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Do You Have a Name For Your Eee?

Monday, February 25, 2008

Since day one of acquiring my Eee, I’ve been a constant poster/lurker at the EeePH forums, and aside from the usual modding/hacking and upgrading discussions, I’ve come across one interesting thread there: Do You Have a Name For Your Eee?”

And the EeePH members answered, in full force. Here are some of the funnier and/or interesting Eee nicknames:

  • cloudwalker: At home, my partner calls mine “lappie” but I call him “the little one”. Sometimes, I call him “blackee” coz he’s not white.
  • habagat: Palantir. With it, I can see far and wide…
  • sillie: chicken.
  • juntzo: blue baby
  • oneal: I call my white triple E - “Holocron”
  • fountainpen: All my gadgets have LOTR names. Since this little EEE is such a beauty I’m calling her Luthien
  • jericodc7: Sir Sophia

As for me, since I’ve always thought that the Eee looks like a small & cheap white macbook, I call my Eee “Mac Envy”.

What do you call your Eee?

Posted by Ade in Life with the Asus Eee | | Comments (5)

What’s Your Prefered Brightness Level?

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Asus Eee

I’ve been running my Eee mostly on 30% brightness level. I’m not too fond of screens that are very bright. I feel I’d be straining my eyes more, and I fear that I’d be wearing out my LCD’s LED faster if it’s always on full. Of course there’s the issue of battery life, but with the Asus Eee using LED rather than fluorescent lamps for illumination, I think this would be just a small issue.

I just increase brightness to full or near-full when the need arises, such as when using my Eee in daylight outdoors (very rare cases) or when I’m using it amid glare (near windows or with very bright bulbs overhead).

What’s your brightness preference?

Posted by jangelo in Hardware, Life with the Asus Eee | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (5)

Asus Philippines to Launch “Dress mEee Up” Design Contest

Saturday, February 2, 2008

The other day I met with the public-relations representative of Asus here in the Philippines to discuss their upcoming design contest. And it’s really interesting. Designers (anyone is welcome, actually) are invited to submit their own skin designs for special edition Asus Eee computers. The theme will be something in the lines of being Proud to be Pinoy.

asuseeecontest.png

Electronics giant ASUS is currently seeking interested and talented individuals to take part in their Eee PC contest – create the best and most original Eee PC notebook skin for the Eee PC’s LCD cover and palm rest. Not only will you get the chance to win an Eee PC of your own, but your winning design will also be featured in the Eee PC line in the Philippine market!

The contest will be running from February 1 through March 15, 2008, and the Eee PC template to be used is available at http://www.ph.asus.com for downloading. Only the entries with Adobe Illustrator, Freehand, JPG, and TIFF file formats; designed in a landscape A3 size based on the template given; and in at least 300 dpi, shall be accepted.

Submissions shall be done through the contest website at http://www.ph.asus.com no later than March 15, 2008. Entries will be made available for public voting from March 15 through 25, 2008. Judging shall be based on 80% public voting, and 20% organizer voting. The 1st prize winner shall receive an ASUS Eee PC, while the 2nd and 3rd place winners will receive an ASUS 17″ LCD display and ASUS wi-fi router, respectively. Winners shall be announced on March 29, 2008.

To recap, prizes for the contest will be:

  1. First prize: an Asus Eee PC
  2. Second prize: An Asus 17″ LCD display
  3. Third prize: An asus WiFi Router

The contest page seems to be offline as of the moment so we would have to wait for the official mechanics, which I was told would come out officially by February 7, 2008. No purchase of any Asus gadgets is required. So this means anyone can join.

So here’s your chance to get yourself an Asus Eee free and have your design featured in Asus’ special Philippine edition.

Here are some samples from previous contests elsewhere.

asuseeedesignsamples.png

Asus says they’ve had successful runs of their Dress mEee Up contest in other countries. Technically, of course, Filipinos residing outside the country are welcome to join the contest (as are other citizens, as apparently from the initial contest mechanics there is no citizenship requirement).

Watch out for more details here!

Update: Site is now online

You can access the contest page over at ph.asus.com. You can download the template for the designs, submit your own design, and vote for other submissions. Remember, 80% of the judging criteria comes from votes and only 20% comes from Asus. So if your design is popular, you have a good chance of winning!

A sad note, though - the contest pages on ph.asus.com are not very Eee-friendly. The page is too wide for the Eee’s screen resolution and too graphics-intensive (hence slow-loading even on broadband).

Posted by jangelo in Design, Dress mEee Up Contest, Life with the Asus Eee, News | Tagged , , , , | Comments (9)

MSI to Compete with Asus Eee PC?

Thursday, January 31, 2008

The Asus Eee PC currently faces some competition with various similar-sized alternatives like the XO, the Intel Classmate PC, the Everex Cloudbook and (for some) even the Apple Macbook Air. And recently rumors have it that Acer is planning an ultraportable release.

Here’s another rumor: MSI might come out with an ultraportable of its own. Via HLWT:

MSI looks like it is going to utilize Intels new 45nm Diamondville processor for its rumored ultraportable. The new Intel processor has been specifically engineered for low power portables but it looks like MSI may be the first out of the gate with an actual product with this new chip inside. The Diamondville will be officially announced in April yet but MSI has already gave word that when the chip is “ready” then their own project will be “ready”, too. Expect the new MSI ultraportables to be in the market by July or August this year.

Smallest MSI notebooks I’ve seen so far are sized 11-plus inches. So I think they won’t be far behind in developing an ulraportable close to the size and specs of the Eee. Question is–how soon?

Posted by jangelo in Gadgets, Mobility | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Windows XP-Preinstalled Eee PC Out This February

Monday, January 28, 2008

According to CNet versions of the Asus Eee PC pre-installed with Windows have already been released in Japan. The US market may come next.

