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ASUS 'PadFone' to be the final name of the phone-docking tablet?
PadFone. Well, as silly as it sounds, the name sure speaks for itself. Unearthed by our friends over at Pocketnow, this USPTO trademark document was filed by ASUS merely four days ago. Such timing suggests that this could very well be the final name of the company's eccentric "pad or phone" combo, which is to be unveiled at Computex next week. As expected, no specifics are detailed in this application, but it does mention "electronic pens for computer touch screens" -- possibly hinting that the PadFone will be compatible with N-Trig's DuoSense or similar stylus technology.Alas, that's all we have for now until ASUS lifts the curtain on Monday, but let us point you to Notebook Italia's brilliant mock-up to quench your thirst for the time being -- we, too, suspect that the phone would slide onto the back of its companion tablet, hence the bump. That said, do bear in mind that this phone is already proven to be not as tacky looking, but is likely closer to a full-fledged Android handset. Anyhow, check out the artist's impressions after the break.Update: Oh hey, remember Windows SideShow? Good times.
ASUS planning quad-core Tegra 3 tablet, yet another Intel slate
The Eee Pad Transformer may be wowing tablet lovers with its unbeatable price-to-features ratio today, but ASUS looks to have its sights set on even mightier devices for the future. DigTimes reports that the Taiwanese company is hard at work on a Tegra 3 tablet -- built around the spectacular Kal-El quad-core SOC that we saw demonstrated at MWC 2011 -- as well as another one running an Intel CPU. As far as the Intel slate is concerned, we're probably looking at the tablet-centric 1.5GHz Atom Z670, which promises 1080p playback and great battery life. You'll forgive us if we reserve our excitement for the Tegra 3-powered tablet, however, which should be able to churn through quite a few more pixels than regular old 1080p. There's no indication on when ASUS intends to deliver it, but NVIDIA's roadmap for devices with the quad-core chip expects to start appearing in August. Video of that awe-inspiring MWC demo follows after the break.
ASUS works Sandy Bridge magic on thin-and-light U31E, U31SD, and U36SD
It appears that ASUS is finally ready to show its line of thin-and-light machines some Sandy Bridge love. Swedish site Technytt claims to have the exclusive scoop on a trio of laptops -- the U31SD, U31E, and U36SD -- that will find their way to retail channels in late May. The U31SD is already showing up on the ASUS site, with the option of either a Core i5 2410M or Core i3 2310M , and a choice of Intel integrated graphics or a 1GB GeForce GT 520M card. All three 13.3-inch machines will reportedly have similar specs, though the U31E will supposedly lack a discrete graphics option. The U31SD tips the scales at a perfectly portable 3.9 pounds and it's safe to assume the U36SD will match up size-wise with the svelte U36JG, which is just 0.75-inches thick and weighs 3.5 pounds. There's no official word from ASUS regarding price or availability but, while you wait to get your paws on one, feast your eyes on the U31SD in the gallery below. %Gallery-121535%
Neonode's zForce optical touchscreens hitting ASUS tablets later this year
It's been over a year since Neonode coyly said some nameless "Asian companies" would use its multitouch zForce displays in future products. Now one of them, at least, is coming out of the woodwork -- ASUS said it plans to ship a "series of products" with these optical touchscreens later this year. What does this mean for consumers? Neonode's screens don't tack any additional layers on top of the touchscreen, making this line of 5 to 13-inch displays different from more common capacitive and resistive ones. The result, Neonode says, is thinner and -- one would hope -- more responsive screens. No word on when these products will hit (nor how creative ASUS will get with its designs), but feel to dig for details in the terse press release.
