The end of the week is here again and here we go with a rundown of some of the coolest stories we have seen this week. Monday marked the day the Asus Eee PC 1101HA went on sale in America. The rig is a netbook in name only; the beastie is expensive at about $430. The same day Gigabyte quietly unveiled the T1028X convertible touchscreen netbook. The device has a screen resolution of 1366 x 768 and other than the screen, the rest of the machine is typical netbook fare.
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ASUS' 11.6-inch Eee PC 1101HA has finally made it to retail, with the 1.33GHz Atom Z520 ultraportable landing at Amazon. $429.99 gets you not only the 1101HA's 1,366 x 768 LED-backlit panel, but a 160GB hard-drive and 1GB of RAM. According to ASUS, the 1101HA's battery is good for up to 10hrs runtime.
Production delays, doubts over functionality and the potential for limited supplies even when it reaches shelves: for a netbook, the touchscreen convertible ASUS Eee PC T91 has sure had some issues. Happily the first models seem to be filtering out now, with jkkmobile taking delivery today and shooting an unboxing and first-impressions video.
Unboxing video after the cut
More of the more tempting models from ASUS’ upcoming notebook line, the ultraportable UX30, has found its way to the desk of Netbook Live, and they’ve been putting the 13.3-inch pre-release unit through its paces. Theirs is the entry-level 1.3GHz SU2700 model, using one of Intel’s CULV processors paired with 2GB of RAM and GMA X4500MHD graphics.
Acer and ASUS are tipped to have frozen new netbook launches in the second half of 2009, in response to Intel’s decision to postpone the launch of the Pine Trail-M platform – of which the Atom N450 processor is a part – until Q1 2010. As part of that, Acer’s dual-booting Android/Windows XP netbook has been postponed with no known launch date; the netbook, first shown in prototype form at Computex in June, was most recently expected to arrive in August.
Standalone Twitter displays aren’t anything new, but we’re particularly enamored of David Nichols’ Tweetster. Whether it’s the open-air aesthetic, the laser-cut wooden parts or the fact that it reminds us of a flashing, Twitter-blurting sleigh, we don’t know, but we’ve the OpenWRT project and an ASUS Wireless Router WL-520-GU to thank for the functionality.
Pegatron have been showing off their Freescale-powered netbook prototype again, and if you’re wondering why there’s a Palm Pre perched on the end then it’s because the two share the same basic ARM Cortex A8 core architecture. In the unnamed netbook’s case, though, the Freescale iMX515 runs at 1GHz, and is capable of playing 720p video and running 3D games.
In case you can’t read the helpful legends in the image below, you’re looking eye-to-port at what promises to be the first motherboard with dual SuperSpeed USB 3.0. The ASUS P6X58 Premium is designed for Intel’s Core i7 CPU range, and has six DDR3 memory slots, three PCI Express 2.0 slots and the usual bevy of USB 2.0 ports and headers; however, ASUS have also thrown in a pair of USB 3.0 ports capable of a theoretical 4.8Gbps transfer rate.
ASUS have apparently pushed back the launch of their second touchscreen netbook, the Eee PC T101, according to the latest whisperings from the industry. Originally set to be released in June 2009, the T101 – which has a 10-inch touchscreen display, and is the larger sibling to the T91 - will now arrive in September at the earliest.
What’s that, you say? Why, it’s ASUS’ Eee PC 1101HA, the 11.6-inch Atom Z520 model from the company’s slippery Seashell range, and it’s sat next to the packaging it so recently was unboxed from. It’s the handiwork of NewGadgets.de, who have managed to acquire one of the netbooks over in Europe.
Unboxing video after the cut
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