Attack of the Network Minnows: Netbooks conquer the market

Hanover, Germany - When the CeBIT rolled out in March 2008, nobody had an answer to the small yet affordable Asus EeePC. The market has rushed to fill the gap in the interim, however, with several new devices seeking to make headway in the netbook market. Devices in this class are designed to have dimensions comparable to a sheet of paper and weigh just one kilogramme, yet cost a fraction of their similarly dimensioned cousins, the subnotebook. Even so, buyers must make clear sacrifices in terms of options and performance. German hardware maker Brunen IT follows closely in the footsteps of the original EeePC with its One A110, a unit that featured a 7 inch display and the Linux operating system. Offered at the eye-popping price of 199 dollars, the device is over 100 dollars cheaper than its predecessor, with 512 Megabytes (MB) of RAM and 2 Gigabytes (GB) of internal memory in the place of a hard drive. The One has a VIA C7 M chip at its heart, while the Asus is based on Intel's Celeron M processor. The device is intended for surfing, communication, and simple office tasks. The series' thin construction allows for a long battery life. Regardless of which operating system is used, the A100 minis achieve roughly five hours of running time when used for non-intensive computing and with low monitor brightness, a test by Hanover-based c't magazine showed. The A150 comes delivered with 60 GB of hard drive space, 1 GB RAM, and Windows XP Home for 289 dollars. Packard Bell is still offering its 7 inch EasyNote XS netbook, including Bluetooth on board. Users who just can't handle the tiny 7 inch monitor and its low resolution should consider a 9 inch model. The current EeePC 900 from Asus (399 dollars) provides not only a bigger display, but also an improved touchpad, Windows XP Home and 12 GB of internal storage space. The restraints have been removed from the Celeron M. which now runs up to its full 900 Megahertz (MHz). A 901 model is already being designed to use an energy-saving Intel Atom processor. An Atom chip was already in the 9 inch Aspire One netbook that Acer sent onto the market in July. It comes with WLAN standard and can be upgraded with a UMTS module. The manufacturer gives One purchasers the choice of 8 GB of internal storage or 80 GB of hard drive capacity. The RAM is available in either 512 or 1 GB versions. Users can also choose between Linpus Linux and Windows XP Home as their operating system. The units cost between 300 and 400 dollars. Soon, nine inch netbooks will be available from HP, Dell and Fujitsu Siemens. Gigabyte will soon be launching its own netbook. At more than 500 dollars, it is considered somewhat expensive for this category, but it offers an Atom CPU, 160 GB of hard drive space as well as a rotating and tilting touchscreen - making it perfect for tablet PC use. The upper end of the Netbook category is currently filled through 10 inch devices weighing in at 1.2 kilogrammes. Medion is pushing one such unit under the name Akoya Mini E1210 for 399 dollars. While the device comes with good standard features, the device did not convince testers at Stiftung Warentest, a German consumer testing organization. "The small battery (3 cell) just didn't keep the netbook running long enough. The short two hour battery life makes this netbook ill-suited to be a mobile companion."

From : http://www.earthtimes.org/

Asus Eee Stick: How Nintendo Wii Remote should look

When I first laid eyes on the Asus Eee Stick I thought it was a couple of new controllers for the Nintendo Wii. Ok so I am a little dumb, but I bet I was not the only one who thought it.

The name that Asus has chosen "Eee Stick" is a strange one as they are a couple of sticks that are mated to a wireless receiver. So what is the Eee Stick I hear you ask, well they are basically a gamepad that has been split in half. This is something that Sony had hoped to launch at some stage.

The Eee Stick has motion sensing technology like the Wii Remote; I bet Nintendo wish that they had designed theirs to look as sleek as these. Asus has said that tailored games that require the Eee Stick will come bundled in the controllers.

As yet there is no idea when the Eee Stick will be released, but Asus reps have hinted that the UK could see them sometime in September.

Asus will make an announcement in the next few weeks.

