We first caught sight of ASUS' totally weird
Eee Keyboard -- a full PC with an Intel Atom N270 CPU built in -- way back at
CES in January. Well, our friends at
Engadget Chinese have laid hands on it at Computex, and it's looking a bit different than what we expected... and a whole lot more awesome. The 5-inch, 800 x 480 pixel touchscreen display/trackpad on the right side of the keyboard, is, as it turns out, running a standalone version of XP, and serves as the shortcut screen to most of the included software -- including Skype, MSN, and music playback controls. Our friends found the touchscreen to work extremely well, and though we don't know anything rock solid about pricing or availability yet (we hear it will launch by the
end of June, we do know that it will come in two flavors -- wired and and UWB wireless -- with the wireless version housing a battery which gets about two hours of use before needing a charge. There's a video (in Chinese) showing this badboy off after the break. Hit the read link for a full gallery of photos.
posted June 4th 2009 7:54PM
what fun!
was it really necessary to have all those *fun suffixes? jeez!
I wonder if it's any fun o_0
我爱！！！！
我也爱!!!
¿ʇɐɥʍ ʇıɐʍ
This is what they said: I love, and I also love... according to Google ;-)
http://translate.google.com/translate_t?hl=en#zh-CN|en|%E6%88%91%E4%B9%9F%E7%88%B1!!!
IB4DFUN
Looks fun
+1 Exactly what I think most of us were thinking.
I wonder if this could be used as a cheap, compact server machine? I suppose till we hear about price, "cheap" may or may not be the correct term...
I'm hoping it's cheap to use it exactly as you described. Toss that thing in the entertainment center, put Linux on it and use it as a music/video server that you can administer remotely or directly.
It's gonna be pretty much USELESS as an entertainment server if it's using the usual Intel chipset, which it is. Nice keyboard though!
Imagine if you could just rip out that screen part. Would be one hell of a WinXP MID.
Now that would be fun!
fun fun fun
Sweet, I think we're living in the future now.
And here we have the first product of a new ASUS series, meet the "EeeKeyboard Fun", of the "Eee Fun" Series!.
* "EeeFun Keyboard"
lol
Does it have HDMI out?
Engadget needs to hire some better Chinese Engadget employees. The photo gallery they have is quite insufficient. There are no pictures at all of the hardware, just the software shortcuts (which makes the thing look like an iPod or something)
Can we edit engadget comments?
Yea, it looks like it does. Take a look at the video at 54secs. There seems to be an HDMI right next to the VGA. I would hope they had HDMI if they want to plug it into a giant TV.
not only are the images bad, but the guy that was in the video was like he was completely clueless about computers
From my understanding (this is coming from an ABC), the smaller screen doesn't actually work as the main screen. It only has the shortcuts. For example, in the video, they clicked on IE and it showed up on the big monitor. I don't think you can use the small screen on its own.
Why do Chinese people like to repeat things so much? The last thing the guy says is, '800x6...800x480, 800x480, 800x480...thank you."
First time was he said it wrong, it wasn't 600, the second was someone correcting him, the third was him saying it, and the fourth was just him repeating it. He said it an extra 1 time...and it had nothing to do with him being Chinese.
They do it just to irritate guys like you.
...why does he have to ask the guy over and over where the music is located? he started by saying its all a computer... and then why does he have to explain that this is a home-brew version of XP?
OMG the guy is like REALLY???
For a second there I thought that was ASUSs take on an iPod Touch on a metal table. Look at that deliciously thin bezel. MMmmm
Let me just sum it up the first ee keyboard they show is wireless. It required you to connect the an adapter( the black L shape thingy) to the eee keyboard and a receiver to the monitor. Must icon are shortcuts so pc is require. It sound like it only will come with ssd
Neat proof-of-concept but it's useless from a practical standpoint if you're going to run a normal OS on it.
You're supposed to connect it to a monitor/HDTV. It has Wireless HDMI...or something.
So now I need two operating systems?
This is extremily beastly
They need to get rid of that mouse pointer from the screen, and add a biometric fingerprint reader. Win.
I would definatly buy this IF...
you could also use the keyboard to control another machine at the same time, kinda like have a built in switch so this could be your usb keyboard for your main computer, but then be able to do some more cool stuff
Just to clear up what the video says: You see small subsections at the bottom. According to the presenter, you can use the last 2 subsections on the small touchscreen itself, ie EeeFun and Settings section. EeeFun section includes IE, MSN and Skype which he emphasises, you can use on the small touchscreen without the big HDMI LCD that you hook the keyboard up onto. However, given that you have a big screen in front of you, it's unlikely you will wanna use the touchscreen for IE. MSN and Skype IMs are a nice touch.
Also, the part about the music is with regards to another gadget that the interviewer is thinking of, where the music is located outside the machine. Here, the presenter emphasises that the machine has 32GB space, allowing for music to be stored onboard like any PCs. Most likely SSD if it's 32GB.
Would definitely love to have this at home as my main desktop in the living room in front of a big LCD. Then again, if Asus can fit that keyboard with a Ion mainboard, that would be a must have. 1080p graphics and HD screen, yummmmmmmm *drool*
On engadget China, you don't see everyone hating each other in the comments
eee useless and eee stupid = eee fuuuun =)
The side screen is gimicky and mostly useless. It'll also drive the cost of the thing up, so what the hell? My balls itch.
Well, it seems like it could be used to go on IM networks and play music without actually plugging a screen in, which seems quite handy.
Price?
Now I want to see someone mod an ION based netbook into a Commodore 64 case!
.. Did he say "Windows Happy"?
It's great... unless your left handed :(
Asus needs to remember that this is 2009, and MSN Messenger is now Windows Live Messenger (or WLM). How hard is this for people to get?
IE fun, someone must be confused
It looks like a blatant ripoff of Apple's keyboards.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiclet_keyboard
Please read.
this thing will kill the start menu!!!
They should have two versions.
EeeFun: Ion without side-screen
EeeFunner: Ion with side-screen
But knowing Asus the'll probably have
EeeFun: GMA without sidescreen
EeeFun-HE: GMA with sidescreen
Eee SoMuchFun Seashell: Ion without sidescreen
Eee SoMuchFun Seashell H: Ion with sidescreen and bigger harddrive and at this point, the price is approaching a macbook,
and then of course WeNotSureItsEee Fun HE : with extended battery and a wider screen
太牛逼了！