Asus shows off new lineup of Eee PC add-ons

You can't blame these guys for trying to milk the Eee PC, and Asus is doing just that with its new smorgasbord of Eee PC accessories. Most interesting is the Ai Guru U1 VoIP phone. It plugs in with USB, and in addition to letting you make calls to all your broke-ass friends, you can also use it to browse and listen to music stored on the Eee PC. Next up is the Eee AP, which acts as a 802.11g wireless access point and little else -- think AirPort Express minus the sexy. The USB "3.5G HSDPA Card" is just as straightforward, with GSM900 / 1800 / 1900 and WCDMA2100 / 1900 / 850, and download speeds up to 3.6Mbps. The slim DVD-RW drive and the totally generic headsets aren't spicing things up either, which you can probably tell is par for the course here. There's no word on price or availability for any of these yet, but we're guessing none of them will break the bank -- they sure don't look it.

Gallery: Asus shows off new lineup of Eee PC add-ons

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[El Itouch Lover @ Mar 2nd 2008 3:08PM]

c'mon asus

this looks like the stuff i find in the bargain bin at fries

fail

[Patriks7 @ Mar 2nd 2008 3:24PM]

dude chill
this thing is for a 400$ laptop
its not for the 1800$ macbook air where design is before usability..
most of those things look quite usable there.. like the 3.5G card..

[Reader @ Mar 2nd 2008 3:40PM]

http://www.engadget.com/photos/asus-shows-off-new-lineup-of-eee-pc-add-ons/671893/

That is the ugliest access point I've ever seen. Dunno who they hired to design these.

[Sam @ Mar 2nd 2008 4:31PM]

It looks like every other computer accessory designed in Taiwan, obviously you haven't experience how inexpensive electronics can get locally in that area. more bang for your buck if you can get past complaining about how it looks

[NG @ Mar 2nd 2008 4:43PM]

@ Patriks7

I had my eyes on the 3.5G card too

[Gay trend addicted Apple turd @ Mar 2nd 2008 10:57PM]

mmm...yes I know, its hard for Apple zealot to accept you can have a useful gadget doing everything you need without a fruit logo and at a fraction of the price.

Go back where you come from, you gay trend addicted Apple turd!

(sorry, could not resist insulting you!)

[austin @ Mar 2nd 2008 3:25PM]

The antenna on the eee ap looks like a mini... Nevermind

[ijyt @ Mar 2nd 2008 3:30PM]

Grow up.

[Reader @ Mar 2nd 2008 3:56PM]

Obviously he was going to say an observatory, don't jump to conclusions.

[jdeuel @ Mar 2nd 2008 3:38PM]

are you guys going to cry the whole show?

[kojo87 @ Mar 2nd 2008 3:42PM]

that DVD drive looks sweet. i'll have to wait for the price though. as for the mice, unless they can connect without a USB dongle (highly unlikely) im just gonna get a logitech or razer proclick mobile. that would look sexy with my black Eee

[paul-engadget @ Mar 2nd 2008 3:49PM]

I wouldn't want to listen to the speaker in that handset for anything other than speech - the frequency response is way too narrow! However, provided they're cheap, I think these accessories would probably be good value. The eee really needs internal bluetooth2.0 with A2DP though to be a proper media player.

[Teetdogs @ Mar 2nd 2008 4:29PM]

Except for the fact that its not a media player at all, its an ultra mobile pc

[ericisshort @ Mar 2nd 2008 3:49PM]

Dear engadget,
This entire article is drowning in misplaced cynicism which seems to be the general theme to more and more of your site lately -- so much so that I think its time to find some new help.

Sincerely,
A concerned fan

[Leoedin @ Mar 2nd 2008 5:04PM]

+1

[Juaquin @ Mar 3rd 2008 1:09AM]

Leoedin
Most of us just click the "+" button to indicate that we enjoyed the post, rather than taking the time to comment and thus elongating the page with a post consisting of two whole characters.

[zed @ Mar 2nd 2008 3:58PM]

that dvd drive looks great

[YoMomma @ Mar 2nd 2008 4:06PM]

can you play crysis on the Eee PC on high details?

[ty.cornwall @ Mar 2nd 2008 4:19PM]

Is that the new way of saying will it play doom or will it blend... Cause its actually less funny.. and thats hard to do. Normally I would say anything... but I see about half your posts are relating to Doom, Crisis or blending.

http://www.engadget.com/profile/1794946/

[asphixiated @ Mar 2nd 2008 4:28PM]

Can any computer play crysis at high details?!