Asustek chairman has "secret weapon" to compete with iPad 2
The chairman of Eee PC netbook maker Asustek Computer Jonney Shih is claiming to have a "secret weapon" to help his company compete with the iPad 2 when it is released in a few months. As reported by PCWorld, Shih recently talked with IDG News Service about the future of Eee PC netbooks, but he played coy when asked if the secret weapon was a new kind of tablet computer, saying "I think it's best not to say now. You will have to wait until the launch." As recently as August 2010 it was reported that Asustek was selling fewer netbooks because of the success of the iPad, with only 14 percent of those shoppers interested in portable computing still considering a netbook over a tablet computer. With this in mind, Shih is going to need something special to keep up with the estimated 48 million iPads to be sold in 2011. Anyone care to chime in as to what the "secret weapon" may be? A nuclear-powered netbook? A tablet computer that doubles as a dinner plate? Guess we'll just have to wait and see.
How to pronounce ASUS (video)
A-suh-ss? Ah-sue-ss? As-ses? Nope, all wrong. We've been informed by ASUS that its head honcho has recently set a new rule in an attempt to rid our frustration, so what used to be "Ah-seuss" is now "A-seuss" (or "Eh-SUS" according to Taiwanese phonetics, as pictured). The logic behind this? Apparently it's a direct chop from the pronunciation of "pegasus" -- the origin of the company's name -- which ironically seems to favor the former diction. Anyhow, let's not confuse ourselves any further and just study this lovely lady's video demo after the break.
ASUS Eee Note EA-800 priced at $230, launching in Taiwan this week
Woah, it was only last week that we finalized the naming scheme for ASUS's LCD-equipped note taker, yet today the company's announcing that it'll be available to buy this week in its native Taiwan. Even better news is the $230 price tag (NT$6,999), which makes the Eee Note quite the affordable little device. It's versatile too, thanks to a built-in camera and microphone for recording of notes and a 3.5mm headphone jack for playback. Running on Linux, the 8-inch tablet (1024 x 768 res) is said to be capable of 13.5 hours of uninterrupted use, which doesn't match the similarly monochromatic e-readers out there but is a decent compromise for the functionality on offer. Hong Kong should be the next market on its global tour, to be followed by Germany, Italy and Russia around the turn of the year and China and the US in Q1 of 2011.
ASUS Eee Note is the surprisingly sensible new name for the Eee Tablet
Remember how confusing it was back in May when ASUS introduced a bunch of tablets it called Pads and a sort of digital notepad it called a Tablet? At least some of that messy naming scheme has now been rectified thanks to the merciful renaming of the Eee Tablet to the new Eee Note EA800 moniker. It's still the same 8-inch (768 x 1024) monochrome display, offering 64 levels of gray and 256 levels of pressure sensitivity, backed by 4GB of integrated storage, a 2 megapixel camera, voice recorder, and built-in stylus silo. WiFi is of course a given, and there's a microSD slot and a 3700mAh battery somewhere inside that matte black shell as well. If things do go to plan this time, we should be seeing plenty more of the Eee Note at January's CES. We're penciling it in already.
New Acer and ASUS netbooks not coming until the middle of August, says Digitimes report
ASUS's newest netbooks may just be hitting the US market, but Digitimes is reporting that both Acer and ASUS are currently in somewhat of a holding pattern in regards to their new mini-laptops. The report says that both companies are holding off on releasing new netbooks until current inventory is depleted, and demand has built up for new models. Though the reasoning is hazy, it does seem this has something to do with holding off until Intel releases its dual core Atom N550 CPU during the third quarter as the price delta between it and the weaker N455 / N475 processors isn't much. That would actually make a lot of sense considering most -- including us -- would certainly opt for faster netbooks with the dual-core action over the same old single core Atoms we've grown tired of. Either way, this would mark somewhat of a new strategy for the companies, which have, in the past, often added new models so quickly that choosing between them could be difficult. All we can say is, we shall see.
Apple CDMA iPhone 4 rumor given new wings
With the iPad unicorn now slain, what other beast can DigiTimes shackle its rumor mongering machine to? How about Pegasus, the winged horse of Greek mythology (and inspiration for the ASUS company name) galloping forth with promises of a CDMA iPhone. According to the Taiwanese rumor rag, Pegatron (ASUStek's OEM manufacturing arm) will begin shipping a CDMA version of the iPhone 4 from its Shanghai plants to Apple in Q4. Right, just in time for the holiday shopping season and perfectly aligned with Apple's annual September iPod event... you know, should Apple want to announce a deal with Verizon.
