Netbooks from Asus, MSI, and Hello Kitty: The week in laptops

After a brief respite, Netbooks came to the foreground again this week. Virtual unknown Raon Digital grabbed everyone's attention with the dual-core, touch-screen Everun Note. Asus showed off its new brushed-metal design with the Eee PC 1002HA (pictured at right). And Dell launched new colors and graphic designs for the Inspiron Mini 9.

Meanwhile, a new iteration of MSI's Netbook was spotted on display in China. The company followed up with an official announcement of the Wind U120. No word yet on pricing or availability, though the Netbook should be on display at CES 2009.

The final minilaptop of note is so costly it's hardly a Netbook at all: the ubermenacing, $890 Hello Kitty C1.

In other news, HP launched the first multitouch consumer laptop, the 12.1-inch TouchSmart tx2; Samsung began mass-producing 256GB solid-state drives; and we found another laptop sleeve styled like an interdepartmental envelope.

Also, with Thanksgiving in the U.S. next week, we Cravers took a moment to reflect on which gadgets we're most thankful for. Turns out we're a grateful bunch; the story had to be broken into two parts. Read Part 1 and Part 2, and don't forget to tell us what gadget will be counted among your Thanksgiving blessings.

And finally, if you've got a frequent flier on your gift list this holiday season, check out our roundup of checkpoint-friendly computer bags.

Have a great weekend!

[fatninja]

Hey I wrote a review of the Asus Netbook with Linux. Basically I had a bad experience with it and this last weekend I bought the Acer One and that kept crashing. To read my review of the Asus check it out:

http://www.fatninja.com/blog/2008/11/14/2-days-with-an-asus-eee-pc-netbook.html