Second Time Around

I took delivery of my second Asus Eee 701 today in Galaxy Black with RAM upgraded to 1G, identical to my first one in every way. This had to be done as my first one was stolen (sigh), but through my upset I have managed to glimpse a silver lining to the situation.

In short, I now have a chance to do things better.

With my first Eee, I swore to myself before getting it that  I would stick with the initial Xandros Linux OS for at least a couple weeks, then try a few of the other Eee optimized Linux distros out of curiosity as I had never really tried to use Linux. Frustration and confusion however caused me to flee back to a nice, safe XP install after only two days. I know, not pretty, and I ain’t proud of it, but Linux ungeeked me. The difficulty of adapting Xandros to my needs, the seemingly unending amount of code I needed to enter with little or no documentation and the nightmare of installing applications from the repositories made me no better then a common citizen, running back to the shelter of what I knew. I intend to try a little harder this time to explore Linux, and have made the following goals for my second Eee based on my experiences with the first.

1) Experiment. I learned that it is dead simple and painless to install complete Operating Systems as it took a couple cracks with nLite to get the XP networking set up. Towards that end, I already have install CDs ready for the three Linux distros that most interest me (Mandriva, EeeDora and EeeXubuntu) and may also install Linpus. I will swap those around for the first few days to get a good feeling for the strengths and weaknesses of each. I will still probably end up with XP, but I want to make full use of this chance to be able to comment more intelligently on all major Linux options.

2) Discern. I found that in the few weeks I had the first Eee, the main thing I did with it was read, both books and comics and play Diablo II on the bus. Therefore, first things first I will install software for e-books, JPG comics and other similar media (and Diablo II). I may not need Word or OpenOffice at all, getting by with a WordPad type program. Either way, I want to be more careful with what applications I install this time around.

3) Optimize, optimize, optimize. In the end, I was just so happy to get an OS up and running well on my first Eee that I just installed all the off the shelf drivers Asus provided, whacked a bunch of standard software on and then stuck with it as I didn’t want to risk having to reformat again. Dumb. This time, I will make use of the plethora of streamlined drivers and utilities available out there to make the Eee run as fast and smooth as possible…and if it should get a bit hinky on me, just reformat it and start again. I am willing to spend a couple weeks tinkering before I let the device settle into a final form this time, since now I know how durable it is.

Sometimes, to really get the most out of a device, you need a second chance at it. This oughtta be fun.

High End Eees Coming Soon

On top of the 11 current flavors of Eee netbooks produced by Asus, yet more devices are due to be released in the next few months…including hardware (and prices) previously thought beyond the ken of the UMPC/Netbook market. According to Asus president Jerry Shen, Intel is anticipating the netbook market demand to exceed a billion units and he feels the Eee brand is well positioned to snag the lion’s share of those purchases.

Shen has stated that two completely new categories of Eees, Ultimate (or S series) and Pro Fashion, are planned for the second half of 2008. These high end lines will include dual-core Atom processors and larger storage (such as120GB HDD or 32GB SSD).

An Ultimate Eee PC with 32GB SSD (S series) will be introduced as early as late September, featuring a 10.1-inch 16:9 ratio LED backlit screen and (supposedly) battery life of 4-5 hours. The Ultimate Eee PC will be priced in the range of US$700-900 and be targeted to the “high-end market”.

A high end Eee? Asus continues to seem to miss the point about the niche market they themselves pioneered. Will consumers pay a price for a “luxury” netbook that could buy them a reasonably powerful mainstream notebook? Somehow I doubt it.

(Source – Digitimes)

Asus EeePC 901-X

Asus is releasing a new version of its popular Eee PC line in Japan. The 901-X uses a N270 Intel Processor at 1.6 GHz, powerful enough to move Vista decently and save battery at the same time.

ASUS rolled out its Atom-based notebook ‘EeePC 901-X’ in Japan market, which is powered by Intel N270(1.6GHz) CPU and Windows XP OS. Adopting a 8.9-inch display with 1,024*600 resolution, the EeePC 901-X supports up to 8.3 hours of battery life, 12GB SSD, 1GB of memory, 1.3M camera, wireless LAN and Bluetooth connectivity.

AVING USA - Global News Network

Eee Sales 300,000 Short in First Half of 08

A not too surprising announcement today from Asus, as they fell 300,000 short of their goal to sell 2 million Asus Eees during the first half of 08. Of course, 1,700,000 units of anything is nothing to sneeze at, but after their 07 success Asus was clearly expecting the good times to go one forever. However, they are still confident they will make their goal of 5 million sold during all of 08, clearly banking on back to school and holiday sales as well as the Eee 901/1000 releases.

Admittedly some of the shortfall is not Asus’ fault. Intensified competition, Atom shortage, economic downturn…none of these are factors which bode well for consumer tech sales of any kind, let alone a “luxury” item such as the Eee.

