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]
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.
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.
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.
Ubergizmo is reporting that the Asus Eee B202, seen above, will feature the Express Gate instant-boot OS by Splashtop. It’s a simple, quick, lightweight Linux-based operating system that offers near-instant bootup times and access to things like the web, photos, chat, and other relatively simple programs.
The B202 has been floating around for a while. Apparently it’ll finally be released on August 31st (according to ProductWiki) for around $350. There’s a quick look at a couple of shots of the Express Gate interface after the jump.
Who says that inflation is driving up the cost of everything? ‘Cause what we have here is a bona fide laptop-ish computer for less than a $100: the Jointech J-PRO JL7100. Sure, it might come from a company we haven’t heard of either, loaded with Windows CE 5.0, and sporting a 7-inch VGA screen, but it’s only a 100 bones. For those still with us, this little guy is equipped with a 400MHz core, 64 MB of ROM and RAM along with 3 USB 1.1 ports – lacks WiFi though. The only small issue we can see is the $99 price. Yeah, that’s for a bulk order.
According to The Subnotebook Blog, along with others on the ‘ol interweb, that price is only availble for orders of 10,000 or more. No word on the price for the rest of us, but we’re kind of thinking that once we hear it, we aren’t going to be interested.
The “exquisite,” “elite,” “extreme slim” Eee model, the S101 (as seen in the pyramid o’ Eee) has been caught in the wild. I think I’ll let the Google translation do the talking:
ASUS held on the 6th of that meeting, ASUS CEO Jerry Shen Xue on Apple with a paper bag containing Eee PC S101, the imminent end of a sudden display market, the law says that it will become the climax. This Taiwan Eee PC S101 works with samples such as Apple Mac Air’s ultra-thin body, piano paint thickness of only 16 ~ 25mm, the main boutique market.
It is understood, S101 will adopt 10.2-inch LCD screen, processors still use Intel Atom N270 (1.6GHz/512KB L2/533MHz FSB) match 945 GME chipset, will have 32 GB and 64 GB SSD configurations, priced at $ 699 and $ 899 U.S. dollars, is expected to Listed in mid-September.
Asus never stops surprising me. If it’s not an excellent silent video card it’s a tiny laptop, and if it’s not a tiny laptop it’s a freaky bizarro world version of a Wiimote. I’m going to see if I can get my hands on one of these crazy things just to see if it works as well as Nintendo’s; being that Asus probably only started R&D a year ago, I’m guessing it’s adequate but not excellent. Probably better than the Wü, I’m guessing.
It’s packed full of accelerometers and comes in D-pad and analog stick versions, but it looks like both are Nunchuck clones more than anything; they have no optical positioning beacon or anything like that so it’s strictly motion detection. I can’t believe they’ve called it the Eee Stick, though. Sounds like candy. Why not the Eeemote?
The Asus Eee line of 7-inch netbooks appears to be alive and kicking, thanks to some images over on Eee PC News (in German). It’s believed that the Eee PC 701SD will come in three flavors (see this leaked slide); one marked “701SD(30G HDD)”, one simply marked “701SD”, and one marked “701SD-4G”, so we’ve got one with a 30GB standard hard drive, one with a 4GB flash drive, and one with who-knows-what.
Aside from that, Laptop notes some subtle updates in the form of a chassis similar to the 901 series (except for the round edges), a new logo on the lid, slightly separated touchpad buttons, and the assumption that these machines will use Intel’s Atom processor. I’d really like to see the screen resolution get pushed to at least 1024 pixels wide versus the current crop of 7-inchers’ 800 pixel wide resolution. It just makes so much more sense for web browsing.
More detailed specs, pricing, and launch dates are yet to be revealed but, hey, Asus has plans to release a total of 23 different models when all is said and done. So maybe we’ll just see these falling into our laps, rapid-fire style.
Get right the hell outta town. By the time the sun burns out or December 21, 2012 – whichever comes first – there will be 23 different models of Asus’ venerable Eee PC, according to a presentation slide sent to Engadget Chinese. The netbook models will be divided into three classes: Ultimate, Pro Fashion, and Smart Casual.
The Asus Eee PC has been successful with “ordinary” people, too. You know, the kind that buy laptop cases at Target — or even the Eee itself. Owners of the tiny netbook will be able to buy three stylish protective cases this September, all for under $25.
From left to right, the polyester Mini Laptop Quilted Case will run $19.99, the neoprene Mini Laptop Carrying Case will run $24.99, and the Neoprene Sleeve will run $12.99. They’ll each be available in four different colors; the three seen in the above photo – jetset red, plum berry, and techno blue — along with black.
Our buds over at Laptop have some interesting photos of an Eee monitor that might be a 19- or 20-incher with a built-in Webcam. A total of four USB ports, two Ethernet ports, and three audio ports are visible on the monitor/all-in-one. Denon logos suggest the unit has built-in speakers and an amplifier. The Eee monitor is rumored to be priced at $500 with a built-in TV tuner and more than likely containing an Intel Atom processor if it is what we think it is.
