On the back of the nuvifone G60 announcement (the linux smartphone, first announced roughly a year ago), Garmin-Asus have announced a 2nd nuvifone, the M20.  Now, this phone is a Windows Mobile 6.1 device, so it looks like it’s come more from the Asus end of this joint venture, but running a version of Garmin’s Mobile XT.  The specs include a 2.8″ touchscreen display, HSDPA up to 7.2Mbps, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, support for real-time traffic and weather (we’re waiting for confirmation whether these will be available in the UK), 4 or 8GB of storage, and Garmin’s Ciao! service, which is their social networking application.

More details and prices will be revealed at a later date, although we may see more detail next week at MWC.

Garmin and Asus have announced a strategic alliance, which will design, manufacture and distribute co-branded location-centric mobile phones under the Garmin-Asus nüvifone brand.  They are planning to launch a number of handsets this year and the Garmin-Asus nüvifone G60 (previously Garmin nüvifone) will be the first to be formally launched in two weeks time at MWC (Mobile World Congress), the trade show in Barcelona.

Garmin hope this model will be shipping in the first half of 2009, and have stated it will offer location-based services such as the Garmin navigation software, connected local search and Ciao, “a social networking application that bridges the gap between multiple location based social networks and integrates them seamlessly into one device”, which certainly sounds interesting.

We’ve covered the Asus Eee PC range many times before, but above is a variant of the 901 with built in 3G support.  Orange will supply this to you for free in exchange for a £25 per month 24 month contract.  The Eee PC 901 comes with Windows, 16Gb of Flash Memory, with (according to Orange) five hours of battery life, an integrated webcam, and features an 8.9″ compact design, weighing in at just 1.1kg.  It’s available in Black or Pink.

It comes with the “Internet Everywhere” tariff, which includes 3GB of data per month (well done to Orange for not using the “unlimited” word) and 100 texts direct from the laptop.

This should be available from the Orange Shop soon, although it was not yet available at the time of writing.

Maplin have reduced the price of the Maplin minibook between now and 24th December. Instead of the RRP of £169.99, it’s now just £139.99. Maplin have offered discounts on this small netbook before, but this is the largest discount we’re aware of. Also available from that webpage is a downloadable Wi-Fi patch for the device to deal with wireless connectivity problems. From that webpage there is also a link to CnM Lifestyle, from where you can download system restore tools, a few extra applications and games, and even a driver for the Huawei E220 USB Modem for 3G access.

This may not be as feature rich as the Asus Eee PC units, but price wise it certainly may serve as a device for kids to have internet access.

Here’s an interesting device from Asus.  The Asus AiGuru SV1 is a dedicated videophone for Skype.  It features a 800 x 600 display, built in mic and speaker (although there are sockets for both to plug in your own), and it can connect directly to the network via Wi-Fi or Ethernet.  It doesn’t need a PC to be turned on, and even features a limited battery to allow you to move it around.

It should be available in October, although exact UK pricing is not yet available.

In other Skype news, the Unlimited Europe deal has been expanded again, and now additional covers Moscow and St. Petersburg, and still only costs €3.95+VAT per month.  As well as adding these to the Unlimited World deal, it has been expanded even further to also cover Buenos Aires and Córdoba (Argentina) within the €8.95+VAT per month cost.

As well as offering low price laptops, the Chief Exec of Asustek has stated that Asus intend to provide 20GB of free online storage to all users. They are also hoping to offer free downloads of music, movies and educational or gaming software for a limited time (which maybe around 3 months from purchase).

Picture courtesy of linitx.com.

After the Asus Eee PC, here comes Maplin with their own equivalent.  The Maplin minibook has a quite impressive spec:

• Small on price and very small on size – ultra compact and just 650g!
• Ideal for web surfing, email, word processing and spreadsheets
• A perfect travel or business companion with built in Wi-Fi technology…be truly mobile
• 7-inch TFT widescreen screen and stylish piano black finish casing
• Easy to use Linux operating system
• 3 x USB 2.0 ports
• Stereo speakers and built-in microphone
• Touch mouse pad
• Email and Office (word processor and spreadsheet program)
• PDF viewer
• SD / SDHC Card reader
• 10/100Mbps Ethernet port
• 2GB SSD (soild state disk) shock proof storage
• Expand the storage with USB or SD Flash Memory (not external hard drives)
• Supports up to 4GB SD cards and 4GB USB sticks
• Multi-theme display (Child or Adult mode)
• DDR2 128MB memory
• AC adaptor / charger
• Complete with Xip office applications
• 12 month warranty

Even better, it’s on special offer during August at £169.99, and will be £219.99 from 3rd September.

The latest rumours are that Asus are planning to provide longer lasting batteries for their Eee PC range to allow “All day usage”. Now, “All day” means different things to different people, and we suspect it means some different again to marketing folk, but this bodes well for the Eee range. No word as to whether these will only be available for new devices, or whether they will be available for existing devices.

Of course, if you can’t wait, there are already third party extended batteries available…

Story and picture courtesy of Eeeuser.com.

Well, it appears there are shortages of the Linux variant of the Asus Eee 901 in the UK at present. What’s caused this you might ask…? Despite the rumours that it’s Microsoft putting pressure on Asus, Asus have revealed it’s caused by Intel not being able to supply enough Atom chips, which is limiting supply. Why is it only affecting the Linux variant? Simply these are more popular, and hence selling faster!

