ASUS wants you to know that women and children are strong enough for an Eee PC
[Thanks, Lost Melodies]
Posts with tag asus
ASUS has been running around demoing Eee PCs with built-in WiMAX for a while now, but a new report in the always-salacious DigiTimes says that we won't be able to get our hands on similarly-equipped units until after 2008 because the company feels the WiMAX market won't reach "maturity." Fair enough -- and ASUS is still planning on shipping the wireless tech in its larger laptops -- but something tells us that WiMAX isn't going to mature if popular devices aren't available with the tech built-in. Something about a chicken and an egg, you know?
June's shaping up to be a pretty special month 'round here. In addition to whatever Apple's got up its sleeve and all the new gear set to announce at Computex, Asus will be launching its Atom-based Eee PC 901 just like we heard. June 3rd is the date for "a price below" $650. We assume that means $649.99. DigiTimes' reliable market channel sources claim the 8.9-inch 901 will also feature Bluetooth for the first time (you know, without a hack) while the rest of the tech specs remain the same. That's $250 more than the 10-inch, Atom-based, MSI Wind running Linux and launching on the same day. Oh ASUS, what have you done?
Not like this is the first time we've seen a finalized product look noticeably worse than the concept preceding it, but it's a shame ASUS' Eee PC desktop won't be nearly as pretty as we were led to believe. According to Chile Hardware, the picture you see there to the side is a bona fide Eee Box B202, which weighs in at less than one kilogram (2.2 pounds) and packs an Intel Atom processor / 945 chipset, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, an 80GB hard drive and a Linux-based operating system. No clue how legitimate those specifications are, but hopefully the unit itself looks way sexier from the other side.
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment.

The US smartphone market may continue to be dominated by mobile platforms from Apple, Microsoft, and RIM, but Linux has been creeping into ever more mobile devices in the last few years. Some Motorola RAZR 2 models have donned a Tux, Palm is looking to Linux to drive its next-generation consumer smartphones, and Android's backers hope to spread it to an even wider array of handsets. Linux is also driving many avant garde connected consumer electronics devices such as the Chumby, Nokia N810, Amazon Kindle, Dash Express, and whatever the fertile minds tinkering with Bug Labs' modules are envisioning,. Even the remote control that houses the user interface of Logitech's Squeezebox Duet is a Linux computer.
However, none of these products is intended for as flexible a range of uses as a notebook PC, where Linux is being tested as a tool to achieve lower price points on a new generation of low-cost but style-conscious ultraportables. ASUS set the pace with Xandros on the Eee PC, and HP has tapped Novell SuSE Linux for the 2133 Mini-Note, but whereas the Eee's positioning has been somewhat of a loose hybrid between an adult OLPC and the Nintendo Wii's culture of global inclusion, the HP Mini-Note has been strongly focused on reckless, immature students while acknowledging potential for senior executives that have been known to share their temperament.
After a fire at LG Chem, li-on batteries have been hard to come by for companies like Asus and Quanta. But fear not, laptop lovers, because it looks like the battery plant is getting things back in order. According to Sung Fu-hsang at Simplo -- a battery manufacturer that relies on LG Chem -- the li-on supply will return to normal by Q3 2008. So how bad is the current shortage? Asus CEO Jerry Shen noted that his company could have sold a lot more than 5 million Eee PCs were it not for the problem.







Other Weblogs Inc. Network blogs you might be interested in: