Filed under: Laptops, Storage

Apparently Jerry Shen and the homegirls / boys at ASUS want to get a slice of that sweet cloud pie. According to a report, the computer-maker has launched a service called Eee Storage, which provides 20GB of online storage for Eee PC users, as well as access to downloads of around 3,000 pieces of free software and games. The company hopes to expand the service — which uses a drag and drop interface for file management — into a full blown “store” where users can download music and “various other content.” In the picture above you can see Jerry demonstrating the service to a group of bemused high school reporters.

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Filed under: Laptops

We’ve already seen the S101 Ultimate Eee PC at the top of ASUS’ Eee PC pyramid of implosion. ASUS’ prez, Jerry Shen, already told us 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 than 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 weight 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 to $899 for 40GB. Interesting, to say the least.

[Via iTechNews]

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Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

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Filed under: Laptops

Continue reading VIA Nano trounces Intel Atom in HD video playback? Not quite.

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Filed under: Laptops

We’re not even going to pretend to know what’s going on with whoever’s in charge of approving Eee models at ASUS, but maybe they just like rubber-stamping things, because that’s really the only thing that explains the Eee 900A. The newest member of the overflowing Eee family, the 900A continues the mix-and-match product development trend — it’s basically a 901 in the case of 900, but with a crappier webcam (.3 megapixels) and no Bluetooth. Yep, same 1.6GHz Atom proc, 1GB of RAM and 8 or 16GB SSD as the 901, just in the case of the 900. Why would anyone want to spend €299 ($465) on this? Totally unclear — just like the entire Eee PC lineup.

[Via jkkmobile]

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Filed under: Laptops

Even with Express Gate installed, it took ASUS’ Eee Box a good 35 seconds before an application could be used. On this particular Eee PC 1000, it took around half a minute for the entire system to load. The secret? An ultra-speedy 40GB SSD packed within. Hop on past the break for proof of the feat, but don’t blink for an extraordinarily long period of time.

[Thanks, Roman]

Continue reading Video: SSD-infused Eee PC 1000 boots in 30 seconds

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Filed under: Laptops

Whoa, wait a second. Is ASUS about to plop another Eee PC onto the totally numb-to-this-brand public? As confident as we are that ASUS wouldn’t dare hesitate to dilute its once meaningful Eee moniker even further, we’re still taking this with a morsel or two of salt for now. Spotted on French site Blogeee, a host of new images depict the Eee PC 900 (with a design occasionally preferred over the 901) with an “A” bringing up the rear. It doesn’t take an Intel engineer to guess what that might mean, now does it?

[Via thegadgetsite, thanks K.C.]

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Filed under: Laptops

Hey, you remember the Eee PC 701, right? The original netbook, before the category even had a name? The machine we all just called the Eee PC before ASUS booted out an insane array of lightly-differentiated models with a somewhat random naming scheme? Yeah, well, it’s still around, even if the 901 has taken over as the Eee of choice, and if those slides from earlier are to be believed, it’s getting a spec bump. Laptop says the new 701SD will get an Atom processor to go along with a minor case redesign, and come in a few flavors (of course): 701, 701SD, 701SD(30GB HD), 701SD-4G. Sadly, there isn’t any info about pricing available, but with cheap netbooks headed toward $299 and below, here’s hoping ASUS gives us a reason to love the 701 once again.

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Filed under: Laptops

Remember the ASUS Eee PC roadmap we peeped a few days back? Right, the one that lists the new Ultimate S-series and Pro Fashion Eee PCs amongst the 23 models. Turns out both categories are planned for a 2008 launch with specs like dual-core Atom processors, 120GBs of hard disk, and 32GB SSDs. This according to ASUS president, Jerry Shen. The first Eee PC with a 32GB SSD (wink wink Buffalo) will launch in late September and feature a 10-inch, 16:9 aspect LED backlit display and battery life of about 4-5 hours. As members of the Exquisite and Extremely slim and light S-series, these Eee(ee) PCs will cost between $700 to $900 with the “high-end market” in mind. Funny, we didn’t know there was a high-end to the race to the bottom.

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Filed under: Laptops

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Filed under: Laptops, Storage

Those fine folks at Buffalo are working on 32GB and 64GB PCI-E SSDs for the Eee PC 901 (and others, we’re guessing), to be released in September. That’s all well and good, but what’s even more exciting are the price points: 32GB will be retailing for around 16,800 yen (about $157 US) while the 64GB will go for 33,600 yen ($313 US). Sure, a storage device the same price as your computer is never ideal, but with SSD prices continuing to plummet — as evidenced by this nearly-wallet-friendly pair — they should be in striking distance before long.

[Via jkkmobile]

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Filed under: Laptops

The Kira 100 was a decent Eee PC knockoff, but at just north of $475, there was literally no purpose in picking it over the genuine product. The Jointech JL7100, however, really makes ASUS’ darling look mighty unnecessary. Okay, so maybe the fact that this thing relies on WinCE 5.0 rather than, you know, a bona fide laptop operating system is a bit disappointing, but there are sacrifices to be expected here. As for other specifications, you’ll supposedly find a 7-inch 800 x 480 resolution display, Samsung chipset, 64MB (yes, megabytes) of internal storage, 64MB (yes, megabytes) of RAM, a VGA output and three USB ports. We can hear your stifled laughter from here, but your tune may change upon hearing the $99 (USD?) price tag. Told you so.

