racoma.com.phJ. Angelo Racoma on technology, economics, writing, problogging, and getting things done

Had a blast this afternoon discussing the dynamics of the EeePC and the Philippine market during the launch at Makati Shangri-La.

Came with the wife and kids. Food was great, but in my opinion, too much! I guess that’s the Chinese (Taiwanese?) way.

Will post my thoughts and tidbits of my conversation with the product managers soon. Photos, too!

Too bad no one came home with review units. The shipments were still stuck in customs!

Above: laptops and netbooks stacked for size reference. Asus EeePC 900 12G, HP 2133 Mini Note, HP Compaq Presario B1256TU, Compaq Presario V2617TS

Above: laptops and netbooks rounded up for size reference. Clockwise from left: HP Compaq Presario B1256TU, Compaq Presario V2617TS, Asus EeePC 900 12G, HP 2133 Mini Note

Send me more review units, guys!

(These are for my reviews over at koobten.com and myasuseee.com.)

I picked up an HP 2133 Mini Note review unit last Friday and I’m test driving this little wonder. Well, I have mixed impressions, which mostly agree with other reviews online. I have issues with responsiveness, temperature, and battery life. I’m loving the almost-full-sized keyboard, the screen and the general look and feel of the anodized aluminum casing. It reminds me of the 12” PowerBook of old, actually.

I’m running a series on koobten.com, so you might want to watch out for that these next few days. This will help me decide whether to ultimately make the jump and acquire one for myself, or stick with the Asus Eee (or perhaps go for other brands).

I’m sometimes lazy with charging my mobile phone. These days, with weeks-long battery life for phones you tend to forget to plug in at night. So sometimes we use a car charger when on the road. I didn’t realize car chargers weren’t so good in terms of battery care.

Chris Pirillo quotes:

Any charger that goes into the car is bad for the device battery. Why? Because the power is not regulated like in your home. In my line of work, I have seen many batteries die because people use their car chargers WAY too much. A car charger should be a LAST resort. I try to explain to customers that when they get home they obviously (well I guess 99.9% of the world) take out their wallet, keys, coins, or whatever is in their pocket before going to sleep. Make it a habit to charge your phone with your home charger.

The same goes for purchasing cheap home chargers just to save a buck.

According to Asus Philippines, they are set to launch the upcoming EeePC 1000 this July 29th. I earlier ranted that Asus is launching the 1000 here, but not the 901. I’m betting Asus here still wants to clear its stock of EeePC 900 units (as the 901’s price difference is just about $50, or even reportedly zero in some parts of the world).

The Asus 901 and 1000 (photo credit: Engadget)

At any rate, the 1000 is a completely different line in terms of form factor, since it sports a 10-inch screen, and is therefore a bit larger and heavier than the 90x and 70x EeePCs. The 1000’s direct competitor is the MSI Wind. Most probably, pricing will be approximately same as with the MSI Wind’s PhP 26,000. Note that the EeePC 1000 retails for US$550 elsewhere (price recently dropped from $650), which is about PhP 24,750.

It’s the year of the netbooks, people! There’s more to come, with Dell’s “E” series to be launched this August, and the HDD models of the Acer Aspire one, also to be introduced come August. Who’s next? Apple?