Hasta La Gadget!

ASUS has seen its share of restructuring over the years, and it looks like it could be about to go through another fairly significant shake-up — at least if some of the leads DigiTimes has picked up actually pan out. The first (and seemingly more likely) of those is that the company is supposedly considering shutting down its division that builds “opto-mechatronics products” like the Eee Stick, which itself was formed from the remnants of the company’s old optical drive department, and has reportedly already seen its size shrink from one hundred team members to just twenty. Potentially even bigger than that, however, is talk that ASUS might possibly be thinking about getting out of the LCD business. Not surprisingly, however, there’s even less hard evidence for that — just some word that the division is facing “fierce competition” that’s inflicting some losses. For its part, ASUS is flatly denying that it’s considering any such shutdowns — and don’t worry about the Eee PC, it seems that ASUS is actually increasing its investment in that division to develop more Pine Trail-based netbooks.

ASUS considering closing divisions responsible for LCDs, Eee Stick? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Jan 2010 10:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Asus’ Eee brand was once strong and so much a part of the early netbook market that the words “Eee” and “netbook” were almost interchangeable. Now, Asus sprays the name around like a tomcat sprays… well, you get the idea.

The latest will be called the Eee Pad and will, according to Digitimes, have a four-to-seven-inch touch-screen display. This is, you’ll notice, a rather vague description and we think it more likely that Asustek will actually bust out a range of tiny touch-screen devices. The tablets are supposedly “inspired by the rumors of Apple’s planned tablet device”.

It may seem somewhat strange to plan your future business based on nothing but rumors, but we’re not surprised. The fabled Apple Tablet is affecting everyone, to the extent that Apple has almost single-handedly created a product category without doing anything. How’s that for influence? Sadly, we doubt the Eee Pad will be up to much: If the original Eee inspired the compact size and low prices of the nascent netbook market, it also lent it its bad design and low-quality hardware.

Asustek planning to launch Eee Pad device [Digitimes]

Photo: Claire Wroe/Flickr

It was only two weeks ago when the ASUS T91MT — the first-ever Windows 7 convertible netbook — dropped by Amazon’s German site, and now the Eastern wind from Taiwan has finally reached US soil. Amazon.com buyers are offered pretty much the same configuration as their European counterpart: Intel Atom Z520, 8.9-inch multitouch swivel screen, 1GB RAM and Windows 7 Home Premium. While there’s only one color option available for now, those who’re cool with white will be spoiled with a 32GB SSD — twice as much as the German version yet $200 cheaper. Any students out there going to pick one of these up for some improved note-taking before Christmas exams?

[Thanks, Bernard]

Filed under: Laptops, Tablet PCs

ASUS delivers Eee PC T91MT to Amazon.com, completes world tour originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Nov 2009 01:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Not that we’ve never heard of a 12.1-inch Eee PC before, but given the abundance of 10-inch options currently saturating the market, we’ll take all the expansion we can get. Slated to arrive as the largest Eee Seashell member of all time, the 1.4 pound Eee PC 1201HA is now staring at a mid-November release (at least in Italy), and it should bring along a “full-size” keyboard (with a borked Shift key), a 250GB hard drive, Windows 7, a 6-cell battery good for “up to eight hours” under ideal conditions and your choice of four colors: black, red, silver or blue. You’ll also find WiFi, a built-in webcam and a price tag of €399 ($596), though only time will tell if it’s saddled with a near-ancient Atom N270.

Filed under: Laptops

ASUS’ 12.1-inch Eee PC gets pictured, a little more real originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Several of the documents hidden from our anxious eyes during the FCC filing have now gone public. Not only can you visually inspect its innards, the feds have also laid bare the full spec sheet for the ASUS Eee Keyboard model EK1542. Beneath the 5-inch, 800 x 480 pixel touch panel (with stylus) we’ll be getting Windows XP Home running on an Intel Atom N270, 945GSE / ICH7-M chipset with Broadcom AV-VD905 video decoder, 1GB of DDR2 memory, either 16GB or 32GB of flash storage, 4-hour battery, Bluetooth, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, gigabit Ethernet, HDMI and VGA outputs, integrated stereo speakers and mic, 3x USB, headphone and mic jacks, and external WiFi / UWB antenna. The Eee Keyboard’s on-board Ultra-Wideband (UWB) throws 720p content to your TV within a 5-meter range (10-meters for non-video transmissions) via a UWB receiver packing 2x USB ports, another mini-USB port, audio out, and HDMI. You can even connect to two external monitors at the same time using UWB and either VGA or HDMI cable. Now all we need is a final date and price… ASUS?

[Via EeePC.it]

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Eee Keyboard splayed, detailed by FCC originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Oct 2009 07:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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