use I found that taking it for occasional use means lugging 5KG plus around not fun plus it is used as an everyday machine so things to unplug etc etc.

What to do what to do, well I looked at updating the phone and going down the pda/phone combo path then I found out about the UMPC. I had looked at the Mini-PC market before but with prices starting at $2000 for one it was just too much, well ASUS has brought out a compact unit called the eeePC at under 1KG running with solid state memory. They come in a few versions the 700 comes with a 7″ screen but I hung out for the eeePC900 which sports a 8.9 screen and 20GB of storage.

Is it any good I hear you ask, well I have had it for just under a week now and it is brilliant (I am typing this entry on it right now) the key board is small, well the whole thing is just under 23 cm wide so those that touch type and have big hands will find it a bit cramped but I two finger type so I find it ok .

Ok here are some pics top and Bottom View

Next we have a view of it open and a closeup on the keyboard so you can see just how small it is

Ok last two are of the machine in operation, sorry had to turn the flash off to get some detail in the shots.

Ok now that you have seen it you can see that yes it really is a PC, I chose the linux version my first one for a desktop machine even though out servers run CentOS so it takes a little getting used to but overall things are great.

For the browser using firefox , well I use that on the PC’s so no difference there, open office for documents and spreadsheets well I have that on the PC’s as well so again no difference.

Setup problems, well there are none unpacked it and plugged it into the network and it just works everything is pre-loaded. After reading some great tips at eeeuser.com a fantastic community of fellow eeepc owners I converted the desktop over to full KDE and hooked up the nokia so I could use mobile broadband.

Ok well that is it for now I will keep you posted on how things go.