Other specs are unchanged from the current model, including 1GB memory, 160GB hard disk, and an onscreen resolution of 1024×600 driven by Intel GMA graphics. No Atom, and no 3G…yet.

Meanwhile, Acer Japan has just confirmed an updated version of the D250. It runs Windows 7 Starter Edition, bumps the resolution up to 1280 by 720, and costs Y46,800 (about $575). It will be available there when Windows 7 arrives on October 22, but there’s no word on when it will come to the US (or Australia). [Netbooked and PC World]

Unsurprisingly, the Telstra option, which bundles an Acer Aspire One with their NextG data plans, turns out to be the most expensive option on the table. Optus and Vodafone seem to be competing a bit harder for best value for money, but as always there are other factors worth considering like coverage and data allowances.

Head on over to Lifehacker for the complete analysis.

[Lifehacker]

Rob’s chart, with all its scary red marks and mysterious orange ovals, has the tendency to give the impression that the outlook is fairly bleak; almost every row of “confirmed working!” ticks is broken up by at least one pesky caveat, and some netbooks on the list are not sold anymore. But your prospects really aren’t so bad. Buck up, kids! Here’s what that chart means, practically, with a real-world rundown of what these netbooks can offer, what they can’t, and how best to try your hand at Hackintosh.

The HP Mini 1000
Status: In production
Now that the Dell Mini 9 has passed on, in retail terms, this is your best option. Main components are compatible across the board.
What you get: A well-styled 10.2-inch machine with respectable guts, a notoriously great keyboard and an increasingly reasonable price. In fact, the Windows-less 16GB SSD version, a prime candidate for OS X-ification, is listed on Best Buy’s site for $US280 right now.
What you sacrifice: I think the styling works; some people get turned off by the large bezel around the screen, though it’s on par with other 10-inch netbooks. Many Hackintoshers find little gremlins after install—lack of fan speed control and temperamental Wi-Fi control, to name two—which can generally be fixed, though rarely simply. By and large, though, this is as good as OS X gets on a cheap netbook.
Resources: Install guide, with video; support forums.

Dell Mini 9
Status: Out of production
This was, and still is, a fantastic candidate for Hackintoshing. As such, they’re not that easy to find for a reasonable price. Even Dell’s been getting in on the post-Mini-9 action, rereleasing the little laptop for brief period last week.
What you get: Just like the HP, Dell’s Mini 9 lays claim to near-total hardware compatibility, including mobile broadband support. The fact that everything just kinda works is pretty wild, if you think about it.
What you sacrifice: Battery life isn’t great. And since release, the Mini 9’s hardware has aged a bit. That said, entry-level netbooks all more or less live on the verge of obsolescence by definition, so having a slightly older Atom processor than your friends shouldn’t be much of a concern.
Resources: Our definitive install guide; support forums.

Dell Mini 10v
Status: In production
For some time after release this Mini 9 replacement was held up by Mac driver difficulties. Now it works fairly well, and could serve as a replacement Mini 9 for some Hackintoshers.
What you get: In some ways, this is better than the Mini 9. It’s a newer unit, updated to address some of the general population’s broader problems with the Mini 9: The screen is slightly larger, and more importantly, the keyboard has some room to stretch. It’s cheap—often cheaper than the a coveted used Mini 9—at about $US300 new.
What you sacrifice: The Mini 10v is patchier than its predecessor across the board. The onboard microphone is difficult to get working, video drivers are still a little precarious, often causing crashes when external monitors are connected, and sleep and hibernation modes aren’t very reliable, which is crucial for a totable netbook. If you’re willing to bet on driver support improving, it’s a prudent purchase. That’s a big if, by the way.
Resources: The Anguish Install+Fixes Guide; User forums.

Lenovo S10
Status: Out of production
Like the Mini 1000, the S10 is a worthy replacement for the Mini 9. Or, it was, before it was replaced by a touchier, more erratic S10-2. (More on that below).
What you get: Another capable machine, though it was—and still is—a little too expensive for what you get. Hardware works across the line, down to the webcam and two-finger touchpad scrolling.
What you sacrifice: Ethernet doesn’t work, which could kill the S10’s usefulness as a travel device (old hotels, etc) and the 3-cell battery is a little anemic. It too suffers from age: The cheapest version and most popular spec comes with 512MB of RAM, which will suck the joy right out of your OS X experience.
Resources: Multi-boot guide (attached to linked post in PDF); User forums.

Lenovo S10-2
Status: In production
This bears the outward appearance of a minor update to the S10. As far as Hackintoshing is concerned, it’s a major step backwards.
What you get: Compared to the S10, a better touchpad, bigger keyboard, nicer case design, slimmer profile, more default RAM, and lower price. Great!
What you sacrifice: Any semblance of usability in OS X. Adding to the lack of ethernet support, everything from sleep to external video to stability is lost, to the point that the S10-2 isn’t really much of an option.
Resources: The same S10 guide, with caveats; User forums.

MSI Wind U100
Status: Out of production
A perennial Hackintosh classic, it’s still a safe choice, and fairly easy to track down used.
What you get: A Mini 9 level of compatibility, with very similar hardware. Styling is clean, but not as pleasing as the Dell, Lenovo, or HP alternatives, and the keyboard is usable.
What you sacrifice: Again, we’re dealing with old-ish hardware here, and again, the three-cell battery won’t run marathons. The touchpad is janky, and, I almost forgot, this guy really doesn’t like them.
Resources: A whole bunch of install guides and support info.

