Good question. Honestly, if the new Asus EeePC 900 was available some months back, it might have tipped the scales against some folk’s choice of the ‘ultraportable’ Macbook Air. (Me included.) The new EeePC gets launched in my neck of the woods this coming Monday, and the Doodler got an advance review unit (a 12GB Windows XP version - ugh) to tinker with.

The new, truly ultraportable version removes some of the bigger complaints about the EeePC (screen and storage) and makes it an even more attractive alternative to the MBA, at a fourth of the price. But then again, different strokes for different folks.

If you’re at all curious, I have an unboxing gallery and a quick-and-dirty-review over at my EeePC blog. (Yes, I have a life outside of Macs.)

Of course the sticking point with the MacBook Air is that it is a closed machine - it is what it is, and that’s it. Well, that’s never really stopped some folk. If there’s a will - plus some dremel tools and a soldering iron - there’s a way.

Take this guy named Jordan Bunnell who added an EVDO broadband wifi card (a USB727 Verizon Aircard) to the innards of his Air, something most people didn’t think possible given the space available. True, he had to sacrifice his wifi and Bluetooth, but he proves it can done. Hm.

Check out the butchery, complete with pictures and discussion here and here.

The Doodler’s favorite podcast - Buzz Out Loud - has morphed into a vidcast for real. Unlike the live Ustream feeds I wrote about before, this one’s a full-bore video, complete with a multi-camera setup and a director!

Other than that, nothing’s changed much as far as content and execution are concerned. Except for the fact that now hosts Tom Merritt, Molly Wood and Jason Howell now have to worry about what to wear and how to look when they do the show. (Molly’s made up! And accessorized too!) And to be mindful of how to act since they’re on cam now.

At least you can now see them as they do the show. Tom and Molly look and act they way they normally do on their other video stuff, but producer  Jason seems a bit awkward. (For some reason, I’ve always thought of him as looking like actor Jason Segel from How I Met Your Mom.) You can also see their hardware prefs - in front of Jason is a Thinkpad, Molly a Dell (?), and Tom a MacBook Pro (and there goes your Mac connect, haha).

It’s not yet on iTunes, but you can catch the first BOL Video on CNET TV here, for streaming or for download.

The advert for Lenovo’s Thinkpad X300 rips on the original Macbook Air advertisement. Hee hee.

(Courtesy of Paint.It.Black’s Flickr site.)