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.

Back in January there was a rumor that the next generation of Asus Eee PC laptops would include touchscreens. And then Asus came out and said there wasn't really enough demand to justify a touchscreen device. Makes sense, the Eee PC doesn't fold back into tablet mode, so why would you want to poke at a laptop screen with a stylus when it's faster to use the touchpad or a mouse?

Anyway, DigiTimes is now reporting that sources at a touch screen panel manufacturer say that Asus is planning to slip resistive touch panels into at least some of the next-gen models due out this spring. It's not clear if the touchscreen would be included on all units or if it would be an optional upgrade. Heck, I'm still a bit skeptical that it will happen at all. But I thought I'd pass along the rumor for all you touchscreen enthusiasts.

In the meantime, you can always just buy a 7-inch touchscreen kit off of eBay and build your own touchscreen Eee PC model.

Everex has apparently launched a souped up version of its Cloudbook laptop computer in Japan. The new version bears the same model number as the US version, but it costs ¥59,800 or about $600, which is about $200 more than the US model. What you get for that price increase is built-in Bluetooth, a touchscreen, and 802.11a connectivity (as well as 802.11b/g which is available in the US version). The Japanese model also appears to come equipped with Windows XP SP2, which means Japanese users hopefully won't be plagued by the same OS-related problems early Cloudbook testers have experienced in the US.

[via Engadget]

Want a touchscreen on your Eee PC but don't have the guts to hack one yourself? Not only is an unofficial touchscreen kit for existing owners apparently in the works, but now DigiTimes is reporting that Asus is actually developing an touch-screen model.

The details are a bit sketchy right now, coming not from Asus but from computer component makers who say they've been working with Asus. But if DigiTimes is correct, we can soon expect to see 8, 9, and 10 inch Eee PCs hit the market, and the 9 inch model will feature a touchscreen.

I'm actually hoping that not all 9 inch models have a touch panel, as that will drive up the cost at least a few bucks. It would be nice to be able to choose whether you want the touch screen or not. It's likely that all Eee PC models with 9 inch or larger displays will come with higher display resolutions than the current generation.

[via Engadget]

According to a thread on the Chinese Mobile01 forum, a Taiwanese company is developing a touchscreen kit for the Eee PC. Blogger jkkmobile has already demonstrated that you can hack a generic touchscreen onto an Eee PC, but I think a lot of people would be more comfortable buying a kit that's designed specifically for this computer model. Plus, it will reportedly be a no-solder solution, meaning if you're not comfortable taking a soldering gun to tiny electronics components this might be the way to go.

Of course, there's no word on when these kits might be available, how much they might cost, or whether they'll be available outside of Taiwan. But I'm kind of excited anyway. The Eee PC is great with a mouse, but the built in touchpad is pretty small and can be rather difficult to use. A touchscreen would add a whole new layer of usability to this mobile computing powerhouse.

[via EeeUser forum]

One of the first things computer savvy folks say when they look at the Eee PC is that it would be nice if it had a touch screen. That's probably because it's about the size of a UMPC and not much larger than a PDA. I'm kind of used to tapping directly on such small devices rather than using a trackpad.

Apparently it's not that hard (relatively speaking) to install a touchscreen. Jkkmobile says you can pick up a seven inch display on eBay for around $60, and replace the built display. It seems to work well with Windows XP. No word on whether there's support under Xandros, but I bet there's a driver that would work in Ubuntu or another Linux distribution.

Of course, what would really make the Eee PC a perfect UMPC would be the ability to rotate the screen and use the device in tablet mode. But a touchscreen would be a nice start.

[via jkOnTheRun]