Basically, this is the same netbook as the older U110, but subs the 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 for a 1.3GHz Intel Atom Z530. The new processor is better for power efficiency, but has shown less performance punch than the typical netbook Atom. The system still has the same 1GB memory and 160GB hard drive. It's also offered with either Windows XP or Vista.

The real difference here is that giant 9-cell battery which supposedly gives a 15-hour run, and I guess the "Eco" name, which doesn't seem to refer to any particular environmental update. That battery doesn't only give the netbook a larger behind, but it adds to its weight. List price is $430, though Newegg has it right now for $400. [MSI]

However, Intel tells us that it has not nailed down the launch of Pine Trail yet and maintains it will ship products to its customers before the end of the year. MSI hopes to be first to market with Pine Trail netbooks, including its 10-inch convertible U150 with Windows 7.

Either way, the sooner we get a newer Atom the better (also keep in mind the next version of the all-popular Atom also differs by blending the CPU and GPU on the same chip). According to MSI, Pine Trail is showing improved graphics performance and at least 20 percent better power consumption.

We are hoping the netvertible with its planned resistive touchscreen performs better than ASUS' Eee PC T91. However its lack of a capacitive screen and multitouch support means it won't support any of Windows 7's cool Touch Pack apps.

But before going touch, MSI will release the 12-inch Wind U210, which like the recently released Gateway LT3100, has AMD's Yukon platform rather than Intel's Atom. MSI will offer it in two different skus, including one with Windows XP, 1GB of RAM and a 160GB hard drive for $379 and another with Vista Premium for $429. The U210 will be available in the U.S. during the first weeks of September.

Following handwritten correspondence and a voicemail, I'm fairly certain that "Macwind" is just one industrious high school kid with a nice website.

But Macwind has requested this review, and how could I possibly pass it up?

So Apple, I plead that you go easy on "Craig," the owner of Macwind, even if his practice of preloading OS X onto netbooks for resale (using publicly available tutorials, I'm sure) is pretty unquestionably a breach of one or more laws.

His site shares your aesthetics, and the MSI Wind he's selling, loaded with a 1.6GHz atom, 1GB of RAM, 160GB hard drive and of course, OS 10.5.8, is really a pretty good product even for the $100 premium over a stock U100.

You guys should sell these things!

Because the build is solid with all the necessary drivers preloaded (some of which MSI has actually "leaked" themselves). The 1024x600 screen displays your desktop beautifully, while most of they keyboard's function keys are operational (like brightness, volume and sleep).

You can even pop in an SD card to expand the storage, just like your latest Macbooks!

But alas, we know that you know that you must shut Craig down. We won't frown upon your actions. After all, just because the kid is young doesn't excuse him from your trademarks and copyrights.

We simply ask that you go easy on him. Make him cry, sure, but pity him, too. Don't crush him with a lifetime of legal debt. A kind call from Steve Jobs, a middle manager or one of those attractive ladies in Apple PR will probably clear up any legal misunderstandings. (His number is on the site, otherwise I'll be happy to provide it.)

And maybe, while Craig's first garage-based computer business has failed him, his next one will not. [Macwind (down)]

No installs needed.

Reasonable price for the laziest among us.

Oh right, this operation can't be legal.

A kid might go to jail or something.

According to the author of the hack, the iPhone 3G took 2 hours and 22 minutes to fully recharge, leaving 50% of the power in the MSI Wind battery. The hack also includes a normal jack to provide with 12v power to any other device.

[Prusadjs]

Of course, this could be a symptom of wider software optimizations or just a false alarm altogether. If it's true though, this is great news—aside from a few awkward interface difficulties, diminished battery life is (or was) the best argument against giving OS X a try on your netbook.

Hackintoshers: comment if you've noticed anything like this. [MSI Wind Forums via Gadget Lab]

The Vista system features a 12-inch (1366 x 768) LED screen, GMA 4500M integrated graphics, 802.11n Wi-Fi, 2GB RAM, and 250GB of storage, when equipped with a 3-cell battery, the system slims down to just 3lbs. But the battery life can't be fantastic in that configuration.