*cue the 500 posts of people bragging about thier Q6600+8800GTX rigs

[Reader @ Mar 2nd 2008 6:30PM]

It's scary how many of his posts are tired jokes... Maybe he's an anti-funny particle?

[Spike @ Mar 2nd 2008 4:14PM]

I love how it says "Set yourself free from the Eee PC". Like it's got people trapped!

[Wolfticket @ Mar 2nd 2008 4:39PM]

I wanna dock.. A dock that charges a second battery preferably.

[x20mar @ Mar 2nd 2008 5:10PM]

I'm surprised at the fact there is no hello kitty accessories on display

[Cocky Today @ Mar 2nd 2008 10:57PM]

its taiwan, not japan!

[Cocky Today @ Mar 2nd 2008 10:57PM]

its taiwan, not japan!

[Mark @ Mar 2nd 2008 5:13PM]

I'm curious - is the external DVD burner USB-bus powered only? I thought that was not possible? (Given everyone's comments about how the Mac Air has a "special" USB port that supplies its external superdrive with more juice).

[perfectionist @ Mar 2nd 2008 7:37PM]

The EEE has 3 USB ports, so connecting the drive to 2 USB ports would provide enough power.

[turn_self_off @ Mar 2nd 2008 6:08PM]

oh i do belive its possible, but the speed will be limited...

[JohnTitor @ Mar 2nd 2008 5:14PM]

geez imagine calling people in a cafe, people will think you got a phone from the 1950s

[shoeshine @ Mar 2nd 2008 5:15PM]

I wonder how long it'll take for somebody to figure out how to fit that 3.5 g adapter into the EEE. The tv tuner would be neat to mod into the system too.

[Tired_ @ Mar 2nd 2008 5:28PM]

Did they ship the old lineup yet?

[turn_self_off @ Mar 2nd 2008 6:07PM]

all this and no bluetooth dongle?

ok, so that 3G "card" takes care of the biggest reason for having bluetooth, but still...

also, its kinda funny to see how they list the features of that 3G card and then see (win2000/xp/vista only) under each of those "phone" features.

now plug in both the voip phone handset and the 3G card and you get what? the world biggest mobile phone? or was there one that was bigger over in japan?

[Randavance @ Mar 2nd 2008 7:27PM]

I just like the fact that someone is doing off the bat Linux compatibility made items.

[Wolfticket @ Mar 2nd 2008 9:05PM]

Ditto. I knew there was something about that TV stick struck me as odd.

[Baxter Madu @ Mar 2nd 2008 8:21PM]

Err Asus, perhaps you can start selling the high capacity 6 cell battery you announced months ago, or maybe you can actually stock the regular capacity battery in your own friggin' store?

http://estore.asus.com/shop/category.asp?catid=567

[Cocky Today @ Mar 2nd 2008 10:57PM]

wonder if the tv tuner will work in japan... we got a different signal here.

[Juaquin @ Mar 3rd 2008 1:18AM]

Depending on the price the DVD drive could be a nice addition.

[The Land of Smeg @ Mar 3rd 2008 6:04AM]

The DVD Burner looks absolutely fantastic. I can't wait to find out when it is available and how much it will cost. It will be versatile for all of those computer odd-jobs

[BatteryAcid @ Mar 3rd 2008 6:27PM]

These remind me of the low quality 4ft 3.5mm audio cable i saw at Circuit City over the weekend for $40 in the clearance bin. lol

[Chris Lees @ Mar 4th 2008 7:49AM]

Asphixiated: You need more than a Q6600 to play Crysis on full settings. A QX6850 or maybe dual Xeon 5345s would be able to handle it, as long as you had a 768mb 8800GTX graphics card and an X-Fi sound card. And you had lots of services turned off, and 4 gigs of RAM, and your webcam unplugged...

People who paid only a small amount of money for their laptops probably don't want to pay a lot for a stylish Wifi AP, so you can't blame Asus for skimping on industrial designers. Remember, it's also about a cheap look being attractive to people who don't want to pay very much. It's why "Home Brand" products at the supermarket have such basic ugly labels.

[Ian @ Mar 30th 2008 3:35PM]

loksod