Opting to show off perky features like a “chiclet” keyboard and a touchpad that emits a “trail of progressively fading lights,” it seems Asus has gone superficial with its U and UX laptop lines, due in the second quarter this year. Descriptors such as “avant garde” and “immaculate” imply that you’ll spend as much time admiring these new machines as you will using them. Intel’s Core 2 Duo processor powers the U series, which also includes a 15.6-inch LCD screen, up to 500 GB of hard drive space, an NVIDIA GeForce G 105M graphics card and Altec Lansing surround sound speakers. It’s not as clear what’s going on under the UX series’ hood. We at least know it has an optical disc drive — for looking stylish while watching movies, no doubt. As for pricing, it’s totally not cool to reveal that right now. [via Engadget]
Initially revealed in January, Asus has announced that their Eee PC keyboard will begin shipping in May or June of this year. For those who missed the CES announcement, the netbook-like device is actually a keyboard with a computer attached rather than the other way around. Asus is working on two versions of the keyboard PC, one wired and one wireless. The wired version will more than likely set you back $400 while the wireless version will come in around $600. Both keyboard PCs are expected to have 1.6 GHz Atom processors, 1GB of RAM and a 16GB or 32GB SSD hard drive. The computer portion of the device will be a 5-inch touchscreen that can be connected to your television through USB, VGA, or HDMI. Expect both versions to drop in May or June of this year. [via DVICE]
For the opening of CeBit 2009, MSI dropped its new Wind Top and Win Box series. Leading the pack, the touchscreen AE2010 features a 20″ display and Universal Video Decoder to provide high-def playback in 16:9 aspect ratio. While MSI’s press release scenario of a housewife gathering internet recipes for New Year’s dinner didn’t quite translate (or make much sense whatsoever), the AMD single-core CPU with 780G chipset speak clearly enough about this multimedia machine. No pricing or availability information released outside of “reasonable pricing makes the Wind Top AE2010 the most cost-effective option for an HD machine”. That’s as clear as the aforementioned housewife’s New Year’s dinner plight. [Slash Gear]
This morning, Apple revealed their new, updated Mac Mini along with other announcements about the Mac Pro and iMac systems. The new Mac Mini will feature an Intel Core 2 Duo processer running at 2.0 GHz, will feature NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics, and is available in a 2GB RAM / 320GB HDD system for $799, or 1G RAM / 120GB HDD for $599. In addition to the Mac Mini, Apple has revealed a new Nehalem-based Mac Pro, featuring Intel Quad Core processors and a starting price of $2,499. Last, Apple has also revealed some new iMacs with some updated specs. Check out the news below, both direct at Apple and around the web…
Listen up, end-users. After soliciting feedback for a “Community Designed PC,” this is what Asus came up with: Two touch screens, with a graphic interface instead of a physical keyboard and mouse, foldable like a laptop. In addition to conventional uses, Asus says this will make a nice eBook, or a multimedia center with the two screens displaying one big image (nevermind the big dividing line between them). The company still wants more feedback, so head to the WePC Web site if this either tickles your fancy or draws your wrath. Why does the dual screen concept seem familiar? Because apparently the same idea is coming to market very soon. We’re betting Asus gets there first. [Press Release via Wired]
Memory card readers are starting look a lot cooler these days. Sandisk has announced two pretty stunning looking new card readers. The ImageMate All-in-one and ImageMate Multi-card are both designed to read a pretty substantial amount of different types of memory while looking pretty badass. The ImageMate All-in-one reader has card-to-card copying functionality and supports SD, SDHC, miniSDHC, MMC, MS, MSPD, xD and CF. The Multi-Card reader on the other hand only reads xD, MS, SD, SDHC and MMC. Both are available now for $30 or $20 respectively and are sleek enough we’d keep them on display on our desktop any day. [via SlashGear]
Tuesday, February 24, 2009 3:00PM - By Jared Newman
Apparently, Rwanda’s Kigali International airport is the place to be for wireless Internet. That’s where reporter Anna Koblank discovered a group of students, One Laptop Per Child XOs in hand, surfing the ‘net like pros. Sitting the parking lot, which is close enough to scoop up that sweet free connection, the kids were using Google to find pictures of their idols, Bruce Lee and Jean-Claude Van Damme. Roughly 5,000 XOs have been handed out in Rwanda so far, and the government wants to distribute 50,000 of them this year. Perhaps this is the boost Van Damme needs to get his career back on track. [DN.se via Engadget]
If you’re still finding the keyboard on the iPhone to be a bit cumbersome (or if you just want to do some actual work on the phone) now you can pair a Bluetooth keyboard with your phone and get your type on big key style. The hack requires you have a jailbroken iPhone, and of course a Bluetooth keyboard. The keyboard function comes as an application, however currently that application isn’t available to the public…so this is all just an evil evil tease. Hopefully the developer (or even better Apple) will make the application available soon for all us bloggers who want to work computer free. [via Wired]
Rumor has it that the near-final release candidate of Windows 7 is going to be ready to hit the streets by April 10th. A source from within Microsoft has indicated that the company plans on making its final release candidate launch in less than two months, meaning that we’ll definitely see the street version of the program hit store shelves before the end of the year. Many people speculate we’ll actually see the first version by July, with plenty of time for it to make its way onto computers for the holidays. Microsoft has promised the public shorter wait times for the launch of its products for some time now, it looks like this time they may actually be serious. [via Electronista]
