Digitimes is reporting that the R50 UMPC might be shipping before June of this year and it looks like we might see Linux and Vista flavors. The curious statement in the DigiTimes report is that it says the price will be above US $500. Don’t we usually see that listed as below and not above? Oh, well, I guess that gives them some head room and a fudge factor.

This is also the first techology report that I’ve seen where a company saying that the sub-prime financial crunch will affect shipments. Intriguing.

Via Engadget

Look out. The Asus Eee PC has turned the ultra-portable and ultra-mobile market on its ear already, and with reports that the Windows XP version will hit Best Buy around April 9, I imagine we’ll be seeing some more head turning soon. Price point for the 4G version? $399.

Via Gizmodo

Unless you’re jkkmobile or have followed his modding of the Asus Eee PC to add a touch screen, you have been doing without touch on the device that has changed the ultra portable market. You’ve probably also been frustrated by the rumors of a possible touch screen version. Well, there’s more speculating afoot (a touch?). DigiTimes is reporting that Asus is looking at a touch screen version (also with GPS support) possibly to be released this May or June. According to that same DigiTimes article, you’ll be looking at a $500 price point to get your touch on.

jkkmobile and Steve “Chippy” Paine, the CeBit boys, managed to get quite a bit of good video at CeBit, including this one of the Asus R70a and the R50 UMPCs. Between the Asus UMPCs and the GigaByte M700 UMPC, at least there are some slate (meaning no keyboard) UMPCs about to be on the market. Another nice thing for Inkers, is that the R70a digitizer is “hard touch” screen which should make Inking palatable. At least that was the case for me with the “hard touch” screen on the Asus R2H.

Note the size differences between the two.

jkkmobile finally got his hands on the Asus Eee PC 900, with the larger screen and higher res (1024 x 600) and has posted this video.

UMPCPortal.com has some good pictures and hands-on reports on Asus' newest UMPC - the R70A

Specs:

• 1.6 ghz Centrino Atom - reports are that is slow, like a 900 mhz Celeron
• 1024 x 600 hard touch screen
• Embedded 3G
• 4 hour battery life

We’ve been known to torture a rugged device or two here at GottaBeMobile, but I don’t think we’ve ever had the idea of putting the Asus Eee PC through the rigors of dropping it and/or temperature extremes. (My wife has grown far too attached to the Eee PC for me to even consider suggesting it.)

But no matter, these folks decided to do a little torture testing (and of course put it all on video.) Looks like the Asus Eee PCcan stand up to quite a bit of punishment.

Tests résistance (Chocs, chaleur, froid) de l'Asus Eee
by ray2fr

Via Josh Bancroft on Twitter

Several UMPCs have been in the news lately, some in a positive manner, and some not so.

First up, The Samsung Q1 Ultra Premium UMPC appears to be shipping from a few retailers and getting into users hands. Head over to the Origami Project forums for a list of retailers and at least one early reaction. We got a chance to check out the new Q1 at CES and you can check out those videos here and here.

The WiBrain, which has captured quite a bit of attention due to its lower price point, looks like it might have a Linux variant shipping at some point in the future according to UMPCPortal.

And the Asus R2E seems to suffer from one of the main problems that the earlier Asus R2H did: CRAPWARE. According to this post users are just as frustrated to discover during their OOBE (out of box experience) that they need to spend way too much time uninstalling a lot of the junk software that Asus installs on the device. Fascinating, when you think that the Asus Eee PC, boots in a such quick time (yeah, I know what the differences are) and receives such high marks for that from many quarters. You’d think that the folks at Asus wouldn’t be so tone deaf when it comes to hearing the many user complaints about CRAPWARE.

The man behind the UMPC, Otto Berkes, has written a blog entry about his thoughts on the Asus Eee PC that is worth a read. The title? Sweet Spot. Here’s an excerpt:

"The Eee adheres to some of the core tenets of the ultra-mobile PC – a low-cost, highly mobile, full-fidelity companion computer. In fact, the Eee PC hits one of the key UMPC targets dead on; there’s one place where all of the other UMPC products missed – price."

