There’s always the one that started it all. Think of Gmail for free e-mail, or the iPod for music players — the ones that came along and rewrote the rules, as it were, even create a new market segment altogether. Much the same way as the original Eee PC did way back last year.

That was then, and despite creating a crater-sized impact in the mobile computing market (ironic, given its diminutive size), a lot has changed. With mini-notebooks tending towards greater storage capacity, higher resolution screens and less midget-sized keyboards, and with the release of the Atom — Intel’s all new mobile processor, it was time for a re-look at the original Eee PC design as well. And out of that was born the Eee PC 1000H.

Designwise, the 1000H sports an updated look and feel, especially if you’ve only last seen the original 7-in versions. Gone is the plastic toy feel, replaced by shiny, metallic hinges and a glossy black curvy-edged lid.

The 1000H has made the leap a device that can be used for work, and look the job as well. Of course, as with any glossy surface, you get fingerprints — Asus has included a cloth for wiping down the system. It’s currently available in one colour — a la the Ford Model T — but I expect more colours may be released in the future.

But by far the biggest design change has been to the overall size of the machine, thanks in large part to the larger 10-in screen. Measuring in at 266mm x 191.2mm x 28.5mm, the 1000H pushes the envelope as mini-notebooks go, and is a tad thicker and wider than the MSI Wind, its chief competitor in this size segment.

It’s still very portable, and fits nicely inside the smallest of backpacks. Where Asus has gone wrong is with the weight of this device — at 1.45kg with the standard 6,600mAh battery, this weighs the argument against the 1000H’s carry-everywhere USP slightly.

To its credit, the extra size has two direct benefits. First, the screen — at 10-in and a much improved resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels, the matte-finish screen is finally wide enough to not have to scroll sideways for most web pages and spreadsheets.

It’s sharp, but colours are not as punchy as glossy finish monitors can get. The keyboard is the second beneficiary, with keys that are 95 per cent the same size as what you’ll find on a standard laptop.

You do have to hunt-and-peck in the beginning, but it gets more and more comfortable over a full day’s use. The mouse trackpad is a pleasure to use as well, and unlike anything in its class, this one supports multi-touch gesture inputs a la the iPhone/MacBook Air, so you can stroke two fingers vertically or horizontally to scroll through documents or use a pinch or stretching motion to zoom in and out of photos. Everyday usability was clearly well thought out by the design folks at Asus for the 1000H.

Featurewise, the 1000H is a capable little netbook, using a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, plus 1GB of DDR memory, and this puts this in the same class as its Atom-sporting rivals — the Acer Aspire One and MSI Wind. Gone is the solid state drive (flash memory based) storage of the original Eee PC, you now have a mechanical hard drive — all 80 gigabytes of it. Again a nice touch to have tons of storage at your disposal in what will likely be your travel-movies-music-photos laptop.

It also includes 802.11a/b/g/Wi-Fi, so you can connect to just about every type of popular Wi-Fi network, and then there’s Bluetooth as well for phone synching etc. The increased size chassis also gets you an array of ports — a VGA out port, an Ethernet port, three USB ports, plus mic and headphone ports.

One can only thank Asus for basing the 1000H on the Windows XP platform, and avoiding the temptation to install Windows Vista, which would kill the poor machine. During the time I played with the device, it felt very responsive and was always upto to the task, as long as you realised this wasn’t your regular Core2Duo specced powerhorse.

Don’t expect too much gaming out of this baby — with its integrated graphics card, this machine is better suited to browsing t he Web, presentations, playing movies. Then again, you know all this if you’re buying a subnotebook, don’t you?

The one temptation Asus did not manage to avoid was to price it in the same spirit as the original Eee PC. At over Rs 30,000 including taxes, this one’s pushing the limits of the subnotebook segment, and while the multi-touch trackpad and the excellent keyboard may justify this in some part, I couldn’t help but wish they’d priced it more competitively.

Quick Specs

Netbook 1000H

Processor: Intel Atom Mobile CPU with Intel chipset
Main memory: 1G DDR2 DRAM (upto 2GB)
Display: 10' 1024 x 600 (WSVGA) TFT LCD (thin film transistor)
Storage: 80GB hard disk preloaded with Microsoft Windows XP
Graphics: Intel UMA
Audio: Hi-Definition Audio CODEC, Built-in stereo speaker-Dolby sound room (1W for each)
Network connectivity: 10/100 Mbps LAN, 802.11b/g/wireless, Bluetooth
Camera: 1.3MP
Ports: LAN, headphone, microphone, VGA, 3xUSB and card reader
Power sources: 6-cell battery pack with super hybrid engine for battery life up to 3.8~7 hours
Dimensions: 266mm (W) x 191.2mm (D) x 28.5mm~ 38mm (H)
Weight: 1.45kg
Rating: 8/10
Price: Rs 29,990 (exclusive of taxes)
URL: http://www.eeepc.in/

Video gaga

No more running out of video tape just when your kid finally manages to stand up and walk after innumerable half-attempts! With Hitachi’s new DZ-BD10H camcorder, which records to Blu-ray discs or to its built-in 30GB hard drive, it should last you more than a fair bit, and then some more. With a 7-megapixel sensor, full 1080p high definition footage can be recorded, edited on-device and the burnt to Blu-ray disc — and with Blu-ray finally trouncing HD-DVD in the high-def wars, this one is future proof as well. It holds upto four hours and 20 minutes of full HD video on the HDD, and there’s even provision for a 32GB SDHC memory card (not included) to hold an additional four hours and 45 minutes.

URL: http://www.hitachi.com/
Price: $1,474

Breeze through summers

This product was designed for India. I mean how can you go wrong with a solar-powered cap fan? Clip it on to your cap, get out into the sun, and feel the pleasant breeze on your brow. Of course, this is one of those gadgets you can only pull off if you’re out on a picnic, very old, or completely shameless — but hey, at least you’ll be comfortable. It has no battery, so you’re still out of luck for our dreaded sultry summer evenings.

URL: http://gadget.brando.com.hk/prod_detail.php?prod_id=00612
Price: $10.00