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Well if the Eee PC isn’t your think Asus has another nice notebook that might be more your fitting, the S121 at 12.1 inches and less than 3 pounds with up to eight hours of battery life. If that weren’t enough it is also going to be the first to offer a 512GB SSD. No other details have been released such as price or date to be released, but with the 512GB SSD it sure won’t be cheap.

Full Article: Engadget

Just when you thought Asus could not possibly come out with another product they do with the Asus S101. However, unlike a lot of the past products where it was just another iteration of the Eee PC, this one is fairly different and stylish. Coming in at 2.2 lbs and .7 inches thin the Asus S101 features a 10.2″ LED screen at 1024×600. Other features included 802.11n, ethernet port, Bluetooth, 4-in-1 card reader, SSD up to 64GB, 3 USB ports, and 1GB RAM. Also like the Macbook Air, the Asus S101 comes with a non-replaceable 5 hour battery. Pricing for this is a big difference from the Macbook Air with the base model at $699 coming with Windows XP and 16GB SSD or Linux with 32GB SSD. There is also a 64GB Linux model for $799. I am looking forward to this netbook to arrive since it looks a bit less gimmicky than most netbooks out there.

Full Article: Gizmodo

Can Asus bring an iMac rival to the market with their latest offering, the Eee Monitor? This $500 machine runs on Linux and comes with either in a 19 or 20 inch form, 1.6 GHz Intel Atom, 6 USB ports, audio outputs, a webcam and integrated TV tuner. It is aiming to be marketed as eco-friendly because of its low power draw. The latest news shows that Asus plans to have this ready for September.

Full Article: Electronista

Asus, the makers of the Eee PC which has revolutionized ultra mobile computing, has announced an ultra small desktop model called the Eee Box. Asus claims to be able to have you on the Internet in just seven seconds after bootup. It also features wireless N connectivity as well as gigabit ethernet. As well as being small, the Eee Box is extremely quiet and is efficient with energy consumption. No pricing or general availabilty has been released yet. Other specs are below:

• Windows XP Home Edition
• Intel Atom N270 (1.6GHz)
• 1GB RAM
• 80GB hard drive
• Card reader
• 802.11n WLAN
• Gigabit Ethernet

Source: Asus Press Release

On Wednesday, DeviceVM, the company behind the distribution, said the hardware manufacturer would be putting Splashtop — which Asus calls “Express Gate” — into a million motherboards a month. Splashtop includes a Firefox-derived browser and the Skype internet-telephony application.

Splashtop is described by DeviceVM as a “secure web-surfing environment”, and is embedded on motherboards so that it can be booted within seconds, as an alternative to booting up a full operating system. It first appeared on high-end Asus motherboards in October 2007 and has since been put onto the more mainstream M3 series, but, according to Joe Hsieh, general manager of Asus’ motherboard business unit, it will now be extended to the entire range.

“In response to great user feedback, our plan is to proliferate Express Gate across our entire motherboard-product portfolio, starting with over one million motherboards per month,” Hsieh said. “Consumers want to turn their PCs on and off like any other appliance, and Express Gate has made that possible.”

Full Article: ZDNet

I am not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand it is nice to see instant-on systems in the near future. But it also locks you into this OS only if you want to use the feature. Also, you would be forced to use online office applications since you cannot put an entire office suite in the embedded chip. However, it will be interesting to see where this goes.

Asustek Computer Inc. on Friday confirmed that it will launch the Eee PC 900 in the U.S. on May 12, and will set $549 as the list price for the new ultralight notebook.

The Eee PC 900, which the Taipei-based computer maker unveiled last Tuesday, can be configured with either Microsoft Corp.’s Windows XP Home or the open-source Linux. The price for both configurations, said an Asustek spokesman, is identical: $549.

But there are differences. Users who purchase an Eee PC 900 with Linux, however, receive a laptop that boasts 20GB of flash memory-based storage space. Customers who opt for Windows XP, meanwhile, end up with a machine equipped with only 12GB of solid-state storage.

When asked why the two models pack different quantities of storage space — and whether the lesser amount was stuck in the XP version because of the licensing fees Asustek must pay to Microsoft — Asustek spokesman Charlton Ho called it a “strategic decision.”

“Cost would be one of the reasons, but not the main one,” Ho said in an e-mail. He then proceeded to trumpet the Linux-based system. “Also, [the] Linux version is our main Eee PC model with our unique interface, so the consumer not only can get the great and easy-to-use interface on the Linux version but extra storage space,” Ho added.

Both Windows and Linux models pack an 8.9-in. screen, 1GB of system memory, a 1.3-megapixel camera and an Apple MacBook Air-style multi-touch trackpad.

This is the second ultralight line from Asustek that offers XP as an option; it currently sells a Eee PC with a 7-in. display in the U.S. for $399.

Window XP, which is to disappear as an option on most new computers after June 30, was granted a reprieve of sorts two weeks ago, when Microsoft said it would allow OEMs building what it called ultra low-cost PC (ULCPC) laptops to pre-install XP Home until the end of June 2010.

Source: Computer World

It’s nice to see this version of the Eee PC have the option of Windows installed from the get-go. The previous Eee PC supported XP, but you had to get it on there yourself, but this way you won’t have to have an external optical drive to install the OS of choice. It’s also interesting that there is an incentive to go with the Linux variety because it has more storage space. The price is a bit high for the spec offered, but this is definitely an ultra portable machine and it is difficult to cram a lot in there. The race should become more interesting this summer as Intel releases its Atom processor for ultra portable machines and Dell and HP are expected to begin releasing their ultra portable versions.