VIA : Source

ASUS Eee PC "Ultimate" S101 revealed and it's brown

We've already seen the S101 Ultimate Eee PC at the top of ASUS' Eee PC pyramid of implosion. ASUS' prez, Jerry Shen, told us earlier to expect the Atom-based netbooks to ship with a 32GB SSD, 10.2-inch, 16:9 aspect LED backlit display and battery life of about 4-5 hours. Today in Taiwan, he personally revealed the S101 prototype (pictured above next to the Eee PC 901), and it's brown (at least for now) and it's sporting the Eee logo as you'd expect. Interestingly, ASUS has apparently decided to ditch the Eee branding on the S101 when it goes production in mid-September to keep it distinct from the low-cost ultra-portable branding that the Eee PC name is (or at least was) synonymous with - a move we wholeheartedly support. The S101 will measure in at a tapering 16 ~ 21-mm and weigh less than 1KG. Seems Jerry re-enacted the ol' MacBook Air (4 ~ 19.4-mm thick) trick and pulled the S101 from an envelop to demonstrate it's thinness. Played carny tricks aside, the S101 features the same 1.6GHz Atom N270 processor and 945GME chipset found in current gen Eees with prices to range from $699 for the 32GB SSD model on up to $899 for a 40GB SSD (and possibly more). Interesting, to say the least.




[Via iTechNews]

Asus EeePC successor with 8.9 inch display to be announced at CeBIT

I just recently bought a Fujitsu U810 UMPC to serve as my mobile computing device, but have been seriously looking at the Asus EeePC as another alternative for my daily 2+ hour commuting needs. Engadget has pics of the Asus EeePC 900 that is supposed to be officially announced tomorrow at the CeBIT show in Germany. DailyTech also has a few more details, including a photo of the new model. The Asus EeePC 900 looks very similar to the current EeePC, but has an 8.9 inch display (current model has a 7 inch display) and up to 12GB of internal flash memory. Apparently, this new model may launch at a cost of EUR399 this summer. I’ll keep my eye out for the press release that should have more details on the specifications.

My only concerns with buying a current model is the 800×480 resolution and lack of Bluetooth. 1024×600 is really the minimum resolution to be acceptable for web browsing without constant scrolling and I need Bluetooth to connect to my 3G mobile phones for connectivity. I am also very happy with the 4+ hours of battery life on my Fujitsu U810. Do you have an Asus EeePC and would you recommend it?

Form : ZDNet - USA

ASUS to sell Eee PC with XP

in brief Taiwanese PC manufacturer ASUS is planning to release a version of its educational UMPC, the Eee PC, running Windows XP this month.

ASUS has released a statement saying the Windows XP version of Eee PC will be available to educational institutions through a special tender, and through retailers.

A spokesperson for ASUS said that the company had chosen to offer the Eee PC with Windows due to customer demand.

"Windows XP was specifically chosen due to its built in hardware driver compatibility, meeting users demands when adding hardware peripherals," the spokesperson said.

The ASUS Eee PC.

The first version of the Eee PC runs on the Xandros Linux distribution and was released in Australia in December last year. This version model remain available.

ASUS is yet to confirm if the Eee PC running Windows XP will be more expensive than the model running the Xandros OS. The original Eee PC retails for AU$499.

Form : Builder AU - Australia

Eee PC to run Windows XP

So you like the idea of Asus' $499 Linux-powered mini-notebook but would rather work in the more familiar world of Windows? Later this month you'll be able to buy the Eee PC with Windows XP preinstalled.

While Asus has yet to set the price, you can expect it'll be a notch higher than the current $499, if for no other reason than Microsoft's OS licensing fees. That said, Microsoft has been making noises about reducing the licence fees from their standard stratospheric position, especially where low-cost devices like the Eee PC, Intel's ClassMate and MIT's ‘one laptop per child' XO are concerned.

The version of XP that Asus will be pre-loading will be stripped back, of course - it'd be hard enough to get Windows onto the Eee PC's 4GB flash drive and still leave room for the likes of Office, let along a user's own documents.

Asus may be able to benefit from work done for MIT's XO notebook, which has seen Microsoft working on a combo set of XP and Office that runs directly from a 2GB SD card.

James Utzschneider, who heads Marketing and Communications for Microsoft's ‘Unlimited Potential' program, described the process late last year in his blog.

Little Windows: The Eee PC could benefit from Microsoft's work on squeezing XP and Office into a 2GB footprint, so they can run from a solid state drive or an SD memory card

"We are hard at work on the project here, and we are using an approach that is a little unusual for Microsoft in that we are managing the entire process of adapting and testing an existing version of Windows for a new PC. Usually the hardware vendor does this. And the Windows port to the XO is by no means done. Between Microsoft employees and third party contractors that we have brought into the effort, we have over 40 engineers working full-time on the port. We started the project around the beginning of the year and think it will be mid-2008 at the earliest before we could have a production-quality release."

