Laptop upgrades are not difficult to complete yourself, and there are three key upgrades that you can easily accomplish to make your laptop run faster.  These will also give your laptop a higher resale value when you decide to replace it.

One of the most simple laptop upgrades to complete yourself is to upgrade your operating system. If you are running Windows XP or Windows Media Center, upgrading to Windows Vista is a good idea.  You will be able to take advantage of the many features of Windows Vista, as well as enhance the speed of your system.  An upgrade to Windows Vista for the Home Basic edition is under $100 and is worth it to enhance the efficiency of your system. (More…)

The sexiest UMPC arount, the Asus R2H, is on its way to a warehouse near you. It appears that our informant was pretty accurate with their information. The Asus is indeed in the process of being packaged and shipped and could be in your greedy little hands as early as the 1st half of October.

The best part (besides the super svelt exterior)? The $999 price! Now, that’s nice. Let us know if you pick one of these up.

Not too much is know about the pre-announced S-Xgen from Seamless Wi-Fi. We do know that it has a hell of an interesting form factor, calls itself a UMPC and supposedly comes with an extensive range of connectivity option.

The S-XGen is the newest contender in the rapidly expanding Ultra Mobile Personal Computer (UMPC) class of minicomputers and takes connectivity to the next level with integrated Cellular, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity.

This one won’t see the light of day until CES in January, with general availability sometime thereafter. Interesting stuff. You can read a bit more here.

We’re expanding!

Are you passionate about mobile technology? Are you a bit of a smart-ass? Do you have a firm grasp of the alphabet? Do you want to be famous? If you answered yes to at least half of one of those questions, then there is more than a 100% chance that you are Ultranauts material.

If you are interested in having fun, getting some great industry exposure and entertaining the tens of dozens of faceless, nameless geeks that read Ultranauts everyday, please send a writing sample in the tone of this site and a short sentence or two about why you’ll be the greatest addition to the Ultranauts team since, well, me!

Send your submissions to john@ultranauts.com. Please have your submissions in by September 26th. Remember though, the early bird usually gets the worm.

This is the UMPC that David Hasselhoff owns. It looks very, very nice. I’m looking forward to getting my hands on this one.

Here’s a quick re-cap of some of the more interesting UMPC news to come across the Interweb over the past few days. Did we miss anything? Add a link to the comments section if you find anything that you think your fellow Ultranauts would be interested in seeing.

1. Unpacking the Asus R2H - from OnlyUMPC
2. The Vega reviewed! - via Uber Tablet
3. The Uren V1 auto-UMPC - from Carrypad
4. Q1 boot up contest - vis JKontheRun and Mobile Tech Roundup
5. Jamie Pressly is an attractive woman - from Ultranauts
6. Holy smokes, Michael Knight can sing! - Ditto

Make sure to visit out friends on the right too. And visit Ultranauts.com often!

Fresh off of back-to-back Pulitzer’s and a Nobel Peace Prize for the advancement of Woman’s Rights, Stuff Magazine tackles it’s next big social issue… the UMPC. In an extensive, scientific and well-rounded analysis of Samsung’s latest take on the platform, Stuff Magazine concludes that they still have some work to do before it’s up to Stuff’s high standandards.

“High-speed data is welcome for downloads, as is a new lower price on the base model. Will it be the breakthrough Samsung is hoping for? We’re yet to be convinced.”

Read more of Stuff Magazine’s incredible technical insight here.

German engineering has done it again! First the Volkswagon and now the Medion, a UMPC for the people. Beyond a nice picture, some basic specs and the promise of a pull-out keyboard, not much is known about the strange and wonderous Medion. No date. No price. Here’s what we’ve got:

* a 6.5″ TFT touch screen
* Slide out keyboard (love that)
* WiFi
* Bluetooth
* GPS
* DMV / TV Tuner
* Pre-loaded content

Apparently it’s those last two bullets that have the Germans excited. Wonder what they’ll be watching? According to the manufacturer, all Medion’s will come preloaded with this…

[Via OnlyUMPC]