Taiwanese industry and rumor site DigiTimes is reporting (without citing a source) that ASUS expects to deliver "whole-day" battery options to its Eee PC range of netbooks. In addition, ASUS also plans to offer some level of Internet storage, apparently beyond the 20GB they already offer to new Eee PC 901 and 1000 owners -- a move that we hope will become a trend amongst netbook providers in order to offset the miniscule flash drives found inside the lowest of the low-cost, mini laptops. Both changes are expected before the year is up. Incredibly, ASUS also plans to push out new software and hardware upgrades every month to "fill gaps in the netbook market." Funny, we didn't think any gaps remained in this over-saturated niche.

Okay, so there's clearly a tube that dispenses marshmallows to the ASUS marketing department whenever it comes up with another product to slap the Eee brand on, because this just getting silly. In addition to the countless Eee laptops, Eee Box desktop, Eee monitor, Eee televisions, and other Eee-branded crap, we're hearing the company is working on a line of accessories, including an external hard drive, optical drive, and WWAN card. None of this is official quite yet, but knowing ASUS, it'll be out in 30 different varieties by the end of the month.

ASUS must think that best way to make the Eee PC stand out in the overflowing netbook market is to crank out minor, uninteresting variants of the same models, because otherwise we're at a total loss to explain today's appearance of the Eee PC 1000HD. Yeah, that's the 1000HD, not the 1000H, which we've already seen. Ridiculous. Even more ridiculous is that it's basically the same machine as the Pentium M-based Eee 904, only with the 1000's 10-inch screen. Right. So now not only are there an endless variety of Eee models, the model numbers themselves don't indicate anything logical: the Eee 901 is faster than the 904, which uses the basic case of the 1000 but shares a processor with the 900 and 1000HD -- but not the 1000 or 1000H, which are Atom-based like the 901. Hmm, Easy to learn, Easy to work, Easy to play -- not easy to buy might be your big problem here, ASUS.

[Via Mobile Stylus]

It's only been on sale for six days, but the pricetag on the Eee PC 1000H just dropped by $100, down to $549. We're not sure if early buyers will get that extra Benny back, but it certainly can't hurt to ask -- and ASUS, while you're at it, how about taking a little off the 901 as well?

[Via Mobile Stylus; thanks to everyone who sent this in]

As if it wasn't already clear that ASUS has descended into self-parody, the company's Chinese website has now revealed yet another Eee PC model which, by our estimation, brings the total number of variations to about on par with the number of Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavors. This latest model, dubbed the Eee PC 900 30G, boasts a 30GB hard drive in place of the usual 12GB or 20GB SSD drive, and is apparently set to be available in both black and white Linux versions, and a black-only Windows XP model. No word on a price or release date just yet, but it seems safe to bet that it'll come in under the flash-based models. Given the saturation of Eee PCs 'round these parts, it also seems entirely possible that these'll only be available in China, although we certainly wouldn't put anything past ASUS at this point.

[Via Electronista]

Another day, another Eee PC available for sale. This time it's the Atom-based, hard drive-toting 10-inch Eee PC 1000H, now in stock at Newegg and patiently awaiting your $649. Sure, you could buy a real laptop for that, but then you wouldn't be part of the least exclusive, most quickly diluted brand imaginable, would you?

As if we needed any further developments to muddy the Eee PC waters, it seems that there's a curious lack of Linux-based Eee PC 901s available at stores in the UK at the moment, and ASUS is apparently laying the blame squarely at Intel, not Microsoft. As Register Hardware points out, that word comes after some speculation that Microsoft may have pressured ASUS to push the Windows XP-based Eee PCs more heavily, but an ASUS spokesperson insists that the company produces Linux and XP-based systems in equal amounts. The spokesperson adds, however, that Intel hasn't been able to supply enough Atom processors to allow ASUS to keep up its pace, which seems to suggest that the Linux-based 901s are harder to find simply because they're sold out. It looks like folks in the UK won't have to wait too much longer to get their Linux-fueled netbook fix, however, with some unspecified suppliers now pointing to increased availability in late July.

