The dream of owning a keyboard embedded with a full-blown PC running XP on an Atom N270 processor and 5-inch, 800 x 480 pixel touchscreen display/trackpad is nearly upon us. A dream, quite honestly, nobody had prior to seeing the reveal of the 2-pound
Eee Keyboard prototype at CES in January.
Engadget Chinese has it on authority that this oddball all-in-one will ship in June with specs that should include a 32GB SSD, 802.11n, Bluetooth, HDMI-out, stereo speakers and mic as we saw during our
hands-on with the Eee Keyboard back in March. With any luck, ASUS will also be embedding some form of
ultra-wideband HDMI as promised in January alongside one of those
UWB monitor prototypes they had on display at CeBIT. One thing's for sure: all will be revealed at Computex in Taipei in just a few weeks. Can you wait?
posted May 14th 2009 4:21AM
First comment ( i hope ) OMG, this looks too cool. Do want. Anyone know how much it will go for?
I don't know how much it will be, but I dow know you'll be downranked into oblivion.
Considering the 32gb SSD, this thing probably won't be cheap. It would be nice if it was around the same price as a standard 8.9" netbook... but I might be dreaming.
32GB SSDs aren't *that* expensive (I don't think they'll be using a top-of-the-line model). But add in that nice touchscreen, plus the networking stuff... yeah, probably not cheap.
Maybe it'll launch at a similar price to the Amiga 500? (That's $600...)
Fans of the Commodore 64 should be pleased.
It reminded me of my Amiga 1200.
I wanna get one and install a workbench emulator and relive my misspent youth!
Yeah that 800x480 touchscreen, draft-n wireless, 32GB, I bet it costs too much for the toy that it is, which is a bloody shame.
On the other hand, when you compare it to that new logitech G keyboard that costs $200 this might be a steal, it's all relative.
I wonder if you can use it in an alternative mode as a regular keyboard with touchscreen, for if that atom just doesn't cut it, it would be amusing to have a keyboard that you can unplug from your gaming rig to suddenly have a portable computer.
MY old commodore was the first thing to pop into my head when I heard about the eee keyboard. Now if only someone modded an old 1541 with a usb cd drive.. now that would be kool!! I don't have any use for it currently..but I'm still gonna order it.
that would really suck if this thing fell off the table...
I don't care what it looks like, Sony, Mac, Amiga or the bloody pope's toilet sink. With a style like that and a full working system to plug into a home system/monitor? I'll happily wait!
Typing error in the amendment itself,
"Because it is first used SONY"
the function of the screen position in use is bad!
Looks good with a heavy heart, and you ecstasy
Looks really nice.
To bad the touchscreen is on the wrong side.
No, too bad you're wrong-handed
It looks really awkward, with the screen being on the right....is that the primary monitor or is meant to be plugged into a real monitor. I'm so confused by this product.
It is a computer thats meant to be plugged into a monitor, the screen is just a secondary information touchscreen where you can use it to load programs have shortcuts and stuff.
It's like Optimus, but with a touchscreen and a nice bonus: a PC.
I hate EEE...flooding the market with all kinds of the same stuff...but, this, i'd buy.
funny, i was just reading this on engadget chinese after the x-slim review and wondering when you would post this
This thing is too far out to be running XP,
it should be running some crazy linux distro...
BOOYAH!
Then install one.
When people make these comments, its as if they are talking about embedded devices with OS's hard wired to the hardware.
Kill off XP and put a nice Linux distro on it. Nothing at all is stopping you.
Linux does not do well in the public space due to its limited "applications that I know of" support. The general public has a hard time finding applications for Linux, since all they know is Windows versions of applications.
But since those with knowledge know Linux versions of most applications exist, just install Linux on it. XP is a much better option for the general public since they know XP.
thats not the point though ruben,
why should we have to pay for XP if we dont want it?
And also, do you see a DVD drive?
(I know usb boot yadda yadda)
I've seen photos of it previously with the XP desktop squeezed onto that tiny screen.
You don't have to pay for XP at all: just don't buy the thing if you don't like it
As for the DVD drive, being this is comparable to a netbook, it is understandable it doesnt have one, myself, I a fine with it not having one, will keep the price down a little bit, if I need something on there, I will use one of my 2 laptops or my HP mini and a thumbdrive.
It is a netbook without full size screen.
I think this is really cool but why wouldn't you just buy a computer and a get wireless keyboard? It would be more powerful and don't have to worry about wireless/wire hdmi unless you want to.
BUT - this still is a really cool idea and i like the 5" touchscreen.
Well, no one is really going to use this as their main computer, it'll just be a secondary one. It'll probably be plugged into the home entertainment system; for those times when you wanna do some small computing tasks, but don't wanna move from the living room to turn on your electricity-sucking gaming pc. It also can be used as a computer for a guestroom or just plain guests, which exactly what I intend to use it for. Heh, my computer doesn't see any downtime when my IM addicted english cousins pop over for a visit every year, ergo this is a perfect solution to that.
should swap out the SSD and load in a normal SATA 2.5" drive, to make it cheaper :)
SSD does not mean that it's in the same form factor as a normal drive--chances are, it'll be soldered on, or even more likely, integrated as a mini PCI-e card.
commodore 64 revival, where's the slot for cartridge games ? where's the tape player ? :-p
Toss in a banana sharpener and I'm on board.
They're either going to have to have a lot of wireless jiggerypokery, or go with the apple-style umbilical used on their monitors to make this thing look any good on a desk- I sure hope they get it right.
luatsuhien
Bless you.
