ASUS have confirmed that they will be offering three versions of their touchscreen netbook, the long-awaited Eee PC T91. According to AsusTablet’s source, the company plan the basic T91 with a single-touch screen, together with a multitouch-capable T91A and 3G-enabled T91GO.
A-DATA have unveiled what they’re calling “the first flash drive compatible with Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit)”, though as far as we’ve heard there haven’t been many reported problems with existing drives and the Windows 7 RC. Still, if you’re looking for up to 64GB of portable storage then the A-DATA XPG Xupreme may be the drive of your dreams.
Multitouch chipset firm N-trig have announced a partnership with Fujitsu to produce their next breed of DuoSense touchscreen controllers. The next-gen DuoSense system will not only be smaller than the existing version, but require less power and recognize “10 or more simultaneous touch points at very high refresh rates.”
We can’t say we looked at the Sharp Mebius NJ70A netbook – with its nifty touchscreen trackpad – and thought “what this needs is a second touchscreen”, but then we’re not SKY at UMPC Fever. After unboxing the N270-based netbook, he loaded up Windows 7 and then installed a touchscreen layer so as to use handwriting recognition direct onto the 10-inch display.
Video demo after the cut
Earlier in the month we heard that Atom N270 based netbooks and nettops would be unlikely candidates for inclusion in the Windows 7 Upgrade Program, and that’s looking to indeed be the case. ASUS have announced details of their program, including which models will be eligible, and only two of the company’s sprawling Eee PC netbook line are included: the 1101HA and the 1005HA.
Updated with comment from ASUS after the cut
Microsoft have announced official pricing for Windows 7, their next-gen OS which will arrive on October 22nd. Both upgrade and full prices have been revealed, the latter being $199.99 for Windows 7 Home Premium, $299.99 for Windows 7 Professional, and $319.99 for Windows 7 Ultimate.
More price details – plus upgrade prices – after the cut
HP have announced a new range of consumer desktop PCs, together with an update to their MediaSmart Server software for TouchSmart PCs. Slimline, Pavilion and Elite desktops have all been announced, together with a new Compaq Presario desktop. In addition, HP have announced that select consumer PCs bought from today onwards will be eligible for their Windows 7 Upgrade Program.
Video demos after the cut
The latest batch of new laptop and ultraportable rumors are spilling out of the Far-East, tipping new touchscreen models running Windows 7 and at least one ultra-thin from LG. According to industry sources, HP, Acer and Lenovo have all placed orders with Taiwanese capacitive touchscreen manufacturer Cando; meanwhile MSI are said to be supplying LG with an ultra-thin notebook that will ship in the second half of 2009.
Windows 7’s native support for multitouch is well known, but if Microsoft thought that would be another knife into Linux then they should prepare for disappointment. A French development group at ENAC have developed native multitouch using Linux 2.6.30, supporting the usual swipe, flip, rotate and pinch-resize gestures.
Video demo after the cut
Two Gartner analysts have lent their weight to ARM processors and the Google Android platform as potential players in netbooks and smartbooks, tipping the pairing as possibly headed for prime time. While they recognized that Android still needs fettling for the larger displays and broader usage patterns of a netbook-style device, Christian Heidarson and Ben Lee, analysts at Gartner, nonetheless praised its “snappy” performance on ARM-based sub-notebooks.
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