The micro-laptop revolution is a really cool thing, to be sure, but not all of us were born with slender, precision-tip hands. I do all right but some of these baby keyboards make me feel like I have ten thumbs. Well, Asus must have heard the cries of the lumpy and misshapen, because the new iterations of the Eee, the 904 and 905, will have more comfortably-sized keyboards.
Of course, they’ll also have Atom processors, but who cares about that? Actually, that’s kind of a legitimate question because the Atoms will almost certainly be replaced with multi-core Atoms in a couple months. I’d wait for those if possible.
You may have seen the teardown of an Eee 1000H a week ago. That was cool and it also revealed that the hard drive was trivially easy to replace. Of course, the 5400RPM, 80GB drive was never meant as a performance piece, more a cost and energy saver than anything. But if you could replace it with something awesome, why wouldn’t you?
And that’s just what these guys did. They took a nice, fast Samsung SATA II 64GB SSD, popped it in there, and ran a few tests. Basically, it booted 10 seconds faster, started every program in half the time or less, and had a longer battery life and way better file read times to boot. Of course, this particular SSD costs a grand, but it was more a proof of concept than anything. I look forward to the day these things are standard. It’d give a nice performance boost in Diablo III.
Tweaktown has (in an inexplicably explicitly-worded article) taken apart one of the new, black Eee PCs and checked out all its bits and bytes. To be honest, there’s not much in the way of surprises. It’s mostly common OEM hardware, the expected Atom processor, and the normal layout for webcam, microphone, and all that.
What’s nice though is that because the RAM and HDD are both common OEM, you can very easily replace them with something nicer. The HDD for instance is an 80GB, 5400RPM 2.5″ Seagate. You could replace that with something far more high-performance in a jiffy, likewise the generic RAM. Like we talked about in the podcast last week, though, the Atom processor is going to get the multi-core treatment as soon as this summer, so I’d wait for that before putting together your Ultimate Eee.
Cameron over at TweakTown.com got Windows Vista Ultimate up and running on the new Asus Eee 1000H. The Windows Experience rating is a lowly 1.0, held back by the graphics card, but the system seems to otherwise work. The installation apparently only took about 30 minutes. Bonus points for using AC/DC in the video.
An Asus rep told Laptop that pricing for the next generation of Eee models would be as follows;
Eee PC 901(Linux or Windows): $599
Eee PC 1000 (Linux or Windows): $699
Eee PC 1000H(Windows only): $649
You’ll recall that the 901 will come with a 12GB SSD if you choose the Windows version or a 20GB drive if you go with Linux. The 1000 will apparently come with a 40GB SSD, but it’s unclear what – if anything – you get by choosing Linux over Windows. The 1000H is Windows-only and will have an 80GB standard hard drive.
Still no definite release date in the US, but TechDigest is reporting a July 1st launch date in the UK for the 901 and the 1000, so it shouldn’t be too much longer now.
Laptop has some first shots of the Asus eee 901. Instead of a lab, the unboxed the sucker on a bed and next to a breakfast tray, suggesting that Laptop is more attracted to their review products than we initially realized. I do know that Laptop publisher Ed Brown successfully mounted and procreated with an IBM ThinkPad back in 2002, but to see it happen again is perverse.
How did they get it? They trolled Taipei’s electronics district.
The district’s streets should be paved in silicon with the amount of laptops and desktops on sale. Shop after shop has the latest laptops on display along with a ton of software and other computer parts. Struggling with the fact that we didn’t speak Chinese, we wrote down “ASUS Eee PC 901″ on a piece of paper and went around showing it to as many vendors as we could find.
Reminds me of the time I hit the Beijing red-light district with “Jackie Chan, only a girl” written in Korean. My right leg still hurts when it’s about to rain.
Can’t get enough eee? How about an eee SUPER mini PC and an eee monitor, both clad in pearlescent white and delicately stuffed with the latest in circuitry. Some spies at Computex grabbed a shot of Asus’ roadmap pointing to two new devices. The eee monitor should launch in september but there is no word about the supposed mini mini PC.
Standing up? You better sit down. I have some details about the new Eee PCs that are coming out this month, straight from ASUS. You can stand back up, actually. Some of the stuff is sort of exciting, but you’re not going to faint or anything.
First, we now know what the three E’s stand for; Easy, Excellent, and Exciting. Exciting indeed, like more exciting than finding out that Kramer’s first name was Cosmo.
Second, the three new models will be officially called the Eee PC 901, 1000, and 1000(H). The 1000(H) is news to me, as it’ll use a conventional 80GB laptop hard drive. The 901 will come with a 12GB or 20GB SSD, depending on whether you choose Windows XP or Linux, and the 1000 will come with a 40GB SSD.
Third, battery life looks pretty impressive at “up to 7.8 hours” thanks to new high capacity batteries. Real world testing, of course, will tell the whole story. Almost eight hours would be wonderful, though.
Finally, each new unit will come with 20GB of online storage. I guess that’s nice. Hit the jump for the full press release.
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.
Gather ‘round, kids. Gather ‘round. 
An Asus rep 
