Asus keyboard PC due May. Or maybe June
OLED screens coming too
Asus' Eee PC Keyboard could appear as early as May the firm's bosses confirmed at CeBit today.
Company chairman Jonney Shih said the firm was shooting for a Q2 launch for the the device, which incorporates a fully fledged PC and touchpad into a standard five-inch deep keyboard. This could mean May, he said, before opting for June as a surer bet.
CEO Jerry Shen said the firm was working on two SKUs for the keyboard PC: a wireless version and a wired version – this simply refers to the way they connect to a monitor or TV. He said that given the economic situation it was dangerous to be specific on pricing this far out. But, he said, right now the firm expected the wired version should come in at around $400 (£285/€317), while the wireless version could be anywhere between $400 and $600 (£428/€476).
Shih rejected a suggestion that the Eee brand was becoming diluted as the firm slapped its the three letters on everything from netbooks to desktops, via the keyboard PC and even phones.
Shih also said the firm was considering bringing OLED screen technology to its Eee notebooks, and said that it expected that 10ih screens would become the norm on the cultish devices, though smaller screens would continue to have a role in emerging and niche markets. Women, in particular, were more likely to opt for a smaller screened, more mobile device, he claimed. ®
COMMENTS
Wait, I have one in the basement
Everything old is new again. Remember Dragon, Sinclair, C-64?!!!
TRS80 anniversary
Slightly unusual to celebrate the 32nd anniversary of a product, but it is true for the TRS80 model 1 which was launched in 1977! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80). It didn't need a mouse or touchpad or indeed Windows and managed to do wordprocessing in 48kb of RAM!
Mine's the Parka...
Neil.
Google corrects me
It is more than a EEEPC with the screen taken off. And Re: comments about cost and removing the screen aspect of the price... well they didn't acually get rid of teh screen completely. tbh I've lost count of the times I have drearily looked over the the right hand side of my keyboard and wished I had a tiny screen with a calendar on it.. suddenly my FHM 365 babes calendar seems so boring.
http://www.itechnews.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/asus-eee-keyboard-is-acutally-a-pc.jpg
Your starter for ten ...
... What is its practical use ?
It's a shame there's no picture as that would make things clearer for people, but if it hasn't changed since prototype it looks like a standard keyboard with a 5" LCD where the numeric keypad usually is.
It looks nice, feels like a "must have", but it's darned expensive and I'm not sure what use it is.
Re: what a thick keyboard
You've never used an IBM 5251 terminal then?
For the uninitiated, a doorstop of a beast (assuming your doors are of the 40' high, solid oak, iron bound variety) with a keyboard quite capable of derailing trains if left in the wrong place.