However, most of Asus’ wounds right now are self inflicted. They are announcing too many products with no clear strategy which always confuses buyers. Too many models would be bad enough, but since they are always leaking yet another new version coming soon, buyers are likely to wait and see what else is coming. No one likes buying a product then regretting it the next week when a better model is announced. Asus has lost a lot of the consumer confidence they had after the 701’s success. Add to all of that the fact they have moved from having the lowest prices in their space to the highest (or nearly the highest) and it really seems that Asus has lost their way in this space.

The next half of the year is going to get harder for Asus and other UMPC vendors not easier, as more and more units flood the market place. In the face of that competition, it doesn’t help that Asus is acting like a fly-by-night outfit, trying to milk all they can out of a brand before it runs dry and they hide the money. Rather then coming in under expectations, I think Asus would be wise to just lower those expectations and suspend their ambitious roadmap for the time being. They should focus on what they have ready for shelves NOW, not what may be coming out sometime in the amorphous future.

In related news, Acer has looked at Asus’ troubles and declared themselves unconcerned and confident that the Aspire One will be a big seller for them despite mediocre to poor reviews. They are planning on the XP version moving 15,000 units a day. Yeah right. I think under the circumstances, Acer should pass Asus a little of what they are smoking, they could use the munchies.

(Source – Digitimes)

Eee 1000H First Day Review

My friend DavoMrMac from Geekanoids published a first day of release review of the Asus Eee 1000H with some great if slightly out of focus unboxing pictures (give the guy a break, he was excited). Seeing as he posted a review of the Advent 4211 just a few days ago, he is having a great week.

Overall he loved the 1000H and seemed a bit surprised by that fact, which must be music to Asus’ ears as they have been needing some positive fan buzz for their new units.

Davo says the following about the look and feel of this HD varient on the successful Eee form:

The 1000H unit is very very sexy. Our model is in black and it has a very high gloss finish. It looks as thought it’ll really be a fingerprint magnet, but this does not seem to be the case. Touching the outer lid leaves no traces of smudges, which is a good sign. On first switch on, you get a feel for how the screen delivers a nice bright picture. It is not quite as bright as the Advent 4211 (MSI Wind), but it is bright enough, giving a just slightly off-white look (only very slightly) at its brightest setting. The keyboard is nicer than the Advent, it is better spaced, and you have a little room at the edges, so I like it a lot more. The feel of the keys is nicer too, giving a nice amount of travel and a very positive feel.

Not sure I like the sound of the gloss finish (I prefer matte myself), but the news of the keyboard, screen brightness and the fact that he mentions later loving the touchpad (worst element of the 701 in my opinion) bode well.

See the entire review and a gallery of snaps of the first of the new generation of Eees HERE.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

It appears that no one at Asus has even so much as heard of an NDA or a confidential roadmap, as they are springing new product leaks faster than the USS Minnow with Gilligan at the helm. Let’s look at a quick rundown of new Eees being sold, confirmed or rumored just over the last few days, little buddies.

* The Eee 904 has been confirmed by Asus with the following specs:

• List price: @ $533
• Release date: Mid July
• CPU: 900MHz Celeron M chip currently
• Operating System: Windows XP
• Chassis: 10 inch
• Display: 8.9 inch 1024 x 600 pixel
• Storage: 80GB HDD
• RAM: 1GB
• Weight: 1.4kg / 3.1lb

* 3G Eee’s are on the horizon in two different flavors; WiMax for the US and HSDPA/HSUPA for Europe. Both would be designed to be bundled with service contracts from SPs. The Euro version may be out as early as September.

* Amazon is now taking preorders for the Eee 901/1000/1000h. Pricing is as follows:

• Eee PC 1000 with an 40GB SSD, 10.2 inch display and Linux - $699.
• Eee PC 1000H with an 80GB hard drive, 10.2 inch display and Windows XP - $649.
• Eee PC 901 with an 8.9 inch display and Windows XP (12G SSD) or Linux (20G SSD) - $599.

*  According to jkkmobile a version of the Eee 900 with a 16GB flash SSD (running XP or GNU Linux) has been snuck out with no fanfare whatsoever. It is already available in some places online for $399.

Eee PC 900 with Touch Screen

No, Asus is not selling a new version of this device, it’s JKK who installed a touch screen in one of them and he is sharing this experience in this video.

Yet More Eees

The rumoured Eee 904 I reported on yesterday has now been confirmed by Asus and will be called the Eee 904 HD due to the fact it will be sporting a standard HD rather then an SSD. Beyond the fact it will be an 8.9 inch screen in the larger 10 inch chassis and have a hard drive, Asus isn’t saying much about the device specs. They did state that it will NOT be replacing any other model and will be priced around $500. So much for my hope of a return to the $399 price point.

Shall we recap? Between rumors and actual announcements in the next couple months we are supposed to be seeing the Eee 901, Eee 904 HD, Eee 905 (unconfirmed), Eee 1000, Eee 1000h and Eee Box.

That’s an awful lot of Eees. However we aren’t done yet, add one more Eee to the flock, the Eee Monitor.

