Sony Ericsson announced that it was going to offer up a new Android bootloader unlock tool. The catch is that the tool will only be offered for certain handsets in its 2011 lineup. We went hands on with the Nokia C7 Astound for the T-Mobile network early in the week. The phone is small and for now all you get is some light impressions with a full review coming soon.

We put up a review of the HTC Desire S, which is the follow up to one of the most popular Android phones of 2010. The phone is reliable and with well-made software that will be another HTC bestseller for sure. The Samsung WiFi only Galaxy tab got an official price and date. The tablet will landed on March 31 for the equivalent of $477 on Amazon UK. European regulations announced early in the week that some episodes of the cartoon The Simpsons would be editied for content. The shows with references to nuclear accidents and radiation are being cut.

An awesome underwater dome that reminds me a lot of Bioshock that is 100-years old turned up in images. The dome is under a lake in Witley Park in the UK and is part of an old mansion that was built by J. Whitaker Wright. Windows Phone has been tipped to get an update that will bring NFC payments to the device. This is no surprise given all the focus some big companies are putting on NFC payments over the last few months.

We spent some time putting together an first impressions video of the Asus Eee Pad Transformer for you to check out mid-week. We found a lot to like and will be offering up the full verdict on the device in a few weeks. The Eee Pad Transformer and the Eee Slate EP121 also both had their official price and launch date announced. The Transformer will sell for the equivalent of $688 on April 6 with the slate landing on April 10 for the equivalent of $1602. Tesla announced that it was suing BBC and Top Gear over a test the Top Gear crew did on the Tesla Roadster. The Top Gear crew claims the Roadster ran out of power after 55 miles and had to be pushed while Tesla claims the batteries were still charged and working.

A guy made a DIY slingshot later in the week that doesn’t shoot rocks or BB’s. This slingshot shoots machetes and is sure to cause the loss of a finger or two at some point. An awesome item perfect for coffee drinkers turned up on Thursday called Coffee Joulies. They are silver coffee beans with some polymer inside that melts to absorb heat from coffee that is too hot and then puts that heat back into the drink to keep it warm.

Chris put up his skeptics review of the iPad 2. Chris figures he can respect the iPad 2, but finds it hard to love. We reviewd the Sony Xperia Play smartphone late in the week. The phone doesn’t deliver the knockout punch that would have made Sony’s day and the device lacks the polished experience we wanted to see.

A doctor took his robotic surgical tool and used it to make tiny paper airplanes. The doc did this to show how much dexterity and control the tools have and they are impressive. A dude took a phone book and crammed it into the port of his massive car stereo where the air is displaced. The air was powerful enough to blow pages out of the phone book.

We rounded up all the wacky April Fools products that surfaced on Friday. We always see some crazy gear this time of year and on occasion, some of the crazy gear actually turns into products. Sony CEO Howard Stinger let slip that Apple is buying “it’s best sensors” from Sony. Presumably that means that the iPhone 5 will be using the 8MP sensor that Sony makes.

The stock of the iPad 2 in stores may improve with Apple adding a new display panel provider. Apple has AU Optronics making the IPS screens of the tablet now too. That’s all for this week’s edition, see you next time!

Alienware outted the cool looking and powerful M18x notebook computer. It can be packed with dual NVIDIA or AMD GPUs and will have a price to match the impressive specs. The Notion Ink Adam hit a bit of a snag this week after the FCC was backed up and had a delay in issuing the labels the devices needs to ship. The backlog was expected to be cleared the same week.

Kevin Rose of Digg fame announced this week that the iPad 2 was coming soon according to sources that spilled the beans to him. Rose was told that the new tablet would launch in the “next few weeks.” That PlayStation phone that we keep hearing about showed up on video this week running PS1 ROMs. The phone looks really cool and I hope the thing doesn’t suck when it finally lands.

On Monday Verizon Tweeted from the Twitter for iPhone app as CES. We all knew the iPhone was coming at this point so few were surprised I think. AMD kicked its CEO, Dirk Meyer, out of office last week and the chip giant is looking for a new CEO. As of now, there is no word on a replacement.

Intel agreed to pay NVIDIA $1.5 billion in licensing fees this week. The deal marks a 6-year cross-licensing agreement between the two firms and allows both firms to drop the legal proceedings between the two. Pioneer showed off a new prototype cycling computer powered by Android. The little thing is cool and proves Android really is heading everywhere.

We wondered this week if the iPhone that hit Verizon would hurt Android device sales. Consider that AT&T has 15 iPhone users for every Android device user it’s a valid question. I think Verizon will still sell lots of Android devices. Once the Verizon iPhone surfaced on Tuesday, we learned that the buttons are slightly different from the AT&T iPhone thanks to the CDMA nature of Verizon’s device. That means that some cases for AT&T iPhones won’t fit the Verizon offering, but some will.

We went hands on with the Verizon iPhone Tuesday and it’s the AT&T device with button and antenna tweaks. The biggest improvement is that the Verizon network isn’t a crappy in most areas as the AT&T network. A really cool case for the iPad surfaced this week called the US+U Swivel Pro with a rotating handle. Each of the cases also gets a 3% donation to one of the charities the company supports.

All iPhones no matter the carrier will get personal hotspot feature in the iOS 4.3 update. That is assuming AT&T doesn’t block it as they always have blocked tethering. A cool guitar tuner was unveiled this week called the Capo tuner from OnBoard Research. The turner has a big screen and makes tuning your guitar easy.