Hmmm? We’ve been saying that here for awhile. Check out Otto’s full post here.

Asus continues to make news with the triple E. At a press conference, Asus announced that market research is leading them not to produce a touch screen Asus Eee PC. According to their research, touch screens are not in high demand. Asus also announced plans to move their Linux based low cost approach to the desktop, with the E-DT, a desktop computer sold with a monitor, priced between $200–$300 for a spring 2008 release. The E-Monitor, an all-in-one, will be similar to the iMac and the Dell XPS One, all-in-one’s and priced at $499. As if that wasn’t enough, Asus is also getting into the TV market with the E-TV, that will also include Linux-based functionality. 

Disappointing news about the touch screens. I guess jkkmobile will have to go into business moding the mobile E’s.

via DigiTimes

I think the Asus Eee PC is quickly becoming the Baskin Robbins of ultra-portable computers. There are quickly going to be so many flavors of this vaunted little device that it will be tough to make a choice, and of course you can even mix your own, the device is so hackable.

If you live in Japan, the Eee PC is now available, but instead of running the Linux OS, it is operating with XP Home. Asus has also added a 4GB SDHC to handle storage chores as well. The Japanese flavor will be called the Eee PC 4G-X. Intriguingly, the price in US dollars will only be $468, not far from the original’s $399 price tag.

I guess the next question will be “would you like that on a waffle or a sugar cone?”

Via Engadget

The Eee PC is not only attracting interest from those looking for an inexpensive mobile computer, but it seems to be an attractive devcie for hackers and home brew artists as well. Check out this link from CLUMPC. This guy has added USB hubs, a GPS module, Bluetooth, an SDHC card reader, 802.11N, an additional flash drive, an FM transmitter, modem and more. He’s spent an additonal $454.38 on all the additions, but he seems to be really enjoying cobbling it together.

Looks like Asus is taking a cue from jkkmobile. They are going to be adding a touchscreen option to the Eee PC to a 9 inch screen model (which is probably 8.9 inches.) According to DigiTimes the screen will include “four-wire resistive” touch panels. The really good news? Supposedly it will only add $15 to the cost of the device.

Meanwhile in other Asus Eee PC news, Walt Mossberg reviewed the Asus Eee PC and among other things finds the tiny keyboard “cramped.” 

Thanks to Bart van der Meer and others who sent this in.

In the most recent GBM Podcast Sierra and I covered a range of topics. Two of those topics seem to be continually popping up in the news these days and worth pointing to.

First, there seems to be a real race going on in the ultra-portable space kicked off recently by the Asus EeePC. It seems that one day we’ll hear about an update to the Eee PC, and then we’ll hear similar news coming from the VIA based ultra-portables as well. This space sounds like it is really heating up. As an example, The Eee PC is coming out with larger screens soon. Now we hear from Ultramobilelife.com that the Everex Cloudbook, which is just about to debut with its 7 inch screen model is aiming for a summer release of a 9 inch model and adding more colors.

Secondly, Sierra remarked on the podcast about her thoughts on the HTC Advantage. Jenneth at Gear Diary has a very extensive, Day in the Life of post about how she uses the HTC Advantage.

With most of the attention on small portable devices centering on MIDs and the recent MacAir announcment, neither of which is in users hands right now, these very different devices seem to be having quite an impact at the moment, and my hunch is they will continue to for some time to come. Interesting times.

Apparently the Chinese newspaper Commercial Times has reported that Acer will follow in ASUS' footsteps and release a small system with 8"-9" screen, sometime in late Q1 or early Q2. Of course, this is about the same time that the rumored Eee update will be made available.

Acer will outsource the production of its low-cost notebooks to Wistron, while purchasing LCD panels from AU Optronics (AUO), which will produce 8- and 9-inch panels at its fifth-generation (G5) production lines for both Acer and Asustek, the paper indicated.

