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December 6th, 2008, 08:44 GMT · By

Touchscreen Kit Announced for Netbooks

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Netbooks can now include touchscreen features
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According to the latest news on the web, Hoda Technologies, a Taiwanese company, is offering touchscreen upgrade kits that are compatible with almost all currently available netbooks. Moreover, the company says that its products will also prove compatible with netbook models that are about to be released in the near future.

Hoda Technologies states that its Easy and Fun TouchKit is a simple, no-nonsense upgrade, which does indeed require the netbook to be tore apart to install it, a fact which implies the need of some knowledge, yet there is no soldering involved. The most important feature of the kit is its compatibility with around every 8.9 and 10.2-inch netbook currently available on the market. The compatibility list would include Eee PC 900/901/1000/1000H/1000HD, Aspire One, Dell Mini 9, Lenovo S9/S10, Samsung NC10, Benq Joybook U101.

The new Easy and Fun TouchKit connects to the netbook via the machine’s Webcam port and a USB hub, included on the same PCB as the touchscreen controller. We should mention that the hub features no less than three USB outputs. While reconnecting the camera would mean that one of them is occupied, the other two would remain available, allowing users to add a flash drive, GPS, or Bluetooth dongle.

Netbooks can now include touchscreen features
Enlarge picture
For what its worth, this solution does seem rather practical, as it offers some interesting upgrade options to users, especially in cases when they prefer flash storage on their netbook in place of an HDD, or want to connect a GPS without having the device added into an external USB port.

As expected, the new TouchKit is available in 8.9 and 10.2-inch flavors, which come at the same price, namely $95 plus shipping. The solution is available for purchase via eBay. Perhaps it doesn't sound quite like a bargain, but it is sure able to offer some pleasant new features to your netbook, including the touchscreen and some USB dongles.




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READER COMMENTS:


Comment #1 by: Bad Touch on 05 Sep 2011, 19:03 UTC reply to this comment

You'd do better to run around your netbook with a butane lighter throwing lit singles in the air for an hour than spend your money on the Hoda "Easy and Fun Touchkit". I'm as skeptical as the next guy when it comes to ordering hardware mods off the internet from China, but I did assume "solderless|" meant an installation free of measuring, cutting, stripping, twisting, breadboarding, and ultimately, soldering (and if you're the type, screaming, crying, sobbing and blubbering).
I was finally rewarded by all the hard work and going back to school to get an Electrical Engineering degree because I'm now qualified to state that this product will not work with your netbook.

I'm reminded nightly of this fact by my loving girlfriend when I have to ask to use her computer so I don't have to watch another minute of Big Brother in the Wild. Often, I check to see if Hoda has responded to my deferentially worded e-mail, which they have not.

If you can afford to get this mod, eschew the $100US price tag (and subseuqent shipping, handling, forwarding, carrying and customs, duties, and internets-buying charges that will show up in your mailbox for the next two months), and just, for the love of Pete, go buy an Android tablet for $399 and let a new OS into your house. You know it will let your pay your bills and let you watch Netflix just as well as your (now broken) Windows netbook.

If you can't afford it, use the $100+US to buy one more year of UFC, and a case of Pabst, and hope that's enough to distract you from the lunatics' lure to cheap fictionware that, at best, will only leave you one functioning device short.

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