We spend some hands on time with the Eee Slate EP121 tablet. The tablet is a 12.1-inch machine that has more notebook DNA than iPad inside. Sprint has announced a big event for February 7 and is promising another industry first. The event will have the Sprint CEO on hand an illusionist David Blaine.

Verizon axed its New Every Two program right before the iPhone launched. The move was undoubtedly to help keep some iPhone users from upgrading so quickly since subsidies are going to eat up billions for the company. A cool wireless video card surfaced from KFA2. The card sends the video from your computer out wirelessly to your screen using a receiver and five antennas on the back. The video card is an NVIDIA GTX 460.

HorodronHD-01 concept Watch surfaced and it’s really cool. The thing has an E-ink screen and is easy to read unlike other designer watches with high-tech designs. A geek took a Kinect, Wii controllers, and a PC version of Black Ops and hacked the works to operate together. The Wii controllers handled movement, aim and firing while the Kinect recognized gestures for other commands.

Analysts are reporting that since the iPhone launched Apple may have sold as many as 90 million iPhones. Considering the device was only on one carrier in many places for a lot of that time the number is very impressive. BAE Systems is working on an e-ink system of camo for tanks. The system uses sensors to project the landscape around the tank onto the surface of the tank to hide it Predator style.

A new line of Angry Birds plush toys surfaced at Firebox. Some of the stuffed toys make noises and they will all ship in March. Liquid Image has a new set of goggles for the off-road rider that wants to record their antics. It can record in 1080p 30 fps or 720p 60 fps and stores to microSD cards.

Korg outted a new nanoSERIES2 USB controller this week. The thing comes in black or white colors and gets power and connectivity from the USB port. Apple has announced that the App Store is nearing the 10 billion download mark. The person who downloads the 10 billionth app will get a $10,000 gift card.

Some leaked iPad 2 cases have surfaced that show what the new tablet might look like. The things have the case shows the same square design as the current iPad with a larger speaker and more. A few rumors have been floating around on the specs of the iPad 2. The rumors point to a higher resolution screen, SD card slot, and more . I just don’t see Apple offering a SD card slot on anything, but I would love to be wrong on that. Thanks for reading this week’s edition!

Video after the cut

They’re surprisingly enthusiastic about the EA800, too, with the 8-inch slate running quickly on its Marvell CPU. Whether students and other note-takers will find it quite so appealing remains to be seen, of course.

Meanwhile, ASUS has put up the user manual for the Eee Note EA800 [PDF link], along with the guides for the DR900 Eee Reader [PDF link] and TZ900 Eee Reader [PDF link]. A US debut for the EA800 is expected sometime in Q1 2011.

[ASUS manuals via EeePC.it]

That camera, ASUS original suggested, could be used by students to snap photos of text and images and then annotate them directly on the Eee Note’s display. Ports include microUSB, a 3.5mm headphones socket and a microSD card slot, to augment the onboard 4GB of ROM. There’s also a mono speaker and integrated microphone.

ASUS reckons the Eee Note EA800 will last for up to 10hrs continuous use with the wireless turned on, or 14.5hrs with it turned off. Alternatively the 3,700 mAh battery is good for up to 10 days standby. It supports PDF, ePub, MP3, JPEG, BMP, GIF, PNG, txt, doc, docx, xls, xlsx, ppt and pptx files. No word on pricing at this stage.

[via Notebook Italia]

The netbook runs and Intel N550 dual-core processor and has the same specs as the 1015PEM netbook already on the market with the real change being the new colors. The lid has a flow treatment with ridges that look like water or something.

The colors the netbook comes in are called Purple Rain, Gold Dust, and Angel Skin. I would assume that the purple you see here, gold, and a white color of some sort. The other hardware specs include a battery good for ten hours, chicklet keyboard, WiFi, Bluetooth, up to 320GB of storage, and a webcam. The screen of the machine has a 1024 x 600 resolution and is LED backlit.

An Apple manager was arrested early in the week for allegedly taking kickbacks from makers of iPhone and iPod accessories. The kickbacks totaled about a million dollars according to authorities. A DIY geek took his MacBook Air and cobbled it together with a Magic Trackpad. The result looks like the Asus Eee keyboard computer a bit.

That sweet Toshiba Libretto W100 with the dual touchscreens got its own unboxing and video review this week. The little computer is one of the coolest things Toshiba has ever made. We reviewed the Plantronics M100 Bluetooth headset on Tuesday. We really liked the device and it works as well as the Discovery 975 we reviewed not too long ago in a more compact design.

The Verizon iPhone and iPad may be about to go into field testing according to some rumors. The rumor surfaced from some geeks looking at a block of code that allows the iPhone to be activated without iTunes. A cool new 3D camera from Fujifilm called the W3 went official over in the UK. The camera has dual lenses and CCDs and can take plain old 2D photos if you want.

Poor old Asus was forced to inform investors and Wall Street that it was having to reduce its shipping estimates for netbooks. The company points the finger in part at the iPad for taking so many netbook buyers into tablet territory along with the overall slowing of the netbook market. Nikon debuted a new camera sporting a projector early in the week called the S1100pj. The new camera has a projector that is much brighter than the first projector cam the firm offered and will ship in September for $349.99.

