Asus has used the UX name before for its line of ultraportable notebooks, but a new generation of these smaller laptops was unveiled at Computex Taipei 2011 last week. The new Asus UX series takes a direct stab at the same market occupied by the MacBook Air, being remarkably thin and portable.

There are some key differences, of course, aside from the Windows operating system. Asus uses what it calls “spun” aluminum for this unibody design and it takes on a distinctly different look from its Apple competitor. You’ll also notice that it is powered by more powerful Intel Core i3/i5/i7 processors, while still retaining relatively low power consumption. We’re also hearing that at least one of the SKUs will have super-speedy SATA 6Gb/s solid state drives in tow.

If you like thin, you’ll like how the Asus UX is just 17mm at its thickest point toward the back, tapering down to just 3mm in the front. It’s also a mere 1.1kg in weight, making it one of the lightest subcompacts on the market. Rounding out the specs are USB 3.0, micro-HDMI, and mini-DisplayPort.

At this point, Asus hasn’t announced anything in terms of pricing and availability. That said, it should be in the same price range (if not slightly lower) than equivalent MacBook Air models. Check out the video on MegaTechNews for a closer look at this hot little computer.

Some people may argue that you should have different domains for your different web properties. This would have to separate the brands and give each of them their own identity. On the other hand, other people may argue that keeping the same domain for different ventures may have some desirable crossover effects.

One such example of this is Artist in the Garden, a site run by Wynn Nielsen. The site actually serves as a portal to three distinctly different businesses, all of which appear to be owned and operated by Nielsen. The first of these is the Island Thyme Bed and Breakfast in the Bluewater community of Bowen Island. The property is going on sale in early 2012, but a new B&B is being opened “on the Bluffs.”

The second part of the portal goes to the Artist in the Garden Design service. Nielsen will work with clients to create custom gardens, using a “naturalistic, personal and intimate approach.” Gardens are more than just decorations; they are a means of self-expression. Last but certainly not least is for Wynn Nielsen writing and photography. The photography is just a hobby at this point, but it’s still very much worth exploring.

Do you use BlueFur to host your websites? Let us know and we can feature you in a future blog post. Send an email message to blogfeature@bluefur.com with your name, website URL, and a brief description of what you’d like to see highlighted.

Are you looking for a snazzy new WordPress theme, but you still want to have a relatively clean look to your site? One possible solution is the Lefty WordPress Theme by AJ Clarke.

As its name implies, the theme is designed to have a left-aligned sidebar, along with one main content column that takes up the remaining two-thirds of the horizontal real estate. Some of the key features include the built-in post thumbnail function, about the author sections, “tweet” and “like” buttons for posts, and custom fonts via Google Fonts.

Easily one of the biggest features that will immediately catch your eye, however, is the NivoSlider. This automatically cycles through the main images associated with posts within a category that you define. You can also choose from a number of different transitions for these images too. The resulting images at the top of the site are naturally links back to their respective posts.

To get the best sense of what to expect from Lefty WordPress Theme, check out the live demo. You can then go to WPExplorer to download the theme. It comes with a free GPL license.

Every week, we take a look at some great blog posts on sites other than our own. Here is this week’s stroll through the blogosphere.

The Urban Muse opens up a discussion about whether or not you have a smartphone. It’s a great tool, to be sure, but is having a smartphone really necessary to be successful as a small business owner? Or is having a regular cell phone sufficient? Is it expected that you can check your e-mail at any minute of the day?

Gretchen Rubin has some great advice for people who are always late arriving at where they need to be. Check out her seven tips to be on time more often. Don’t try to get “one last thing” done before heading out! This is one of the most common causes of tardiness, as we always underestimate the time of that one more thing.

Jennifer Mattern offers an interesting proposition for freelancers who are overwhelmed with client work: try a working vacation. As far as your clients are involved, you’re on vacation, but you spend this time to work on your own projects.

Raul Pacheco takes us on a brief tour of the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre. Ironically enough, though, it’s not in Squamish; it’s actually closer to the Upper Village in Whistler. There are some great artifacts in there from both the Squamish Nation and Lil’wat Nation.

Justin Germino, who you may know better as Dragon Blogger, is a pretty big fan of Jack Black. As such, it should come as little surprise that his review of Kung Fu Panda 2 leans toward the positive. Have you watched this sequel yet? What did you think?

Reading that post title, you might be inclined to believe that I’m going to write about how you should follow the example of other industry leaders in your niche. If you’re in the fast food business, you should keep a close eye on how McDonald’s is marketing itself. There may be some value there, but that’s not the topic of today’s post.

Instead, it’s an entirely different concept. What we find that is many people like to follow. If they see that everyone around them is buying certain items and acting a certain way, they may be inclined to do the same. Popularity breeds more popularity. It really is a snowball effect and you should try take advantage of it.

You may want to implement this strategy in a product launch or press release. An endorsement from a powerful figure in your industry can prove to be invaluable. Let’s say that you want to provide a healthy alternative to fast food. Getting Morgan Spurlock, the documentary maker behind Super Size Me, to provide a quote for your press release, praising your product offering, can really help to push its visibility.

Similarly, service providers can (with their permission) publicly display a list of past clients, possibly with real testimonials and endorsements. This is particularly effective when you have a well-known brand attached to the client. If you provide A/V equipment to Paramount Pictures, that could be the way in to attracting other movie studios.

One of the reasons why you may have decided to start a WordPress blog is that you want to make money blogging. Creating some great original content is going to be your best strategy, but you also want to optimize how you display your ads.

One WordPress plugin that you may consider implementing is Adsense Float. It is designed to work with Google Adsense, but you could just as easily replace the code with any other advertising network. The developer claims that it increased his ad revenue “more than 10 times.”

In short, the plugin creates a “floating” ad on your site. When someone scrolls further down the page, the ad still remains in the same spot. This greatly increases ad visibility, which could also be why the developer experienced significant increases in click-thru rate and overall revenue. If the ad is obstructing site content, the visitor can click the red X to close the ad.

The best way to understand this plugin is to see it in action. You can see it on Ahsan.pk, which is the site of Adsense Float’s developer. You can also download the plugin from that page.