ASUS CEO: netbooks will outsell tablets, Eee Pad to run 'Microsoft software'
ASUS CEO Jerry Shen sure is making the rounds this week talking up the company's upcoming entry into the tablet arena, but before giving up some more Eee Pad details he clarified that he doesn't anticipate tablet sales surpassing that of netbooks. The latter category is for personal computing while tablets are based on consuming content and Cloud computing. Shen said something similar when we spoke with him at CeBIT, but this time he also added that without Apple the tablet category would have been slower to ramp up. We'd say he's on the money with that one, but still he plans to launch an Eee tablet in early June at Computex. And though he mentioned there being a few versions, he revealed the "first phase will use Microsoft software." We don't know if that means the tablet will be Intel powered and run Windows 7, or pack a Tegra 2 processor and boot some version of Windows CE like we saw at CES. Regardless of what happens, we'd say Microsoft's happy to hear this all after this week's news.
Android Eee Pad to debut in June, could ship as early as July
We have more details on that impending Eee Pad for y'inz. Interested? Of course you are! Speaking at a conference in Taiwan, Asustek Computer chairman Jerry Shen recently announced that the device will get its official introduction at Computex 2010, the first week of June. With any luck, the thing will hit retail channels the third quarter of this year -- possibly as early as July, a DigiTimes' source reports. Shen said that the device is meant to be all the things that the iPad is not: expect Google Android, USB, an integrated webcam, and Flash, for starters. The aforementioned source went on to state that, after wireless provider subsidies are taken into effect, the thing should cost around $15,000-16,000 TD (or about $480-510).
ASUS CEO talks tablets, smartbooks and Windows Phone 7 Series phones
Ever wonder about the man behind the insane amount of ASUS products we cover? We do too, which is why we jumped at the chance to sit down with ASUS CEO Jerry Shen here at CeBIT. Our lengthy discussion covered just about everything you can imagine, but we've clipped some of the highlights together for you in the video below. We're particularly taken with his excitement over Windows Phone 7 and his disinterest in the smartbook category. As for that EeePad or future tablet? You'll have to watch to find out...
ASUS planning a 'killer product' for June, Eee Pad noise grows louder
ASUS CEO Jonney Shih has been speaking on the subject of the now finalized Pegatron spin-off and delivered a couple of teasing tidbits of info about the company's future direction. Naturally, most interest will be piqued by the "killer product" he has said is coming in June, but Jonney also mentions his company's intent to be "another Apple" -- only with a focus on open source -- and he specifically points out ARM and Google as a preferred hardware / software combination, while obviously not ruling out Wintel offerings where the market demands it. Taken as a whole, his words mesh perfectly with what we've heard of the Eee Pad so far, namely that it'll be powered by NVIDIA's Tegra 2 (which utilizes ARM CPUs), probably run Android, and arrive in early June. We still don't know whether that sub-$500 price will hold, but it's good to put a bit of CEO-level meat on those rumor bones anyway.
ASUS N82 and N61 join the USB 3.0 laptop party
We're kind of starting to figure out ASUS' naming scheme -- E is for Easy, and N is for eNtertainment, jolly good. In other self-evident news, Engadget Chinese is the place to go if you want the lowdown on happenings in China and its nearby states. Joining HP's Envy 15 in the USB 3.0-sporting ranks will soon be the familiar 16-inch ASUS N61 and the seemingly brand spanking new N82 14-incher. See the galleries below for the eye candy, but keep it here for specs. Core i5 and i7 CPUs will populate the role of orchestrator inside, while ATI and NVIDIA discrete graphics options will also be made available when these make their imminent Taiwan debut. In live demonstrations, the one USB 3.0 port (yes, you only get one) was shown to be three times as fast as USB 2.0, so not quite reaching its theoretical superiority, but hardly an unwelcome improvement. Let's hope for quick global distribution following the Taiwanese launch, which is slated for the middle of this month.%Gallery-84581%%Gallery-84582%
ASUS considering closing divisions responsible for LCDs, Eee Stick?