Blackberry has fired blanks with the Torch it seems. The handset reportedly only sold 150,000 units its first weekend making the launch very disappointing. Pandigital is set to toss a new eReader onto the market that runs Android and has a matte finish 7-inch TFT LCD screen with full color. The thing can read books, check email, stream video and more.

ioSafe has added a new SoloPro external rugged HDD to its line. The new offering addresses one of the only shortcomings of the original by adding USB 3.0 and eSATA connectivity to the options. Gamers in Japan will be able to get a really cool PS3 bundle starting in November. The bundle will have a blue color and come with Gran Turismo 5.

Stream TV is going to be launching a new tablet to fight the iPad called the eLocity A7. The tablet will have a 7-inch screen and run Android with a launch date pegged for August 24. Wednesday we reviewed the mid 2010 update of the iMac Core i7 AIO computer. We figure it’s a well-rounded machine that is a fitting replacement for most traditional desktop computers.

Shuttle announced three new ready to ship versions of its thin XS35 HTPC this week. The three versions included mild general use rigs up to an Ion packing HD ready beastie. A company called PS Jailbreak has unveiled a cool solution for hacking your PS3 to play games and home brew software straight from the HDD. The good news is the solution is all software with no need to open your PS3.

The RIM BlackPad will reportedly have a new OS built by QNX software systems. Could this be because the Blackberry 6 OS was not exactly as exciting as RIM had hoped? LG is set to cram NVIDIA Tegra 2 graphics into its new smartphones. The two companies announced a partnership recently and the phones are expected later this year.

Sanyo pulled the wraps off a new Xacti dual camera this week. The VPC-PD2BK can shoot full 1080p 30p video and has a 3x optical zoom lens and records stereo sound. BitFenix unveiled its Colossus computer case this week that is one of the coolest cases I have ever seen. The thing has USB 3.0, lots of bays, and an awesome design.

HP has announced that its webOS tablet will be getting official in early 2011. This is the tablet that everyone figured HP had in mind when it bought Palm, I hope it doesn’t suck. The new Halo Reach video game has been leaked ahead of the official launch. The game was downloaded off the Microsoft servers after being put there for reviewers when hackers figured out a way to get around the need for a special code to download the game. Thanks for reading this edition!

That’s significantly higher than the iPad, but ASUS’s machine will offer full PC functionality since it’s based on an Intel Core 2 Duo ULV processor running Windows 7 Home Premium.  It also comes with a keyboard docking station for speedier text-entry, and has a 12-inch display.

Interestingly, while the EP101TC ditched Windows 7 Embedded Compact in favor of Android 3.0, according to Shen there will be a third model in January 2011 which will in fact use the Microsoft OS.  That will have a 10-inch touchscreen, ARM processors and a price tag between $399 and $499, but lack the EP121′s docking station.

Finally, the ASUS Eee Tablet – a monochrome LCD slate intended for reading and annotating documents – will drop globally in October priced at around $300, considerably cheaper than the $500 tipped recently.  It will run a homegrown Linux OS rather than Android, have WiFi, 2 -megapixel camera, touchscreen and audio recording, together with a browser, microSD card (augmenting the 2GB of onboard storage) and a battery good for 10hrs runtime.  ASUS are considering renaming it to the Eee Note, so as to avoid direct tablet comparisons.

[via Engadget]

The price discrepancy could be accounted for by comparison carrier subsidized and unsubsidized figures.  ASUS is apparently in talks with carriers regarding bundled sales, which could potentially bring the price down to the originally suggested levels.

Unlike rival ereaders, such as the Amazon Kindle, the ASUS Eee Tablet uses an LCD TFT display rather than an epaper screen from E Ink.  This non-backlit monochrome panel allows for 0.1s screen refresh rates, far faster than E Ink can manage, and ASUS expect it to be a hit with students who can use the included stylus to annotate documents (including those they’ve snapped with the integrated 2-megapixel camera).  Battery life is tipped at around 10hrs.

The Asus Eee PC 1016P is still missing a product page, in its own right, but it is being showcased on Asus’ website now. So, that next logical step will probably happen right around the corner here. However, despite the official page missing, previous reports of the netbook’s existence have the full list of specs already available, and we’ve no reason to think that they’ll change much in the coming weeks. Under the hood you’ll find an Intel Atom N455 CPU, Bluetooth 3.0, a 320GB hard drive, and 2GB of RAM to give you an extra boost in your daily computing needs. It has DDR3 support, and the battery life is clocked at 13 hours on a single charge.

As for the other details, they look like this: Windows 7 Starter, a 10-inch LED-backlit WSVGA screen with a resolution of 1024 x 600, a 0.3MP front-facing camera, stereo speakers, 3 USB 3.0 ports and 1 LAN RJ-45 port. It also comes with a card reader, and the battery is of the 6-cell variety. It will come in black and silver, whenever it officially launches. There’s still no word on that official release date, nor is there a price point that we can reveal to you today.

[via EeePC.net]

The new machine is very similar to the 1005PE with a few nifty additions. The machine uses the Atom N450 but gets 2GB of RAM rather than the 1GB of the other machine. The H version also gets a 320GB HDD rather than the 250GB of the lesser version.

The other features are common between the two systems including Windows 7, a 6-cell battery promising 11 hours of run time, and the 10.1-inch 1024 x 600 resolution screen. The price for the new version will be 349 €. No official pics have been offered of the netbook at this point, but I would expect it to be in the same case as the 1005PE.