The price is estimated somewhere around $700. We're guessing that MSI will drop that figure if/when we see the U200 pop up in the US. Hmm, maybe we should make that, "hoping" MSI will drop that figure if/when we see the U200 pop up in the US. [Engadget China via Engadget]

This bests the already respectable 13-hour life of an MSI Wind armed with a 6-cell battery.

For his unofficial test, Johannes used Battery Eater set to its lowest setting. This is obviously as bare bones as you're going to get, so it's not unsurprising that he was able to achieve 25 hours, 4 minutes. However, even when you factor in what the time would have been if the netbook was being used for web surfing or other netbook-related tasks, you'd have to think the 9-cell would get 18 hours or so, as Liliputing suggests. [EeePC.de via Liliputing]

The Wind Top AE1900 is an Atom 230-based system, supporting a max of 2GB of RAM on top of a 160GB hard drive, DVD burner, wireless n, card reader and webcam. But what makes it all exciting is the system's 18.5-inch WSXGA 16:9 touch screen LCD, complete with a quick 5ms response time. You see, even with this much screen space, the computer needs only 45W to operate. And yes, that factoid is totally worth regurgitating my headline to reinforce that 45W is less than many light bulbs need.

As Rob at bbGadgets points out, "Now, I'm almost certain I had an Apple monitor that looked just like this about 7 years ago..." We're pretty sure, too. The crazy thing is that this whole computer will cost thousand(s) less than that Apple Studio Display when it comes out to an undisclosed market at an undisclosed time. [MSI via bbGadgets]

Unfortunately, the 10-inch Wind U120 isn't really much of an improvement over its predecessor. While the U120 has been upgraded with a fancy black matte screen, dissections have found the internals to be nearly identical to the U100, and the stat sheet agrees:

• Intel Atom 1.6 GHz Processor
• 512 KB L2 Cache, 533 MHz Bus speed
• 160 GB SATA Hard Drive, 1GB DDR2 667MHz RAM, 2 GB Max
• 6 Cell Battery
• Built-in Gigabit Ethernet LAN and Modem Module, Built-in 802.11b/g/n WLAN Card

The U120's claim to fame is 3G support (in the U120H), not found in the current model available at Amazon for $470. While this base U120 will surely come down in price, you might as well pick up a U100 for the time being and save yourself a $100 or so bucks, if you can handle the 3-cell battery found in the cheapest versions. [Amazon via Crunchgear]

This MSI Wind features a red/pink-backed screen with a ridiculously festive heart on the back. It's the perfect way of saying either, "I love you" or "I think you generally leave your holiday decorations up for too long, but I accept that."

Love isn't free, though. In fact, love's paint job and detailing costs about $80 over the identical, base U100 Wind ($430). [MSI]

After pelting MSI with unlikely requests for OS X driver support, a number of users on the MSIWind.net forums have received responses from the company, written in the "Dear Sir/Madam" parlance of a Nigerian scammer but nevertheless containing an early version of working Wi-Fi drivers for the Wind's Realtek RTL8187SE Wi-Fi module. The driver doesn't allow the card to be used like a regular Airport adapter, but according to users connects just fine through Realtek client software.

Forum-goers are floating copies on a couple of ephemeral hosting sites, so head over to the thread and give it a shot. [MSIWind Forums via GottaBeMobile]

Hanging out at sites like Giz may have instilled in you an insatiable, pocket-emptying gadget habit. But now we're entering a new era—the old guys on the TV are saying that soon we may not even have pockets, let alone money for them. Don't panic though: You've probably got a wealth of gadgetry sitting underutilized in your living rooms, closets and basements, just waiting to be given powerful new (not exactly authorized) features. For free.

I've collected the best firmware replacements, software mods and homebrew hacks from the DMCA-flouting, EULA-hating frontiers of gadgetland that'll breathe new life into your stable of hardware and maybe—just maybe—let you feel that lusty new-gadget rush again.

