It's always a good idea to take any news about a prereleased computer's specs or prices with a grain of salt unless they're listed on the the company website, and sometimes even then. Saltshaker firmly in hand, I reported a few days ago on a rumor that the Eee PC 900 would be getting a touchscreen, and possibly integrated GPS. Now Heise Online reports that Asus Germany is pretty much debunking that claim.

Honestly, I'm betting that Asus will offer a touchscreen option in the future, a GPS option, and any other options they can to squeeze a few extra bucks out of consumers. But even if the touchscreen would add just $10 to the price of a unit as is suggested by some of the rumors (although it's not clear if that's how much money it would cost manufacturers or customers), the whole point of the Eee PC is that it's a low-cost machine. Why add items that many users won't want if it drives up the price at all?

In other news, online retailer AllAsus.com is accepting preorders for the Eee PC 900. The site is charging $569.99 for the 12GB Linux version, and $549.99 for the 8GB Windows XP version. AllAsus says both unit should be available in May.

Normally I'd say this will give us a pretty good idea of what the computers will sell for when they're actually released. But AllAsus doesn't even have images of the new models on its site. Instead they seem to have posted lightly Photoshopped images of the Eee PC 700 series. So I'm not sure they've got an official hookup.

[via Eee PC.net and Blogeee]

According to a recent Pricegrabber report (PDF Link), the Asus Eee PC and the Macbook Air top the list of laptop computers. Overall, Pricegrabber finds that a growing number of users are looking for what they call "portable" laptops as opposed to standard laptops. What's the difference? Portables weigh less than 3 pounds.

A reader asked me today to explain why the Eee PC is so attractive. It generally comes down to two things: Price and weight. At just over 2 pounds, I take my Eee almost everywhere because it feels like it's not even in my backpack. If I never take it out of my backpack I don't feel like I was giving myself a backache for no reason at all.

In the past, you had to spend thousands of dollars to get a computer this small. But the Eee PC showed that people would be willing to buy an underpowered machine to use as a second or third computer if the price was right. I wouldn't think of replacing my main computer with my Eee PC, but it's the PC I grab when I'm running out the door.

The second most popular computer on Pricegrabber's list is the Macbook Air, which weighs just a bit more than the Eee PC, but which features way more power. It also costs five to six times as much as the Eee PC.

[via Eee PC.Net]

Apparently Asus is ready to ship the 2G Surf version of the Eee PC a little sooner than I'd expected. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Asus is launching the lowest-cost version of the already low-cost Eee PC today.

The 2G surf differs from the 4G model in four basic ways:

1. It has 2GB of solid state storage, instead of 4GB
2. It comes with 256MB of RAM, rather than 512MB
3. It lacks a webcam
4. It carries a $299 list price, which is $100 lower than the 4G

The Chronicle article doesn't answer some of the big questions I have:

1. What did Asus cut from the operating system? The OS alone takes up 2.3GB on the 4G. So something must be missing, unless the webcam drivers take up a ton of space.
2. How much free memory is available to the user?
3. How easy is it to upgrade the RAM/solid state memory? There've been reports of some people receiving 4G units that don't have a door in the back for upgrading the RAM. But if the 2G Surf has user replaceable RAM and a spare PCIe slot, you could easily turn this $299 laptop into a tiny powerhouse for less than the price of a 4G model.
   

Oh yeah, and Asus is also starting to sell the Eee PC with pastel colored lids. They've been showing off the color variations since day one, so it's nice to know that they should be shipping soon.

[via Engadget]

Everex, makers of the popular $200 Linux-based PC that sold out of Wal-Marts almost the moment it was put on shelves is getting into the laptop game. And it looks like the low-cost PC makers are taking aim at Asus. The Everex Cloudbook, which the company plans to show off at CES in January will feature a 7 inch screen, run Linux, and cost $400. Sound familiar?

There are a few differences. While the Cloudbook will basically be about the same size at the Eee PC, Everex plans to pack a standard 30GB notebook hard drive in there to save costs. Sure, the Eee PC only comes with 4GB or 8GB of storage, but solid state memory is still pretty expensive. It's hard to decide who has the advantage here. While the Eee PC will certainly boot up and perform some operations faster than the Cloudbook because of its SSD, I have to say, it would be nice to have a 30GB hard drive.

The Cloudbook will also reportedly sport a 1.3 megapixel camera, a 1.2MHz VIA processor (compared with the Eee PC's 900MHz Celeron chip), and the gOS Linux distribution which is based on Ubuntu. gOS was widely reported to stand for "Google operating system" at first because the OS features tight integration with web services like Google Docs & Spreadsheets. But it actually stands for "green operating system" because it's supposed to consume less power than some other operating systems.

