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Inspiron Mini 9 gets the teardown treatment, courtesy of Dell

It seems we are not even going to have to wait for the Inspiron Mini 9 to get in the hands of consumers before we begin to learn about the inside. Dell has gone ahead and posted a the service manual for the Mini 9, and it contains more than a few pictures of the internal guts. And judging from what we can see, the Mini 9 is going to be fun to play with, and seemingly easy to upgrade on your own.

Just by removing a simple panel from the bottom, users will have access to the SSD, Wi-Fi card, the RAM and even an unused mini PCIe slot. Of course we also see that SIM card slot located behind the battery. Keep reading to check out some of the images, courtesy of Dell…

Toaster PC; helping to confuse the would-be home burglar

Certainly one of the most unique computer mods that I have seen to date, by far not the most interesting but perhaps practical. With more and more people looking to have an “internet appliance” in their kitchen, the latest modded PC is Toasy, and as you can likely guess its made from a gutted out vintage toaster.

Aside from the fact that this seems like a very strange choice to use for a PC case, it could have some potential benefits, perhaps most important it will offer a kitchen like look and not stick out like a sore thumb, but more important it may be a perfect mod to confuse any would be thieves.

Toasty, the toaster PC includes a C 3600MHz processor, mini-ITX motherboard, 2.5-inch hard drive, a DVD-ROM drive, and a full sized wireless router. Keep reading to check out a few more images…

Latest Eee PC hack adds backlit keyboard for just $15

The latest mod to come the ever-hackable Eee PC seems like one that should have been done a long time ago. For just about $15 you can somewhat easily add a backlight to your keyboard. The mod is estimated to take about 3 hours and requires you taking your keyboard off as well as some soldering. After all your work you will indeed have a nice backlit keyboard that will allow you to comfortably type at any time of day or night, sadly the light is powered by an external battery back that runs on two AAA-batteries. While a nice little trick, it would be much cooler if this could be powered internally. Personally I would opt for a cheap external USB light as opposed to having a battery pack stuck to the top of my Eee. Keep reading to check out another pic of the battery pack, and click the Read link below for the full set of instructions.

The full featured, do-it-all, yet highly over-priced Eee PC

While we certainly cannot argue that the $3,200 price tag is worth the money, I am sure the hard work along with the necessary parts would justify the cost, we cannot help to think that its just an Eee PC. Sure its a great little notebook, but that is where it stops, part of the glory about the Eee, is that it is not only fully functional (for most people) out of the box, but it is also very affordable.

The latest highly modded Eee PC to land on eBay has just about everything you could want. Feature wise it is packed and includes a 32GB Patriot XT drive in addition to the standard drive, 2GB of RAM, upgraded Intel Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, an Air Play FM radio transmitter, GPS, Bluetooth, two USB hubs and a custom copper heatsink to help the overclocked processor. The Eee PC also has a touchscreen display, that while is still the original 7-inch size it has a 1024 x 768 resolution and is running Windows XP Professional SP3. Best of all its all crammed in without any addition to the external case and it still weighs just under 3.5-pounds. The auction with about a week still left, currently has no bids with a starting bid of $2,800 and a Buy-It-Now of $3,200. Keep reading for the complete specs…

Ben Heck – the console modding legend going ‘pro’

Benjamin Heckendorn, or mostly known as Ben Heck, is a legend for his semi-godlike ability to recreate and modify electronic devices. Among those popular devices are the Xbox laptop and the popular reincarnation of Atari 2600. Ben started all with all of these “crazy” ideas from his basement, warming up by modding the Atari 2600 more »

The Cloudbook modding begins; enter the “Dreambook”

We saw the Eee PC pick up an incredible, almost cult like following and with that came more mods and hacks than most of us could even imagine. It has taken some time, the Cloudbook has gotten off to a slow start, but that seems to be coming to an end. A decent community is starting to get going behind the Cloudbook, albeit not as large or devoted as the Eee PC has, but still its getting there and I am sure it will continue to grow with time. With the community getting behind the Cloudbook we are beginning to see some cool new mods, along with some tips and tricks that make the gOS-based ultra-portable a little more user friendly.

Take apart your PSP and put it back together in 9 minutes

Note: If you’re at work, turn down your speakers (or put on headphones). If you’re down with voiding the warrenty on your Sony PSP (or just looking for some entertainment), this video is pretty sweet. The video is a demonstration of how to install a PSP-to-TV mod chip – and seems like a rather stupid more »