This is good news. Wistron generally has pretty good quality control, so I would expect that system produced there should be worth the money, particularly if these hit the same $300-$400 price point that the ASUS Eee enjoys. It also looks like the Acer and ASUS units will share the same screens. This will help drive down costs and make it easier to get replacements in the event the screen breaks.

via Engadget, DigiTimes

Every year, Yahoo! hold a survey that includes the Yahoo! readership on the best gadgets of the year. This year's award winner at CES was Eye-Fi, which Warner covered on GottaBeMobile before. The Eye-Fi Wireless SD Card allows you to transfer your digital photos directly from your camera over a wireless network, to either your computer or the on-line service of your choice.

Other contenders should also be pretty familiar to the GBM readership:

• ASUS Eee PC 4G
• Fujitsu's U810 WWAN is an ultra-mobile PC with state-of-the-art connectivity.
• Verizon LG Voyager cell phone
• Dash Express is an Internet-connected GPS device that gives real-time traffic conditions based on data transmitted from other Dash users. Users can also receive up-to-the minute notifications via Yahoo! Local about everything from movies to gas prices.
• Sansa TakeTV offers a simple and less expensive way to move downloaded TV programs around the house. Using a cradle with standard RCA and S-Video plugs, your TV media is stored on the USB memory stick.
• iRobot's iLooj is a robotic gutter cleaner that will clean a stretch of gutter (60 feet) in ten minutes.
• Toshiba's TDP-EW25U wireless DLP projector can produce an image that casts 41 feet or 1.6 feet, create a 60-inch picture even when it's positioned 2.4 feet away, and accommodates high-definition video.
• The Logitech DiNovo is a wireless keyboard that fits in the palm of a hand and makes it simple to navigate media when a user connects a PC to a TV screen.
• Electric-Spin's Golf Launchpad Tour is a unique golf simulation input device that allows users to play golf in the convenience of their home, with their own clubs. 

You can read about the Last Gadget Standing competition on Yahoo!.

On Tuesday, Sierra and I spent some time with Asus' newest UMPC, the R50A. As you'll see, we had some performance issues with it, but they could be early production models. Guess we'll find out as folks begin to get them in their hands.

Enjoy!

Click To Play

Instant-on with full internet is a mobile person's dream. Looks like we are getting closer to that with DeviceVM's Splashtop. Their software is installed to the computer's motherboard, and provides instant-on full access to the internet.

At show DeviceVM announced that Asus is shipping the Splashtop software on four new motherboards. They said to expect their software on notebooks and other mobile pcs's soon. They are actively seeking OEM partners. Meanwhile, they said that USB implementations are on their roadmap.

Video coming soon.

Look who showed up at the BlogHaus. Daniel Gentleman, otherwise known as ThoughtFix. He’s sitting to my right and waxing eloquently about his hacked up Asus EeePC, blogging, and all sorts of other topics.

Speaking of the Asus Eee PC it is one of the talks of this year’s CES on many levels. Heck, even elsewhere it is quite the head turner. My wife (who is back in Chicago) was sitting in a Whole Foods checking her email on the Asus EeePC. (Her Dad still doens’t believe in Broadband.) She emailed me to say that a quite a few folks stopped by asking her about the device and where to get one. Asus is on to something.

Back at the BlogHaus and Thoughtfix, Dan the Man video streamed me giving BlogHaus impressario Robert Scoble his first ever splotch. You can watch it at this link.

According to this report from RegHardware, Asus is readying Eee PC 2.0 and will be unveiling it at an event GBM and others have been invited to. Looks quite intriguing, and you can depend on GBM to bring you the details of the event from CES next week.

Asus itself said it will show off Eee PC 2.0 as CES - it's already inviting attendees to come to an event it's co-sponsoring with Intel and US carrier Sprint. The meeting's focus is WiMax, and while the wireless technology is likely to dominate, the presentation will also include "next-generation mobile solutions (including the next-generation Eee PC)".

Industry moles maintain the machine will also sport a bigger display ( 8.9” ) - one of the key criticisms of the Eee PC. A larger display would allow the unit to run at a higher native resolution than the current 800 x 480 model, which is fine for the unit's specialised Linux-based GUI, but less friendly to Windows or standard Linux user interfaces.

Thanks for the link, Gavin.