ASUS are planning a Celeron version of their Eee Box nettop, which will be cheaper than the current Intel Atom N270 model. According to DigiTimes, poor sales of the Eee Box – which packs hardware usually found in the company’s Eee PC netbook into a slender desktop form-factor – has prompted the new entry-level machine, which will go on sale alongside the existing nettop.
The Eee PC will get at least two touchscreen variants announced in early 2009, with both convertible and standard notebook form-factor designs being explored. That’s the latest news from ASUS CEO Jerry Shen, who has been sharing some more details about what’s become the largest netbook range on the market. As well as the touchscreen models, ASUS have obviously decided to take Steve Ballmer at his word and miss Windows Vista out completely; instead, they’re planning to introduce Windows 7 to netbooks in the second half of 2009.
Someone really needs to schedule the people at ASUS some off-duty time, as they’ve obviously missed a great deal in the electronic entertainment world while distracted by all those Eees. The company has officially announced their new Eee Stick wireless controllers, and in a moment of bizarrely blinkered hyperbole have described them as a “First-of-its-kind Wireless Controller”.
Someone at ASUS has obviously decided that there’s a market for Wiimote-like peripherals, since a filing for the Eee Stick wireless gesture-based controllers has just shown up at the FCC. According to the report, two Sticks will be supplied – one with a D-pad and the other with an analogue controller – together with a USB dongle using an unnamed 2.4GHz wireless connection.
Rather unsurprisingly – since I think even ASUS would admit where their “inspiration” came from – the Eee Stick controller has been likened to Nintendo’s Wiimote. Jake Ludington got a chance to test out the motion-sensitive interface while at Computex, which ASUS are positioning not so much as a gaming peripheral but as a generally fresh way to interact with normal PC apps.
SlashGear Japan