Turn Your Xbox, Old PC or Apple TV into a Genuine Media Center

Xbox Media Center is about as refined as an unauthorized hack can get, playing back virtually any audio and video format, running a bevy of console emulators and still playing your Xbox games. To be honest, this should almost be viewed as a natural update for every Xbox, which at its core is a slow but functional PC with an easy TV connection. (Any actual PCs you have lying around can run a PC-ported version of XBMC.)

Boxee is a very slick fork of the XBMC project for Mac, and it's available for Apple TV. As shipped, the Apple TV works fine within the closed iTunes ecosystem, but Boxee's support for virtually every video codec and free online video like YouTube, CNN, BBC, and Revision3 will suit your new, more destitute lifestyle a bit better.

Difficulty: Easy to Moderate. Installation is pretty straightforward in most cases, with simple Boxee and XBMC setup programs available for Windows, Mac and Linux. Before you load XBMC, though, you have to mod your Xbox with one of these methods, many of which require a specific game. After that it's all install wizards and lollipops.

Installing anything on the locked-down Apple TV used to take some serious finagling, but there are now tools that will create an automated Boxee installer on a flash drive. Just plug the drive in, restart and you're good to go.

XBMC Online Manual

Boxee

Make Over Your iPod, Archos, iRiver or Sandisk with Rockbox

It's hard to look at the current generation of media players and not admire their diverse capabilities and extensible software platforms. That's not to say that your 5th-gen iPod doesn't play back music perfectly well, or that your iRiver H10 still isn't a kickass media player, but they do feel a bit dated. Rockbox replaces your MP3 player's operating system with something more substantial, effectively making it a completely new device. You get endless codec support, advanced audio options, dozens of games, useful apps like a calculator and a text editor, plus you can choose from tons of different interface skins for a unique look and feel. Rockbox's tweaking possibilities mean you will earn admiring "what is that?" questions from friends, and it won't cost you a thing. If your player isn't supported yet just hold on—everything from the Zen Vision:M to the Toshiba Gigabeat S has a fairly active dev team.

Difficulty: Easy. Rockbox has an automated tool called the Rockbox Utility available for Windows, Mac and Linux. It does the work for you. Even better, it often automatically configures your player to dual boot with its original OS.

Rockbox Official Site

Convert Your PC or Notebook Into A Much More Expensive Mac

It's undeniable that Macs are too expensive. For many, they are considered a luxury item whose added cost doesn't justify the benefit. Luckily Apple's switch to an Intel platform opened up a world of unauthorized OS X installations which can turn your existing PC into a powerhouse Mac Pro workstation, or morph your MSI Wind or Asus EeePC into the Mac netbook that should be in their goddamn product line anyway. Check the hardware compatibility list to see if your PC is eligible for the upgrade.

Difficulty: Moderate to Hard. If you're not morally opposed to downloading iATKOS and Kalyway, which are pre-patched Leopard install DVDs (this is bit torrent territory), then the process is much like installing any other OS. If you insist on building your own patched install from a DVD you own, then, well, good luck. Always check hardware lists first, though, because driver support is everything.

OSX86 Project Page

Flash Your Crappy Router Into a Top-Line Piece of Hardware

The DD-WRT project exists for a simple reason: Most routers are physically very similar, but are priced differently because of functionality derived from software. The DD-WRT firmware unlocks the potential of the most basic routers out there—too many to name but damn if yours isn't on the list. As it turns out, your budget model is kind of impressive: Program-specific traffic throttling, professional level wireless security and radical signal boosting are just a few of the dozens of new features that can be enabled.

Difficulty: Easy. If you can't manage this one, then you don't deserve a router—installation just takes a few clicks on the device's default configuration pages. A word of caution, though: Make sure your router configuration page is totally compatible with your browser before the operation, as some choke on Firefox and can botch firmware upgrades. Stick to IE if you have the choice.

DD-WRT Project Page

Download Updated Maps For Your Old GPS

I'm referring of course to capital 'D' downloading here, mainly because at the moment GPS map updates are a racket. You could spend hundreds of dollars on map data that is freely available on Google Maps, Microsoft Live and MapQuest, among others, or you can just, you know, not. Map packs for Garmin, TomTom and Magellan units are floating around torrent sites and usually don't require much more than a simple CD image mount and run routine to set up. (Guilty conscience sold separately.)