Called the Eee PC 4G-X, it will come pre-loaded with Windows XP Home Edition. It has the same specs as the original 4G model with Linux introduced last fall: 4GB of storage, Intel Celeron processor, 512MB of RAM, 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi, and more.

According to Asus, Eee releases pre-installed with XP may be expected this February or March. Of course, you can install Windows XP yourself, as the DVD with the Eee PC sales packages includes Windows drivers. The manual also has instructions and tips on how to minimize space usage. XP, after all, is a space hog and memory hog compared to the built-in Xandros and most other Linux flavors.

Thing is, the bundled RAM is just 512MB. I doubt if Windows XP will perform well given the limited memory. Best to boost it up to at least 1GB, which is dirt cheap these days.

[via Eeeuser]

Posted by jangelo in News | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (4)

Acer Plans to Launch an Eee Competitor

Thursday, January 17, 2008

I haven’t been much of a fan of Acer laptops until recently, when they launched their Gemstone-line of notebooks. I always went for IBM Thinkpads, HP/Compaq Presarios, and now the Asus Eee.

acer.jpg

However, Acer seems to be getting in the game of ultraportable notebook computers, with their rumored release of a 8 inch and 9 inch notebook later this year.

Acer plans to launch low-cost notebooks available with 8- and 9-inch displays late in the first quarter or early second quarter of this year, with the products aimed at competing directly at similar sized Eee PCs from Asustek Computer, according to a Chinese-language Commercial Times report. Prices of Acer’s low-cost notebooks will be as competitive as those of the Eee PCs, the paper said.

To me, this is good news. More competition only means (1) better innovation, and (2) lower prices.

Asus is in a good position to have been the leader in all this. Sure, there have been a handful of ultraportables before the time of the Asus Eee (like those from Fujitsu, Toshiba and even Sony). But the price point was what made the game for Asus.

At $400 you’re paying about 20% of the price of other similar-sized notebooks. Sure, specs-wise you’re at a disadvantage. But I wouldn’t expect too much from a diminutively-sized notebook, anyway.

So Acer, bring it on! Maybe you can send me beta or production units for review sometime! You know where to contact me.

[via Eee site]

Posted by jangelo in News | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Asus Eee: Still King of the Hill?

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

There you have it, folks. The Asus Eee PC is still king of the hill for affordable ultraportables. There were rumors just recently that Apple was to release an ultra mobile computer with dual touch-screens (and not to mention the cool factor). But apparently that’s not their focus.

At the recently-concluded MacWorld Expo, the highlight of Steve Jobs’ keynote speech was the new MacBook Air. It’s razor-thin and definitely lighter than its predecessors.

macbookair.png

Think Motorola RAZR, but this time for laptops.

Thing is, the MacBook Air is not really an ultraportable (and not marketed as such), but is a standard-sized, ultra-slim laptop. It has a 13.3″ widescreen, a full-size keyboard, and weighs 3 pounds.

I know there’s a market for ultraslim laptops. And of course, being a Mac, the MacBook Air is likely to have a cult following, too (which is to say the same for hte Asus Eee PC, isn’t it?). But the target market is different from that of the Asus Eee. So I would say the Eee is still leading the pack when it comes to low-priced consumer-grade ultraportables.

In short, it’s like comparing apples with oranges. And in this case, one of them is actually an Apple.

Oh, and one other thing. I noticed the MacBook Air has just one USB port. And even the MacBooks (non Pro) have only two. My Asus Eee has three. I rarely use them, though, but I think the sparsity of USB ports is one big complaint by certain Mac users.

Posted by jangelo in News, Portability | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

We’re Moving Servers

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

You might encounter errors when accessing www.myasuseee.com for the next few hours. Please bear with us!

Posted by jangelo in Announcements | Tagged | Comments (0)

9 Inch Screen Asus Eee in 2008

Monday, January 7, 2008

Over at CES 2008, there are rumors (likely to be true) that Asus will be releasing an Eee model with 8.9 screens this 2008. Sure, they’re also including WiMax in the possible specs, but it’s the screen size and real estate that most Asus Eee users are interested in.

From CNet,

This year at CES (the big technology show starting next week in Las Vegas) ASUS is planning to launch the new and improved Eee PC. According to the ASUS Web site and various tech blogs, the new Eee PC will feature WiMax and a larger 9-inch screen.

The WiMax bit isn’t so exciting for people in the UK and Asia as there are hardly any WiMax networks in place just yet, but the larger screen definitely gets our juices flowing. No more scrolling sideways to view pages or having to squint at documents.

Of course, the increased LCD size will likely lead to higher unit prices. Or, it could cause the older 7-inch screen models to drop in price. At any rate, this is a welcome development, and with a bigger screen, the Eee can be poised as a better competitor against its more expensive brethren from other brands (like Fujitsu, Sony and the like).

Posted by jangelo in Hardware, News | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (1)

Installing VLC Media Player on the Eee

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

As much as I don’t like to install stuff on the Eee to make sure I don’t use up the already limited memory on it, the limitations with the software bundled with the Eee leave me no choice sometimes. Case in point: SMPlayer, the built in video player on the Eee, after some time, does not play audio. The Eee plays mp3s and other sound files alright; it doesn’t seem to be a soundcard issue. One day I just got pissed off with SMPlayer mysteriously refusing to play audio after an hour or two. I decided to just install VLC on my Eee. Besides, VLC is my default media player on my XP desktop, why shouldn’t I not install this open-source beauty on my Eee? And guess what: it works beautifully.

So how do we install the VLC Media Player on the Eee’s default Xandros Linux OS? (Continued)

Posted by Ade in Hacks, Software | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (25)