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Dell seems to be continually offering new options on their Inspiron Mini 9 and the latest is sure to make plenty of people happy—an option for built in 3G.  The 3G option is unfortunately just for new orders and is only available on Windows XP based Mini 9s.  As for pricing, it will set you back $125 for the upgrade, which also requires you to sign up for AT&T’s DataConnect service.  The service is priced at $60 per month and requires a two-year agreement.  Of course, on the positive side, by signing that agreement you will be able to get $120 back in the form of a mail-in-rebate.  It is nice to see 3G begin to makes its way into netbooks here in the US, however at $60 a month I would prefer to have a tethering plan on my phone or just have a USB 3G solution, at least that way I would not be limited to just using the access on one notebook.

Product [Dell]

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Originally, HP stated that a 3G-capable Mini 1000 would not be available until December.  However, at least one enterprising user seems to already have one in hand and already gotten the 3G working.  The details of this particular model are a little unclear, according to the forum posting, the user has a model #1033cl.  Based on some searching around, that model seems to be available only outside the US.  So, this is where it gets a little confusing, because he seems to be here in the US, as he mentioned that it is working on AT&T’s network. 

Now, is this a slip up on the part of HP, or are there more of these WWAN-equipped models out in-the-wild?  Fortunately, a quick check on the underside of your Mini 1000 will let you know if you have a WWAN-equiped netbook.  The slot (as pictured) can be found on the bottom and on the side of the battery slot.  Continued after the break.

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Dell has continued to improve upon the Inspiron Mini 9 with new colors along with new features.  We saw those new colors hit the US market just a few days back, and now Dell has followed up with an even more welcomed addition—an optional 32GB SSD. 

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Remember that red colored Inspiron Mini 9 that Michael Dell was spotted carrying around during the All Things Digital conference this past May?  Well, it appears that some customers will soon be able to grab an Inspiron Mini 9 of their own in red, and also pink.  Dell has just released both new models, but sadly, as of now, they are available only in Japan. 

Additionally, and perhaps a little more exciting than the new colors, is the option of a larger SSD.  Customers in Japan can also now choose to get the “platinum package” which includes a 32GB SSD.  The Mini 9 with the larger SSD is retailing for ¥54,980 or about $565 US and also includes the standard 1.6GHz Atom processor, 1GB of RAM and Windows XP.

Hopefully, we will see the new colors make their way over outside of the Japanese market, or at the very least that larger storage option.

Via [PC Watch]

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Dell has officially made their latest Inspiron Mini available in the US.  Customers can now visit Dell and purchase the Inspiron Mini 12, but sadly the configurations seem a little limited and may not be ideal for everyone. 

Dell is offering the Inspiron Mini 12 in three configurations, which begin at $549 and go up as high as $649.  The main drawbacks are that (at least for now) the maximum amount of RAM that you can add is 1GB, and the only option for an operating system is Vista Home Basic.  Personally, I would like to have seen some more RAM as 2GB is becoming more and more of a standard nowadays, but more important is that the only OS available is Vista Home Basic and that is sure to turn some sales away from all those Vista haters.

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Everybody hates being caught by speed cameras: it is annoying, humiliating and also expensive, and that is why Novus have come up with the “Mini Coyote” which allows drivers to alert others of speed cameras in as little as three seconds.  The little gadget will sit on your dashboard, and when you spot a speed camera that isn’t already in the database you press the handy button and before you know it everyone with that gadget knows of it.

“Brilliant!“ I hear you cry, finally a way to beat those money grabbing machines, which it does quite effectively.  Although this idea isn’t new, the super speed at which it does it allows the community of users to quickly build up a good idea of where all the speed traps are due to the fact that it only takes 3 seconds.  The little gadget will then tell you if you are approaching any speed cameras, your speed, and will tell you to slow down if you are going too fast thus avoiding a fine. 

Plenty more after the break.

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Black Friday, the day when consumers can generally expect to find some good deals, is thankfully just about upon us.  With a few weeks before Thanksgiving here in the US, it seems now is about the right time for the deals to begin making their way into the public eye.  Sadly, although Dell has plenty of deals listed for Black Friday, it seems that some are not as exciting as one would hope for. 

To begin with, Dell is planning to offer the Inspiron Mini 9 for $299, which offers a $50 savings from the regular $349.  The specs for that model include a 1.6GHz Atom processor, a 4GB SSD, 512MB RAM an 8.9-inch display and running Ubuntu 8.04.

Other notebooks that are on sale (and some that will offer a much greater savings) will be the Inspiron 13 for $699 (a $329 savings), the Studio 15 for $699 (a $245 savings), the Studio 17 for $799 (a $349 savings), the XPS M1330 for $1,029 (a $319 savings) and the XPS M1530 also for $1,029 (a $319 savings).  More deals after the break.

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Asus set a target of 5 million units of its Eee PC netbook to be sold this year, which they appear to be reaching.  The only problem is that shipments of the Acer Aspire One are creeping towards its ambitious target of 6 million sales, 20% more than the Eee PC.

The title of “best selling netbook” is one that Asus will be incredibly reluctant to give up as it was mainly them who came up with the netbook idea, and it has been through them that the craze has spread.  However the numbers do not lie, Asus only shipped 1.7 million in the third quarter while Acer managed 2.4 million, and advantage they intend to continue into the fourth quarter with predicted sales to exceed this quarter.

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HP has officially unveiled the Mini 1000 netbook, which serves as a follow up to the Mini-Note 2133.  And a nice follow up it seems to be, based on the specs and available options for the Mini 1000 it seems HP has taken some of the disappointing factors from their original 2133 netbook and made some notable improvements.

To begin with, the Mini 1000 will eventually be available in three models: you have the Windows XP based model that will start at $399, the Ubuntu-based Mobile Internet Experience (“MIE”) model that will start at $379, and the limited edition Vivian Tam model which will start at $699.  As of now, the Windows XP model is available for purchase, while the MIE model is expected in early January.  The limited edition Vivian Tam model will be available “in time for the holidays.“

Keep reading for more details.

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So, Dell comes out with a new netbook.  At first, the Mini 12 was just a rumor, but it is all official.  It comes complete with a 12-inch display (up from their earlier Mini 9 model), although it is pretty much geared for the same crowd.  According to Dell, it is super for “teens, tweens, travelers and ‘Tweeters’ to surf the Web, chat with friends, blog, stream content, upload photos or enjoy online videos, music and games.” 

Keep reading to find out when you’ll be able to get one and what this thing is running.

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