An Asus spokesman has confirmed that we should see the new Intel Atom based Eee 900 in the UK in June (although like TechRadar who reported this, we think it’ll be a little later that stock is freely available). This will feature the 8.9″ screen and other specs we covered here.
More details of Asus’ statements here at TechRadar.
LG are planning to produce some new low cost 16:9 screens suitable for the new range of low cost laptops, such as the Asus Eee and the Everex Cloudbook. They are planning a standard 16:10 8.9″ 1024×600 screen in August, followed by a 16:9 10.1″ 1024×576 screen in October. These screens are (according to industry sources) likely to be picked up by Acer and HP for their laptops, with a possibility Asus will adopt them too. Either way, the market and range of low cost lightweight laptops is set to continue during 2008 and into 2009.
In other news, it’s looking definite that we will see the Intel Atom chips in the Asus Eee 900 from around June time, which will hopefully improve battery life.
Some content courtesy Engadget.
Here’s a picture of the new Asus Eee PC 900. This will have the 8.9″ screen (1024×600 resolution), more memory, more disk space (4Gb flash onboard, with either an additional 8Gb SSD for XP and 16Gb SSD for Linux), and a formal choice of OS. The price will be from £329 (for the Linux version). The weight remains below 1Kg. Best of all, these should be available now (although whether you can actually purchase one today seems up for debate).
As well as their competitors getting their devices out, Asus has now started shipping the Windows based Eee PC in the US, and it appears will be releasing the 8.9″ screen version earlier that first predicted to help ensure they maintain their market share. This will have to ship without the new Intel Atom chips, as these will not be ready in time, Engadget reports. We should be seeing both versions in the UK at some point this year.
Along with a range of other manufacturers, HP have launched a mini notebook, called the Mini. This has the following specs:
Full specs are available here on the HP US Website.
No information on UK pricing or availability, although we don’t suspect it’ll be long before it’s available.
It appears the current Asus Eee Laptop PC should be available with Windows XP within the next two weeks in the US. No date on UK availability yet though, although we’ll keep you informed once we hear something. Those wanting XP may be better to wait for the larger 8.9″ version though.
It appears the new 8.9″ Asus Eee PC may also be coming with a couple of additional goodies. Rumours are that it will come with a touchscreen. We mentioned the touchscreen before, and equally have discussed Asus’ statement saying they weren’t planning it. However, fresh rumours are saying it is likely, and the inclusion of GPS too is interesting. Whether any GPS / mapping software will also ship with the laptop is unknown, nor is it known if this new unit will also have Bluetooth, probably one of the other major hardware omissions so far in the range.
More news as and when we have it confirmed.
Tech Digest have reviewed (via a video review) the $78 Brando External DVD Drive, which Brando only claim that it works with Windows. As you’ll see from their review, it works fine with the Asus Eee PC running Linux, although they don’t mention whether or not the Writer features of the drive work.
Asus have stated that they believe the XP version of the Eee PC will outsell the current Linux version by 1.5 times, despite costing roughly twice as much. We’re not so sure, at that price (at least in the UK), they are competing against a whole range of conventional laptops which offer better screens (and higher screen resolution); it seems to us that one of the main driving factors of why they are selling is the price. No news on when the Windows XP version of the current device is due in the UK.
Story courtesy of Engadget.
At CeBIT this week, Asus have shown off the new Eee PC 900, which features the 1024 * 600 8.9″ screen we expected it to, features 1GB of RAM, up to 12GB of disk space, and should come in both Linux and Windows XP flavours. This will, of course, put the price up compared to the current model (which should continue in production), but may well suit some people’s requirements. It should be available in the “middle of 2008″.
If you haven’t got an Asus Eee PC, an Everex Cloudbook, and weren’t impressed by the upcoming Elonex One, then maybe this HP UMPC is for you, it’s due for launch in April, and has a 8.9″ 1366 x 766 (WXGA) display, ExpressCard/54 slot, Wireless LAN, nearly full-sized QWERTY (95% of full), integrated webcam, and optional SSD drive, and should run Vista or Linux. However, it’s likely to be a fair bit more expensive than the other 3 PCs.
[Via Engadget]
The Times have covered the Elonex One, which is a £99 laptop due for formal announcement at The Education Show in Birmingham at the end of February. The One will have 1Gb of memory, WiFi, and run Linux (just like the twice as expensive Eee PC and the thrice as expensive Everex Cloudbook), a 7″ screen, although it has no CD drive. It should weigh aound a kilo (2.2 pounds). Pre-installed software will include web browser, email client, mp3 software, and it will feature access to ONEunion, which seems to be some form of content sharing system. Although being targetted at schools (hence the choice of launch venue), it should also be available for general sale.
Alternatively (and unlike the Eee PC), a second version for £120 will feature Bluetooth and 2Gb of memory instead.
Story from Times Online.
It’s amazing what the user community will come up with. Asus Eee PC users have created a version of Fedora that is compatible with the Eee PC. If you are more used to Fedora than Ubuntu and other Debian based systems, then this may well be for you.
More details at Red Hat Magazine [Via EeeUser.com]
If you are a little fed up adding, editing and removing items from the Asus Launcher on your Eee PC, then the recently announced AsusLauncher Advanced Editor maybe for you. It gives you a greater level of control over the “Start Menu”.
More information in the EeeUser Forums [Via EeeUser]
jkkmobile have published a long and detailed comparison between the Eee PC and the Everex Cloudbook (using the UK Packard Bell Easynote variant). The article is well worth a read, and is available here.
Brando have released a number of accessories for the Asus Eee PC range. These include a car charger (pictured above), and a Travel Charger (with a range of different power plugs).
In an article discussing Asus’ plans to expand the Eee brand name to other devices (device PCs, all in one PCs, and monitors), they also mention that Asus have stated there is not sufficient demand for a touchscreen Eee PC.
If you still think it’s a worthwhile mod, we covered one touchscreen option here (the Linitx.com 7″ touchscreen), in the second half of the article, although their stocks are limited for the next couple of weeks due to high demand from Asus modders.
For those of you not brave enough to mod your Asus Eee PC with a touchscreen, the current rumours are that Asus will be including touchscreen options in new models later in the year. We’ve already mentioned the plans to expand the display size range, and it appears the 8.9″ model will feature a touchscreen (it may be optional).
If you are thinking about adding your own touchscreen, LinITX sell a 7″ Touchscreen kit that have featured in the EeeUser Forums. Better than that, as it’s just over £30, it (along with any other order at LinITX over £30) qualifies for free shipping (UK only).
The picture above is possibly just a mockup of the device, but Asus plan to announce the M930 at CeBIT later this year in March. The device will run Windows Mobile 6 (Standard, ie no Touchscreen), has a QVGA exterior screen, a 400 x 240 interior display (not a match for the E90’s screen), with a 2 megapixel camera, WiFi, Bluetooth, microSD card slot, 256MB of ROM and 64MB RAM. These specs (smaller screen, no GPS etc.) mean this is likely to be cheaper than the E90 and may take some customers away from Nokia. However, with Nokia and HTC trying to include GPS receivers in all their high spec equipment, this device may not get as many customers as it could.
Picture and Story courtesy of Engadget.
