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]

It looks like that rumor that Asus would be adding touchscreen displays to the Eee PC just got a whole lot stronger. Digitimes has received confirmation from Asus VP of sales Kevin Lim.

Lim says the Eee PC 900 with a touchscreen and possibly built-in GPS, should ship in May or June for about NT$15,000 or US$500. It's not clear whether you'll have to get a unit with GPS and a touchscreen, or if these will be optional components.

In other news, a fire at an LG Chem plant in early March has caused a worldwide shortage of laptop batteries, which could affect the Eee PC ship date.




ccording to Kevin Lin, vice president of Asustek's sales department. Pricing is projected to reach NT$15,000 (US$500), Lin added.

The company is also looking to ship its E-DT (desktop PC) priced at US$199 at the same time, according to Lin.

The company aims to ship up to five million Eee PCs in 2008 through retail channels and contract orders combined, with quarterly retail-only shipments expected to total 650,000-700,000 units, according to the company. The device is seeing a 50% supply shortage in the Taiwan and Hong Kong regions and 70% worldwide in the first quarter of 2008.

Lin also pointed out that the company currently is facing a battery shortage for its Eee PCs due to a fire at a plant of LG Chem earlier this month but expects to solve the battery shortage in the second quarter of this year.

The 8.9-inch Eee PC will adopt Intel's low-cost notebook platform and the lowest memory capacity will be upgraded from 512MB to 1GB, while the SSD (solid state drive) capacity will be upgraded from 4-8GB to 8-12GB, according to industry sources.

People have been adding slapping extra hardware inside the tiny Eee PC case pretty much since day one. But this has to be one of the most impressive Eee PC mods I've seen. Here's what one user managed to add to the insides of an Eee PC:

• 2 USB hubs to get a total of 6 working internal USB ports
  
• A GPS adapter and antenna
• A Bluetooth adapter
• An internal SD card reader for additional storage
• An additional 4GB flash memory drive
• A power switch to turn off the extra devices when not in use
• Updated the WiFi card to one that supports 802.11n
• An FM transmitter for playing music on the car stereo
• A working modem

The best part of this hack job? You can find detailed photos and instructions at the IVC Wiki.

[via Asus Eee Hacks]