MSI Wind U100 receives an iPad facelift

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The iPad needn’t strip you clean of your cash. If you own an MSI Wind and are into modding, you can turn your trusty old netbook into an iPad lookalike with some software trickery and a little bit of rewiring. If all you’ve want is that big touchscreen and the iPhone-esque user interface, you should consider this fun modification published by user “alexbates” who documented his endeavor on Insanely Wind’s forum, the place for all the MSI Wind fans.
In short, you need to remove the U100’s keyboard and put a toucscreen on the bottom of the device. In reality, though, the mod does require some rewiring, but nothing beyond the comprehension of a rookie electronics fan. The author joked that the resulting device isn’t something you’ll want to carry on the road:
Keep in mind that after doing this mod, you will have trouble traveling with it. I just had three people pull me to the side in the airport while running my Wind through the Xray machine. They had no clue what I had built.
So, not only do you end up with an iPad-esque tablet for the fraction of the iPad’s price, you also beat Apple’s device, according to alexbates, with “ten times the storage, twice the speed, external video (VGA), webcam, USB ports, and built-in multi card reader.” He put the $350 price tag on the modification, a $200 less than the entry level $499 16GB WiFi iPad. The only thing missing would be the App Store.
 
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