In other Asus news, Asus have revealed the pricing of all of the new variants; the 901 is £299 (20Gb SSD Linux or 12Gb SSD Windows XP variants), the 904 (basically a 900 in the 1000 case) is £269 (80Gb HDD Windows XP), and the 1000H is £349 (80Gb HDD Windows XP) or £369 (40Gb SSD Linux).

Finally, Asus have produced this chart (above) which compares the different units.

Some content courtesy of Register Hardware and Mobile Computer Magazine.

We’ve already covered the Asus Eee Box PC a couple of times before, including listing out the specs of the device. However, Asus have now confirmed the UK price.  It looks like the UK price will be £199, which will include the device with the 80Gb Hard Disk, Windows XP, a keyboard and mouse, but no monitor.  For that price, we expect it’ll be the 1Gb RAM version, and probably without the optional Bluetooth module.

Well, with the 900, 901 and 1000H recently launched, here are rumours of the 903, 904 and 905 devices too! However, it’s most likely that not all these model numbers are real, or due for immediate release. The best information we have seen is that the 904 will be released in the next few weeks, for £269 (compared to the 901 at £299). The device has the keyboard size from the 1000H, but with the smaller 8.9″ screen of the 900 series, and will feature a hard disk (ie no SSD storage). Of course, whether this will replace the 901, or run alongside it isn’t clear yet, neither is the exact release date.

Story courtesy of Tech Digest, picture courtesy of Eee PC News.

Clove Technology, a well established company who used to specialise in all things Psion, have released for sale two extended batteries for the Asus Eee range, and Eeeuser.com (who also supplied the above picture) have a full review of them.  For just over £40(inc. VAT) for the larger extended battery, Eeeuser gained a lot of extra time using the device.  The battery does stick out a little at the back, but we think that will be fine for most users.  Head over and read their review.

According to Eeeuser.com (who also supplied the above picture), it appears the Asus Eee 900 battery replacement scheme is on hold, with no information from Asus as to why, or for how long.

The Asus Eee 901 and 1000 PCs are due to ship in the UK next month, and should be on sale on July 1st. These both feature the Intel Atom chip. We covered the 901 in some detail here, but we’ve attached the Computex Asus specification cards for both for you to compare them…

Eee 900 picture courtesy of Eeeuser.com.

It looks like we missed this one last week; whilst at Computex, Asus also launched a USB handwriting touchpad, which can recognise Chinese and English characters, numbers, and symbols.  It connects via USB, and is designed for the Asus Eee PCs, matching the more common white colour scheme.

Story courtesy of AVING.net, picture courtesy of linitx.com.

At Computex 2008, Asus have launched another interesting device; a SatNav GPS unit with a HUD! This looks very interesting, and something that we like the idea of; providing next turn information including the distance to the junction on the HUD.

The display looks nice and clear, and certainly a good indication of what we could be driving around with in the next few years. The picture below shows the actual HUD unit providing the picture being projected.

There’s no information on whether or not Asus will be providing European mapping, or whether they plan to release the device in Europe, or the UK, but we certainly hope it becomes available.

As with all our Computex stories, pictures and information are courtesy of linitx.com.

Nick from linitx.com has been busy, but has managed to provide us with a large number of pictures from the Asus stand at Computex.

For more information, read the rest of the article…

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There’s been a large raft of competitors to the Asus Eee PC. Here we have a competitor to their new Eee Box PC, which has only just launched. The MSI version has the following spec:

• Intel Atom 230 (1.6Ghz) processor
• 1GB DDR2 533 memory
• Gigabit Ethernet
• 160GB SATA Hard Disk
• DVD-combo drive (as opposed to no optical drive at all on the Asus)

It’s marked by MSI as quiet, low energy, and is also listed as certified for Vista, and will be available in a range of colours.

Pictures courtesy of linitx.com.

In other Asus news, it looks like the price of the 900 may fall to allow the 901 to be sold alongside it. Although this price information is not confirmed, what has been confirmed is a battery upgrade option for 900 users. Compared to the 5800mAh Asus supply elsewhere, the UK Eee 900 ships with a 4400mAh battery. For those that find this too little (and apparently Asus claims to have had only 5 complaints about battery life), you can send your battery to Asus along with £11.75 (£10+VAT), and they will send you by return the 5800mAh version. An alternative option is that Asus are making a firmware update for the 900 available, which will increase battery life by approximately 30 minutes. Asus do make the point that although the UK spec Eee 900 came with a lower capacity battery, it does ship with 2 years warranty (as opposed to most other countries’ 1 year warranty).

This battery offer is available from June 10th, with more information here.

Picture courtesy of Eeeuser.com.

Although we’re waiting for the Computex show to formally open and the news to filter back to the UK, this is the best guess at the spec of the new Asus Eee Box PC they are launching today:

• 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor
• a choice of 80, 120, 160, and 250GB hard drives
• GMA 950 integrated graphics set
• Gigabit wired ethernet, plus WiFi
• Optional Bluetooth
• Multicard reader
• a choice of 512MB, 1GB, or 2GB of DDR2 RAM
• Azalia ALC888 audio chip
• Two USB 2.0 ports, DVI out and a headphone jack
• No CD / DVD optical drive
• a choice of Windows XP or Linux

We should have confirmation of the exact spec soon.