Two-finger scrolling allows you to scroll through web pages much like the wheel on a mouse. This can be added via an easy installation of the TwoFingerScroll utility that, as well as scrolling, provides additional tapping commands to add shortcuts to your touchpad.

For those wanting more gestures including three-finger control (unwise on a netbook) then you’ll need to install a modified Synaptic driver. It’s a more complicated method detailed fully at Lifehacker, but I think for most netbook users two-finger scrolling should be good enough given the small touchpad size.

As the modder alexbates says, this mod enables you to “build an iPad with 10 times the storage, twice the speed, external video (VGA), webcam, USB ports, and built-in multi card reader, all for $350.” Hopefully a video should be available in due course, in the meantime you can find all the details on this mod here.

Via Engadget.

One intrepid modder looked to create something similar for his Acer Aspire 1410 ultrathin. He claims that it is easy to build with common materials and holds together without detaching unless it’s meant to. It all looks a bit complicated to me, but he says it is completely reversible. You can check out the guide here.

Via Blogeee.

It is the one year anniversary of BatteryBar and to celebrate, Osiris Development is letting you buy BatteryBar Pro for whatever you think its worth. Prices range from $1 to $10 (the latter of which is the normal cost). Spending $1 – $3 will get you a 1 year license, whilst spending $4 – $5 will get you a 2 year license. A lifetime license will cost from $6. The software is Windows 7 compatible so you shouldn’t have any problems getting it working on the latest netbooks.

Via Netbooked.

The whole project is work in progress, but he has managed to install the touchscreen and flip the display around. He has even added some custom buttons allowing him to dual boot the device between Windows 7 or OS X 10.6.2. The whole thing is working as a normal tablet but he hasn’t got round to installing the rails so far. That to me sound like the biggest challenge, so fingers crossed he completes his vision!

Via Netbooked.

Apparently the researchers concluded that “a conventional small clamshell laptop is most comfortably used lying down in bed with the device on the thigh when the knees are kept up.” So which position do you find most comfortable? Check out the chart below.

Via Gizmodo.

The Harlequin is pakkei’s take on the project, where he has modded his Dell Mini 9 netbook to form a slate and then added another 9-inch USB touchscreen. The left panel will be used for reading content and the right panel will be used for taking notes. The orientation of the displays can also be reversed to be used in a more normal netbook form-factor too.

As the device uses Windows 7 it features both handwriting and voice recognition. The Harlequin is mostly working although it does need a dual-hinged chassis. Seems like some good handy work from pakkei.

Via Netbooked.

The changes include the player defaulting to standard quality, reducing comments displayed to 10 and removing sharing and embedding options. The auto-suggest search bar and related videos have also been removed. With the advent of Adobe Flash Player 10.1 and GPU-accelerated playback, YouTube playback is unlikely to trouble ION-powered netbooks. However, for everyone else, this new version is probably worth a try, especially if you don’t use the removed features much anyway.

You can check out the YouTube “Feather” opt-in beta here. Just click on the “Join the ‘Feather’ Beta” link. Remember this is currently work in progress so not all videos will work right now.

You can check out the results after the jump, but it seems pretty good and much cheaper than pre-packaged alternatives. The full guide on how to do this can be checked over on the MyDellMini forums.

Via GadgetMix.

However, it appears that the ION and ION LE chipsets are physically the same after all. The only difference is that ION LE has had DX10 disabled according to some investigative work by MyHPMini member runawayprisoner. He basically added the device id of ION LE into the INF for the full ION HP drivers. The end result gives you DX10 support for the ION LE.

Remember, you cannot play DX10 games on Windows XP, so to get the most out of this hack, you would need to install Windows 7. You also get a significant performance boost over the stock ION LE. runawayprisoner talks of a 50 percent increase in the GPU for some DX9 games. His Windows Experience Index score for 3D performance also increased from 3.9 to 5.4 (check out the screen grab below). Another member, solarnoise, has seen his 3DMark06 performance increase by 300 points (not to be sniffed at!)

What I’m trying to understand is why would there be a performance difference if the hardware is the same? The only thing I can think of is better driver support for ION compared to ION LE. Or maybe ION LE has been intentionally crippled to market the gap between ION LE & ION on spanking new Windows 7 netbooks.

You could argue Microsoft didn’t want XP netbook performance to be ‘too good’ with ION and therefore Nvidia compromised with ION LE to stay within Microsoft’s licensing terms. There are a number of conspiracy theories on this one but the reality appears to be that ION and ION LE are one and the same, albeit with DX10 software-disabled on the ION LE.