Difficulty: Easy to Moderate. If you're just running a copy of a CD, then you'll be able to use the installation wizards. Some more involved methods for Windows CE-based devices require some SSH file transfers, but these are relatively rare.

Jailbreak Your iPhone for Wi-Fi Internet Tethering

Two internet plans are enough, but to sign on to a mobile internet contract when you've already got unlimited iPhone data feels kind of stupid. Jailbreaking your iPhone is now about as easy as performing a firmware upgrade, and there are actually multiple tethering apps. PDANet and iPhoneModem both work a treat, but keep in mind that excessive usage could draw AT&T's attention and ire: Tethering is not allowed on the data plan, even though it works fine. Both apps are available in Cydia, where you can also find a limited assortment of other apps that don't have a place in the app store.

Difficulty: Moderate. Jailbreaking can be managed through the Dev Team's fantastic Quickpwn tool, but it does take a few minutes and can go wrong if instructions aren't followed closely. After jailbreak, Cydia and Installer fill the role of the gray-market app store, functioning as simple package managers that are arguably as polished as their more legitimate younger brother.

PDANet and iPhoneModem take different approaches to tethering, but neither requires more networking expertise than it would take to, say, set up a router.

iPhone Jailbreak

PDANet

iPhoneModem

Turn Your Wii Into a Free Emulation Machine

It's more than a little infuriating to have to repurchase your childhood library of console games from the Virtual Console, especially when free PC emulators and accompanying ROMs abound on the old intertubes. All you need is a copy of Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess, an SD card and an SD reader and you're ready to install A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia, which is pretty much all anyone has ever really needed since this whole "Video Gaming Television Machine" thing got under way in the first place. Throw in extended media playback and some helpful widgets for an extra value-add.

Difficulty: Moderate. This is one of the only hacks here that needs additional hardware to work, even if it's basic. The good news is that once you find a copy of Zelda and load up your SD card, the process pretty much takes care of itself. Further app installs are taken care of through a intuitive dedicated channel.

WiiBrew WIki

A great resource for similar projects is our industrious sister site Lifehacker, where you can find a veritable treasure trove of tutorials and tricks. Have you postponed any gadget purchases until you're sure your bank is solvent? Have any other budget hardware resurrection techniques that we missed? Let us know in the comments.

MSI WIND BLOWS INTO BEST BUY

CITY OF INDUSTRY, CA – October 06, 2008 – MSI Computer, a leading manufacturer of computer hardware products and solutions, is excited to announce the MSI Wind U100 Netbbok is now on sale at Bestbuy locations across the country. The Wind, an acronym for “Wi-Fi Network Device,” was the first 10” netbook to feature the speedy new Intel Atom™ 1.6GHz processor

“We are excited to be able to reach our clients through this new channel,“ said MSI’s Director of U.S. Sales Andy Tung. “By partnering with Best Buy we can introduce more people to the Wind, and meet the needs of the buyers who either don’t want to purchase online or would like to touch and try out our netbook before making a decision.”

Weighing in at just 2.3 lbs, MSI designed the Wind to be lightweight and ultra mobile, without sacrificing convenience or performance. The Wind features an ergonomically designed keyboard that is only 20% smaller than a full sized notebook keyboard, with the keys spaced a comfortable 0.68 inches apart.

Lest you think I've somehow chopped this figure and embedded it out of context, here's what MSI's US sales director Andy Tung told our friend Joanna at Laptop when she asked about high return rates:

We have done a lot of studies on the return rates and haven’t really talked about it much until now. Our internal research has shown that the return of netbooks is higher than regular notebooks, but the main cause of that is Linux. People would love to pay $299 or $399 but they don’t know what they get until they open the box. They start playing around with Linux and start realizing that it’s not what they are used to. They don’t want to spend time to learn it so they bring it back to the store. The return rate is at least four times higher for Linux netbooks than Windows XP netbooks.

Check out Laptop for more of the interview. [Laptop]