Acer Aspire One
Status: In production
A hugely popular, widely available and all-around decent netbook, the Aspire One is a cautionary tale: No matter how tempted you are to pick one up, Hackintosh development has come too slowly to justify buying one for that. This rule applies to other netbooks not shown, too.
What you get: An expensive-looking, cheap-as-chips workhorse.
What you sacrifice: Virtually everything, including the biggest dealbreaker of them all: Wi-Fi. Lots of netbooks don’t work, but I wanted to include this one as an example: Just because a netbook is wildly popular and bolstered by a huge community of support forums doesn’t mean that Hackintosh will eventually work. Some hardware and software issues are just beyond the hobbyists’ purview, so don’t buy a netbook with the hopes that issues will be resolved. They might not be, and you’ll be stuck swapping out hardware components just to get basic features working.
Resources: Install guide with some fixes, wi-fi recommendations; user forums.

Despite losing its greatest soldier (well, almost), the Hackintosh netbook movement is still alive and well, to the point that buying one of the more compatible netbooks listed above with the express purpose of turning it into an unofficial mini-MacBook is a great idea. Take your pick.

Our goal is to provide products that are better than Apple’s.

I actually find this quote refreshing. It’s rare that any company admits shortcomings of their products, and it’s even rarer that a company points to another company who is doing things better, who can serve as a model.

Of course, Asus probably sees Apple as less of a competitor than Acer, the king of netbooks. More on that little rivalry over at the NYT. [NYT via Engadget]

Now don’t get me wrong, I want ten of these things, but the art is so slick and the final result so expensive, that this would never leave the custom, hermetically sealed glass case I’d have to create for it. And, should it leave the glass case for travel purposes, I fear I’d need white cotton gloves, a bodyguard and a portable padded room just to have peace of mind.

This, of course, would defeat the purpose of an ultra portable, inexpensive netbook. If you’re rich and care-free however, go to town over at Ebay. [Ebay via Gadgetmix]

They’re all a clear step above the last generation of netbooks in terms of design as well—as you can see, none of them are ugly, and they have massive, mostly comfortable keyboards.

The new Aspire One grows to 11.6 inches while slimming down to under an inch thick, has an LED-backlit WXGA screen to go with it, dragging the battery life out to a supposed eight hours. It’s got 3G built-in, along with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Dolby speakers. Of course it runs Atom, and has a 160GB hard drive.

Gateway’s netbooks also balloon up to 10.1 and 11.6 inches with the LT20 and LT30. I think they’re better looking than the Aspire One—the cherry red one. They’ve got pretty much the same guts, and a multi-touch trackpad for gestures.

Acer is planning the release of an 11.6-inch Aspire One. It’s a lot like the 10-inch version, but it will feature the Atom Z530 processor (as opposed to the N270), which as my pea brain understands it, features identical clocks speed to the N270/280s but lower power consumption. The system also features a GMA500 graphics core to deal with HD content, full sized keyboard and a promised 4 to 8 (extended) hours of battery. There’s no word on price or availability. [macles via SlashGear]

An anonymous tipster passed on these hands-on photos along and full spec list to NetbookNews, though we can’t confirm its authenticity:

Housing: 2.4 cm thick, 25.5 cm wide, 18.5 cm deep
CPU: Intel Atom N270 1.6 GHz
RAM: 1 GB
HDD: 160 GB
WLAN: 802.11a/b/g Atheros (goes with ath5k in the kernel 2.6.29er)
LAN: Attansic Gigabit (goes with atl1e in 2.6.29er kernel)
SATA: Intel ICH7 Controller SATA: Intel ICH7 controller
Display: 25.9 cm / 10.2 “diagonal with Glare (but bright enough that it doesn’t matter)
Resolution: 1024 × 600
Sound: Intel HDA
VGA: Intel 945GME
Int.Cardreader: JMicron (goes with sdhci module after the command modprobe pciehp pciehp_force = 1)
Bluetooth: integrated (Broadcom chipset)
UMTS: “apparently” yes
Killswitch: for Wlan + Bluetooth
Touchpad: Synaptics (scroll down to the edge possible)
Battery: 3-cells (approximately 3 hours duration)

The only surprise here is the lack of an SSD. The spec list says it’ll be a 160GB HDD, which is encouraging from a performance standpoint (the Aspire One’s SSD’s are slllooooooooow) but not so much from a toss-it-in-you-bag-without-thinking-about-it angle. The smallish battery is also a bit alarming, as the Aspire One, even in its previous smaller incarnation, was never know for great battery life. As for the OS, I wouldn’t expect a change from the current XP/Linpus situation—the SUSE installation you see in the photos was apparently not the OS that came with the netbook. [NetbookNews via Slashgear]]

Given the slim design, this particular Aspire One model is presumed to be an SSD system—one that reintroduces an SD slot into the design for easy and cheap storage expansion. We know, that’s not a lot of information. We’ll keep an eye out for more deets. [macles via Engadget]

In speed tests around Baltimore, the netbook was able to hit 6.7Mbps down and 2.8Mbps up. The New York Times started loading in 7 seconds, taking 15 seconds to fully display. And Hulu video streamed solidly after buffering for 20 seconds.

But I don’t think anyone is questioning whether or not WiMax works, even on low-powered netbooks. The question is whether or not people will pay $US30-$US40 a month to connect to the internet on what’s basically a secondary computer—especially if they already pay for 3G access on a smartphone or high speed at home. Would you spend the money?

To see the speed tests with your own eyes, hit the link for video of the testing. [LaptopMag]