March's coolest gadgets

We kick off this month's review of cool new products from East Asia with a welcome update to the Asus Eee PC. This is the miniature laptop that impressed at least year's Computex show in Taipei with its neat design, good looks, and low price. Now there's a new version on the way with a bigger screen and more storage space.

There's also a cool new monitor from Samsung using the USB connection, and among prototype products this month, a glance at a working methanol fuel cell. It's promised on the market from next year.

Asus Eee PC

Asus is back with a new version of its small-size, low-cost Eee PC. The Eee PC 900 model sports an 8.9-inch screen -- a couple of inches larger than the 7-inch display on the original computer -- and more storage space. It has a 12GB, solid-state disk drive (SSD), which is 50 percent larger than the highest-capacity drive available on current machines. Other features of the new computer include 1GB of memory, an Ethernet connection, 802.11b/g wireless LAN, a 1.3-megapixel camera, and a card reader for MMC, SD, and SDHC memory cards. About 3.5 hours of battery life is expected from the computer's four-cell battery, said Asus. The machine is due on the market in the middle of this year and will cost €399 ($613.20).

Panasonic Skype phone

The arrival of Skype phones from major consumer electronics companies like Panasonic really goes to show how far VoIP has come. Panasonic's KX-WP800 phone comes with a companion wireless LAN router that connects straight to a broadband line, so no PC is required. Better yet, the handset can be taken outside of the home and used to make and receive calls on access points that are part of the Fon network. The phone and base station both support WPA2-PSK encryption to prevent eavesdropping. It will be available from late March in Japan only and will cost ¥29,800 ($306).

Samsung monitor with subdisplay

Samsung is continuing its aggressive push of USB monitors and has shown off a new 22-inch LCD monitor with an additional 7-inch display. The SyncMaster 2263DX's subdisplay can be attached to any of the four sides of the monitor or set alongside the main screen on a desk. Samsung envisages the subdisplay being used for applications such as monitoring instant message conversations, displaying video, or keeping track of stock prices. It would mean you could run a main application full-screen and not have to juggle windows as is the case now. There's no word on price or availability but look for it soon.