Otherwise details are scarce, though ASUS is believed to have awarded the manufacturing contract to Pegatron.  The ASUS Eee Pad is expected to come in at under $500; we’d say it has to arrive at more like a $300 point if it wants to find sufficient buyers.

Meanwhile ASUS’ ebook reader plans are also prompting speculation among manufacturers, with the latest in Taipei being rumors that uncertainty over market demand has led the company to delay the launch of the 9-inch DR-950 and OLED-based 6-inch DR-570.  In fact the sources now claim that neither ereader will hit the market until the latter half of 2010.

[Image via Carrypad]

Video demo after the cut

Unfortunately there’s no telling whether the Eee PC slate was functional or otherwise, as NVIDIA had it imprisoned in a glass case with a few other Tegra 2 based touchscreen devices.  That seems to indicate that, while ASUS are playing with the idea of such a tablet, they’re not ready to do anything as dramatic as officially announce it.

In fact its absence from the ASUS press event may mean that the tablet is just a mock-up; everything else the company demonstrated was functional.  Still, given the current climate for tablet news in general, we wouldn’t be surprised if ASUS green-lighted the project.

The culprit in both cases is poor market reception, with the Eee Stick team already a fifth of its original size and the display segment proving tougher to break into than expected.  The sources also reckon ASUS at one point planned to slim down its core Eee PC netbook department, but then decided to do the complete opposite by investing more heavily in Pine Trail based models.

That means you get a 160GB hard-drive, 1GB of RAM and Windows XP, with the whole thing weighing 1.1kg and measuring in at 225 x 165 x 21 mm.  The battery is a slim-fitting 4,400mAh pack which ASUS reckon you’ll see up to 11hrs of runtime from.  Connectivity includes WiFi b/g, three USB 2.0 ports and a memory card reader, along with audio in/out.

Curiously, the product description lists TV out/in as features, but the photos available of the 1001P don’t appear to show anything along those lines.  Amazon Germany say the Eee PC 1001P will begin shipping on January 6th 2010, priced at €267.70 ($384) and available in both black and white.

[via EEE-pc]

That should pit it squarely against the ICD Ultra, a 7-inch Tegra T20-based slate expected to arrive in early 2010, along with the Notion Ink smartpad (which has a larger, 10.1-inch Pixel Qi display).  Both of those rivals use Android as their OS; so far we’ve not heard what platform ASUS might settle on for the Eee Pad.

[via Netbook News]

Full details of the EeeBot’s capabilities are unknown at present, but it’s expected to include elements of human-robot interaction, voice and visual technologies, positioning and navigation.  We’re thinking Eee PC on wheels, perhaps a little like the RoBe:do modular ‘bot platform.  ASUS apparently expect to launch the first EeeBot devices in two years time.

[via Engadget]

Both reviews rate the dual-core Atom 330 processor and NVIDIA Ion pairing highly for everyday usability, with the netbook having no problem with multiple tabs open in the browser, simultaneous video playback and other tools – such as graphics editing – that you’d not normally associate with an Atom chip.  You’ll pay for it in battery life, however; Noti ran a particularly stressful test, turning both WiFi and Bluetooth on, brightness to maximum and playing a Full HD video on a loop, and got 2 hours and 45 minutes out of the standard 6-cell battery.

For more casual testing, Blogeee browsed over WiFi with periodic YouTube video playback, and found the 1201N good for almost 4 hours 45 minutes.  Speaking of the battery, Noti found it was reasonably loose in how it fits the netbook, which doesn’t speak too highly of build quality; still, elsewhere – aside from being a fingerprint magnet – the 1201N rates pretty highly for construction.  Both sites found a lot to like, though there’s a question of whether you lose a little in mobility going from a 10-inch machine to a 12.1-inch model.  Still, for most everyday users that probably won’t be an issue.

Unfortunately, if we were hoping the 1201N would show the Mini 311 (which uses Ion LE graphics) its heels and use its processor – which is more regularly to be found in nettops than it is in netbooks – to help whip through the benchmarks, we’d be disappointed.  In fact, the two machines seem reasonably well matched, with the ASUS edging slightly ahead in 3D Mark 2006 but actually behind the HP in 3D Mark 2005 and 2003.

Of course, 3D Mark only really tests graphics performance, and so we’ll have to wait and see how the 1201N does in more all-round benchmarking.  Still, as we learned earlier today, an Ion-based machine can certainly hold its own against Intel’s upcoming Pinetrail CPUs, so the ASUS shouldn’t be instantly outclassed once the next-gen models turn up in early January.

Those unnamed sources reckon ASUS has been “inspired” by the ongoing Apple rumors, though there have been various whispers about such a device for many months now.  Cheap netbooks have become common donor-models for DIY tablet projects, and if ASUS price the Eee Pad right then they could have a reasonably nifty winner on their hands.

The netbook has turned up on Amazon for pre-order and the bit about the machine hitting the market this month was both right and wrong. If you count pre-order as hitting the market then the rumor was correct. If hitting the market means actually being able to buy the machine in your book the rumor was wrong.

Amazon lists the actual ship date for the $499.99 netbook as January 15. That means no putting the 12.1-inch, Atom N330 beauty under the tree this year. That is unless you leave your tree up for a really long time. The little netbook runs Windows 7 and has 2GB of RAM and 250GB of storage.

