Asus' little Eee PC notebook (or UMPC -- Ultra Mobile PC) computer, which has sold hundreds of thousands of units since hitting the streets late last year -- and which Asus expects to sell up to 5 million in 2008 -- is getting a bit more capable. At Cebit in March Asus unveiled the Eee PC 900. Improvements over the original (G4) include an 8.9" WSVGA (1024 x 600) display (the original was 800 x 400 WVGA), 8GB or 12Gb SSD storage (up from 4Gb) and 1Gb of RAM (up from 512Kb). Other than that, everything else is pretty much the same. It's still just 2 poinds, features 3 USB ports, card readers, wireless (802.11b/g) and wired Ethernet, a webcam, and a claimed battery life of up to four hours. It is due for release this summer, reportedly at a price of €399, or whatever that costs in the U.S. when you read this. It's an increase over the original model price. That one at press time (March) was running mostly in the mid-$300 (U.S.) range at online stores. Oh, and they're "Windows-ready", but that OS costs extra. Linux still comes standard on the base model.
- Doc Searls
Sources:
http://eeepc.asus.com/global/news03042008.htm
http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS5536771397.html