Asus pitches wee Eee PC companion
Sub-sub-notebook that's Palm Pilot for the 21st Century?
Computex First Palm's Foleo, now Asus' Eee PC. Different names, but the concept's much the same: a highly compact laptop that focuses on mobile internet access rather than heavy duty personal computing.
Asus' Eee PC 701: sub-sub-notebook
The Eee PC 701 - announced this week at the Computex show in Taipei - is built around a 7in display, laptop-like QWERTY keyboard and Intel's Ultra Mobile Platform chip technology.
Asus' Eee PC 701: send pics from the beach... if you can find a hotspot
Asus said the sub-notebook will contain 512MB of memory and 4, 8 or 16GB of Flash storage. Whether that's for apps and OS as well as data isn't known. The 701's expected to run Linux or Windows, since you ask.
Asus' Eee PC 701: cheap enough for the kids to break with impunity...
It has 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and 100Mbps Ethernet for connectivity, along with a 0.3-megapixel camera, stereo speakers, microphone. There's even a VGA port, suggesting Asus has half a notion folk will hook it up to an external screen.
In short, the 701 is a small, low power PC rather than a unit tailor-made for low-level mobile computing and communications. Not that that's done anything for the machine's longevity - Asus quotes a mere three hours, so you don't get any more usage out of the 701 than you would a more powerful, larger laptop.
Still, it is smaller and more portable - 890g and dimensions of 22.5 x 16.5 x 2.1-3.5cm - providing the kind of internet access device you could take on holiday to stay in touch. The 2GB model's expected to retail for around $200 (£100/€148), the kind of price that might just make the 701 attractive as a take-anywhere adjunct to a user's main PC.
COMMENTS
And to think, I considerd buying a Palm TX...
now I'll save my pennies for this. Portable, Linux, Wireless networking, USB and all for $200...who needs a PDA. I've been waiting for something like this for while. I don't need a smartphone with everything but the kitchen sink or a $500 "mobile companion" I just need something cheap that I can write documents, browse the web, check emails, and of course play games, while I am away from my PC.
A 900MHz CPU and a 4GB flash based Hard Drive, while not Vista worthy, should be quite peppy with Linux. And once the hardware has been out for a while, I'm sure you'll be able to put any brand of Linux that you want on it.
I think the price is going to make it or break it. I hope the $200 price tag is for real. I thought those Windows CE handhelds were a real good idea too (especially HP Jornada 720). But they were way overpriced and never took off.
I'll be waiting anxiously...
Size of a Picturebook!
(...to quote an old cartoon series.)
A Sony Picturebook to be precise. Same size, but missing the camera. :-)
Libretto...Neal Barnes, small world
Neal, small world, maybe there are only a few dozen people on this internet thing!
Remember me from the Libretto list? We met in NYC and in London.
I was drawn to this listing too. Dragged out one of my old Libs the other day and admired it, too bad it's no use any longer!
Hope all is well.
Mike Hodish
PDA that is worth the space
This is a very interesting device. With a VGA connector and the ability (?) to connect an external keyboard and mouse it's an excellent PC replacement for users in Citrix environments, and for a sub PDA price.
Even allowing for the usual UK price hike, if it'll take XP, I can see a great many places picking this up.
competition to foleo.
If they sell it for €150 I'll probably buy this. I think the foleo concept is interesting but way overpriced. If they sold the foleo for €250 instead of the €450 it'll probably cost then the foleo would have a chance thanks to bluethoot and the screen...