[Thanks, Sean]

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Filed under: Laptops

Taiwanese industry and rumor site DigiTimes is reporting (without citing a source) that ASUS expects to deliver “whole-day” battery options to its Eee PC range of netbooks. In addition, ASUS also plans to offer some level of Internet storage, apparently beyond the 20GB they already offer to new Eee PC 901 and 1000 owners — a move that we hope will become a trend amongst netbook providers in order to offset the miniscule flash drives found inside the lowest of the low-cost, mini laptops. Both changes are expected before the year is up. Incredibly, ASUS also plans to push out new software and hardware upgrades every month to “fill gaps in the netbook market.” Funny, we didn’t think any gaps remained in this over-saturated niche.

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Filed under: Peripherals, Wireless, Storage

Okay, so there’s clearly a tube that dispenses marshmallows to the ASUS marketing department whenever it comes up with another product to slap the Eee brand on, because this just getting silly. In addition to the countless Eee laptops, Eee Box desktop, Eee monitor, Eee televisions, and other Eee-branded crap, we’re hearing the company is working on a line of accessories, including an external hard drive, optical drive, and WWAN card. None of this is official quite yet, but knowing ASUS, it’ll be out in 30 different varieties by the end of the month.

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Filed under: Laptops

ASUS must think that best way to make the Eee PC stand out in the overflowing netbook market is to crank out minor, uninteresting variants of the same models, because otherwise we’re at a total loss to explain today’s appearance of the Eee PC 1000HD. Yeah, that’s the 1000HD, not the 1000H, which we’ve already seen. Ridiculous. Even more ridiculous is that it’s basically the same machine as the Pentium M-based Eee 904, only with the 1000’s 10-inch screen. Right. So now not only are there an endless variety of Eee models, the model numbers themselves don’t indicate anything logical: the Eee 901 is faster than the 904, which uses the basic case of the 1000 but shares a processor with the 900 and 1000HD — but not the 1000 or 1000H, which are Atom-based like the 901. Hmm, Easy to learn, Easy to work, Easy to play — not easy to buy might be your big problem here, ASUS.

[Via Mobile Stylus]

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Filed under: Laptops

It’s only been on sale for six days, but the pricetag on the Eee PC 1000H just dropped by $100, down to $549. We’re not sure if early buyers will get that extra Benny back, but it certainly can’t hurt to ask — and ASUS, while you’re at it, how about taking a little off the 901 as well?

[Via Mobile Stylus; thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Filed under: Laptops

As if it wasn’t already clear that ASUS has descended into self-parody, the company’s Chinese website has now revealed yet another Eee PC model which, by our estimation, brings the total number of variations to about on par with the number of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavors. This latest model, dubbed the Eee PC 900 30G, boasts a 30GB hard drive in place of the usual 12GB or 20GB SSD drive, and is apparently set to be available in both black and white Linux versions, and a black-only Windows XP model. No word on a price or release date just yet, but it seems safe to bet that it’ll come in under the flash-based models. Given the saturation of Eee PCs ’round these parts, it also seems entirely possible that these’ll only be available in China, although we certainly wouldn’t put anything past ASUS at this point.

[Via Electronista]

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Filed under: Laptops

Another day, another Eee PC available for sale. This time it’s the Atom-based, hard drive-toting 10-inch Eee PC 1000H, now in stock at Newegg and patiently awaiting your $649. Sure, you could buy a real laptop for that, but then you wouldn’t be part of the least exclusive, most quickly diluted brand imaginable, would you?

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Filed under: Laptops

If you’ve been tearing your hair out, pacing wildly around the room, and sweating bullets over the availability of the ASUS Eee PC 1000 (and we know you have), you’ll be pleased to know that the grown-up sized version of the company’s mini-laptop is now available for pre-order on Amazon. The site doesn’t provide specific release dates for the systems (the $699.99, 40GB SSD equipped 1000, and the $649.99, 80GB HDD equipped 1000H), though we’re figuring it can’t be too long till these models hit shipping centers. In the meantime, we recommend going for long jogs.

Read - ASUS Eee PC 1000 40G
Read - ASUS Eee PC 1000H 80G

[Via I4UNews]

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Filed under: Laptops

Welcome back to reality ASUS. The Taiwanese giant just announced that it shipped 1.7 million Eee PCs in the “first half of 2008,” 300,000 less than had been forecast. Of course, this could be explained in any number of ways including a downturn in the global economy and those consumers who skipped past the Eee PC 900 in favor of the Atom-based Eee PC 901. With Atom processors in short supply and ASUS diluting the Eee brand as much as they have, well, we wouldn’t be surprised to see these failed expectations become the expectation moving forward; especially for companies like Acer who seem to be betting the farm on these new netbook-class mini-laptops.

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