If you've been tearing your hair out, pacing wildly around the room, and sweating bullets over the availability of the ASUS Eee PC 1000 (and we know you have), you'll be pleased to know that the grown-up sized version of the company's mini-laptop is now available for pre-order on Amazon. The site doesn't provide specific release dates for the systems (the $699.99, 40GB SSD equipped 1000, and the $649.99, 80GB HDD equipped 1000H), though we're figuring it can't be too long till these models hit shipping centers. In the meantime, we recommend going for long jogs.

Read - ASUS Eee PC 1000 40G
Read - ASUS Eee PC 1000H 80G

[Via I4UNews]

Welcome back to reality ASUS. The Taiwanese giant just announced that it shipped 1.7 million Eee PCs in the "first half of 2008," 300,000 less than had been forecasted. Of course, this could be explained in any number of ways including a downturn in the global economy and those consumers who skipped past the Eee PC 900 in favor of the Atom-based Eee PC 901. With Atom processors in short supply and ASUS diluting the Eee brand as much as they have, well, we wouldn't be surprised to see these failed expectations become the expectation moving forward; especially for companies like Acer who seem to be betting the farm on these new netbook-class mini-laptops.

We still think ASUS should cut the number of available Eee laptops down to something a little more reasonable, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen anytime soon -- the company just made with UK pricing on the 901, 904, and 1000. The Atom-based 901 will come in at £299 ($592), while the slower 904 (which is essentially a 900 in the 1000's body) will set you back £269 ($533). The Atom-based 10-inch 1000 itself will run £349 ($691) for an 80GB hard drive version or £369 ($731) for a 40GB SSD edition. We'd say the sweet spot here remains the 901 if you can handle the smaller keyboard, but it's not like you're hurting for netbook options.

[Via Slashdot]

Alright, raise your hand if the deluge of minor new Eee PC models like yesterday's random launch of a 16GB 900 has you totally befuddled. Yeah, that's what we thought -- and apparently what ASUS UK thinks, too, because a new chart listing all the various Eee configurations is up on its site. One problem though: it's also confusing as hell. Just the first two rows are an insane mish-mash of model numbers and pre-loaded operating systems, and we're loving the unlabeled row at the bottom that marks all the Linux machines as "XP Compatible." Thanks, ASUS. All that said, however, it does look like the 901 still the Eee to buy -- so maybe it's time to start trimming this ridiculous list down, guys.

ASUS's newest, Atom-based 900 series Eee PCs may be fast approaching availability, but it looks like the company is still doing its best to get as many plain old Celeron-based Eee PC 900s out the door as possible, with it now offering up a $100 rebate on the already low-priced laptop. That brings the price down to $449, which is certainly a decent enough bargain compared to the $599 the updated Eee PC 901 will supposedly be going for -- Amazon price mix-ups notwithstanding. From the looks of it, both Amazon and ZaReason are offering in the rebate (good 'til July 31th) at the moment, but we'd expect the offer to start showing up at other retailers before too long as well.

We know pretty much everything about Asus' Atom-powered Eee Box -- we even have a bevvy of pretty pictures -- but as of yet we didn't know exactly how much the little bugger was going to cost. Fret not, for we now can tell you that the Wii-like computer will cost £199 ($392) -- including keyboard and mouse -- and will pack an 80GB HDD and a DVI out. It will come with Windows XP Home pre-installed while those two USB ports are confirmed. No word yet on stateside pricing and release date, but we'll keep our eyes open.

[Thanks, Joe]

You know it's getting bad when even Amazon can't tell all the flavors of the Eee PC apart -- a listing for an "Eee PC 900" with 16GB of flash and an Atom processor just went live on the etailer's site with a pre-order price of $399. Those are actually the specs and tasty price of the long-awaited Eee 901, so we're going to say that ASUS's endless stream of minor new Eee models has everyone confused, and that the 901 looks like it's ready to drop -- is this the Eee that'll finally make you take the plunge?

Update: NewEgg just went live with the 12GB XP-based 901 for $599.999999. Shipping today. Also, Amazon is now listing XP and Linux-based 901s for the same price although still as pre-orders. Our advice: stay away from the so-called Atom-based Eee PC 900 until Amazon clarifies the configuration.

[Via I4U, thanks Carl]