Netbooks News, Hacks and HowTo’s

This week, Acer was announced the leading netbook in 3Q08 sales, leaving the whole big family of Eee PCs behind by approximately 8% on market shares. This was rather a milestone for Acer not just because they got to the top, but getting to the top with a single model released, in 4 different colors. Way to go, Acer.

Meanwhile, to gain back what they just lost, Asustek targets 44 percent unit sales in 2009 for their netbooks. This I learned from Liliputing.

Overall, netbook shipments surge over 160% in 3Q08. Shall we expect higher numbers in 2009?

It looks like Asus do not sell well in the Philippines so AsusTek decided to stop shipping Linux Version of Eee PC in the Philippines. The company will still continue to provide Windows XP version for at least one more year.

Most of the Filipinos I guess are not interested in learning new OS. Maybe because most Filipinos are just starting to learn Windows XP as well, and they are not ready to get overflowing technical knowledge yet. Most Filipinos grew up with Windows XP and that’s also probably one reason why they love XP over Linux. I still hope that the next generation starts to love Linux too.

Are we really not into Linux??? Not me at least.

via liliputing

It turned out that the news we have posted previously are just rumor misquoted words, and Asus was a little shocked by it, got up and confirmed it’s not true. ZDnet interviewed an Asus spokesperson and according to the interview, there will still be 7 and 8.9 incher Eee PC’s. And the refresh on specifications for the sub-10 inches netbooks are also being considered.

Now that we know the truth, we can’t have a 10in netbook at $200 anymore. Not unless there’s a 50% cut-off.

via liliputing

Yes dear readers, Asus will eventually let go all 7 incher and 8.9 incher netbooks. They will focus more on their 10 incher ones, but this is not happening just so sudden. It will happen little by little in 2009, according to Digitimes. Asus did not mention about when the support for sub-10inchers will end, but I am guessing they will continue it for at least 2 years after the phase out.

Comes with this might be worried customers that the Eee PC will be even more expensive. Worry not because Asus also announced that they target to launch $200 netbooks in 2009. As they have told about the phase out, shall we hope that these $200 netbooks are 10 incher? This might be good news if only this is true.

This image is not official

LAPTOP Magazine interviewed Asus CEO Jerry Shen, and reveals some info about their upcoming Touchscreen Eee PC. Shen said that the touch-enabled Eee PC will launch by mid of 2009 and will come with Windows 7. This might be probably true, though there’s no release date for Windows 7 yet. Not that I know of. He also added that they are looking in to a convertible form factor or regular laptop form (clamshell).

IMO, the convertible form factor might sell better since it’s most applicable form for touchscreen devices. Besides, a clamshell form is now old-fashioned, kind of.

If you want iMac-like setup but can’t afford to have one, the Eee Top PC, the all-in-one PC from Asus could be for you. Play.com is now accepting pre-orders on the Eee Top PC or Touchscreen Eee, however you call it. Its current price on the order page is £399.99, which is quite ideal for the product.

Like other Eee PC, the Eee Top / Touchscreen Eee sports the Intel Atom 1.6G, Intel 945GSE chipset and 1GB 667MHz DDR, WiFi, LAN, and USB ports. It will have 160GB SATA HDD and will run on Windows XP. The screen size is way larger than any other Eee PC at 15.6 inches. Screen ratio is 16:10, good enough for viewing your favorite movie collection.

This new product will be available in UK on November 20.

via Register Hardware

Reported by Digitimes, AsusTek puts blame on China-based OEM for Virus infected Eee Box. The unnamed OEM is said to be responsible for the manufacturing units for Japan market. Somehow it is confirmed that it’s OEM’s fault.

Due to lapses on quality measures on the said OEM, the incident happened, and AsusTek is considering to transfer future order of Eee Box to Foxconn Electronics or other OEM.

Lesson learned, in anything we provide to others, consider the best quality, because it’s what we all want.

Looks like Asus really won’t stop, or even get tired on popping out new kids for the Eee family. They started with a netbook, then more netbooks, then the Eee Box, followed by more Eee PCs, followed by the Eee PC Top [an all in one PC with touch screen monitor], then allegedly, the Eee Motherboard.

It’s all over the net, the news about the Eee Mobo. I presume, this product would be very affordable, since they’re naming it after Eee. And shall it have these specs plus wifi and much lesser price, it would not be very far from getting another Hardware of the Year award. On a side note, the alleged new MoBo somehow do not deserve the “eee” brand that much, because I think only the DIYers will enjoy this product.