Live from the Intel / Sprint / Asus XOHM WiMax press event

By Evan Blass

posted January 7th 2008 4:59PM

Live Blog

1:59PM PST - Here we are at the XOHM press event, being jointly held by Intel, Asus, and of course, Sprint. We're expecting to hear about some specific deployment plans, and hopefully learn about some devices that will run on Sprint's 4G network. Stay tuned for all the details once this latest presser gets started.

2.01PM - Chairman of ASUS, Jonney Shih takes the stage. Invites us to join a new world of mobile internet. As usual, going through the company's accomplishments and sales figures; takeaway: ASUS is pretty happy with its international standing. They plan to be one of the top 5 notebook manufacturers in 3 years, and the top three by 2013.

Keep reading after the break for the rest of the action.

2:09PM - ASUS claims to have won 2508 distinguished awards in 2007, although we didn't see any Engadget Awards on their slide. New slide: surprise, surprise, the internet is a "great driver of growth." Ah, here comes the Web 2.0 buzzwords -- got em all here, YouTube, Facebook, Picasa, you know the deal.

2:12PM - Now we're going throught the history of internet connectivity, leading up to 802.16, or WiMax. Nothing new here: WiMax is fast, long-range, and basically pretty great.

2.15PM - Ah, the good stuff -- EeePC. Claims to be the company's most successful product ever. Obviously, then, a WiMax-enabled EeePC is going to be a big deal for ASUS.

2:19PM - Hey! They're doing a demo of Facebook video on the Eee over WiMax, and guess who the star is? Our old buddy Kevin Tofel from JK on the Run!

2:20PM - Jonny takes off, Sean Maloney of Intel steps up. His title is a little too long to repeat here. Lots of back-patting going on, clearly Intel has love for ASUS.

2:23PM - Sean is going through some of the philosophy behind the development of WiMax, which basically boils down to unhappiness with current 3G networks.

2:25PM - Another demo, Call of Duty 4 on an ASUS Lamborghini notebook, over WiMax. Ha, it's live, and people are cussing onscreen. Gameplay looks smooth, though, should have the low latency that gamers crave.

2:27PM - Now we have Atish Gude, Sprint VP for mobile broadband operations. First thing: this is the year WiMax finally becomes a reality. Let's hope so! Compares WiMax with other tech like HD and WiFi in terms of adoption rates and timing -- relatively, WiMax is being commercialized faster than most. Hardware manufacturers have the products ready, just waiting on networks -- growing the ecosystem.

2:32PM - More love for ASUS, now from Sprint. Clearly, ASUS footed the bill for this conference room.

2:34PM - Sprint, obviously, is excited about XOHM. Promises more announcements to come, but not from him. Wow, this looks like it's gonna be a quick one. Jonny gets back on stage, gives props to Sprint, following his earlier props for Sean Maloney. Now we're back to actual info, talking about triple-play internet.

2:37PM - Finally, ASUS makes its WiMax commitment: will roll out WiMax this year, continue to add SKUs in future years. Perhaps most exciting, entry-level pricing for WiMax-ready notebooks will be $999 -- that's not the price of the WiMax Eee, although Jonny promises an attractive MSRP.

2:40PM - We've been promised some new devices by an ASUS product manager. Let's see what they have to show. Here's the 15-inch M50 which we recently heard about, the one sporting up to 1TB of storage using dual Hitachi Drives. This machine also boasts Altec Lansing sound with built-in subwoofer.

2:42PM - Ok, here we have the R50A UMPC -- WiMax-ready, 5.6-inch screen, built-in GPS, dual webcams, and digital TV tuner. Quite the package.

2:43PM - New EeePCs planned, 7-, 8-, and 8.9-inches, different colors. That's it, though, no pics, specs, or anything else we'd really want to see.

2:49PM - Question and answer session, time for us to split! Stick around for some hands-on video.