I just managed to pick myself up the 4g model of the ASUS EEEPC (found here) It's basically a fully functioning laptop running a linux distro that's about the size of a DVD case. So far I've had it for about 4 hrs or so of messing around and it's been great. Connecting up my ipod was a breeze and it let me stream music from the ipod and play it through the inbuilt speakers (which are surprisingly good)

There's over 40 apps pre-installed including an IM client that works with near about anything you can think of, including IRC. Openoffice and Skype are also included, as well as inbuilt links to google documents and gmail accounts etc. Lots of people have XP / Leopard installed and running fine on their machines. People have also hacked in touchscreens, bluetooth adapters and gps recievers with a bit of DIY soldering, although that's a bit beyond me It does however pick up the majority of usb devices I've thrown at it with ease. The built in webcam is suprisingly good quality too and combined with the microphone it makes Skype work well over wifi.

I've just tried out Joikuspot (linky
) on my nokia n95 so I can use my phone as a wifi hotspot when out and about. My ipod touch picked this up instantly and worked fine but the asus seems to have some teething problems, although I'm sure some people with more linux know-how will have it running soon enough for me to use

All in all i'm pleased with it and it's saved me the decision of having to chose a new pda style mobile phone for my needs and let me keep the N95 which I love.

The user forums here contain pretty much everything you need to know about it if you want to take a look

How much did it cost?

I got it from here

Oh btw, selfridges in London now have them in stock for £219

i imagine they are dropping in price as a new 8gb was planned for release in a few weeks. However gossip is that it wont be till april due to a flash drive fault, so they will go back up IMO. SO if your tempted either get one now or wait for the 8gb. but after the 8gb they are making a 10inch version. ..

How is this going?
Can it do all the day to day PC stuff like email Word docs spreadsheets etc..?

what is the battery life like ?

how idiot friendly (like windows) is the linux distro ? could a sales guy why has just mastered office 2000 use it ?

the 10" version won't be out for months and months. I picked the 4g because it has unsoldered RAM in it allowing you to upgrade easily (it has a ram door in the case) while the other models are soldered down.

As far as battery life, I've had it on all day messing with it and it's only just ran out. Reports on the forums are that for 'average' use you can get about 3hrs+ out of it, with wifi on it's about 2.5hrs of browsing.

The linux distro is stupidly easy to use, it has tabs for work, play etc with apps under each tab. The only hard part would be if you wanted to install other programs as it's linux and not so easy to do (that's not to say it's hard, just not as easy as windows) Even my mum was clicking through apps taking a look at it and she's pretty bad with pc's.

It comes pre-installed with open office, thunderbird (e-mail client) and pigeon (IM client for anything you can think of) as well as anti-virus, software updates (like windows update but actually updates the programs not just the OS) If you've never used openoffice before it looks and behaves exactly the same as MS Office and supports all MS office file types. As well as apps like that you have direct links to wiki, gmail, IMAP email, skype, internet radio, google docs (googles new document file storage so you can access them anywhere)

If you're not happy with that it comes with a CD full of drivers for an XP install anyway so you can always load it with a cutdown version of XP (or the full one if you don't mind it takeing up space)

Also you can try out the pre-installed Linux Distro on this web based link here

Also if you want a windows like feel without installing XP etc you can just enable advanced mode of the distro and it'll look like this here which looks like XP.

So its a smaller laptop for about the same price of a bog standard laptop...or am i missing something here?

Brilliant ! cheers.

So basically you could use it for a work laptop without having loads of training issues. and at less than half the price of a normal work laptop and half the size those are both big plus's. and i assume one of those E's is for environment friendly.

Im gonna get one and see if it can run all the apps needed for our current work spec lappys better than going vista.

yeah it really is small. Get a DVD case. add about an inch to the length and 1cm to the height and you have the size of it. Sure beets carrying around a huge laptop everywhere.

Just thought I'd add another thumbs up from me. Had one since the end of December via work and its great value. It runs XP fine, only issue being storage as by the time you fill it with the usual Office bits un bobs I only had a few hundred meg to play with on this one. I work at a school and there is a high chance every pupil will end up with one. Currently negotiating for the current year 7 having one using a finance plan where parents pay £10 per month or something. This is already quite common in the London area (I'm in the West Country). They are quite durable plus no moving parts and feedback from parents that have come in to play with one have been positive too.

For personal use I'm waiting for the moment, the thought of a larger screen and talk of a touchscreen version sound good. The 7" screen really is quite small for frequent use, fine if you are on the move though but if you wanted to use it as a laptop replacement then it could get frustrating. You can't really complain for the money though.

I guess ultra mobile PC's are finally beginning to take off, it's been the next big thing for bloody years.