Anyone here remember the first time the Eee PC came out? Yeah, it was a glorious time. It was the birth of the netbook, and we all had a grand time trying to figure out what to do with the 7-inch netbook. Anyone remember the Xandros Linux that came with it? Yeah, it wasn’t so great. Granted, that was my first extensive experience with Linux and I really learned a lot from it, but man, was that netbook-flavored Linux distro so not ready for primetime.
Anyway, Asus has since then avoided releasing anything with Linux preinstalled and has since gone the route of Windows XP – and recently Windows 7 – on its Eee PC line, be it netbooks or nettops. But at Newegg, they are selling an Eee PC EB202 nettop mysteriously preinstalled with Red Flag Linux. Red Flag Linux by the way is designed to look a lot like Windows XP, and is looking like the de facto Linux OS used in China. Apparently, even internet cafes are being forced to switch to Red Flag Linux even though they own legitimately-licensed Windows XP installs. More »
I know, I know, Intel dual core Atom chips have been around since the first time the processor came out. But the thing is, the dual core Atom processors that came out two years ago weren’t actually made for processors, and I even remember that Intel specifically forbade computer manufacturers from installing the said dual-core chips on our favorite netbooks.
That didn’t stop Asus from making the Asus Eee PC 1201N, though. Even though it is a netbook, they managed to put a desktop Atom 330 dual core processor in it. The said netbook ran a bit faster, but it lost a serious amount of battery life. Plus, let’s not even talk about the heat generated by the Atom 330 chips.
It looks like Intel is working on a dual core Atom chip made specifically for netbooks. Via Liliputing:
Intel may be working on a dual core Atom chip for netbooks. It will reportedly be called something like the Atom N500, which makes sense, since the latest dual core chip for desktops is called the Atom D510 — and most of the company’s netbook-specific chips have started with the letter N, such as the Atom N270, N280, N450, and N470.
But let us not expect these netbooks running the future Atom N500 to run as fast as our Core2Duo laptops. More »
Finally, Jolicloud “Robby” is coming out before this month ends. I know, I know, you’re probably wondering what’s new with the update. First off, there will be supporyt for Intel Atom Pine Trail and VIA C7-M processors. But from the Jolicloud blog’s announcement of the Robby, here are other new features:
Until now, we have been using Mozilla Prism for the rendering of web apps. After evaluating the different technologies and opportunities, we have decided to switch our entire web application platform to a Chrome foundation. All our 600+ web apps in the App Center will be automatically converted to Chrome.
As a user, you won’t need to do anything manually, everything will be done automatically via the update manager.
The Jolicloud team believes that switching to Chrome will lead to a faster browsing experience on older netbooks because of the better memory usage. More »
Those lucky guys from Engadget were able to get their hands on a bunch of new Asus Eee PCs, and they’ve posted their thoughts on these new netbooks.
The Asus Eee PC 1018P and 1016P are netbooks made out of an aluminum casing, and obviously, they would feel better than the old plastic Eee PCs Asus has released over the last few years. More »
Written by Ade Magnaye on March 5th, 2010. 1 Comment »
Filed under News.
Intel has just officially announced the newest addition to its Intel Atom Pinetrail family: the Atom N470. If you’re wondering what the N470 offers over its other Atom counterparts, well, it actually can provide a higher clock speed of 1.83GHz, with 512k of L2 cache. I know it’s really not much, but for netbooks that are powered just enough for our daily needs with very little processor power to spare, that little bit of extra clock speed is very much appreciated. More »
Written by Ade Magnaye on March 2nd, 2010. 1 Comment »
Filed under Hardware.
The folks at All Touch Tablet were able to get their hands on an Asus Eee PC T101MT – way before its release – and now they’re posting a video review of the thing.
A heads up for those who are thinking of buying this touch screen netbook: apparently it has disappointed quite a few people. According to Slashgear:
It’s also no performer, either, with opening windows sluggish, 480p YouTube video pushing CPU use to 100-percent, and a 10 to 15-percent CPU load even when the netbook is sitting idle. The touchscreen, meanwhile, shows a worrying lack of accuracy around the edges, which ironically is where ASUS’ own touch-menu shortcut resides. They’ve shot some hands-on video, which you can see below, but for €499 ($676) there seem a few too many compromises.
The T101MT has a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 Pine Trail CPU and GMA 3150 graphics. It also packs 2GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, and Windows 7 Home Premium. More »
Since Eee PC 701s are already practically out of commission, the next best thing to do with these… classic netbooks would be to mod them into something else. Well, better than throwing them away, you can just mod your old Asus Eee PC 701 netbooks into a tablet computer. That’s right folks. The Eee PC 701 may have a minuscule screen, but apparently it works as a pretty decent tablet computer. And Windows XP looks pretty responsive as well.
Done by EeeUse Forum member mxjf, he shares his pretty awesome mod in this thread. According to mxjf:
The touchscreen is the $33 one from DX, and that IS electrical tape holding the thing together. I’m most likely going to sand/smooth the edges down and replace it with some black silicone sealant once I’m completely sure it’s good.
Check out the video below. the quality’s pretty bad, but you can see that Windows XP is pretty responsive and that the mod turned out pretty well:
If you’re willing to sacrifice a bit of computing power for portability, I’m pretty sure you’re looking at netbooks like the Asus Eee PC as a replacement for your aging laptop. Now I’m wondering if you were able to get the netbook, or if you went ahead and got the full-featured laptop instead. You see, according to a survey by PriceGrabber.com, 55% of consumers think netbooks complements traditional laptops rather than replacing them. More »
I’ve already talked about Asus’s Eee PC T101MT before, but I’ve only given you FCC pictures, and nothing much. Well, guess what. Pictures of the Asus Eee PC T101MT have surfaced, and this intrepid netbook looks pretty neat. Also, aside from it’s fascinating multitouch capabilities, it seems that the Asus Eee PC T101MT will also support SDXC card readers.
If you’re not aware, SDXC is the next generation of SD cards. They’re in so many ways better than SDHCs – and I’m actually satisfied with SDHCs already. You see, SDXC cards can support up to 2 terrabytes and have a 300MBps transfer rate!
Of course it’ll be a while before we see 2TB cards hit the market, but imagine the potential.
Written by Ade Magnaye on February 18th, 2010. No Comments »
Filed under News.
I’m guessing Asus is starting to emulate the hype machine techniques of a certain computer company in Cupertino, because they’ve just released a mysterious announcement of a certain killer product that’ll be launched this June. And aside from hints of the aforementioned “killer product,” they haven’t said anything else about it. Way to build up a mystery, Asus. It’s working. More »
Written by Ade Magnaye on February 12th, 2010. No Comments »
Filed under News.
I know, I know, Intel dual core Atom chips have been around since the first time the processor came out. But the thing is, the dual core Atom processors that came out two years ago weren’t actually made for processors, and I even remember that Intel specifically forbade computer manufacturers from installing the said dual-core chips on our favorite netbooks.
