Eee Mods & Hacks: Add Bluetooth, GPS, FM Transmitter & More

If you bought into the ASUS Eee early on, and now are looking enviously at the array of budget ultraportables available today, why not redirect your angst into crafting an upgrade for the compact notebook.  Since there are numerous points on the Eee motherboard where both 3.3v and 5v power can be tapped into, plus some extra space in the casing, adding an internal Bluetooth adaptor, GPS or card reader (to mention just a few) can be relatively straightforward.

Assuming you're pretty handy (or at least passingly familiar) with a soldering iron, most of the hacks simply require some creative thinking to route the wires and mount the (stripped down) circuit boards.  The IVC Wiki (linked above) even does most of that for you.

There's probably a limit to the space inside, so you may have to prioritise which mods you carry out; of course, you could go the whole hog and build a whole new Eee housing to fit everything in (such as is planned in the Tabeee touchscreen slate mod).  While there may be newer devices on the market, the Eee's owner community could continue to be the tipping point that keeps the budget ultraportable at the top of the tree.

[via MAKE]