Networkworld has an article that discusses the recent price cuts of both the Acer Aspire One and the HP 2133 netbooks.

What interested me most about netbooks in the beginning were the size and the price- I think we all anticipated the “$199 Eee PC 701″ for quite some time, only to end up paying slightly more. The Eee PC, Cloudbook, HP 2133, etc all came in at higher price points, and as new models were released became more and more expensive.

I haven’t been able to spring for the Eee PC 900, 901, or the other $500-600 netbooks- it’s just too expensive for something that you know is going to be outdated in a month or so. The Aspire One finally got me with the $349 price tag; it doesn’t feel like it’s as big of a buying decision in that range.

It’s great to see the price wars beginning. The HP 2133 is still overpriced even with these latest cuts, in my opinion, but the Aspire One is on the right track.

I picked up an Acer Aspire One yesterday from my local Best Buy- the new $349 price tag for an Atom netbook with a 8.9″ screen was enough to persuade me into taking the plunge. I’m really happy with it so far.

Things I like about it: the screen, the size, the build quality, the keyboard, the speed

Things that could be better: battery life, touchpad, wireless range (before removing power saving)

The screen is great- resolution and size are good enough to read on a regular basis. The 7″ screens on my Eee PC 701 and Cloudbook were OK sized, but the resolution was low enough that websites just never had the space to render properly. The Aspire One has a great resolution and screen, and websites are easy to see on it. Also, the Aspire One’s CrystalBrite technology gives a great glossy look to the screen- it just looks great.

The battery life is a little weak- I only get about 2 hours on the current battery. However, It looks like there is a larger battery coming to the market shortly- this problem will be cleared soon.

I had a little difficulty with a short wireless range, but this was fixed by turning off the wireless card power management in the device properties.

Ultimately though, the Aspire One is such a massive improvement over the Eee PC 701 and Cloudbook. It was side by side with the Eee PC 900 in Best Buy- and though it was cheaper- the Aspire One just looked like such a stronger product.

I’ve decided to revive the NetbookUser blog, after a 3 month or so hiatus. The reason? I bought an Asus Aspire One yesterday, and i’m really impressed with everything about it. I’ll be writing information about it along with all the other current and upcoming netbooks in the market.

Laptop Magazine has the scoop that the Intel Atom 10″ version of the MSI Wind will become available in the United States on June 3:

The Linux version, running Novel’s SUSE, will have 512MB RAM and an 80GB hard drive. It will retail for $399. The Windows XP version will have 1GB RAM, an 80GB hard drive, and Bluetooth, retailing for $549.

For the full scoop, head on over to the interview with the MSI director of US sales.

According to hp2133guide.com, versions of the HP 2133 Mini-note with Windows XP will become available next week. Four new models are listed, ranging in price from $739 to $819. For complete information, head on over to this link.

The “UK” version of the MSI Wind has shown up on Expansys’ UK website listed as a preorder for $609.95. Three colors will be available: white, black, and pink. The specifications are “1.6GHz, 1GB, 80GB, XP Home”. You can see the page here.

Everex has 9 very up close photos of the next generation WiMAX enabled Cloudbook, the Cloudbook MAX:

You can access the product page of the Cloudbook MAX along with the pictures here. I’m not really sure how long they’ve been posted as I don’t remember seeing them back when the MAX was first announced.

According to the Taiwanese Apple Daily, Intel will not be able to meet initial demand for Atom processors next month:

Reportedly Intel will fill less than 40 per cent of orders for Atom chips in the next month, and this is expected to delay shipments of ultramobile notebooks in the short term. Affected vendors are said to include Acer, Dell, Gigabyte and MSI. [via The Inquirer]

This is clearly good news for ASUS’ Eee PC 900 (Celeron), the Everex Cloudbook (VIA C7-M), and the HP 2133 Mini-Note (VIA C7-M). Perhaps it’s also the reason why ASUS chose to go ahead and release the 900 early with the Celeron, and wait to update it with the Atom at a later time. I’d bet the Eee PC Atom will be delayed further as well.

One of the upcoming netbooks later this year is the MSI Wind, which, up until now did not have press-style photos released for it. That’s now changed:

You can see a full gallery of photos over at Engadget Chinese.

Acer’s entry into the world of netbooks will debut during Computex 2008 in Taipei, Taiwan which is being held June 3 through the 7th. This is according to a recent article in PC World.

While not much is known about the device, it appears as though it will use the Intel Atom processor. Acer hopes to sell between 5 and 7 netbooks before the end of the year.