Your $330 gets you a 1.33GHz processor that, from earlier benchmarking on rival machines, we know to be a pretty sluggish chip when slotted into a netbook.  There’s also 1GB of RAM (expandable to 2GB) and a measly 160GB of storage; WiFi b/g/n is standard, but not Bluetooth, and there are the usual three USB 2.0 ports, multiformat memory card reader and audio in/out.

In fact, the only real saving grace for the 1201HA is the estimated 6 hours 38 minutes battery life, though even that isn’t madly unique for an ultrathin these days.  It seems this is a Best Buy Cyber Monday sale, which means you’re potentially saving a few bucks over the regular 1201HA price, but we’d be tempted to save up the extra and plump for the Ion or Congo versions when they arrive.

[via Netbooked]

That means you have to make do with VGA output, together with three USB 2.0 ports, audio in/out, ethernet and a multi-format memory card reader.  There’s also WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, and the whole thing weighs in at 1.46kg while measuring 296 x 208 x 27.3-33.3 mm including the standard 6-cell battery.

ASUS reckon you’ll get around four hours of runtime from that battery, which seems on the low side even if you’re playing back HD video on the 1366 x 768 display.  No word on pricing nor release date as yet.

[via NetbookItalia]

We already know that the machine will be using NVIDIA Ion graphics. It will also feature an Intel Atom 330 dual-core processor and two DIMM dual-channel DDR2 architecture. The machine will ship with ArcSoft TotalMedia Theater installed.

The screen is 12.1-inches and has a resolution of 1366 x 768. An HDMI output supports up to 1080p resolution. The machine can be had with up to 3GB of RAM and 320GB of storage. 802.11b/g/n WiFi is built-in and the battery is a 6-cell 63Wh unit good for five hours. The machine measures 296mm W x 208mm D x 27.3-33.3mm H and weighs 3.22 pounds. Pricing is still unknown at this time.

Elsewhere the T91MT is reasonably cool-running, despite the absence of a fan, and that hardware decision by ASUS also makes it quiet in operation.  Runtimes from the non-user-accessible battery amounted to 5hrs 10 minutes in power saving “hybrid” mode, while more regular usage found 4+ hours a typical time.

Unfortunately the Intel Atom Z520 processor does the T91MT few favors, but the GMA 500 graphics do at least support hardware HD video decoding.  Don’t expect multimedia crunching, but for playback it should suffice.  The ASUS Eee PC T91MT is available now, priced at around $523.

[via UMPC Portal]

The Smartbook was, last we heard, set to launch in Q1 2010, with ASUS CEO Jerry Shen talking publicly about a very promising budget price tag in the region of $180.  However, according to RegHardware’s source at the company, market specialist Judy Wu, the Smartbook – which will have a screen sized between 5 and 7-inches, and the processor for which is as yet unconfirmed – has been delayed until the next quarter for unspecified reasons.  In fact, it might not even see a UK or US release; Wu believes the primary opportunity for the Smartbook will be emerging markets and the Asia-Pacific region.

As for the Eee PC 1201N, while official specifications are yet to be confirmed, a leak in October suggested the Ion ultraportable would have a 1.6GHz Intel Atom 330 processor, 3GB of RAM, a 320GB hard-drive and both WiFi and Bluetooth.  The 6-cell battery is tipped for up to 8hrs use.

Your $549 gets you a 1.33GHz Intel Atom Z520 processor, paired with 1GB of RAM (2GB supported), a 32GB SSD and a non-removeable battery good – ASUS say – for up to 5hrs of use.  Of course, the most interesting element of the T91MT is its 8.9-inch rotating display, which – thanks to Windows 7 Home Premium and its new gesture support – supports multitouch input such as two-finger pinch-zooming.

Connectivity for the T91MT includes WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth, together with the usual array of USB and VGA ports, and the whole thing measures 8.86 x 6.46 x 0.99 inches and weighs 2.12lbs.  Original reviews of the T91 (single-touch and with Windows XP) were mixed; we’re hoping the T91MT fares better.  Right now Amazon Germany are saying the netbook will ship in 2-3 weeks, so it seems like the US launch is reasonably close.

[via Liliputing]

Describing the Smartbook as a “secret weapon”, Shen confirmed that it would slot into the company’s Eee PC line.  No other details have been given, but the early Smartbook reference designs we’ve seen have integrated 3G WWAN and GPS, and promised “all day” battery life.

That GPS functionality could tie in to other partnerships, it’s suggested.  Sascha from NetbookNews has flagged up ASUS’ ongoing partnership with Garmin (the fruits of which right now are the unloved nuvifone range) and has apparently heard from a source fingering RIM as another potential collaborator.  They’re tipping a combination of location-based services, navigation and messaging; however, again, there are no details.

[via NetbookNews]

In the case of the ET2002, the Atom CPU is a dual-core 330 rather than the ET1602′s N270. It’s matched with 2GB of RAM and a 320GB hard-drive, together with a welcome DVD burner mounted on the side. As for the display, that’s a 20-inch panel running at 1,600 x 900, and ASUS even fit an HDMI input for using the PC as a display. Other connectivity includes WiFI b/g/n, ethernet, six USB ports, audio in/out and a 3-in-1 memory card reader. OS is Windows Vista Home Premium, though those who pick up the ET2002 in the next week will also get a free upgrade to Windows 7.