Opportunity to say EEEboard has been missed.
Dammit, kEEEboard. Opportunity has been missed twice.
Rofl
+1 for making fun of yourself.
I dont get what this is even for... I mean like do you use it alone with nothing? cuz that would be wierd typing and then having to look all the way to right... or do you use this with an external moniter? or use it with a whole diff computer? if so wth is the little 5" screen for...
Acts as a touchpad, but can also be used as a secondary display. I have the logitech G15 and you'd be surprised how useful just a 160x43 LCD can be
Maybe If they build one witouth the lame fingertipmagnet-don't-know-what-is-for-buy-hey-it's-cool screen it will cost 40% less and I'll begin to like it
How about protoprice?
there aren't many things that would make me happier than to come home, take the Asus keyboard (minus the stupid screen please!) out of the shelf, plug into my TV and run a ZX Spectrum emulator. I would party like it's 1983.
This is going to be awesome for studio musicians and artists who want to have a more touchy/feely style of interface for a lot of their work .. I imagine loading up the LCD trackpad with buttons and sliders and knobs from various synthesizer plugins and audio processing applications, and sitting back, jamming away.
Also, imagine what its going to be like to just move the Photoshop toolbar onto that little screen and select from there .. very handy for artists and so on.
This is an *artists* product, plain and simple. If you can't work out what the LCD touchpad is for, you're probably not a very creative person, using creative tools. I definitely think this thing is going to be very useful in a lot of studio situations .. solves a lot of problems with incompatible dedicated hardware for DAW's and so on - just drag the items you want to use from the keyboard onto the trackpad display, and quit worrying about it ..
Count me in for one when it ships! I've wanted something like this for my studio for years ..
Also, imagine what its going to be like to run Photoshop on an Atom N270 with 1gb of ram. Definitely very handy for artists. No we can take coffee break after every single stroke/filter we add to our hi-res creations.
Indeed. Artists aren't what this is for, it's not powerful enough.
LOL for musicians? I would like to see this thing explode when you hit play on Cubase with 16 tracks of VST instruments running...
Since the audio business is dominated by Macs, not bloody likely.
Um...maybe MS Paint, but I can't imagine creating anything worthwhile in Photoshop or Illustrator. "Smudge Tool this....wait, did I smudge to far, I'm not sure. Ok, I'll just wait...(five minutes later) Dammit I smudged to far. Ctrl+Z. Ok, sure, I'll wait some more while it's undoing. Wow, this thing is really efficient and Handy with Photoshop" Boss: "Josh, your project is taking to long. We have deadlines." "No, boss, it's ok. I got this really handy Keyboard computer and it is just...A COMPLETE NOVELTY."
it's a nice concept, but i'm not sure how well it would sell. I can see a place for it in my system, but my system is rather strange, so I won't go into it too much.
The portability would be great, but other than that i cant see it being much better than a conventional all-in-one which has the guts behind the monitor like an imac. think about it, the imac only has one extra thing: a mouse, which would you want to buy for this Eee anyway.
keeeeeepc!
Can i just use this as a normal keyboard? it looks cool to pair together with my laptop...
"The dream of owning a keyboard embedded with a full-blown PC"
... You mean a laptop?
I'm ordering 10 when they come in for our work.
I want Android on this.
Ironically this exact same post posted in the original Engadget Chinese article and was "highly ranked"...
I guess what this guy meant with "chocolate" is the "chicklet keyboard".
Will you be able to upgrade the RAM? This concept seems very interesting but I think it needs to be slightly more powerful, perhaps the next generation of ATOMs.
If they can cram a NVIDIA GTX 295 with a mini Display Port in that thing, I'll buy one. :-D
Dude that is one doped keyboard! WoW!~
RT
www.privacy-resources.us.tc
Please, a little decency and keep the ads away from the comments, thanks.
And that goes for all the thousands of forums you spam that link.
humm.... if they put a Nvidia Ion chip inside of it, like a fusion of the eee keyboard with the acer aspire revo, that would be.. teh awesomest!
Given these things are supposed to have HDMI and/or wireless HDMI then I'm hoping it has something HD capable inside.
Engadget, please put this up on your Recession Antidote offering, pleeeeeeaaaase!!!
Does it run on batteries ...or is it stuck to the wall?
that's insanely cool.
can i run a different computer and switch back and forth from keyboard computer to actual computer? that way if in a game i don't need to exit the game just to look up a guide/information.
Make one with a foldable keyboard and video out and I'm in.
Just for my peace of mind, can someone explain to me why you would buy this? What application would you use it for? And lastly, from my point of view wouldnt you guys agree that a having a standard size keyboard is way more important than screen size.
Someone needs to get fired for bring this to market.
doesnt laptops have the same feature, keyboard with embedded PC. better yet a monitor attached too.
chord = ouchness. plus i've been known to damage my keyboard in the past, rendering it useless. yes, it would no longer be a keyboard only. which i would realize and most definitely take in consideration whilst handling. although, i am a fan keepin the cpu outta my peripherals so as i can abuse them on accident without buying a new computer every time i do so. in conclusion, i prefer to keep expensive things away from my misty palms and flailing meat digits.
mostly.
Hmm - If it had IR it would be blood perfect for a HTPC setup -
then you could use the touchpad as a universal remote as well as the mouse.
Oh well
This would come in handy to have around for my berthing on the carrier I live on. This would be awesome when the Nvidia Ion comes out.