This all in one unit is being reported by Electronista to be a clear iMac clone with the same basic form and style and lots of very Non-Eee flourishes, such as Denon speakers, an integrated TV tuner, 6 USB ports, dual ethernet ports and a 19 or 20 inch screen. A very pretty machine, but what the devil is Asus thinking?

At least the device will use the same Atom chip as other new Eees and is designed around Linux rather then Windows XP which will help keep the price down around the $500 mark according to Electronista.

Do any of Asus’ recent moves make sense to you?

Me neither.

More and more I have a feeling Asus is driving themselves out of the UMPC Mini-notebook space by their own nonsensical choices and lack of brand focus.

Look for more pictures of the Eee Monitor HERE.

Both the Eee 904 HD and the Eee Monitor should be out in a few weeks according to PC Retail.

Diablo II on an Eee 701

As predicted, now that the new patch means no CD is required to play Diablo II, it can indeed run on even low powered UMPCs such as the Eee 701. The game loads quickly and is very smooth and sharp…just the thing to start getting my adrenaline going for Diablo III…but THAT I will play on a desktop.

To get Diablo II to run on the 701, the following tweaks are required:

• AsTray+ must be installed to give a 1000×600 resolution
• eeectl should be installed to overclock the CPU
• 1.5G free SSD space needed, either internally or on an SD card/flash drive

When you install Diablo II, be sure to already have AsTray+ installed and in 1000×600 mode. Choose the full installation option, including cinematics. Then install the 1.12 patch from Blizzard. One file needs to be copied from the Play CD (D2MUSIC.mpq) and then you are good to go!

The same will work with the Lord of Destruction expansion, but remember you will need to get a different patch from Blizzard.

Happy demonslaying!

ASUS Eee PC 1000H naked

Here is another naked lady courtesy of TweakTown, this time the victim is the newest Asus Eee PC 1000H.

Today we are going to strip down a juicier, more mature model; something seductively more endowed, and covered in glossy black. No more innocent “clad in white” teeny tid-bit viewing; this is an all-black leather mistress with her whips and chains, and it took a great deal of coaxing to calm her out of her plastic glossy black briefs. Rest assured though, that the few scars from the screws, and the torment as she teased us, nearly caused several explosions! - As you would have guessed by now, the story is diverse as well as slightly on the dark side. So please note that like our previous Eee PC exposé which you can view here, the content is slightly risqué.

Aspire One and Eee 901 Head to Head

Over at Crave/CNET UK a very interesting review and photo set went up yesterday from Rory Reid. He was reviewing the Aspire One, Acer’s entry in the “MY UMPC is Cooler than YOUR UMPC” sweepstakes. Through the course of the stand alone review (which was overall very positive, in case you were on the edge of your seat about it) Reid stacks the device directly up against the Asus Eee 901. As these two devices share pretty much the same market space and specs (pricing wise, the Eee is a good deal more expensive, perhaps dealbreakingly so) this seemed to me a good thing, since a lot of consumers will be doing the exact same thing over the next couple months as the “back to school/holiday” season arrives.

Not surprisingly, it was largely a draw. Reid gave the Aspire One some raves about the keyboard (a bit larger then the Eee, as is the entire device) while the Eee gets the nod on battery life and trackpad usability. Wireless is also a bit of a tako, as the Aspire One lacks the Eee 901s built-in bluetooth but has a slot behind the battery to accept a 3G SIM card.

The review in a nutshell is as follows:

In some respects, the Acer Aspire One is better than an Eee PC 901. It has an excellent keyboard, solid performance and is highly portable. The Eee PC 901 still has the edge in terms of battery life and mouse input, so it’s a close call between the two machines.

Both devices got a solid 8.8 rating.

If you are debating between the two UMPCs, this review may make your job even harder as it doesn’t declare a clear winner….but it is still an excellent run down of the strengths and weaknesses of the two much-anticipated devices.

Read the entire review HERE, and click HERE for a further gallery of comparison shots from Crave.

Asus Eee PC 900, Video Review

Our friend JKK posted a video review about the Asus Eee PC 900 that I would recommend to anyone thinking of buying this device. 

There is so much more i would like to share about it, but I hope this is a good start.. uups.. a 35 minute start..

Wannabe Hi-tech thieves are using UMPCs

Almost a year ago I wrote about how my UMPC helped me in a security project that I was working on. So I was not surprised at all when I read today this news today about how thieves used the Asus Eee PC to steal credit card information in Brazil.

The cheapest UMPC in town, the Asus EEE PC, has fallen into the hands of three criminals in Brazil, using it to rig ATM to grab credit card information and personal information numbers for cloning credit cards.

What is available for the good guys is available too for the bad guys too. Thanks God, as you can see from this news, crooks are not too smart sometimes like in this case.

Asus Eee PC 900 unboxing ceremony

 JKK has published a video about his Asus Eee PC 900 unboxing ceremony that I think many will enjoy!