What the ET2002 doesn’t have is a touchscreen. ASUS will offer a version which does add a touch-panel – the ET2002T – together with a larger, 22-inch touchscreen version, but the ET2002 we have on our test-bench relies on more traditional keyboard and mouse input. ASUS do supply wireless peripherals, and they’re of reasonably quality and color-matched to the main unit; the laser mouse has a separate on/off switch and a scroll wheel, both appreciated.

Physically, the ET2002 looks a lot like the ET1602, with a glossy black plastic casing that sits inside a smoked transparent plastic shell. On the back there’s a sturdy, spring-loaded desk stand, four of the USB ports, ethernet and the power input, while the right-hand side has the tray-loading optical drive and the left-hand side gets the remainder of the ports. Running along the bottom edge of the LCD are a few control keys, including display brightness/contrast adjustments, power and a Home button that replicates the “Minimize All” shortcut. Beneath them, there’s a grey grill hiding the stereo speakers, which didn’t exactly blow us away with their audio performance but are good enough for casual radio and music listening, while up above the screen there’s a webcam and dual-microphone array.

The display itself is bright and crisp, and despite being unable to show Full HD 1920 x 1080 resolution video it did a great job with 720p footage. While lacking a touchscreen, we found that because of the extra screen inches over the ET1602 we sat further back from the newer Eee Top, and thus it made less sense to reach out and try to tap at it.

We ran the usual GeekBench testing to see how the dual-core Atom 330 held up, and as you might expect the ET2002 wasn’t much of a fighter. Overall the nettop scored 1226, with memory-related performance holding back CPU performance slightly. In practice, applications load after a slight pause, and attempting to multitask with several browser windows, background media playback and Office open (ASUS preload a 60-day Office 2007 trial) led to some sluggishness.

Of course, neither of those situations take advantage of the NVIDIA Ion GPU, which could be seen as the Eee Top’s secret media weapon. As we’ve seen on netbooks and other nettops, the Ion – when paired with compatible applications that take advantage of its GPU grunt – can make a huge difference to video playback, crunching high-definition footage and capable of 1080p resolutions. Of course, the ET2002′s resolution means full 1080p display isn’t possible, but downloaded 1080p HD files and those loaded from DVD both performed very well. It’s also possible to play reasonably graphics-intensive games on the ET2002, though this certainly isn’t a replacement for a console or even a mid-range traditional PC.

Where Ion falls short is in situations where software isn’t set up to access GPU acceleration. For local content it’s usually pretty straightforward to find a workaround – there are a few media apps which will work just fine – but if your HD diet is mainly sated by streaming content then you’ll have more of a problem. Flash, at least right now, lacks support for GPU acceleration, and as such scaling up YouTube HQ/HD, Hulu and other online video sites to full-screen pushes the Atom 330 not just to the edge of its abilities but demands even more of it. Dropped frames, jagged edges and general graphical disappointment is the name of the game, sadly.

The good news is that Adobe have promised GPU acceleration support for Flash 10.1, which is set to arrive before the end of 2009. That should make the world of difference, with YouTube HQ/HD offset to the NVIDIA Ion rather than making demands on the processor; until then, though, the ET2002 is a surprising disappointment for streaming video consumption.

While you lose touchscreen control with the ET2002, it makes for a more convincing second PC than the ET1602 managed. Slot in a USB TV tuner and it could serve as a decent kitchen or bedroom entertainment system, replacing a standalone TV and DVD player, and we’re confident that with Windows 7 (which we already know to be gentler to Atom-series processors) and Flash 10.1 the general usability of the nettop will take a step up before the year is out. Considering most PCs feel dated the day after you buy them, that’s something to look forward to.

Its $600 MRSP has already been undercut online by twenty bucks or more, and while that’s certainly shy of non-Atom all-in-ones, $100 more does get you Dell’s Studio One 19. The Dell drops 1-inch on the display but packs a 2.6GHz Pentium dual-core CPU; alternatively, forget the all-in-one requirement and there’s plenty of choice at around that price point, usually with mainstream processors rather than low-voltage Atoms.

However, the ASUS Eee Top ET2002-B024C is arguably more attractive than either a separate tower and display, or the Studio One 19 for that matter, and it delivers an impressive blast of local HD video playback with the promise of more to come. As it stands it would do a decent job as a second PC; give Adobe some time to catch up and the ET2002 could even step out of the backroom.

According to those sources, the Eee PC T101H will have a 10.2-inch resistive touchscreen running at 1024 x 600, 1GB of RAM (2GB optional), a 16GB SSD, WiFi b/g/n, GPS, 3G UMTS and DVB-T digital TV (we’re thinking some of those will likely be options).  There’ll also be a motion sensor, likely used for screen rotation, plus a battery good for up to 8hrs runtime.

The whole thing is said to be around 1.3kg in weight, and will run Windows 7.  As for pricing, that’s tipped at between €650 and €700 ($968 – $1,042), which makes it a particularly expensive netbook when you consider many manufacturers are now looking to put multitouch-capable capacitive displays in their newest Windows 7 ultraportable notebooks.

Both of the machines are 12-inch netbooks with 1366 x 768 resolution. The 1201N gets a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N330 dual core processor and NVIDIA Ion to handle graphics. The OS is Windows 7 Home Premium and it will sport 3GB of DDR2 RAM. Storage is to a 320GB HDD and the machine has Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Power comes from a 6-cell battery promising eight hours of runtime.