ASUS has seen its share of restructuring over the years, and it looks like it could be about to go through another fairly significant shake-up -- at least if some of the leads DigiTimes has picked up actually pan out. The first (and seemingly more likely) of those is that the company is supposedly considering shutting down its division that builds "opto-mechatronics products" like the Eee Stick, which itself was formed from the remnants of the company's old optical drive department, and has reportedly already seen its size shrink from one hundred team members to just twenty. Potentially even bigger than that, however, is talk that ASUS might possibly be thinking about getting out of the LCD business. Not surprisingly, however, there's even less hard evidence for that -- just some word that the division is facing "fierce competition" that's inflicting some losses. For its part, ASUS is flatly denying that it's considering any such shutdowns -- and don't worry about the Eee PC, it seems that ASUS is actually increasing its investment in that division to develop more Pine Trail-based netbooks.
Acer, Asustek working on custom 3G phones for China?
If the sources that Digitimes is reporting are correct, then China can expect to see a few more customized, 3G phones in the coming year. The sources are saying that both Acer and Asustek are planning models for 2010, and that Acer is working with China Mobile and China Unicom to produce TD-SCDMA and WCDMA models while Asustek is reportedly set to release a China-specific Garmin-Asus branded handset for both carriers in 2010 as well. Now, keep in mind of course that none of this has been confirmed by either company as of yet, but the move certainly wouldn't surprise us, either.
ASUS Eee PC 1201N review
Six months ago netbooks all had 10-inch displays, fairly cramped keyboards, and couldn't manage to play a 1080p video even if they trained with the best of marathoners. The world's a lot different now: the King of Pop has passed away, the unemployment rate has dropped, and netbook manufacturers have realized 11- and 12-inch displays provide a more comfortable experience -- especially when paired with more powerful hardware that adds multimedia prowess. We'll stop there with the Netbook 101, but looking at the past is necessary in realizing what a game-changer the ASUS Eee PC 1201N really is. The 1201N's dual-core Intel Atom processor, NVIDIA Ion graphics, Windows 7 Home Premium, and 2GB of RAM make it the most powerful netbook to ever grace the purchase pages of Amazon. But does the $500 machine fix all the issues and frustrations we've ever had with netbooks when put to the test? Can it make us forget about cramped keyboards, strained eyes and sluggish video performance? Find out in our full review. %Gallery-80538%
ASUS says EeeBots are coming, inevitably running Android OS
We've seen humanoid bots ranging from the cute to the downright insane with none of them ever coming close to commercial viability, but stick an Eee in front of their name and all bets are off. ASUS, the company that started the seemingly unlikely netbook revolution (sorry, FIC), is about to apply its golden touch to the field of consumer-friendly robotics. Intended to serve as an educational tool for young children to interact with, the EeeBot will be driven by a modified version of the aptly titled Android OS and ASUS is said to be hard at work developing a content and services ecosystem around the hardware. Teased technologies include voice, video and navigation abilities, but we'll have to wait a while before we see any of it since production won't begin for another two years.
Asustek to spin off motherboard and GPU business under Pegatron brand
Asustek has informed the Taiwanese Stock Exchange that it will completely spin off its motherboard and graphics card subsidiary, Pegatron, in July 2010. The split is driven by the parent company's desire to continue its competition against the likes of HP and Dell under the ASUS brandname, while still collecting ODM and motherboard orders from those same companies for its manufacturing business. For its part, the newly self-governing Pegatron will be expected to advance the ASRock brand up from its current entry-level position and into the mainstream. We don't know how well that's going to go down, but at least the mobo market will be primed to embrace a new name after the heartbreak of losing old stalwarts like Abit and now ASUS. [Thanks, Mack S]
