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Live from ASUS's CES 2011 press event


It's the first presser of CES 2011, and we've done our doctor recommended pre-liveblog stretches. ASUS is obviously going to show off some tablets and new laptops, but who knows what other wild stuff they have in store for us. Perhaps the second coming of Waveface? Follow along after the break to find out!


5:56PM And we're out. We'll see if we can manage to track down these devices.


5:54PM It's over all too quickly. "Thank you, goodbye!"


5:54PM Ooh, this is good: a family of four I.R.I.S. users playing virtual cards on a top-down projection table.


5:53PM It seems to be one magical device, that starts out as your alarm clock, but with a stretchable screen. It mounts as a watch, it works as a phone, it stretched into a tablet. It's magic!


5:52PM Now it's time for a vision of the future: Inspirational Research for Immersive Space. I.R.I.S.


5:52PM Doesn't look like we're getting an explanation of DIY 2.0. Supposedly it helps out the "home CIO," with big dollop of "web 2.0" and "cloud computing" and "WaveFace." Makes sense? No. But we're done trying to figure it out.


5:50PM We're hanging by a thread, Jonney. "This is what I'd like to share about my personal vision of the cloud computing era."


5:50PM That leads us to "DIY 2.0."



5:49PM Another concept: "I think each home may need a home CIO."


5:48PM We understood this slide better before Jonney started explaining it. Basically, it seems like WaveFace is going to allow for "the best cloud computing devices." Allowing you to "contribute to the web 2.0."


5:47PM We're not really sure what he's getting at, to be honest. "We put the silicon brain into the face."


5:47PM "I heard people say that a tablet device without a good input device is only OK for casual computing." But what we're forgetting, apparently, is web 2.0. "Still uses the input from the human, but stores it in a common brain, for real time information, real time everything."




5:45PM One of these things is not like the others! Obviously the Slate doesn't have to wait for Honeycomb. The Slate starts at $999, Transformer starts at $399, Slider, $499, and MeMO at $499.



5:44PM The Slate is out in January, the Transformer is April, the Slider is May, and the MeMO is June.


5:43PM "No difference, same MyWave interface." He's pulled up the email app, which seems to be heavily custom. "Excuse my typing, I have to type with one finger." Jonney: "why don't you put it flat on the table?" This is not scripted! Gary doesn't seem to be the world's greatest typist. Finally the email is finished and sent.





5:41PM Again, the slide looks more Honeycomb-esque than the device he's holding. Gary's back: "it's starting to feel like I live up here."


5:41PM "Even with the keyboard it weighs less than 2 pounds, and is less than two thirds of an inch thick." Powered bye the same Tegra 2 chip and the "Android Honeycomb system." Well, that's official then.








5:40PM Next! The Eee Pad Slider. It's similar to the Transformer, but it has a minimal keyboard that is always attached to the tablet, and slides under it when not in use.


5:39PM And it closes up like a laptop. "And you can carry it off with you, which I'm going to do now."


5:38PM While still playing the "video," Gary docked the tablet into the keyboard, pulled up the browser, and typed a quick Facebook update.



5:38PM MyZine, MyLibrary, MyGallery custom ASUS apps. MyGallery pulls up WaveShare, and he sets up a 1080p video stream... unfortunately, it seems to be only pushing audio, no video, to the external monitor.







5:36PM The UI Gary is showing looks different than the slide... probably running 2.3.


5:36PM Gary is back. "What we're going to show right now is the initial interface." ASUS skin is called "MyWave."


5:35PM Has an NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor, which Jonney claims is 2x the iPad A4's speed.


5:34PM 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 IPS screen, 0.51-inches thick (thinner than the iPad).


5:34PM It's running an odd version of Android, with a "dock" of sorts along the bottom. The notifications bar looks Honeycomb-esque, but it's hard to tell.





5:33PM Next up: the Eee Pad Transformer. "Smart Mobility Meets capable computing. He's holding up the tablet, which has a keyboard attached. The keyboard acts as a dock, and the tablet part can pull right off.







5:32PM Applause. Really doesn't look bad... for a Windows 7 Tablet.


5:31PM "That's it!"


5:31PM He sent it over to Jonney, who is pulling the photo up on a tablet of his own. He's pulling the photo into PowerPoint and adding some notes of his own.


5:31PM Gary is showing off some Windows 7 handwriting action to email the picture to Jonney. "My kids spend too much money." Strike that. "My kids spend too much of *my* money."




5:30PM Now we're getting a demo. 1080p playback in VLC. He's leaving it running in the background, just for show. Meanwhile he's pulling up Photoshop and running some filters on a 60MB photo. Using primarily a capacitive stylus for control.






5:27PM Just in case you missed it, the Eee Pad MeMO runs Android, with a dual-core Qualcomm processor.



5:27PM It has a 12.1-inch 1280 x 800 IPS LCD, Core i5-470UM processor, 64GB SSD, 4GB of RAM. That does seem to be pretty powerful!





5:26PM Next up the Eee Slate EP121, "the world's most powerful tablet." It runs Windows 7. "No compromise. It's a PC, but it's not very PC."




5:24PM "OK, let's do something with the stylus." He's pulled out a stylus and is doodling. "I'm not a very good painter." The stylus has pressure sensitivity, Jonney signs his name and it looks pretty slick. He repeats: "I'm not a very good painter, but our Eee Pad MeMO is pretty awesome."



5:23PM He's holding it up for photographers, we're getting a nice, long, loving look at the svelte tablet.




5:22PM Announcing the Eee Pad MeMO!


5:22PM ASUS Pro B Series gets a quick shoutout as well. So that's innovation in products, now for the "main thing" for today: "innovation in the cloud!"



5:21PM A quick overview of the Republic of Gamers line -- we're still rehashing 2010.




5:19PM The "Sabertooth" has "Thermal Armor." That's apparently a good thing!


5:19PM This is probably the most excited we've ever seen anybody talk up a motherboard in a presser.




5:18PM Showing a graph of innovation and choice, unfortunately the choice bar is cut off. Apple is high innovation / low choice, Acer is low innovation high choice. Guess which one ASUS is?



5:17PM "Another important ingredient in our success formula: choice"


5:17PM ASUS is number three in portable PC sales, vastly more year-over-year growth than the competition. Number one in motherboards -- sold over 420 million motherboards in ASUS history.




5:16PM Uh-oh, a little bit of projection problems. "Other than showing you a lot of our innovation, we're also very proud of that, but we're rated as the most reliable portable PC." Citing a Rescuecom score and Squaretrade score. The latter represents a 3-year return rate.



5:14PM ASUS won 3,398 awards in 2010. Lots of eco-marks.



5:14PM "Going green has become the inevitable 'megatrent,' and we're the first PC maker to receive the carbon footprint award."


5:13PM "Inspiring Innovation, Persistent Perfection."


5:12PM "2010 was an amazing year for ASUS"


5:12PM Chairman Jonney Shih is out! Oops, a little trip. But he's still upright.


5:11PM The smooth jazz is beginning to take on an ominous tone...


5:08PM We're starting in three minutes! It's cellphone-silence time.




4:49PM We're still getting situated in the beautiful / expansive / ridiculous Aria resort & casino.