The 1201HA will use an Intel Atom Z520 and gets Intel integrated graphics. The OS is Windows 7 Home Premium and the machine has 2GB of RAM. Storage is to a 250 GB HDD and the netbook has integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Power comes from a 6-cell battery good for 8 hours. Both machines will come in black, red, and blue colors and won’t ship until sometime after the launch of Windows 7 on the 22.

Despite that flexibility of choice, the underlying netbook is pretty straightforward.  ASUS have used Intel’s Atom N270 1.6GHz CPU with 1GB of RAM and a 160GB hard-drive, together with a 10.1-inch 1,024 x 600 display and 3-cell, 2,200mAh battery.

As for the casing, that gets a new geometric texturing as well as the style of the Seashell series.  No word on pricing as yet, but we’re expecting the no-OS model to come in relatively cheaply, with the Linux version next up (though perhaps still not most popular in terms of sales.

[via NetbookItalia]

The 12-inch display runs at 1,366 x 768 resolution and is 16:9 aspect with LED backlighting.  Connectivity includes WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth and 10/100 ethernet, together with an unspecified number of USB 2.0 ports, VGA and a multiformat card reader.  There’s also a 1.3-megapixel webcam.

The Eee PC 1201N uses a 6-cell battery, which ASUS claim up to 11hrs runtime from, while the OS is Windows 7.  Because of that last element, we’re not expecting to see the 1201N officially hit shelves (or ASUS’ own press pages) until late October, when Microsoft launch the new OS.

[Thanks Nick!]

Video demo after the cut

There it does duty as a web-access point, a media player and more, with desktop widgets showing things like time and calendar entries.  On the inside of the cupboard there’s a custom box that hinges open to reveal the Eee PC’s keyboard, together with cabling neatly tidied up and away for power and sound.

Considering how cheaply you can pick up a second-hand netbook on eBay these days, together with touchscreen kits being under $100, this looks a fantastic mod for the kitchen.  Oh, and can we just say we’re loving the bizarre German music in the video, too.

[via jkkmobile]

We announced Monday that we would be at the September 9 Apple press event and live blogging the whole works. We expect to see the iPods with cameras that go along with all those cases we have been seeing. Olympus whipped out a new entry level DSLR camera called the E-600 selling for a bit under $600 with a kit lens. If a new DSLR is on your holiday shopping list, it is worth a look.

Sprint has announced that it will be getting that sweet HTC Touch Pro 2 on September 8. The catch is that the phone is outright expensive at $349.99 after a $100 rebate. Remember that cool black Nintendo Wii that tipped up overseas and gamers in America were denied? Well you can’t get the black Wii, but you can get a black remote, nunchuk, and Motion Plus accessory soon.

I like me some Rock Band, but I won’t sing. We found out this week that Rock Band is making a push to replace karaoke in bars and hopefully Mexican restaurants. Parrot unveiled a new RKi8400 car radio this week that offers full support for the iPhone and even has a storage cubby for the phone behind the faceplate. The only rub is there is no CD player, and the fact that it is a single DIN design. Every car I have owned for the last 5 or 6 years has a double DIN stereo.

Canon officially debuted its feature packed EOS 7D DSLR this week and priced the beast at $1700 for the body only. That much loot gets you tons of EOS firsts though. Google announced this week that it had worked out a deal with Sony to include its Chrome browser on Vaio notebooks. I would have been more interested if it was Firefox being bundled.

Samsung announced a new point-and-shoot camera called the WB5000 that has a whopping 24x zoom and the ability to record 720p video. This may be the perfect point-and-shoot for stalker types trying to avoid that 100-foot restraining order limitation. Twas week of the camera this week and Panasonic unveiled its latest Lumix GF1 camera with interchangeable lenses and such. The cam uses the micro four-thirds system and is sort of like a DSLR but not.

SMK-Link unveiled a universal remote this week that will work the PS3 and your other components. Unlike the Harmony work around that needs a separate device to work the PS3, the SMK-Link remote appears to have Bluetooth built-in. Nintendo announced this week that it was making the Internet Channel free and offering a free game download to those that previously paid for it.

Nokia priced its Booklet 3G netbook this week and the thing is expected to cost around $799 before any subsidies. I’m not sure what Nokia is thinking with that price, there are very similar machines for much less than that amount and I expect people to stay away in droves. We were at Nokia World this week wading through the throngs of Nokia devices and fondling many of them for your amusement.

I really like 3D movies at the theater and if we can get them at home with the same quality, I will be all over it. The Blu-ray Disc Association talked a bit about 3D Blu-ray this week promising it would deliver 1080p to each eye and ensure the 3D discs had the 2D version of the film as well. Palm is set to offer its Q1 fiscal 2010 earnings on September 17. Perhaps it will finally tell us how well it is doing with the Pre, I expect things to get a positive spin, but be bad at the core.

We found out this week that once the Zune HD hits the market all other Zune models will be discontinued. That will mean only one Zune model will be offered. Those not wanting a touch screen PMP will not be buying Microsoft products going forward. Sony Ericsson announced a new mobile phone called the Aino due on October that promises to be able to control your PS3. I guess that makes sense considering the Aino looks a lot like a remote control to me anyway.