One of the issues is the limited storage capacity of mini-notes, which favour solid state rather than spinning mechanical disks. Utzschneider explains that the XO's 1GB of flash storage was the primary hurdle.

"The XO actually only comes with 1GB of flash, and we asked the OLPC to add a slot for an internal SD card that will provide the 2 GB of extra memory needed to run our software. (Now) we have to do design work to get Windows and Office to work reliably and with good performance using only 2 GB of storage. As part of this engineering effort, we have to design a new BIOS - the layer of software that runs between the hardware and an operating system - to have Windows boot and run off the SD card. For us this is new work and requires a design and processes for supporting the XO's custom SD interface and for the installation of Windows on the SD card, both at the Quanta factory that manufactures the XO hardware and also in the field."

Utzschneider noted that the more standardised design of the Eee PC made thing a bit easier for running the OS and application software from an SD card. "Surprisingly enough, getting Windows running on (the Eee PC) required a significantly shorter amount of time because ASUS used a more standardised approach to its hardware design compared to the XO. In technical terms, ASUS put the flash drive behind the IDE disk controller, making the flash storage "look like" a hard disk drive to Windows.

"Microsoft plans to publish some formal design guidelines (in early 2008) that will help Flash PC manufacturers benefit from our early work so they can design machines that enable a great Windows experience at as low a cost as possible, and with a minimum of custom design work necessary to get Windows to run on their machines".

From : Australian Personal Computer - Sydney,Australia

Eee PC to run Windows XP

So you like the idea of Asus' $499 Linux-powered mini-notebook but would rather work in the more familiar world of Windows? Later this month you'll be able to buy the Eee PC with Windows XP preinstalled.

While Asus has yet to set the price, you can expect it'll be a notch higher than the current $499, if for no other reason than Microsoft's OS licensing fees. That said, Microsoft has been making noises about reducing the licence fees from their standard stratospheric position, especially where low-cost devices like the Eee PC, Intel's ClassMate and MIT's ‘one laptop per child' XO are concerned.

The version of XP that Asus will be pre-loading will be stripped back, of course - it'd be hard enough to get Windows onto the Eee PC's 4GB flash drive and still leave room for the likes of Office, let along a user's own documents.

Asus may be able to benefit from work done for MIT's XO notebook, which has seen Microsoft working on a combo set of XP and Office that runs directly from a 2GB SD card.

James Utzschneider, who heads Marketing and Communications for Microsoft's ‘Unlimited Potential' program, described the process late last year in his blog.

Little Windows: The Eee PC could benefit from Microsoft's work on squeezing XP and Office into a 2GB footprint, so they can run from a solid state drive or an SD memory card

"We are hard at work on the project here, and we are using an approach that is a little unusual for Microsoft in that we are managing the entire process of adapting and testing an existing version of Windows for a new PC. Usually the hardware vendor does this. And the Windows port to the XO is by no means done. Between Microsoft employees and third party contractors that we have brought into the effort, we have over 40 engineers working full-time on the port. We started the project around the beginning of the year and think it will be mid-2008 at the earliest before we could have a production-quality release."

One of the issues is the limited storage capacity of mini-notes, which favour solid state rather than spinning mechanical disks. Utzschneider explains that the XO's 1GB of flash storage was the primary hurdle.

"The XO actually only comes with 1GB of flash, and we asked the OLPC to add a slot for an internal SD card that will provide the 2 GB of extra memory needed to run our software. (Now) we have to do design work to get Windows and Office to work reliably and with good performance using only 2 GB of storage. As part of this engineering effort, we have to design a new BIOS - the layer of software that runs between the hardware and an operating system - to have Windows boot and run off the SD card. For us this is new work and requires a design and processes for supporting the XO's custom SD interface and for the installation of Windows on the SD card, both at the Quanta factory that manufactures the XO hardware and also in the field."

Utzschneider noted that the more standardised design of the Eee PC made thing a bit easier for running the OS and application software from an SD card. "Surprisingly enough, getting Windows running on (the Eee PC) required a significantly shorter amount of time because ASUS used a more standardised approach to its hardware design compared to the XO. In technical terms, ASUS put the flash drive behind the IDE disk controller, making the flash storage "look like" a hard disk drive to Windows.

"Microsoft plans to publish some formal design guidelines (in early 2008) that will help Flash PC manufacturers benefit from our early work so they can design machines that enable a great Windows experience at as low a cost as possible, and with a minimum of custom design work necessary to get Windows to run on their machines".

From : Australian Personal Computer - Sydney,Australia