Asus announced on Tuesday that they are releasing two new versions of their Eee Box, with some new features.

The new versions have a high definition hardware decoder (a Radeon 3400), HDMI out and a remote. The hardware decoder should improve performance, possibly making this a decent choice for a HTPC solutions. While the hardware and software seem better, I’d like to see it come in other colors, so it doesn’t look so much like a Wii. No word on pricing or availability yet, although we can reasonably put it above $300 with the added cost of the video card.

ASUS has plans to make its Eee Top PCs a big thing with yet more screen sizes. So far the company has announced a 15.6-inch version of the touchscreen PC, but now the company prez is stating that larger sizes will be available as well. We’re talking both a 20- and 22-inch version. Hopefully, by the time these things drop in the middle of ‘09, the 1GB of ram and 160GB HDD will experience substantial growth.

Netbooks have been slowing down over the last year and for the most part, each one is about the same thing with a different logo on the lid. HP’s offerings seem refreshing and polished even though they sport the standard netbook specs of 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU, 8.9-inch or 10.2-inch display, up to 2 GB of RAM, and either a 60GB HDD or 16GB SSD. The solid-state drive can be complimented by a standard USB thumb drive in a special slot for extra storage. The specs are only half the story as the OS is where it gets interesting.

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Sometime in the coming weeks Toys ‘R’ Us is going to start selling iPods and, more notably, Asus EEE PC’s as the retailer is grasping for higher holiday sales. The iPods are going to be in their own little iPod boutique that is sure to be decorated in novel all white fashion.

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There’s an idea – rip apart your Asus Eee PC, sprinkle some modifications here and there, and embed it into your car’s dashboard. That’s just what a guy in Russia did. It appears to be a bit more than a mere weekend project, as he’s added a touchscreen, GPS, Bluetooth, a keyboard in the glove box, and the Centrafuse car PC interface.

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If you like the idea of netbooks in theory but get unnecessarily agitated at the thought of having all that pesky "portability," then maybe you’d be a good candidate for the small form-factor Asus Eee Box PC.

It’s specs are as follows: 1.6GHz Atom CPU, 1GB RAM, 80GB SATA hard drive, built-in Wi-Fi, DVI out, and Windows XP Home. Buy.com currently has it for $290.99 with free shipping. Might make for a good, inexpensive HTPC or Car PC.

[via dealnews]

Remember those unfortunate Eee Boxes we mentioned last week that were shipped with an active virus on the hard drive? Well, Asus is being a big boy about it and has ordered a recall. That restores some of the cred they lost last week, but I’m still wary. Apparently the infection came from a USB stick they were using to test the things.

Luckily (or unluckily, depending on how you look at it) they’d only sold a couple hundred of the things before this minor calamity, so there’s not too much damage to pay for out of pocket.

ZipZoomfly.com has a $65 mail-in rebate on the 8.9-inch ASUS Eee netbook. The rebate is good until the end of the month. The selling price is $364.99 for the model with the 20GB hard drive, 1GB RAM, and Linux – bringing the total cost to $299 if you’re one of *those* people who can remember to send your rebate forms in on time.

I’m starting to notice a welcome trend here, as more and more of these netbooks are starting to drop a bit in price, include mail-in rebates, or both.

ASUS EeePC 900 [ZipZoomfly.com via dealnews]

Remember that Eee Monitor from a while back? Well! It’s all growns up and it’s sporting a touchscreen and Windows XP. I have to say, though, as nice as it would be to have a little XP touchscreen around the house, the specs are a little lacking: 1GB of RAM, a 1.6GHz Atom processor, 160GB HDD, and 128GBMB (heh) of shared graphics. The 15.6-inch screen would be nice to run your fingers over, but I feel like compromises were made here that would limit the machine’s usability.

Still, a full-blown touchscreen XP box for just under $700, though it’s just pre-order at the moment, to be shipped next month. Lovely.

Update: Digitimes says the “Eee Top” will cost $450 and will come in 16″ and 19″ flavors. Uh, we’ll get back to you with more definite details whenever that happens.

Oh dear, this won’t go well. What does it say about your company when a product ships with a virus intact on the hard drive? Does it say something about their quality control? Or maybe about the internal security of the company? Whatever it says, it ain’t good.

If I can’t trust them to run a virus scan on their junk before sending it out, can I really trust the build quality? The fans and heatsinks? The customer support? And can I create a post almost entirely out of questions? I think so?
[via Reg Hardware]

Gather ‘round, kids. Gather ‘round.

Amazon’s got the 9-inch Asus Eee PC 900 for $329.99. Get it while it’s hot. This is the 16GB solid-state drive version, which has an 8.9-inch display, Atom processor, 1GB of RAM, 4-cell battery, and Linux.

The price reflects a $20 instant discount, which is good until the end of October. Also, that price is only good for the Pearl White version. The Galaxy Black fetches a slightly higher price at $346.98. So as far as netbooks go, it seems that black is the new white.

ASUS Eee PC 900 16G [Amazon.com via dealnews]

A forum poster at eeeuser.com is creating a conversion kit for the Eee 701 that turns the wee-pc into a Samsung-ish UMPC. The collage kid is either genius or lazy too as it seems that the kit is simply a way to flip the LCD around on and display it on what was the lid. That way, the bottom part of the laptop doesn’t have to be ripped out and installed in another bezel. That’s at least how this early prototype appears. 

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Here’s just about the least expensive way to get into a Windows-based netbook at the moment. Geeks.com is selling refurbished Eee PCs in black or white for $299. This is the 4G 701 model, which has a 4GB solid state drive, 512MB of RAM, and Windows XP. Again, they’re refurbished, but you’ll get a 90-day warranty and a low, low price.

You can also get a refurbished Linux version for only $249.

Asus Eee Notebooks [Geeks.com]