Logitech debuted a new lower cost universal remote called the Harmony 700 Thursday. The remote sells for $149.99 and lacks the touchscreen that makes the other Harmony remotes like the Harmony One cost more. T-Mobile in the UK announced that it would be getting a Huawei Pulse Android smartphone for pre-pay customers. UK Android fans not wanting a contract should be very excited.

The Nokia N900 handset went up for preorder for $700. Ouch! The good news is that you get a free Bluetooth headset with it for that much coin. A study was released this week that found the incidence of the infamous RROD failure for the Xbox 360 was dropping significantly. The console has a failure rate of over 50%.

Fujitsu announced a new SFF computer this week called the Esprimo Q1500 that looked like a plain nettop until you read the spec sheet. The tiny PC was crammed with real desktop hardware and still sipped power. You have probably heard that Toshiba is jumping on the Blu-ray bandwagon after wallowing in its HD DVD defeate for a long time. The company showed us some pics of its Blu-ray player and says it is coming to market soon.

Samsung announced that it plans to have OLED screens in laptops by the end of 2010. I can only hope by that point it is cheap enough to make OLED panels that the screen alone doesn’t add $1000 to the price of the notebook. Friday we found out that Sony plans to enable 3D mode in the PS3 for all existing PS3 games in 2010. That will be awesome, assuming the games actually look good. Friday market the wrap up to our coverage of Nokia World 2009. Hit this link for the low down on what we saw at the show.

An industry insider has leaked Asus’ Eee netbook roadmap onto the Internet. Asus has lot of new netbooks coming to the market and some models available now will be dying off soon. October will see the launch of a 12-inch NVIDIA Ion mini-notebook called the 1201N that will sport an Atom N270, 2GB of RAM, and 250GB of storage.

Asus will also ending the 1000HE’s run, but the exact point at which it will vanish is unknown. The 1005HA-P is set for late October with Windows 7 and 10.5 hours of battery life promised. Asus’ 1005HA-M will hit Europe with Windows 7 Starter and a matte LCD that is not offered on other 1005HA models. Asus will also unveil the 1008HA line with Atom N280 CPUs among other goodies at $430 to $480.

A multi-touch version of the T91 with 32GB of RAM is on the roadmap priced at $549, exactly when that model will launch is unknown. The roadmap has confirmed the end of the road for a couple Eee models including the 101HA set to die off in October and the 1008HA exiting in November.

Meanwhile you can’t have a DigiTimes story without some shady “industry sources” mentioned, and sure enough those talkative tipsters have fingered MSI as also “evaluating the ebook market”.  That doesn’t seem all that far-fetched; we imagine most companies have done exactly that, given the sales success of the Amazon Kindle.

However those same sources are also highlighting that MSI may yet decide to hold off on the segment, as while the cost of manufacture are lower for eBook readers than they are for netbooks, there’s greater complexity in developing a content delivery platform.  Still, with more people offering EPUB format ebooks, it’s possible that a low-priced, wireless-enabled device might pick up the budget end of the market, as long as it had a book-search friendly UI.

Video demos after the cut

The actual install process is relatively straightforward, with 2.0 Donut being loaded from a USB stick (which also means this doesn’t have to use a netbook donor system, but could be your favorite notebook, desktop or UMPC device).  It relies on a specially customized version of the OS, which has been suitably tweaked to work with x86 processors such as the Eee PC’s Intel Atom chip.

As you might expect, not everything works quite as it should.  WiFi, trackpad, battery status and screen brightness are all reportedly okay, but Bluetooth and the webcam aren’t playing ball so far.  Still, if you’ve a spare netbook lying around, and you fancy going where right now ASUS and Acer don’t seem to dare, this tutorial may be for you.

Installation video:

Overview video:

Whereas adding a touchscreen to a netbook is something we’ve seen done across various manufacturers and models, fewer owners go the extra step to turn their netbook into a keyboard-free slate design.  Those that do generally start from a 7-inch Eee PC rather than the larger 900HA; however according to Maine_Coon his mod was even easier, by virtue of the display cable being longer and thus easier to twist around.

As for the two-tone casing, that’s because he mixed components from a black 900HA and a white 900H.  The 900HA was the primary donor for its capacious 320GB hard-drive and 2GB of RAM.

[via Tablets for the Net]

It’s also fanless and comes with integrated WiFi b/g and Bluetooth 2.0; there’s no sign of the 3G WWAN initially lauded when the niche-within-a-niche segment was first launched.  Other connectivity for the 8.9-inch 1,024 x 600 machine includes a VGA output, two full-sized USB 2.0 ports and another micro-USB.  Storage is all on an SD card, which does put a limit on how much you can carry around, but the idea with these Smartbooks is that you rely a lot on the cloud for the bulk of your data.

ITProPortal report a few issues with the prototype – which is running Ubuntu 9.01 – but seem generally satisfied.  The aim is still to get the machines onto the market by the holidays, and if they can keep to the roughly $200 price tag first mentioned then they could steal a whole lot of netbook buyers.

[via Netbooked.net]

There’s also WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth and Windows XP Home.  According to the early hands-on we’ve seen the 1101HA is a well put-together machine, but we do have some concerns about both the relatively underpowered Atom CPU – which proved disappointing in the Acer Aspire One 751 – and the pedestrian GMA500 graphics.

[via Netbook Reviews]