While gOS is pretty user friendly, Everex didn't take the time to develop a special Linux variant for the Cloudbook the way Asus did for the Eee PC. gOS is available as a free download for anyone who wants to try it or install it on their PC right now.

Linux Devices reports there will also be a special developer edition that will come with source code, tool chains, and a touchscreen. That would be a killer feature. One of the first things people say when they look at my Eee PC is that it would be nice if it had a touch screen. Something tells me the developer edition is going to cost more than $400 though.

If Linux Devices' sources are correct we should see a demo at CES on January 7th and retail availability as soon as January 15th. I'm a bit skeptical that Everex will be able to get a quality product out so quickly. As far as we know, the company wasn't even planning to develop this PC a few months ago. But the success of the Eee PC and the Wal-Mart gPC seem to have given the company some ideas. I just hope that the finished product lives up to its potential and doesn't show signs of a shoddy concept pushed to market without adequate testing first.

While it was a bit frustrating that Asus missed its initial shipping date for the Eee PC, I have very few complaints with the finished product. Part of the reason for that delay was that Asus was still conducting extensive product test. Hopefully Everex and any other competitors in this space will take the same kind of care that Asus did.

[via Gizmodo, Electronista, and jkkmobile]

Related Posts:

• Everex Cloudbook gets price and release date
• Asus Eee PC v. Cloudbook: The specs
• The Noahpad might just be the craziest low cost UMPC ever

Just a month after Asus first released the Eee PC 4G in the US, it looks like the company is ready to start pumping out some new variations, including a black model and the higher end 8G.

The 8G is pretty much identical to the 4G, except it has 8GB of solid state memory instead of 4GB, and 1GB of RAM instead of 512MB. Oh yeah, and it costs $100 more. If you're willing to void your warranty, you could upgrade your RAM pretty easily on your own for less money. But increasing the storage capacity would take a bit more work, so this seems like a reasonable price. Still, somehow a $500 Eee PC just doesn't seem as appealing as a $400 model.

In other news, at least one retailer seems to be selling the 4G for $299. I've never heard of this company, I've never bought anything from them, and I wouldn't recommend you do so either unless you know someone who has dealt with them in the past. At $299, I can't imagine anyone is making any money on this deal, so it sort of feels like a scam. If you have reason to believe otherwise, please let me know in the comments.

[via Gizmodo and Asus Eee Hacks]

When Asus announced plans to launch a $199 PC earlier this year, I was skeptical but optimistic. I wasn't particularly surprised when the company announced that the low price would only be available to governments that ordered in bulk (and perhaps waved taxes). But $299 still seemed like a pretty good price.

Now that the EEE PC is set to go on sale in the US this week, it looks like the cheapest model available will be $399. The unit includes a 900MHz celeron processor, a 3.5 hour battery, 4GB of flash memory, an SD expansion slot, 3 USB ports, a VGA port, a 7-inch 800 x 480 pixel screen, and a custom version of Xandros Linux with OpenOffice, Firefox, and other goodies.

It's a bit more pricey than I'd hoped, but I'm still sorely tempted to drop the money and pick up the 2 pound mini-laptop. You wouldn't think that there's that much difference between a 2 pound laptop and a 6 pound laptop until you've tried lugging the 6 pounder around a few places.

And it's not like the little PC isn't worth $400. Sure, you could find a more powerful machine on sale for a similar price, but there's no way you're going to find an ultra-portable laptop that comes anywhere close.

Since the EEE PC is a full fledged computer, you can install alternate operating systems. The folks at ZDNet UK have already managed to get Ubuntu up and running, although it's doubtful whether Ubuntu is actually more useful than the Xandros OS that ships with the computer. And while you could install Windows on the EEE PC, odds are the operating system would eat up most of your internal memory.

But Asus plans to release another version of the EEE PC later this year/early next year with Windows XP preloaded. Again, I had a feeling that would drive up the price, but I had no idea how much. InfoWorld is reporting that machines running Windows XP will sell for as much as $1000. That's a far cry from $199.

Now, I know that Microsoft charges a lot of money for its operating systems. And I know that the price includes Microsoft Office. But I'm hoping you get a hardware bump for that extra $600. Because you can get a pretty nice laptop or UMPC for $1000.

I still haven't decided whether I'm going to drop $400 on an EEE PC. But I can tell you one thing. I won't be paying $1000 for one.

Update: It looks like there's a good chance the XP version of the EEE PC will not cost $1000. Yahoo! News seems to have done a poor job of condensing Dan Nystedt's IDG article. InfoWorld has what looks like it may be the original article, where Nystedt states that the difference between the Linux and XP versions of the EEE PC is expected to be about NT$1000.

That's a far cry from saying the XP version will cost $1000 US. In fact, it could mean the XP version will sell for just about $40-$50 more than the Linux PC.